Piper's Perfect Dream by Ahmet Zappa

Author:Ahmet Zappa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2016-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

Piper had no idea what to do next. So she sat down in the booth and idly leafed through the books, thinking. Wishling books were so heavy and cumbersome. How did students carry them around, much less hold them up to read?

“Concentrate, Piper,” she told herself. “Focus on Olivia!”

Where could she be? Why had she left so suddenly? Would she return?

Piper pushed aside Our Nation’s History Through the Centuries to clear space to put her head down. She always thought better that way. But the history textbook bumped the math book, which nudged something called Advanced Reading Material for the Young Scholar, and they all fell onto the seat across the table.

“Ouch!” Olivia popped up, rubbing her shoulder. The books thudded to the floor.

“You were resting here the whole time?” Piper was amazed. “I’m so sorry I interrupted your time of rejuvenation.”

“Huh?” Olivia sounded confused. She blinked and shook her head. “I must have fallen asleep.”

Piper nodded encouragingly. It certainly made sense to sleep in the late afternoon. Although, as a general rule, she preferred an earlier naptime.

Olivia yawned. “I’ve been so tired lately.”

Piper leaned closer, a tingle of excitement running down her spine. Clearly, Olivia wasn’t getting enough sleep. Most likely, she was anxious about a problem; worrying could keep anyone awake. And her wish must revolve around solving the problem.

But what was the problem?

Piper could almost feel the wish dangling in front of her, tantalizingly, as if she could reach out and touch it.

“Sometimes I have trouble sleeping, too,” Piper told Olivia in a way meant to encourage her to tell more. That was stretching the truth. So Piper crossed her legs at the ankles the way Starlings did if they told a fib.

“You do?” Olivia took a deep breath. “Usually I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and I don’t wake up until my alarm goes off. But lately I’ve been—”

“Sensing an evil presence lurking in your dreams. Dark and threatening. You can almost see it in your mind’s eye whenever you close your eyes….”

Piper’s voice trailed off when she caught sight of Olivia’s put-off expression. “Uh, no,” Olivia said, leaning back against the bench, farther away from Piper.

“Oh, starf,” Piper muttered to herself. Now she had really freaked out her Wisher. And she really needed to gain Olivia’s trust. It was so important in pinpointing the correct wish.

“Don’t mind me,” she said airily, as if didn’t matter that much. “That whole ‘evil presence’ stuff? It was just part of a bad dream I had the other night.”

Olivia smiled sadly. “I’ve been having bad dreams, too,” she confided. But then she seemed to pull back once more and shrugged. “It’s really no big deal. Everyone has bad dreams. I’m sure they’ll just go away.”

She didn’t sound like she believed it. And Piper didn’t believe it, either. Bad dreams had a way of sticking around until you figured out what they meant.

“Girls!” Alice called from behind the counter. “Come and get your dinner.”

Reluctantly, Piper stood when Olivia did.

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