Prologue

It had taken Cali longer to fall asleep tonight than usual, perhaps because she was too excited. Summer was here at last, and it was always the first week of May that she got to see her friend again. She hoped he hadn't been waiting too long.

Cali let go as she pushed away from herself and floated freely above her bed. She smiled down at her cozy form below for a moment longer, cuddling Mr. BlueBeary all wrapped in her comforter, before turning to take flight. The first pull she felt was, as always, from her father that lay a few rooms away. He was ever the 'early to bed, early to rise' sort of guy. The dark atmosphere around his room made her feel uneasy, just like it did every other night, and dampened her excitement. She forced herself to put it out of her mind. Tonight was going to be fun, she decided, and with a mischievous smile she took off from her room, flying freely through the night sky.

It had taken her considerable practice to control which way her subconscious floated, but she was finally getting better at it. It was like pulling on strings to go in one direction at a time, and those strings were rarely kind enough to pull her in a single direction for long, before trying to drag her down to their owners. If she didn't have something specific to cling to, something to mentally guide her, she often found herself in yet another stranger's room, being drawn towards their unconscious form. Strangers dreams were a mixed bag of jelly beans. Sometimes you could explore places you'd never even dreamed were possible. But other times, the people who subconsciously called her down to them were haunted by memories, or fears that were just as hungry for her as they were for them.

Tonight though, she closed her eyes and felt for him. Her summer friend. No doubt he would be easy to lock onto, now that his family would be nearby. She felt for him, reaching out with all of her energy, but there was nothing there. She tried turning, like a satellite dish, hoping to feel him if she only faced the right way. Still she felt nothing.

The stars twinkled, and her spirit grew weary fighting off the draw of so many other sleeping forms that called to her. Eventually she started pulling herself in a direction that she thought more right than the others. Had he been this way? What if it was more to the West. Cali looked around hopelessly, unsure of where to look. She had never had trouble finding him before, not during summer break. He should be here. Was her power fading? She didn't even know what powered it. It could be the strength of her physical body back home, she thought. Or maybe it was something more like the energy radiating from her spirit. The light of the moon? Or maybe it was the sheer force of her will. It could be any or none of these things for all she knew. There wasn't much information available to teenagers on how to properly dream hop.

Eventually, her strength became too low to ignore, and she pulled herself back towards her own bedroom while she felt she still could. She would try again tomorrow, she decided. Maybe his arrival had just been delayed. There was no reason to lose heart over this yet.

I'll try again tomorrow. And if that doesn't work, I'll try again the next night, and the night after that, she thought. She would keep searching as long as it took, because he was the only thing she really had to look forward to anymore. Seeing her summer friend gave her hope, which was something she desperately needed back in her life.