The Smooth Rock

  	Well, one day this girl woke up bright and early. The sun was
rising, and the ground was already starting to warm up.She yawned,
stretched, and padded down the stairs. Entering the kitchen, she grabbed a
bowl of cereal and went out on the deck to enjoy the sunshine. She was
still sitting there in her pj's when her neighbor came over. He was
returning a dip dish that his mom had borrowed. He saw the girl, and
nervously said hello. "How are you this morning, Nathan?" the girl asked.
  	"Oh...um...I'm fine. I'm just returning the dip dish."
  	"Why don't you sit and talk to me for a while?"
  	"Oh..ok." So, Nathan sat in a chair across from the girl and
looked at his feet.
  	"Are you planning on doing anything today?" she asked him,
drinking the rest of the milk out of the bowl.
 	 "Oh...I was thinking of fixing my bike."
  	"Neat! Can I help?"
  	"Sure." So, the girl agreed to meet Nathan at his house at 12:30
to fix his bike. Both of them went to their houses, and the girl got
dressed.
  	At 12:30 she walked over to his house, bringing her Silly Putty, a
smooth stone she had found, and a bottle of juice. She sat on the pavement
near where Nathan was tinkering with his bike gears and started playing
with her silly putty. Then she pulled the stone out of her pocket and
started rubbing it, feeling how smooth it was. He saw this, and sat down
next to her. "Can I rub it?" She passed him the stone, and he ran his
fingers over the surface.
  	"Wow! That's amazing...it feels soft almost. Where did you find
that?"
  	"Oh...near the ocean. It was smoothed by the waves I guess." He
kept rubbing it, and she said "Do you want it?" He looked taken aback. 
	"Me? Why?"
	"Because you like it..."
	"Well, so do you."
	"Yeah...but..."
	"What?"
	"Please, take the stone. I want you to have it." He grinned and
put it in his pocket.
  	Later that evening he rediscovered it, and smiled as he remembered
his day with the girl. He put it on the little table next to his bed, and
fell asleep. When he was sleeping he had a beautiful dream about
her...they were walking down a path through a forest, and everything
smelled really fresh. They found wild strawberries and ate them in a
little mossy area near a babbling brook. He woke up really happy, and
wasn't even nervous when he had to go back to her house to ask her dad a
question.
  	The next night he had another dream about her, except this time
they were by the ocean. He looked at the rock, then said, "Nah, can't be.
However, every night since he had gotten the rock he had had wonderful
dreams about her, ad they were always doing something in nature. He
decided to test the rock, so he went into the kitchen and put it in a jar.
He didn't dream about her that night.
  	When he went down the next morning, he saw his little brother
playing with the rock. "Give that back, please."
  	"Why? I found it. It's mine."
  	"No...I need it...it was a present."
  	"From who?"
  	"Um...that girl who lives next door."
  	"Her! Ha ha! You have a crush on her!"
  	"No I don't. Shut up.  Give me my rock." His brother obliged, and
Nathan walked out the door.
  	He was riding his bike around when he saw the girl wave him over
to her front yard. "Sit down for a while. I made some lemonade."
  	"Umm...ok." He sat down, took a glass from her, and smiled.
  	She said, "I had the coolest dream last night." and started
telling him about a dream she had had about sailing to the Carribean.
After she had finished, she said "Have you had any cool dreams lately?"
  	"Actually..." He told her about all the dreams, every single one.
She grinned, and as he continued, her grin got bigger. Then he said, "And
there's somethign weird...that rock you gave me...I think that's why I had
the dreams." She smiled.
  	"I know."
  	He looked shocked, but he forgot that soon because she put her
hand in his, grinned again, and said "Let's go ride our bikes together."