“AARGH!”

Giggles.

“Why did you do that for?!” growled Alfred, glaring up at Gail.

“What?” she said a little too innocently, holding her hands behind her back.

“Don’t ‘what’ me! What do you have behind your back?” Alfred said, making a fake swipe at her back. Getting into the game, he added, “And why did you throw a bucket of water at me for?”

“It’s not a bucket of water!” Gail mock-protested, and holding up what she was holding, she cried, “It’s just a glass! A glass!”

“Well, whatever,” Alfred grumbled. “There’s a better way of waking someone up, you know. You could’ve just tapped me or called me or something.”

“I wanted to make sure you’re awake, that’s all,” Gail said, grinning widely. “Besides, I wasn’t sure you were going to hear me, since you were snoring so loudly.”

“I don’t snore!” At this, the laugh Gail was holding in burst free, and she guffawed, while Alfred glared at her.

“You’re right, you don’t,” Gail finally wheezed out a few minutes later, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. “But you were muttering something while you were sleeping.”

“Really?” Alfred said, trying to appear disinterested but felt his heart suddenly start thumping.

“Yeah, you were muttering something like, ‘Nooo, this can’t be happening!’ What happened? Your teddy bear got stolen from you?” She said, grinning, but a note of concern in her voice.

Alfred turned red, remembering his dream of Gail hooking up with Josh, their other best friend. “Nothing much, yeah. I mean, dreams aren’t really real, are they?”

“I guess so…” She said slowly. “Hey,” she said suddenly. “You want to catch a movie or something? I heard the new Batman movie’s already showing.”

“Ok, sure,” Alfred said, “Just let me go and change my shirt since somebody,” and he gave Gail a mock glare, “poured water over me.” Gail rolled her eyes and mouthed, A glass of water, dude. A glass of water. “Anyway,” he continued, “why don’t you go and call Josh while I get changed, we’ll just meet him at the mall.”

“No!” At Alfred’s inquisitive look, she stammered, “Urm, you know, he might be busy or something. He’s not really a morning person, you know, so he might not even be awake yet.”

“Oh, okay,” Alfred said, smiling slowly. “Just stay here while I change, alright?” As he walked away, he thought, Maybe it’s time I find out if dreams are worth something, after all.