Picture Perfect Reverie - ((Ashkota))

Part of a fic trade with sstwins! This takes place in an AU where TDCO didn’t happen, and Ashley and Dakota were living their own lives. Of course, their paths happen to cross anyways. Sue me.

Characters: Ashley, Dakota, Dakota’s Various Brothers

Words: 1327

Dakota sat on his bed, camera in hand. As with his usual evening ritual, he set aside the time to look at the photos of the day, eager to remember everything he did and saw. His eyes were glued to the display screen as he flicked through the images, savoring each one. Him and his brothers had gone to the zoo to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation- he’d been wanting to go for so long, and he’d finally gotten an impressive collection of photos to marvel at. He lingered at the pictures from elephant feeding- elephants were his favorite, by far. He smiled, admiring the photo.

He tried to think to the afternoon, and vaguely recalled the employee at the feeding telling him all about elephants, specifically about how they had the most impressive memories in the animal kingdom. This fascinated with Dakota, and only strengthened his love for the creatures. However, something new caught his eye- there was another person in the shot, aside from the elephant and the zookeeper. On the edge of the shot, a passerby had accidentally gotten in the scope of the photo. This happened a lot, and Dakota would sometimes take time to simply appreciated the variety of faces that showed up in the backgrounds of his shots. However, in this instance, she was the only extra person, and broke the composition of the photograph. He squinted his eyes, bringing the display screen closer to her face.

Dakota couldn’t explain it, but he felt a slight swelling in his chest as he tucked his knees against himself and curled up with his camera. The person intruding in the shot was a woman- she looked a bit older than him, but could easily be his age, too. He wasn’t sure. Staring at her, he took in each of her features. She had straight, russet-orange hair that cascaded to her shoulders, complimenting her fair skin and bringing out the pink undertones. Juxtaposing these warm tones were a set of deep green eyes, barely discernable in the photograph, as she was so far away. However, Dakota was able to zoom in closer on the camera to further observe her features. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but he couldn’t stop staring at her. She wore an olive green tank top with bold, white letters reading ‘Jefferson High School’. Furrowing his brow, Dakota considered this- Jefferson High wasn’t very far from him at all. In fact, had he not fallen just outside the county lines, he would have ended up attending there.

In the photo, the girl stood with arms crossed and a slight frown curling at her lips. Dakota took note of her irate demeanor, wondering what had been going on at the time of the photograph. He often considers the stories of those he caught on film, though his usual fascination deepened into something more. He felt a pang in his chest, and he wished he knew who she was. She almost looked familiar to him- but he couldn’t place why. Dakota marvelled at the photo for quite some time before his brother came in and interrupted him. For the time being, Dakota turned off his camera and plugged it in to charge.

The rest of his day was inconsequential, as always. The evening were always a blur, containing nothing but the routine-like rituals of his life. Before he knew it, he was in bed, and dozing off to sleep. Dakota didn’t always dream- his subconscious didn’t often have much to recall for a dream. However, on this night, he did indeed experience a dream.

Dakota could hear faint singing in the distance- a sweet melody that echoed through a hallway he stood in. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was, though assumed it to perhaps be a school of some kind, given the halls and lockers that surrounded him. Curiously, Dakota navigated towards the sound of the singing, until he found himself at a closed door. Without thinking, he reached for the doorknob, pushing his way into a classroom, of sorts. The building itself was quite bland and featureless, though he didn’t seem to mind. In the room, he found the source of the singing. It was the girl from the photograph- she sat in a chair, facing away from him. Dakota furrowed his brow- while the building was indeed formless, the woman was vivid and bright, each color distinct and vibrant. Her ginger brown hair swayed slightly as the woman suddenly turned her head, glancing at Dakota. Emerald green eyes watched him, and the singing stopped.

“Uh… erm… hello?” Dakota called out, stuffing his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

The girl said nothing, now fully turned toward him. She was stroking the chain of a locket she wore around her neck, and she seemed to appear rather apprehensive.

“Uh, ah, who are you?” Dakota asked earnestly. When she still did not answer, he took a step forward, pacing towards her. Her eyes widened, then narrowed into slits as she scowled, backing away from him.

“STOP.” she hissed at him, alarming Dakota. He stumbled back, then began to move as though he was reaching for something. She watched him suspiciously, and Dakota looked down to see he was without his camera.

“What- no… no, wait. Where is it?” she stammered timidly, now growing frantic as he acknowledged he was without his ever-important camera. “I have to have it- I never leave without it- this is so weird, where even am I?” he became further frazzled, until a realization struck him. “Wait, I’m dreaming, aren’t I? I must be…” he muttered, and the girl turned away from him once again. Before anything else could occur, it was over even sooner than it had began. With a start, Dakota bolted upright in his bed, breathing heavily. Glancing at the clock, he saw it was eight in the morning. Electing not to sleep in any longer, Dakota grabbed his camera and toddled downstairs, looking a bit distraught.

“Something up, bro?” one of his brothers inquired.

“It’s hard to sleep when the weather is so darn hot.” another complained.

“Oh, I’m fine. I just had a weird dream, is all.” Dakota murmured, reaching for a box of cereal.

“Man, I feel that. The other night I dreamt that I was on this weird reality TV show with a bunch of other teens and it was so wild.” yet another sibling chimed in.

Breakfast continued as normal, until the coughing of an engine could be heard outside. It was the distinct sound of the school bus.

“I thought school was out?” Dakota murmured.

“For all your smart kids, I guess. I’m going to summer school, though.” one of the middle siblings responded. In reality, he’d told Dakota this several times, but knew to act like it was the first time such a fact was brought up.

“Oh, really? Sorry to hear that.” Dakota mused, getting the feeling that he was informed of this beforehand.

“It’s alright, I guess. It’s just a pain, because we have to commute to the high school of the county next door for our classes- ours didn’t offer the class I needed, so I gotta take a bus all the way to Jefferson High School.” he sighed, heading towards the door. “In fact, I gotta jet now, or else I’ll be late!” he groaned, and then left.

Dakota considered this. “Jefferson High School? That sounds familiar.” he mumbled, though none of his siblings heard him. Discarding the subject, he turned on his camera, snapping a photo of his breakfast.

That night, his brother came home complaining of a snooty red-headed girl that had ended up in his algebra class as a peer tutor. Dakota listened as always, but only while flicking through the photographs on his camera. He lingered on the photo of the girl from the zoo, heart swelling while his brother continued to rant of such a mean girl named Ashley.