Chapter 96: Project phase 4

"Should we wake him?", Preston whispered to Samantha.

"You should go poke his face", Samantha replied to Preston

Preston with his index finger poked Jeffrey's cheek. Jeffrey's face moved a little, but nothing happened.

"He's dead asleep", Preston announced.

The blade of grass was still moving back and forth while Jeffrey breathed in his sleep. His face was covered in the shade of a nearby tree.

"I have to say though, Jeffrey sure does know how to pick a place to sleep. It took us almost all of lunch to find him", Samantha mentioned.

Preston nodded in agreement. The two of them were tempted to dig through Jeffrey's backpack, but the last time they did so they found a frog, a plastic bag with weeds, and a jar of mold in his bag.

Preston was concerned about anything regarding Jeffrey's bag, it was like a Doreamon's pouch of random items. Some days Jeffrey pulled out Kazoos, decks of cards, snacks, tea eggs, and lots and lots of loose papers.

Samantha recalled a time when Jeffrey's had a hole in it from when he got it stuck against the chair. It after Valentines day, so for the rest of the school day candy would fall from his bag like a piñata.

Even Dresden was surprised at the amount of paperwork stuffed in Jeffrey's poor backpack. Scattered tax forms, contract templates, government brochures and test papers fell out the last time Jeffrey wanted to go over some financial accounting stuff.

Jeffrey's bag was off limits, very much like his preoccupied mind. It's like he often left an empty body on Earth. Most of the time, Jeffrey's head was in the clouds lost in his own little world. His mind really only had space for knowledge, books and once in a blue moon a good idea.

Jeffrey was having a dream about rabbits.

"What are you guys up to?", Jeffrey asked.

the rabbits continued to hop around ignoring his presence, this was not an Alice in Wonderland book.

a small piglet from one of the book he read appeared as well, as did another pig in a Napolean hat.

"Was that a vote for Pedro shirt lying in the corner?", Jeffrey thought looking closer at the horse stable. His vivid dream was turning into an I Spy / Where's Waldo book.

Jeffrey walked around in his dream, unaware that his two friends were shaking him to wake up.

At this point Preston went to his bag to look for the book they were reading.

"Shoot, my brother took my Adoration of Jenna Fox & The Giver by Lois Lowry books", Preston explained.

"Would Surviving the Applebees or Hatchet work?", Samantha asked.

Jeffrey would usually wake up if you mentioned book names.

"Any book should do, but he recently read the Kite runner and The Book Thief, so it might not be thick enough to wake him up", Preston drew upon his previous experience of this specific ordeal.

"I've got a year of the panda book here", Preston continued.

"I'll borrow a Maniac Magee book from a friend then", Samantha declared.

Preston fanned the pages of the book in Jeffrey's nose. The smell of glue and paper traveled into Jeffrey's dream. The field of Mr. McGregor and The Hundred Acre Wood slowly started to disappear.

A small green slime hopped in Jeffrey's arms, "Hi Jerry, time for you to go back to Captainsparklez"

Jeffrey woke up and found himself staring at his two friends. They didn't look too happy.

"Whaa, what time is it? why are you guys here?"

Preston shook his head. Samantha took the book from Preston's hands and hit Jeffrey on the head with it.

Suddenly another kid joined them, "We're at lunch and you've been sleeping for about 20 minutes"

Dresden arrived carrying a backpack and handed an envelope of money to Samantha. Preston took his share, before leaving it to Samantha to give Jeffrey's amount to him.

"So what's up, why are we all here?", Dresden asked.

Preston and Samantha started to shoot glances at each other.

Before they could do anything, Jeffrey sat up He stretched his arms and looked at his friends.

"Do you guys want to start a website?", Jeffrey asked.