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Rana is distracted enough taking in the rest of the shop that she doesn't quite seem to hear you—but then she turns back, and looks at you in slight confusion.

"Um—I don't really know. They're not exactly bad; just weird. Like I'll just be walking through the forest for ages, and then I'll see this light or something, and it—I can't really remember what it does most of the time, but I think sometimes it changes into all different shapes. I usually forget most of my dreams; but these ones do seem a little different, I guess."

Neither of you say anything for a little while after Rana finishes speaking, and you take a few moments to think over what she said. Whatever those dreams mean—if they do mean anything—it's definitely strange to think that another person might be having very similar ones. You know there may be a chance that Rana's dreams are very different from yours, and you're simply filling in the blanks in her description for yourself—but what if there's more to it than that?

When Nic told you about her dreams, you wondered the same thing. Could it really be a coincidence for three people to have nearly the same dreams?

Just then, however, Rana glances down at her phone, and suddenly jumps.

"Oh, god—I didn't realize what time it was. I'm really sorry, but I'll have to run; I made plans to meet my aunt in a little while, and I don't think she has a lot of time to spare."

She starts to pack up her things in something of a rush; but then, strangely, she starts to hesitate. A second later she stops what she's doing completely, and looks at you with a slightly pained expression.

"I—the thing is—"

She rubs at her mouth, seeming very conflicted about whether or not to say whatever she was just thinking. Eventually, though, she seems to make up her mind to get something off her chest.

"I don't really know if I want to go," she tells you, her voice a little quieter than usual. She throws another anxious glance at her phone, but even when she sees the time she doesn't move. "It's…it's not about her, you know, as my aunt. She's always been great to have as family. But…I asked to meet with her so I could tell her some of the things I've heard from people our age, you know, about how there isn't enough to do or anywhere to work. I know I said I wasn't doing a lot of activism, but this was something I've been meaning to do for a while and I just wanted to take the chance."

She swallows—and she almost looks a little guilty as she goes on:

"I grew up seeing my aunt as this amazing person who was always trying to make things better. And, obviously, she has done a lot of good things. But, lately, I've kind of started to realize that…even though she talks a lot about doing the best for Silvertree, she never seems to want to take any risks. Anything that could actually change things. I know they say the developments are supposed to help, but these developments aren't going to fix everything that was already wrong. And they might just create whole new issues. It's not just Dina, the whole Town Council, really—they just seem scared to admit when there's a big problem. Like they don't want anybody making too much of a fuss. But like—what's worse? People getting upset, or people not being able to live in this town at all?"

Rana presses her palms against her eyes, seeming suddenly very tired.

"I do think Dina cares about the town," she goes on, casting another quick glance at her phone. "But it's not enough just to say things could be better—you need to do something about it. Remember when we went to hand over our petition? It's not like I expected Dina to talk to us all day, but I was pretty surprised she just expected us to leave right after. She barely listened to what we said, and…I mean, I get that she's busy. I get why she wanted us to go. But it was kind of like she thought we were just there to check a box, and we didn't care if they actually understood the petition. It's never just that easy, though. There are some things that aren't just going to get better overnight, especially if you don't even want to talk about them. I just feel like she's afraid of how hard it would be, and—yeah, I can't exactly blame her. But what, are we just supposed to do nothing because it would be too hard to try anything else? Just act like things aren't really that bad just because that's how it's always been? I don't even know. I'm just starting to think—I'm starting to think she's kind of…a coward."

Rana doesn't look at you as she says those last few words, as if she can't quite believe she's saying them. Tobias opens his mouth in surprise; and you definitely can't deny you wouldn't have expected to hear something like that from Rana. At the same time, though, you realize that what she just said is quite similar to what Zoe told you as well back in the flower store. She didn't use the word 'coward', but it sounded as if she felt the same way about how Dina seemed unwilling to make big changes. The difference is, however, that while you've often heard Zoe be critical of Dina, you've never heard Rana speak so firmly about her aunt before. But as you watch her now, you don't see any sign that she wants to take back her words.