One was dwarfed, and wearing a scowl that said The next person that makes a crack about my height is getting their ankles bitten right off of them.
The man who stood beside him seemed nice enough, though standing at seven foot, two inches, looked rather intimidating. Even in the dark, his chocolate skin stood out, and in contrast to the dwarf beside him, he towered.
OK, I knew the sane thing to do in that situation was run, but really, in my dreams I tend not to act sane. Or maybe it wasn't an act, considering I usually couldn’t tell the difference between dreams and life. But this was a dream. Two freaky men who said they’d been looking for me and who knew my name. I highly doubted I was in full consciousness.
Something in my pocket started to grow warm: my lucky coin. A surefire way to know I was dreaming. It always got warm when I dreamt.
I know what you're thinking, and you can just shut up. You're thinking if her coin tells her when she’s dreaming, then why all the confusion? I’ll tell you why. When your skydiving and your sure you’re going to die, you don’t exactly think Hmm… where’s my coin? I want to take its temperature.
It was only times like this, when I was more or less screwed in place, and totally aware of myself, that I noticed the rising temperature on my leg.
Back to the men in black.
“Megan Bell,” said the tower. “Do you know who we are?”
It could be my imagination (according to the shrinks, it often times is) but he sounded really familiar. Had I dreamt him before?
“Uh… nope,” I said in a way that could only be described as me. (Or at least that’s what my best friend Katie would have said. Hey, even crazies have best friends. As Katie said, “I like crazies. They’re free entertainment.” I could imagine.)
“My name is Alick. This is Durin,” He gestured toward the dwarfed man. Alick said everything as though he was talking to a fawn, or maybe a scared puppy. You know, the it’s-OK-we’re-not-going-to-hurt-you voice. It was sickening.
“I guess you already know my name’s Meg,” I said with a nervous laugh. Panic, though, was wearing off. I was in a dream. Short or tall, you can’t hurt me in a dream. That’s a fact. “The question is, how?”
“A question I would be happy to answer… if you do me one teensy favor. Can you do that for me?” Dude, I’m not five. Would you believe it, he actually dropped his hands to his knees so we’d be eye-level. I mean, I wasn’t that short.
I crossed my arms. So now he needed a favor…. Interesting.
“That depends on the favor. Keep talking,” I always got too confident in my dreams. But hey, why shouldn’t I have been? They were my dreams.
He stood up straight, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket. He also took out his wallet. Hmm….
“This is a list,” Alick said. “We need you to get us the items on the list, then meet us at the park. Think of it as a… scavenger hunt. You can find everything on here at Wal-Mart. So what do you say?” He held out both the paper and the wallet.
We. I looked over. Well… down. I’d all but forgotten his partner.
“I say… why me? You said you’d been looking for me. Why?”
“Save your questions ‘till the deed is done. And don‘t forget to bring your lucky coin,” He dropped the paper and wallet in my hand. He snapped his finger and they vanished in a puff of smoke. How lame.
At the same moment the curtains vanished also, the lights turned on, and the people popped back in. Literally. I heard a pop.
I just stood there staring at the objects for a few minutes. I didn’t stop until Nancy had come up, touched my arm and said, “Hey Meg, you OK? What do you got there?”
I looked up. “This? Oh nothing. Hey, I got to go. See you later.”
I picked up my backpack and, still clutching the paper and wallet, walked out the door.
In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a good idea to accept money from two guys in black suits and in return promise to buy them whatever was on their list. But it wasn't my fault Alick knew how to prey upon my inquisitiveness. They said curiosity killed the cat. I took it up as a personal challenge to prove that theory wrong.
Anyways, I’d just wake up in the morning, fine and dandy. So really you couldn’t blame me for my stupidity. I didn’t act rational in dreams. That got boring.
Nearly knocking several people over, I ran home. I swung open the side door of the garage. As I did so, I heard a thud and a cry of pain. Teddy’s face entered the doorway. She was lugging her bike with her.
“Hey! Watch it! You almost hurt Rorfin,” Sure enough, sitting in her bike basket was a little hamster in a cage. “I’m taking him to the park for his daily exercise.”
“As if I care about your stupid pet, freak,” It’s not like I didn’t know she did this every day.
Teddy was obsessed with animals. A few years ago she managed to convince mom and dad to buy her a goldfish. Freda. She fed it regularly, cleaned it’s tank, and bought it the little rocks and treasure chest for decoration. It didn’t die within a week; my parents let her get a… wait for it… frog, named Yorky.
Teddy did whatever it is you do to take care of a frog, and it’s still alive to this day. After a few months, she got promoted to a hamster. If she can take care of that well enough, she might even be able to guilt dad into buying her a dog. She wants a beagle, and she said no matter what it might look like, she’s going to name it Albuster.
She wanted to get Albuster so much, that she was being even more OCD with Rorfin than usual. You know, special diet, shining cage, and of course, regular walks in the park. She even had a little harness and leash for it. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if the little fluff ball ran away. Because of it, the hallway always smelled when I walked past her room.
Teddy walked her bike to the end of the driveway, made sure Rorfin was securely fastened and was no way going to fall out. She slung her leg over the seat, and just before taking off, called out, “Your just jealous that I can keep a simple fish alive for more than a week.”
Bringing up Herbert, that’s low.
I entered the garage and a few seconds later, dragged my bike out. I rode up the huge hill behind our house, and along several back roads, before emerging behind the Wal-Mart. I ditched my bike in a cluster of trees, and walked the rest of the way there.
It never occurred to me to check the shopping list until I was already in the store. But hey, tons of guys do this when their wives send them out shopping, and it always ends OK, right?
I found a bench as quickly as I could, sat down, and pulled out my list.
I did’t know what I was expecting, but somehow that was not it.
SHOPPING LIST:
Round locket with a diameter of at least an inch and a half
Flashlight
Freaky Fears: Phobias of the World (Book)
For my Namesake: Name Meanings (Book)
Dorothy’s Dream Interpretation: What Your Dreams Say About You (Book)
First Aid For Beginners (Book)
First aid kit
Six canning jars
Six canning jar lids
A label maker
Who were Alick and Durin, why did they need such strange items, why couldn’t they get them themselves, and why did they want me to bring my lucky coin? How did they even know about my lucky coin? Or at least those were the questions I would have asked if this hadn’t been a dream.
To be continued...
Hope you like my story,
LOVE --ULTRAVIOLET
What you need to remember is that you should never use phrases like 'I go' when writing in past tense. Always use 'I went', even if it might sound a bit weird to you. You'll get used to it after a while and you will then be the master of tenses! 
I still adore your characters and I love the humour in this. Pah... I'm useless... 
Well, I still want to find out why those guys need those items. And how is she going to pay for them? It seems like she didn't even think about money. I mean, a regular kid wouldn't get stuff for strangers for free unless they gave her moeny in advance. Consider that, please.