If only summer could last forever. Who doesn’t love the carefree mornings, the leisurely days, the relaxing evenings? How refreshing to go to the park, work on puzzles, bake, draw, swim, and string beads – with no homework to complete and no deadlines to meet. Yet all too soon those sweet summer days ebb away, and the school bell begins to ring. Its shrill tone grows louder and more insistent, like an alarm clock that dutifully yet unrelentingly arouses the peaceful summer slumberer. There’s no ignoring it now. It’s back to the grind.

And then it happens. She awakens with a shriek in the dead of night. Her pulse is racing, and she’s drenched from perspiration; she can barely catch her breath. Her frantic eyes dart wildly around the room. Despair gives way to relief as visions of the classroom in her nightmare are replaced with the comforting, familiar sights of her bedroom. There’s no mistaking it, she’s anxious about that first day of school.