Tallie stays up late playing video games instead of brushing her teeth as instructed by her mother. She falls asleep and has a nightmare where her mother takes her to the kitchen due to her poor dental hygiene. In the nightmare, Tallie looks in the mirror and sees that she has few stained teeth remaining as an old woman. Tallie wakes up crying and promises her mother that she will take better care of her teeth by brushing them, avoiding sweets before bed, and going to dental checkups. Her mother assures her it was just a bad dream, and Tallie is relieved that her teeth are still intact.

1. The bad dream

2. 1 "Brush your teeth before you go to bed!" Tallie's mom yelled from upstairs.

3. 2 "Yeah, OK." Tallie barely looked up from her video game. She was at the end of the 4th quarter, and the score was tied on her Madden NFL. She knew her team could win this time.

4. 3 "Tallie, are you paying attention to me?”

5. 4 "Yeah, sure, Mom." Tallie's fingers were flying on the controls. Woo hoo —I'm going to WIN! she thought. The players from her team started celebrating on the field. This was it — she had finally won!

6. 5 Tallie glanced at the clock. Uh-oh. Mom is going to be so mad that I'm not in bed. Tallie rushed to her room and quickly got into bed. 6 The next thing she knew her mom was standing at the door. Mom had a strange look on her face. Sheesh, what's up with her, wondered Tallie. 7 "Tallie, I told you if you didn't brush your teeth, this would happen."

7. 8 Tallie wondered where Mom had found those weird looking pajamas. They were almost like the scrubs you see on doctors. Mom was pulling her up out of bed and leading her down the hall. Tallie couldn't figure out why Mom was acting so strange. She was muttering all kinds of things about too much candy and pop at bedtime. Lately, Tallie had been sneaking candy bars into her room after suppertime and hiding the wrappers in her garbage. How could Mom have found them?

8. 9 Now Mom was leading her into the kitchen. She was pulling the ice cream containers from the freezer. Why was she doing this? Tallie quickly grabbed a spoon from the counter and started eating the Rocky Road ice cream as fast as she could. No sense letting it all go to waste. 10 "I've told you time and time again how important your smile is. Once you ruin your permanent teeth, that's it. They're the only ones you have. Now you're going to have to get false teeth — just like my grandpa." Mom started crying. It was going to wake up the whole house! Tallie had to do something. Why is Mom talking about false teeth? Mine are perfectly fine...wow — she is really acting weird. Tallie tried to pull away from Mom's grip on her arm, but it was stronger than Tallie remembered. Sheesh —has she been working out?

9. 11 "Remember when I told you that too much coffee and tea will stain your teeth? Well, just take a look at what you've done to yourself!" Mom held a mirror up in front of Tallie. 12 "Oh, my gosh! What is going on? That's not me in the mirror! That's an old lady!" 13 "Now you just listen here, Missy. I wanted to help you take care of your smile, but no...you had to have all those sweets, and you never once went to the dentist in high school. You said you were too busy."

10. 14 This was just too much. What was she talking about? High school? I haven't even finished 5th grade! Mom has lost her mind. And what is up with that mirror? That's the strangest thing. Tallie took the mirror from her mom's hand. She looked into it again closely. Staring back at her were her eyes — but that was all she recognized. When she opened her mouth to gasp, she noticed that the teeth were stained a dark, streaked color. Well, what teeth there were. There was only one or two of the front teeth left, and as she moved her tongue inside her mouth, she felt several more holes where teeth were missing.

11. 15 "Mom! What is going on? What has happened to me? Why are my teeth so gross?" Tallie couldn't stand any more. She fell to the floor and started to truly cry. She felt her mom's comforting touch on her shoulder. The touch grew more firm and started to shake her shoulder. 16 "Tallie, honey, wake up. Did you brush your teeth?” to be safe.

12. 17 "Oh, Mom! No, I didn't, and I'm so sorry! I swear I'll always brush my teeth, I won't eat any more candy before bedtime, and I'll always go for my checkups!" 18 "What are you talking about? You must have been dreaming. You look a little wild-eyed," Mom said with a smile.

13. 19 "A dream. Oh. Yeah. That's what it was. A very, very bad dream. But you know what? It taught me to think about taking care of my smile." 20 "You have a beautiful smile, Tallie. I hope you mean that. I'd hate to have you grow up without those pretty teeth." 21 Whew, thought Tallie. I'm so glad they're all still there! And she gave them all an extra brushing just to be safe.

14. The End