“You’re gonna have to really pay me if you want me to eat a mushroom,” Flynn said. 

Flynn has been scared of mushrooms since she was a child. “I had dropped them on the floor. My mom got mad, like why you drop them and stuff,” Flynn said. “So she made me wash them and I was so scared like, I was like shaking as I did it.” 

Flynn doesn’t like the texture, the way it looks, and the way it grows. “Some of them just grow in random places,” Flynn said, describing the frightening flora. 

“It’s just like, gross,” Flynn said. “No, nope, not at all.” 

But these fungi aren’t Flynn’s only uncommon fear, because stingrays also haunt her dreams. 

“I had a dream where I lived in set of life on deck, they were insane,” Flynn said. “And we were in the gym, it was me my sister. And the floor was like water and the Stingray was like, like floating and  it was in front of us and it was on my shoulder and I was like looking up because it was actually on me.” 

But Flynn isn’t the only one with an Unusual phobia. Freshman Bianca Lekwa’s  fantasy is as frightening as reality, zombies lurk in her dreams. 

“You can’t mess with their emotions,” Lekwa said. Lekwa has been unsettled by these shambling creatures ever since she started watching zombie movies. “I wouldn’t have known about zombies if I hadn’t seen movies with them.” 

But how do you overcome this kind of fear? “I don’t know because they’re not real,” Lekwa said. “I fear failure” Lekwa said “Because if I fail at high school, I’ll have no high school diploma, and then almost no one will hire me”. Lekwa has another easy plan to deal with this “not failing is my entire plan, bro”. 

Everyone has their fears, some more uncommon than others, but everyone has them. Whether you’re afraid of heights, spiders, or strangers you aren’t alone.