[sub][h3][center]Kayla[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]
Autumn was sure an anxiety attack was well on its way.

Not only was her hair pinned up haphazardly—a stark contrast to her typically perfected ponytail—but now she was running late. This was not how she wanted to start her semester. Not at all.

The four-laned road was so congested with cars that she hadn't moved for the last ten minutes. She lived and commuted from one of the more populated areas in the city, so she was more than used to traffic, but it seemed that today was simply not her day. Autumn's pressed button-up already had a stain on it from slamming on the brakes at the beginning of what she would later note as the most inconvenient traffic jam of her life. She couldn't find her familiar this morning which was odd but not uncommon, she was nursing three burnt fingertips after taking her bagel straight out of the toaster, with her coffee— which had initially burnt her tastebuds— chilled, she was sure it couldn't get any worse. That is, until she felt a sharp pain in her foot, alerting her that her body didn't agree with her choice of shoes.

The only good luck she'd had was the fact that she remembered her backpack and had managed to acquire every possible item she could need for the coming school year. She was set in that sense. Textbooks, calculators, a whole battalion of pencils and pens, protractors and post-it notes. But that wouldn't matter at all if she [i]couldn't make it to school[/i]. She inched her car forward, simply to feel like she was going somewhere and not wasting her time. Tapping her hands to the beat of a song on her steering wheel entertained her for all of a moment, and Autumn scowled as she realized her ADHD was acting up. She moved uncomfortably in her seats. Her legs were sticking uncomfortably to the leather seats of her Mercedes. Disinterestedly, Autumn glanced at the older man on her right nearly dozing off in the morning traffic. She watched him yawn twice, glancing away sharply when her noticed her gaze. Swinging her head to the left, utterly desperate for some source of entertainment before she went absolutely crazy, Autumn elicited a sharp pain in her upper back, adding to her unfortunate day. Feeling like she wanted to hit something, repeatedly, she watched the car before her's brake lights flick off as they pulled forward.

She cheered sarcastically to herself, letting off the brakes and moving for only a small second before stepping on them again. It would be so easy to just shove all of these cars out of the way. Collateral damage be damned. Actually- it would be so much easier to just not go to school now that she thought about it. She should've stayed in bed. Groaning in annoyance, Autumn changed the station three times before settling on the news channel and redirecting her gaze to the right once more.

She nearly snorted at the sight of a woman—who was probably around her age based on the Crestwood High sticker on her car- hitting her head on the wheel of her car, unceasingly. She drove an old beat-up ford truck that seemed to be held together with popsicle sticks and hope, and seemed to be muttering something to herself—probably curses. She dropped her head a final time and rested it against the wheel. Considering copying her actions, Autumn continued to watch the entertaining woman as she bolted upright and fumbled in the backseat for some unknown object.

When she situated herself to face the front again, Autumn found the will to stop staring at the girl. Autumn tuned into the news channel for all of five seconds before unconsciously letting her eyes wander to the woman locked in traffic next to her. She was scribbling manically on a pad of paper, as though her life depended on it. Shoving the pen in her mouth for safekeeping, she ran her hand over the sheet, closed the notebook and—

Oh, dear god. She saw her staring. Wanting to kick herself, Autumn snapped her head back forwards and changed the radio station again before casting her gaze upon the woman once more. She was smiling at her like she knew a secret she didn't, which made her want to ask her everything. She still had a pen in her mouth, and she looked admittedly stupid when she nodded to her in greeting.

Mortified that she'd caught her glance a second time, Autumn nodded back at her uncomfortably, inching forward into room she didn't have. Her jaw clenched and unclenched with the effort of not looking at the woman— and she busied herself by rehearsing her class schedule in her head, which she had more or less memorized.

[i]HOPE, AP US History, AP Bio, Calculus II, Acting, AP Geography, AP Mico/Macro Econ.[/i]

Autumn inhaled sharply at the noise of something hitting her car window. It didn't sound like a rock, but it was enough to make her jump out of her skin. She turned to the right, the origin of the noise, her expert glare in place. The woman was leaning slightly out of her window and waving. Taking a deep breath, Autumn rolled down the window of the passenger seat.

"What," she asked simply, "did you [i]throw[/i] at my car?"

Folding her arms over the windowsill of her car and leaning her chin on her hands, the girl let a stupid smile adorn her face. "A piece of paper. Balled up."

Autumn pursed her lips, examining the girl's tanned face. "Why?"

"I needed to tell you something," she answered simply and earnestly, digging into her pocket. She pulled out a stack of small slips of paper, and Autumn's eyebrows furrowed as she recognized them.

"Fortunes?"

The woman smiled lopsidedly. "Yep." She said with a wet popping sound at the end of the word. She slipped one out from underneath the rubber band the held them together, glancing up absently as the traffic moved a little. "Progress," she muttered bitterly, slamming on the brakes not a second later. "'Of all 27 alternatives, running away is best,'" she read from the paper, thereafter dropping the slip into the foggy morning. "Your lucky numbers were 12, 2 and 38." It swayed down the highway, riding the wind, and Autumn looked at her as though she were certifiably insane— which she had to be. She briefly considered taking the fortune to heart and finding a way to book it out of this chance encounter. Running away is best, after all. The strange woman grinned, shoving the stack of papers back into her pocket.

"What was that all about?" Autumn asked, having to shout a bit over the hum of engines.

She shrugged, tracing the circle of the car wheel. "You looked like you could use a good omen."

Autumn raised an eyebrow, and started rolling up her window.

"Wait!" the girl yelled. "What's your name?"

"Susanna," Autumn answered, deciding to give a false name. The girl opened her mouth to say something else, but the window had sealed her car shut. She gave the girl a pointed look, alerting her that she should roll her window up too, but the brown-eyed loonie shook her head, pulling the same notebook out of her pocket and leaning it against the wheel. When she finally held up what she'd been writing, Autumn could just barely make out six words.

[i]Your name is so not Susanna.[/i]

Autumn gave her a look, and then proceeded to ignore her once again. She found peace for all but a moment before yet another noise startled her. With barely contained fury, she rolled down her window, the slow speed contrasting her hot annoyance. "What do you want?"

"I'm Kayla, 17, currently on track to be late for first period!" the girl- Kayla- she reminded herself, said easily. "Noticed that we're going to the same place based on your bumper sticker."

Autumn inhaled sharply for the third time this morning. This was going to be a long ride, but at least she was no longer bored.