[i]Evelyn Noblezada[/i]

The walk to main street was a quick one. The wind fell at Evelyn's back, the spots of shade from lurching branches gave way to warm sunlight as she passed through, and a small family of chipmunks peeked out from their burrow to briefly revere her as a messianic figure before she turned the corner.

Main Street of Leesburgh was fine. Functional. The Becky of civic architecture. There wasn't nearly enough shopping for Evelyn's liking, and what was there wasn't nice enough to constitute proper shopping. There was a movie theater, her dad's practice a considerable walk down the way, and a surge of people. Most were recognizable. There would be another hour or two where the high schoolers held supremacy over the few blocks that made for Leesburgh nightlife until people got off work and started going to bars. Idly, Evelyn wondered if her dad had already clocked out, and if so, what neck of town he was holed up in.

Evelyn stepped into Mooncash in characteristic fashion. As her foot crossed the threshold, the caffeine in everyone's coffee jittered with first-date nerves. The smell of roasted beans grew sharper, as if they'd been picked that morning off a Cuban mountainside and carried by fairies and woodland friends into the establishment. The glass of the windows fogged as the temperature inside grew warmer, pleasantly so, like a puppy on your lap or a mug of hot cocoa in your hands.

[i]God this place is like church for virgins,[/i] Evelyn thought idly, scrolling through her phone as she approached the counter and told her order to some amorphous cloud of service worker that had dressed itself as an unremarkable female. She handed her metal card to the cashier, a small whirlwind of acne and stuttering, and sipped her strawberry frap for her phone's camera as she stepped outside. As the doors shut, the dinge of the counters murked back, and the air felt more stale, and the coffee cold. Save for the iced drinks, which were lukewarm, satisfying as saltwater.

Evelyn meandered down main street a short ways. The vibes in the cafe had been far too much like when she volunteered to coach middle school soccer. Little bitches. She found the patio of a restaurant a stone's throw away, where the smell of coffee could still reach her (oddly, the wind had been blowing down main street all afternoon, but as Evelyn sat to hold court a half block north, the breeze changed course). She had an excellent perch for people-watching. A few of the volleyball players moved past, hunched to whisper to each other like coyotes going past a fresh kill. A lone boy with long dark hair who Evelyn always smiled at so she wouldn't get shot to shit one of these days. A group of those anti-mutant activists that Evelyn took a pamphlet from and used as a bookmark for [i]Looking for Alaska[/i]. She tucked it around page 200, the fresh paper smell of unopened text hitting her as she closed it back down and put it on the table, turned so the title was readable to passers-by. She watched. A waiter from inside the espresso bar brought her water and coffee periodically. Evelyn took some pictures there and tucked them away in case she needed something to post later. Evelyn Noblezada did not have to ask. Slowly, the sun inched down, although were an astronomer present they may have found its unusually slow progression to the horizon something of note. Across the street, at one of those virgin emporiums, the lizard kid walked out. Evelyn eyed him for a moment. She thought Green Giant was one unlucky bitch, but this guy may have taken the cake. She'd remembered seeing him at his dad's dinner parties when she was younger, and at actually fun parties once he started doing his gecko shit. Her meticulous eyebrows furrowed. He had siblings? Yeah. Younger or older, she couldn't remember, but the fact she couldn't remember told her all she needed to know about them. [i]At least no one makes fun of him for being Asian anymore,[/i] Evelyn supposed. She was ever the optimist. It was remarkable he got to as many parties as he did given the fact he worked where he did. Sooner or later, Evelyn supposed, he would realize the reptiles in the tank get people to gawk, but they freeze fast when the lamp goes off. People would come and watch how many beers the ten feet lizard could drink at a party. And then they would walk away and go talk to their boyfriends.

Evelyn sipped at the espresso another faceless coffee lackey had brought her, feeling the rush startle down her fingers and toes. Some things were better than sunshine. A little robin hopped over to her and started pecking at her shoe.

"Go away," Evelyn said. She was watching a group of boys not far off, who were pretending not to be watching. One of them, she thought, was the cousin or something of a lawyer at her dad's firms. The other one she recognized as a boy who had been convinced he had to prove he was straight by eating a pair of Mandy Ellison's underwear in the sixth grade. By the looks of his waistline, he'd kept eating underwear.

The bird pecked at her ankle again, prompting Evelyn to stop drinking her coffee and look down. It chirped and shrieked and flew away.

Evelyn paused. Animals, much like people, had too much sense to fuck with her.

The bird came back, pecked at her, and started flying up the street. Evelyn slung her bag over her shoulder and started to follow, leaving The Hunger Games or whatever it had been on the table. The bird circled and landed next to the street, where it shrieked again and pecked at the ground. There was a fissure in the pavement. She glanced over at the lizard, who was not doing burpees or jumping up and down or anything similar to have caused this. Neither was that Letitia chick around. Odd.

She turned to the waiter, who was helping another waiter. "Who owns this building?" Evelyn asked. "Your walkway is not up to co-"

The Geeko started screaming about an earthquake, rudely interrupting her. A few other robins had joined the friend and started fluttering in a circle in front of her, nudging her ahead. "Literally no one was going into that store anyway," Evelyn muttered under her breath, before following the birds at a restrained pace. Evelyn had seldom been in life or death situations, which this one had a creeping feeling that it may be. A part of her wanted very desperately to start running, but the lizard boy had made everyone in earshot scream and start running, and she was not going to get her ass trampled to death because the city didn't have the money to put new asphalt down. For all she knew, another meteor hit one town over and they were going to get even more college essays writing themselves after this. 

There was a park a block up, and she could sit somewhere where there weren't trees or whatever and just wait whatever dumb shit this was out. The fresh air snaked down the street to her, as if it were nudging her along with the birds. She went.