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Mei got up off the bench and stretched her arms, talk about a tiring day. She finally finished unpacking all her things the day before and just finished setting up her computer so she could Skype with her friends when her mother came into her room and told her to "go explore the neighborhood".

Mei reached into her back pocket to pull out her phone when she heard it make it's beep beep sound indicating that it was low on battery. "Seriously? You're going to die on me now? I swear I charged you over night" She let out a sigh of frustration and looked at how much battery life was left. 12%... that's 15 minutes maybe? I can't be that far away from home. She slid her fingers over the touch screen to open up the navigation app.

It's only been four days since her family moved into their new home, unfortunately that also meant she didn't have her address memorized. At least she was smart enough to write it down on a sticky note before leaving the house as well as put it in her phone. A lot of good that will do if this dies.

4582 S 238th St ....... and search it took a moment for her GPS to locate her current position since she was sitting in the middle of the part. "Go straight for one mile then turn left." Mei zoomed out on the screen so she could get a better view of where she would be going before slinging her bag over her shoulder which contained thee porcelain pots and picked up the small bag of potting soil. "Hey at least one good thing came out of today". It was fortunate that Mei was able to find a nursery considering whoever packed her boxes in the truck was dumb enough to put her boxes with the porcelain pots at the bottom then toss a heavy computer chair on top of it which managed to break all the pots when the leg broke through the tape and punctured through the top.

She hadn't quite reached the park exit when her phone spoke "Go straight for 200 feet then turn left". Mei had been glancing at her phone to see if she could read the cross street she was looking for when she noticed something moved in her peripheral. She looked over immediately but still a moment too late as she came almost nose to nose with a girl in... well she didn't quite know what she was wearing but it was pink... very pink. "HOLY" She gasped, dropping her bag of potting soil. Why the heck was there a girl walking around in the woods and not on the path?

With her adrenalin pumping it took a moment for what the girl said to register. "Yeah" She took a deep breath "I'm okay, I'm so sorry I wasn't watching where I was going" She watched as the girl took a step away from her. The sound of her laughing put Mei at ease she has a pleasant laugh she thought to herself. "Looks like we startled the crap out of each other". She leaned over and picked up her bag of soil. "I was so zoned into trying to power walk home before my phone died I was't paying much attention to anything else. My name is Mei" She reached her hand out towards the gal in front of her.

"It's nice to meet you too, and really, it's no problem. If anything it makes for a great conversation starter." Mei relaxed quite considerably. "I appreciate the offer, but I got it no worries.

Chalk it up to women intuition but Mei could tell that Aventine was a good person. If this were to happen back in Washington there was no doubt she'd get not only a dirty look but undoubtedly swore at with arms waiving in the air with the whole 'look where you're going b***h'. The fact that Aventine didn't react the way she anticipated put Mei at ease.

Beep beep Mei's phone alert went off again. She looked down at at the screen '10%... crap' Had it of been earlier in the day Mei had no doubt that she could have found her way home eventually considering she's pretty good at recognizing landmarks. However with it getting darker outside and the street lamps flickering on, the neighborhood that she walked through this morning would look very different.

Mei glanced up at Aventine with an embarrassed look on her face. "I hate to ask, and it's okay if you're busy," she was quick to add, "I don't know if you're familiar with this area but I kind of don't know where I live and my phone is about to die" Mei paused for a moment " I mean I know where I live, I have the address, it's just I'm new to the area and and my parents kinda kicked me out of the house this morning to "explore" the neighborhood."

Mei's gaze fell to the ground in sheer embarrassment ' man I sound like a nut case ' she thought.

Thankfully it was dark outside; there was no doubt in Mei’s mind that her face was bright red in embarrassment at having to ask someone she just met to help her find her way home. “Thank you, I appreciate it I really do.”

Mei let out a soft laugh “See that’s what older brothers are for. Though normally I’m pretty good with back tracking it’s just things look so much different at night time it may as well be a different world.” Ironically she had considered calling her brother about an hour ago when she got to the park. The only reason she decided not to, was because she planned on asking for him to bring her back to the plant nursery later this week to get some bags of grass seeds and a few plants for their yard. At least this way he’s least likely to say no.

Shifting the bag one more time, Mei jogged forward a few steps to catch up to Aventine. It felt like night time snuck up on her, one moment she is enjoying the warm sun, the next a cool breeze and long shadows as the sun set, now a slight chill with the moon as their guide. She would be lying if she said being in the park at night didn’t make her a bit nervous, especially after being startled just moments ago. The shadows and the trees intertwined in a wicked dance gave her goose bumps as she thought about the words of caution Aventine had said. “It’ll be nice to be around more lights to be honest. Hey Aventine, I have a question.” She paused watching Aventine for a moment, “What did you mean when you said that it’s not as safe as I might think?”

Mei shook her head “No unfortunately I don’t think my parents have called the cable company yet to come install our cable and internet. That and I barely had my computer turned on for 5 minutes before I got sent out of the house otherwise I would have just used my mobile hotspot and hopped on the net, the connection sucks but at least it’s something.” She thought for a moment ‘then again I could have just looked stuff up on my phone while I was at the park I suppose.’

Mei faltered in her footsteps when Aventine mentioned terrorists. Her sense of security hit rock bottom as her sense of urgency to get home went through the roof. Her thoughts went straight to the two items in her bag ‘the rape wistle and air horn won’t do crap for me against terrorists…’ Mei looked up at the stars and closed her eyes for a moment ‘Please lord tell me that’s not why my dad was stationed here’ After her moment of silence she looked back at Aventine “I haven’t heard anything of…” Mei lowered her voice, “terrorists, what do they want… who are they targeting?”

There is no way her father had no idea about terrorists… Right? But then again if he did there is no way he would move their entire family across the states and live in a home off base if that were the case would he? Small sounds of animals moving through the branches or twigs snapping made Mei paranoid like something was going to jump out at her. ‘Someone already did’ she thought ‘but there’s no way she’s a terrorist she’s way too nice. despite the why the conversation was going, Mei still felt like she could trust Aventine, there was just something about her that seemed reassuring and kind.

Mei didn't know exactly what to think considering she hadn't heard anything about 'terrorists' prior to now. Every town she's ever lived in had some sort of youth problem, kids falling in with the wrong crowd and committing crimes "It honestly sounds more like a gang problem rather than terrorists" she concluded. "When you say terrorists I think exactly what you said, suicide bombers, I think of the war on terror and the reasons my father went over seas to fight. This just sounds like a group of unruly youth causing trouble."

At the mention of media and trust worthy Mei couldn't help but let out a "heh" sound "Media and their use of scare tactics is the reason I take what they say with a grain of salt. If anything I try to avoid the news, the last thing I want to do is live every day in fear because of what has happened and what could happen. The best you can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worse, however having a fully charged phone would typically be a good idea."

Beep beep... Turn right in 20 feet then go straight for 100 feet, your destination will be on the right

Mei looked back down at her phone'6%...' "Looks like it's just around the corner. Thank you for taking the time to walk me home, I really do appreciate it. If you need to take off, I should be ok the rest of the way." A part of Mei hoped she would be willing to walk her the rest of the way or at least till she could see her house but the other part of her didn't want to burden Aventine any further than she already had, she was already kind enough to walk with her this far.

Mei made a right at the street, looking ahead she spotted her brothers car parked along the side walk in front of the house. “I appreciate it thank you, I can actually see my brother’s car there. You can’t really tell the color of the house but it’s the blue house with the white trim… the one with the dead front yard.”

Mei stopped in front of her house and turned to look at Aventine “Ice cream sounds like a good plan especially after the weather we’ve been having. If we meet again I’ll treat you to some ice cream or make you something once my strawberries finish growing as a thank you for walking me home, I’m not exactly sure if I would have made it before my phone completely died on me. I hope it doesn’t sound weird but I really do hope we meet again someday; I enjoyed chatting with you I just hope that other people in this town are as nice as you.”

It was a bit of a relief that she was proven wrong about Destiny City. She may have had say goodbye to her old friend but there is a chance that she can make new ones here too; like her mother said she just needs to get out. Mei smiled one last time before heading up her driveway up to her front door. She leaned against the doorbell so someone would come let her in.

The latch clicked as it unlocked from the inside and the door swung open. Her brother reached out to take the bag of potting soil from her “Where the hell have you been?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mei laughed and turned around “BYE, THANK YOU AGAIN, PLEASE BE SAFE!” She yelled before closing the door.