The meteorologists called it the Polar Vortex. Most children called it a miracle as it cancelled schools, even in a snow heavy place such as Destiny City. Scott, and several adults he knew, called it absolutely annoying. Scott Erlea didn’t have a job to worry about getting to, outside of the duty he was expected to provide for the Negaverse, and really he welcomed the chance to get a few extra hours to work on the classwork that he had allowed to accumulate over the start of the semester, as well as preparing for the SATs and other tests. But for Scott, the constant snow and ice was exceptionally annoying for him because it interfered with his two of his favorite hobbies, and with no Blockbuster to rent movies from, he was becoming more, more stir crazy by the day.

So, when the snow finally began to recede and the sidewalks were freed from the dangerously slippery icy patches, Scott was quick to throw on his favorite pair of jogging shoes and sweat pants and made his way into the world, feeling the mighty need to stretch his ever so restless legs, and he was determined that nothing would stop him!

After a few joint pops and stretches, the mustached teenager made his way out, hitting the sidewalks and hopping in place, all to warm himself up for what he was hoping to be the best run of his life. He knew it wouldn’t and that was okay, but after spending so much time cooped up in his bedroom, with only the tv and Mikey to keep him company, he knew that he would need a lot of exercise to burn off some of the winter fat and stress he had accumulated in the last few weeks.

Before long, the lanky blonde found himself running at a good pace down the sidewalk, bypassing other joggers and power walkers without a thought or care in the world to them. Most of them had portable musical devices attached to their ears, others looked at their watches. One of them was even texting as they ran, no doubt wanting the exercise but not willing to give up their social network life either! But Scott had none of those things, sadly. What Scott had was nothing but the sound of nature, cars zooming along the street, tidbits of conversations from passing joggers and civilians, and of course, his own thoughts.

He wasn’t just running to stretch his legs or burn off some unwanted fat, but he was running to help clear his mind. There was a lot of information and thoughts there, thoughts that were either too heavy for him to want to comprehend, so troubling that it made him sick to his stomach, or thoughts that had no business being there at all. So, he tried clearing his mind and focusing only only the path ahead of him, allow himself to be cleanse of all of his troubles, if only for a little while.

Out here, as he was running, nothing else mattered. He was Scott Erlea. Nothing more. Nothing else mattered. Not his crippling failures or his many, many flaws. Nothing else mattered. He was Scott Erlea. Nothing more. Nothing special.

((Word Count: 539))