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Alerana wandered through the streets of Destiny City, taking turns at random to look at whatever caught her eye. Her family had just moved to the city and was still in the middle of unpacking. But she'd gotten some time to take a break from the work, and had taken the chance to get out and explore her new home. She wanted to see where all the cool stuff was! She had been out for a while now and had spotted several interesting stores, parks, and attractions. She kept seeing things she wanted to try climbing, but she couldn't be out all day and wanted to look around first.

All this walking was making her thirsty, though. So Rana ducked into a random convenience store and grabbed a bottle of soda. While she was checking out, she noticed the time on a clock by the register. Oops, it was later than she thought. She needed to head back before her parents started to worry.

She stepped outside, looked around...and found she wasn't sure which way home was. She took a swig from her drink as she looked around. Well, there was only two ways she could go from here; left or right. She was pretty sure left looked familiar, she she started that way. But two blocks along, she wasn't sure if the area looked familiar. She slowed as she tried to spot anything recognizable, her pace decreasing as she grew less confident in her path. Finally she paused on a street corner, looking around and trying to get her bearings.

Rana had been staring out at the streets and paying no attention to the pedestrians around her, so she'd been completely blindsided when someone ran into her. The stumbled a step or two away, and bit back a sharp retort when she heard the other girl apologize. Instead she just said "Yeah," though from her terse answer it wasn't clear if she was agreeing the other girl should pay attention, or whether Rana should.

She half turned away, ready to go back to trying to figure out where to go when it occurred to her that this other girl might be able to give her directions. So she turned back to the girl and asked, "Hey, do you know how to get to...um..." Shoot, what street was their new house on? "Ummm...oh! Ridge Road," she finished as she remembered. "Do you know which way that is?"

Rana wasn't sure if Artisans Drive sounded familiar, and was trying to remember if she'd passed the street. But soon it turned out it didn't matter, because the other girl didn't really know either. She sighed. "Right, never mind then," she said. "I'll figure it out on my own."

So she was back to looking around the streets for anything that would give her a clue. She peered at each point of the intersection, then glanced at her watch. She'd been out for longer than she intended, her parents would be wondering where she was. She glanced around once more, then picked a street that she thought might kind of look vaguely familiar. She took one more swig of her drink and started down it.

Rana was trotting along, hoping she was going in the right direction, when she heard a voice coming up from behind her, followed by the girl from before. She blinked at Evren as the girl chattered on, wondering why she was following her. Then she shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to chat as she went.

"I'm Alerana, though usually called Rana. I just moved here, so I'm not used to the area yet," she told Evren. "I'm sure I'll figure it out soon," she added confidently.

Rana raised a disbelieving eyebrow at Evren's unnecessarily enthusiastic reaction. Well, of course she'd figure out how to get around sooner or later. Anyone with half a brain could do that, after all.

Which apparently meant the other girl didn't have half a brain, if she'd been living here that long and still got lost all the time. That point was only proven when she pulled the the smart phone she'd been apparently been carrying this entire time and just realized she could get directions on it. Rana had to physically restrain herself from facepalming at this ditz.

She took in a slow breath, then nodded. "Yes, you should be able to do that," she answered, managing to speak evenly instead of slowly, as if to an idiot. "Look for an app that says Maps or Navigation or GPS or something like that. Most phones come with them now. If yours doesn't, you should be able to download a free one easily enough." Then she looked at the phone hopefully. If she could just get a street map of the city, she could get going in the right direction.

Rana peered over Evren's shoulder as she navigated the phone, so she also saw when the street map was pulled up. Crimson Road didn't ring any bells, and the zoomed-in map didn't offer any other names she recognized. But at least now that there was a map, she could get more useful information.

"Here, let me show you something," she offered. Then without asking, she reached over and placed two fingers on the phone, then pinched them together. The map promptly zoomed out. Too much actually; it went so far out that only major street names were visible, and some of the small streets disappeared entirely. So she backed up by slowly moving her fingers apart, adjusting until she had a nice look at several blocks in each direction.

"There," she said, and removed her hand to study the map. "Pine Street sounds familiar," she murmured, tracing the road with her eyes. Yes, she was pretty sure that would lead towards home. So if she took Crimson Road two blocks and turned right on Pine...

Oh, right, Evren had asked a question. "For directions, see that search box at the top of the screen?" She pointed to the white box with a magnifying glass icon. "Use that to type in the address of the place you're looking for, or the name of a building or park or something. It'll pull up directions."

Rana looked at the phone that was being held out to her, then pushed it back. "No thanks, I saw the way back to my place when I looked at the map. I can find my way." She mentally ran through the directione once more, just to be sure: follow Crimson Road two blocks, take a right on Pine, follow that five blocks, then left on Ridge and she'd be just a couple doors from her place. Easy enough. But Evren obviously needed step-by-step directions every inch of the way.

"Just follow the directions on your phone," she said. "If you make a wrong turn, the map should update with new directions." She didn't have a smart phone herself, but some of her friends from her old school did, so she'd learned how to use them. Basically as long as you actually read everything on the screen, they were easy enough to figure out.