#pack;

She tapped out a message, erased it, and tapped out another. Repeating the process a few more times before she managed to send one.

Erica sat quietly in the car, ignoring the looks her mom was shooting her out of the corner of her eye.

"Er-"

"It's fine mom, I'm meeting Isaac, about school, Thanks for the ride." She mumbled, jumping out of the car as soon as it was in park, throwing her small backpack over her shoulders and waved to her mom, before she entered the small convenience store, just long enough for her mom to leave and head back home.

There were too many people in the store, too many noises, too many smells. She jumped when she heard the register pop open, and the beep of an item being scanned.

Closing her eyes, Erica took a deep breath, trying to calm down her rapid heart beat, before she grabbed a thing of recess pieces and a water bottle, and entered the line, handing over the cash and leaving quickly after getting her change.

Stuffing the items into her bag, she jogged across the street, and disappeared into the trees, her foot falls growing faster, swifter across the fallen leaves of the forest floor, her senses open completely to everything around her, she refused to be blind sided, not again. Her heart beat was almost so loud, it was deafening in her ears, her speed only slowed when she came into the clearing where the Hale house stood, and her heart only slowed when she saw Isaac on the porch, just like he said he would be.