Changed by Time ✔

seven.

Wendy could barely keep her eyes open by the time they landed, while Nolan appeared more awake than he had been his entire life (she assumed). He held his backpack tightly – appearing to be barely filled but Wendy knew that it was packed with all sorts of equipment and notes. She was still confused as to how he managed to make it look so empty from the outside.

"The Poplin Library is about a two-hour drive North of Dublin, just outside of a small town called Wickward," Nolan stated, turning back to Wendy. He hissed through his teeth as he spotted her.

She held onto her backpack with one hand, the other hung loosely at her side. She had on a black t-shirt with a yellow and green flannel paired with gray sweatpants, all of which added to her extreme tiredness.

"Are you okay?" he asked, placing a hand on her arm.

"I'm exhausted," she said with a heavy sigh. "I've never been out of the country so this jet lag is killing me."

"You've never been out of the country before?"

"Well, when your parents are wanted by the government and are most likely marked as shoot on sight, they don't usually take trips that extreme. Why do you think I had to go through that whole passport process?"

"That's... Okay yeah, fair point." He turned away, pulling out his phone as he appeared to be typing something in.

"What are you doing?" she questioned, her throat dry and her voice hoarse.

"I'm calling a taxicab for us. I'm not totally sure if they'll be able to take us all the way out there, but we can just keep switching from cab to cab until we get there."

"Or, we could just pay them a lot more than they're usually paid," Wendy suggested, walking past him to sit on a nearby bench.

"Do you think I'm made of money?" Nolan quipped as the phone began to ring.

"More than I am."

Even in her exhausted state, Wendy knew that Dublin was easily one of the most beautiful places she'd ever seen. Of course, she'd seen pictures – but that didn't measure up nearly as much as the real place did.

People were walking around with either the weight of the world on their shoulders or without a single car. She watched as they passed around her, pulling out phones, notepads, cigarettes and lighters, or whatever else fit in a purse or a pocket. Some got into cars that sped away while others continued to just walk around to wherever they're going.

City life was almost an artform.

"They'll be here in about ten minutes," Nolan said as he took off his backpack, plopping down in the seat next to her. "I managed to get a driver that's willing to take us all the way to Wickward. We can get a room there for the night and walk down one of the trails to the Poplin Library in the morning."

Without a second thought, Wendy let her head fall onto Nolan's shoulder as she replied, "Sounds like a plan."

For what felt like hours, but was most likely two minutes, Nolan and Wendy simply watched as the people around them kept up with their own lives. Living as they were the main characters of their own story.

"I'd like to move into a city like this one day," Wendy tiredly said, nearly slurring the words out.

"Oh yeah?" Nolan scoffed. "Where people are constantly yelling at each other, fighting one another off to get to the top, traffic accidents happen every two seconds, and the noise just doesn't seem to ever stop. Yeah, sounds like a dream come true."

"I don't want to move into a city because of that. I want to live in the city because when it all comes together, life is beautiful. You can't have a system without one thing working with the other. Whether that's where almost everyone knows to obey traffic laws – always stop at the red light – or superhumans know that they have to stay hidden to stay normal."