'39 [Stanley Uris]

2: Lady Luck

You would think a girl time traveling would be smart enough to pack a good amount of supply, right? WRONG.

Andi is the literal definition of under packed, walking around with $50, two blankets, and a set of clean clothes in her backpack. She has no where to stay, nothing to eat, no sense of direction, and no idea what to do next.

So what does she decide to do?

She decides to aimlessly walk around.

Literally any one of you readers are probably asking, "Well what the hell are you gonna do now?"

Well here's a little secret about Andi, she puts way too much trust in "Lady Luck" and believes that somehow she'll find a way to survive alone long enough to 1- kill the clown, 2- rebuild her time machine, and 3- make sure Stanley Uris never has a reason to kill himself.

The whole device is practically demolished from the explosion at her arrival. If she can't fix it, she'll never return to the year she belongs. She'll be stuck in 1988.

As she walks along a neighborhood in the rain, she finally finds a house that looks to be abandoned.

It's not entirely creepy, and not too broken down. You could just tell it was abandoned by how empty it was.

She decides this will be the place she'll camp out in.

"It's gross, but I guess it's home now," she mumbles to herself.

As she walks towards the porch to look into the windows, she knocks down the sign in the front lawn stating "vacant".

Sure enough, as she cups her hands over her eyes to look through the windows, the house is completely empty, and looks to have been for quite some time based on the dust and dirty insides. Rather than trying to break in, she tries the simple method— going through the front door.

To her advantage, the door is unlocked, and she walks right in without a problem.

The floor boards echo throughout the living area, and dust flies every which way as she takes step after step.

It's no mansion, but it's certainly better than sleeping out in the rain. She's grateful for the shelter, and decides that she'll try to rebuild it during whatever free time she has. After going room to room through the entire house, she decides to check if any of the electrical appliances still work.

She's pleased to find that the water works. However, the electricity doesn't, which means she'll be stuck in the dark if she can't find any lights.

So, as childish as it may seem, she crosses her fingers and closes her eyes tightly.

"Please, please, please let me find a solution," she whispers.

Her fingers uncurl, and her eyes open slowly. Then, she goes through the cabinets and closets she's yet to search. As she opens the top cabinet in the kitchen, she grins widely at what's inside.

Multiple oil lamps, matches, and a camera.

She ignores he camera, moving her hands to grab the oil lamps.

As she begins to set them in different areas of the house, she hears the random sound of yelling across the street. Looking out the front window, she's met with the sight of a boy with thick rimmed glasses pounding on the front door of the house across the street.

She can't really make out what he's saying, but she can tell that he's distressed based on how he eventually gives up and just leans his forehead against the door.

She feels bad for him, realizing how cold it must be outside.

Throwing her backpack open, she pulls out the blankets she has, and ponders whether to take one to him or just keep it for herself.

On one hand, she has no bed to sleep on, and she'll need as many blankets as she can get, but on the other, she feels so bad that the boy across the street will probably get sick while she could've done something to help.

Andi takes one last look out the window, see that the boy has moved to sit at the edge of his porch. He's hugging his knees, and looks extremely depressed by his situation.

"God damn it," she grumbles, taking the blanket and stomping out the door.

Sometimes she hates how nice she is.

She strides across the street, doing her best to keep the blanket from getting wet. As she gets onto the lawn, the boy looks up at her confusedly.

Finally, she reaches him, and throws the blanket at him. It hits him straight in the face, almost knocking his dorky glasses off.

"There," she mutters, "now stop looking so depressed and ruining my evening."

The boy grins, looking down at the blanket. As he looks back up, the girl has already began to walk off his porch.

"Hey, wait!" He calls after her. "Do I at least get to say thank you?"

"No!" She calls back, continuing to walk across the street. "We live right across from each other, you can thank me any other time. Or don't. Either way, I don't care."

"M-My names, Richie!" He shouts, watching her step onto her own porch.

She looks back at him, water dripping down her face.

"Cool!" She hollers back, "I'm Andi."

"Andi?" He mutters to himself, adjusting his glasses. "Well, you're pretty hot for a girl with a guy's name!"

Rolling her eyes, she turns to go inside, yelling one last thing over her shoulder.

"Thanks, asshole!"