The girl’s eyes fluttered open in the dark scrawny forest, awoken by a cool breeze gusting through the leaves. Lying flat on her back and staring up at the sky she could see the bright full moon through the light tree cover. Slowly gaining consciousness, she clutched her pounding head like nothing she’d ever clutched before. Wait a minute… Have I ever clutched anything before? She thought to herself, trying to rack her brain for some sort of memory of her clutching her head before. But there was nothing. In fact, she couldn’t remember anything at all. Who am I? Where am I? How did I get here? But she didn’t have an answer.
As she sat up something rattled around her hand and she glanced down at it. A pink and grey beaded bracelet lay around her wrist. She picked up her hand to get a better look in the moonlight, and spotted some text printed out on the beads. “ASTRO” it read, in the alternating color scheme. Is that my name? Astro? She puzzled, staring at the bracelet with a dead, hypnagogic expression. It didn’t feel right. On the other hand, it didn’t feel wrong either. Eh, Good enough.
Astro looked down at her body. She was average height, maybe 5’10”, and slightly skinny. Over her chest was a black, long sleeved high crop top, and around her hips was a tough black miniskirt, cut from the waist to just below the knees. Sleek black combat boots were laced tightly on her feet and her shoulder length hair with faded purple accents. Why am I wearing this? Am I a Pinterest girl?
Astro stood up and looked around at her surroundings. The trees were scraggly, hardly worth being called trees. At a maximum of 15 feet, Astro looked at them more accurately as “shrubs with some spunk”. A nearby highway could be heard one way, and bright city lights the other. Putting her hand up to her chin, Astro pondered her situation. Well, I’m not in any immediate danger here in the woods. She reasoned, weighing the option. But, the sooner I get into civilization, the sooner I can figure out who I am and why I’m here. She looked towards the highway on her right, sizing it up. The only reason I can think of to follow a highway would be to get to a city, but I’m already near one. Astro shrugged. “City it is then” she said outloud, and started walking.
After about 10 minutes of walking, Astro emerged into a small parking lot infront of a strip mall. It was almost empty, only 4 cars were scattered throughout the lot, and graffiti was scribbled on one of them. Two of the lights were out completely, and a third was flickering pretty hard. Looking at the stores, Astro spied a few that she recognized. A Starbucks, a Gamestop, and an Olive Garden (witch was closed) took up about ⅔ of the shop space, with the extra third being abandoned. Probably a different kind of store there thought Astro, before laughing slightly at her own joke. The street itself was 4 lanes wide and some run down residential housing sat motionless on the other side, along with a Quik Trip gas station. She stared in mock horror at the Quik Trip, before saying outloud “How do you mess up the spelling of Kwik Trip? Whoever made that horrid abomination should be in prison”
After looking around, Astro took a minute to brush off her clothes from her recent woodland stroll and opened the door to the Starbucks as the bell rang on top of the door. Inside the small coffee shop was a few tables and chairs placed in the middle of the room. Booths curled around the walls of the room, and a space was cut out to make way for a hallway with a restroom sign above it. A single, bored to death barista quickly stashed her phone behind the counter and looked up, clearly only awake because of her 6th shot of espresso that was still sitting on the counter. Bulletproof glass surrounded her and the cash register. “Hiiii, what can I get for you today?”
Astro walked towards the barista and spoke “Yeah, I have a weird question if you don’t mind” The barista looked intrigued and asked “What type of question?” “Actually, I’m wondering what city we’re in. I’m traveling right now and my phone died.” Astro lied to the barista. Apparently, she was convincing enough because the barista replied “This is Los Angeles. Saintland heights, specifically” Astro feigned a look of realization, before responding “Thanks” She reached down for her wallet but just instead just grabbed the air around her skirt. “Oh, right. Skirt” She responded, looking at her black skirt stupidly. The barista just laughed.
Left with no more choice, Astro walked out of the Starbucks with a wave and tried looking around for a place to sleep. Despite having just woken up from… well, whatever she woke up from, her eyelids were heavy and with no money for coffee she couldn’t keep herself awake. Looking around, the options weren’t great but she was increasingly struggling to keep her eyes open. So, after a quick mental math session, she slunked across the road and behind the Quik Trip and laid down in the grass, falling asleep in minutes.