Escape Attempt Number 1# {Semi-Open}

[Autumn Buckland]

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk and waved goodbye to the circus,
Off she rode with a trumpetty trump, trump trump trump.

Autumn's hands grasped her beloved pot plant as she walked calmly towards the bus stop. Humming to herself as she bounced along, she gripped her bags and leant against the shelter, wrinkling her nose as the gravel crusted her feet.

This morning she had abruptly decided that it was high time she left Hammel. Two of her favourite plants had been pruned, and were crying, a boy had laughed at her clothes and to top it all off, there was no hot water left in the tank this morning, so she couldn't have a bath. With all those things, and a mounting level of home sickness, the young redhead had simply packed her suitcase, climbed out of the window, and then over the wall, careful to make sure her pitcher plant was safe. After an hour or so, she'd managed to walk into town, and had checked her piggybank. There was enough money to get her by coach to Canada, and there she'd heard she had a few distant relatives. If she could get to them, then perhaps she could save enough to fly home and get back to her family.

Nervously twisting her little purse around in her hands, she sat down on the bench, scuffing her feet back and forth as she waited. She even had a story made up should anyone ask - she'd run away from home and wanted desperately to get back. Part of it was true, anyway.

Of course there was Eric, and Alice, both of which she dearly cared for and wished they could come with her. But that wouldn't be fair now would it? Alice needed to be looked after and Eric would be fine, he was smart... and handsome... and many other things that made the redhead glow pink. "Oh dear." She muttered to herself, picking more gravel out of her feet. "Perhaps I should have left a letter."

But then, if she had then Hammel would know where she'd gone and that would cause more bother than it was worth. Resting her head on her hands, she looked over at her pitcher plant curiously, eyebrows raised.

If it's what'll make you happy. Is all the little plant said, resting a leaf comfortably over Autumn's small hands. I just hope you know what you're doing.

[Delilah Pryce]

Downtown was moving along slowly as usual with the same crowd coming and going at their own pace. The shops and buildings here were a bit older than most of the other places in Pilot Ridge, but thankfully the town's historic committee had the foresight to keep everything down here in near mint condition. Sure, the buildings were made up of old brick and had that old town look to them, but to Delilah it seemed like home. She came from a simple little mining town down in Virginia were old never went out of style. It was a different world from the one she lived in now, but old was old no matter what location it was in. Delilah leaned against the driver's side door of her 1970 green Plymouth Barracuda, a piece of red rope licorice hanging from the right side of her mouth. She chewed the licorice slowly, every now and again pulling at it with her hand to tear a piece off before chewing on the candy again. No one really gave Delilah a second glance as she sort of just fit in with the surroundings. Her dress consisted of dark brown cargo pants with black work boots and a dark green cotton tee shirt with a brown hooded jacket over top. Her long dark black hair hung loosely about her shoulders and her tormented eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, keeping her bloodshot and tired eyes from broadcasting her current physical state of being.

Delilah was waiting on one of her contacts to drop off a package for her. She had been in Pilot Ridge for a while now and still hadn't really secured any solid contracts from the infamous MSDA. It was time to put some pressure on Gabriel Underwood and see just how her reacted and the package she was waiting on would help kick start that adventure. Pulling out her cell phone, Delilah looked at the time and then noticed no knew messages. With a sigh, she put her phone away and looked around the street. Nothing interesting really caught her eye until the visage of a small red head sitting at the bus stop appeared before her. The girl was young, real young and she appeared a bit odd. Who carried a plant around with them anyway? Looking up and down the street with caution, Delilah pondered her current curiosity and feelings. She probably shouldn't do what she was about to do, but the memory of being a young girl with no friends found its way to the front of her mind.

Pushing off the car, Delilah slowly crossed the street, shaking her head and mentally cussing herself for her new found pity. Slipping both hands into her jacket pockets, Delilah slowed and then sat down on the bench beside Autumn. At first, Delilah didn't say anything or even act interested in the small girl beside her. After a minute or two of silence, Delilah looked at Autumn and let out a soft sigh, "Nice plant," she said awkwardly, not really sure what to say or even how to approach this conversation.

[Eric Bower]

He had woken up to the relief of not having to do any homework. He showered, happily finding hair on his chin (which also caused him to dance around the bathroom and almost break his neck as he jumped off the toilet and slipped on the wet tiles). But that hardly mattered because he had a few stubs of hair growing on his face, right? Okay, so they were under his chin and wouldn't exactly show in normal conversation unless he tilted his head all the way back and pointed them out. But still. They were there.

The song he was humming randomly muttering the words to was bright and happy and sounded something like, "there's hair on my faaaace, hey! I got hair on mmmmyyy faaaacceeee." He continued his happy and prideful little song all the way down the hall to the stairs and to the girl's only dorm floor. Cause today he wanted to hang out with Autie (and Zac had been telling him he needed to take charge, or something like that.) He knocked on Autie's door a few times as he bounced on his toes. When the door opened, he smiled until he saw it wasn't Autie but one of her roommates. She let him in, with a glare, and he retreated to her room, where he knocked on the door again. He opened the door after an entire minute of silence, because Autie was usually definitely awake by now. He peeked his head inside to see that half of her drawers were open, half emptied and her window was wide open.

Wait. What?

He skirted around all of the clothes on the floor like they might bite him and leaned his head out the window. He searched the grounds around and then farther away. He just managed to glimpse Autie's firey head disappear over the wall of the outside world. Eric isn't the smartest or the most quick witted one around, but he understood his ____friend to be running away. He gapped for a moment before he seemed to deflate back inside the window. "Autie..." He mumbled, his eyes skirted around the room again, not finding anything that screamed attention.

Then the shock wore off and he was then determined to find her. So he climbed through the window as she had (though she was smaller and more flexible than him.) And when he dropped to the ground he darted off, to the gate entrance and glanced around. She was long gone and he didn't even have the slightest clue where she went. He stood in the middle of the road for a moment, eyes blinked regularly but he was obviously not there. He couldn't understand what was going on. Why had she run away? It just didn't make sense to him. Was Zac right? Had he messed up? Was it his fault?

Well, if that was the case, then Eric needed to fix it. Bad. He turned and ran inside the school, the proper way this time, and after a moment's deliberation, he knew just who to go to. Or at least, he figured he was the best person to go to, considering his powers.

So that was what brought him to Zac's dorm door, to which he knocked like a crazed fool until Zac opened the door. He looked scary for a moment, then Eric remembered his emergency and pleaded his case to the older guy. Zac obviously didn't want to help him, because he probably didn't believe Eric that Autie had actually run away. Eric, however, brought up the point that there are evil meta-haters out there, with a furious gesture to his face and that seemed to win Zac over, for a time. He then dragged Zac--after the boy got dressed and primped his hair and everything--to the spot on the wall where he'd seen Autie disappear.

Thanks to his mammal power, thing, Zac then led Eric outside, down the road and through the town. Each step was hard to take, because in Eric's frazzled mind he was just seeing those gang of teenagers again, stalking behind Autie and if he kept that up he'd go into cardiac arrest or something.

The two boys ambled until they came to a bus stop and Eric stopped that head of hair he'd know anywhere and he took off running immediately, leaving Zac to...do whatever...and he slowed when he approached the bench, he took hold of the armrest once he got there and breathed deeply a few times, his eyes gazed painfully at Autie. What was she thinking?! "Autie...." He whined slowly. Wait, Zac said to be the boss and stuff. He was doing it wrong. "What are you doing here? I was so scared!"

That was right, wasn't it?

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn began to wiggle her toes in order, humming the tune to London Bridge is Falling Down, utterly unaware of any shocking danger or problems she had caused. Much to her delight, her pitcher plant began to hum along and she bopped her fuzz of red hair, twitching her fingers as though playing an invisible flute. Wrapped up in her own world, the young girl was already imagining this adventure off into the unknown, with plants and trees for company. She barely even realised Delilah had approached her till she spoke, and she looked up with her bright green eyes, smiling.

"Yes, she is pretty, isn't she. Her name is Sarracenia. I call her Sarra for short." The girl said, stroking the pitcher plant's leaves thoughtfully. "She's very intellegent, but then, plants are so much smarter than us, aren't they? I mean, they sit and don't start wars or be unkind to each other, they just grow and listen to the world and make oxygen." Autumn explained, offering the pitcher plant out with an even better smile, watching Sarra wiggle her leaves in greeting. "She likes to eat flies and mosquitoes. I prefer not to eat at all, though I love apples and broccoli." She said matter-of-factly, one hand going up into her hair and teasing a knot out of it.

"You seem less fancy than the other people round here. It's nice, you're not pretending to be important or posh or rich." Tugging at her simple, patterned dress, the young girl laughed. "Most of my stuff is handmade or hand-me-down, but I like it. The clothes have a history and I feel like I'm adding to it." Pulling her simple woolen coat about her, Autumn turned on the bench and idly stroked the beloved pitcher plant's head. "Oh, I'm Autumn by the way." She added brightly. "Autumn Buckland."

After that pleasant and rambling introduction, the young red-head fell silent again, humming once more, this time with her chin rested on her knees. She had no clue that Eric had seen her escape, and from what time she could assume it was, the bus would arrive soon and she could start the big escape. She contemplated writing to Hammel thanking them for their kind hospitality but that she had family that needed her, then thought better of it. Politeness was a virtue of sorts, but really what had Hammel done that deserved politeness? She'd been snatched from her family, put in a place with snotty teenagers that looked down on her and told her she wasn't smart enough.

Of course, Eric and Alice bubbled to the front of her mind just as the former ran down the street. Looking up at the gentle thud of feet on pavement, Autumn blushed crimson and held Sarra closer to her chest, teeth knitting in her lips. "Oh Eric." She gasped, looking to Delilah for some moral support. "I was just thinking about you and how I should have left a note. But this was a spontananious thought and I decided it was important." She said softly. "I have family in Canada and I want to go home. ... Would you like to come with me? We could have a big adventure together!"

Smiling over at Delilah, then glancing back at Eric, the red head nodded. "This lady likes my plant. She's lovely."