Tossing the empty paper cup into an already overflowing trash can, Aubrey's feet planted themselves on the sidewalk. Her eyes trailed up the paint-chipped building before her. And at the sight of it, her shoulders fell in a sigh.

Each day she entered this paint-chipped building was one day less until graduation. Only finals were left now. After those, she would move on—hopefully not from school—but from this run-down tourist trap the world saw as America's capital.

Aubrey yawned and began walking again. After a security check at the entrance of Franklin Public High School, she made her way past teenagers with bags under their eyes and backs bending under the weight of their textbooks.

Taking her usual seat at the front left away from the door, she set her bag down gently. Aubrey pulled out her notebooks, each page filled entirely with notes written in her messy cursive handwriting. After that, she organized her pens and pencils so they each sat parallel to the side of the desk in perfectly straight lines.

"A bit OCD, are we?" A boy from behind her snickered.

"Shut up, Carter," Aubrey spoke without even turning around to meet his green eyes.

"Okay, seriously, how did you fill four three-subject notebooks in one class alone? Like how does that even fit in your backpack?"

"It's easy. I actually pay attention rather than kicking the seat in front of me," she spoke, still not turning to look at him.

Aubrey licked her finger and began to page through her notes. Her exam was in her next block but she had a few minutes to study for it before this class began.

Their teacher walked into the room moments later with a frog-like smile plastered on her face. Carter leaned back, putting his feet up on the back of Aubrey's chair.

"Could you not?" she muttered in a whisper.

"Hmm, possibly but if I'm not annoying you what else am I supposed to do all of class?"

Aubrey sighed loudly as she rolled her eyes. Sitting up straighter, she leaned over her notes in order to block out Carter's senseless comments. When the bell rang an hour later, she gathered her things and did her best to stuff them in her already overflowing bag.

"You... missing anything?" Carter snickered as he leaned against his desk. His green eyes glittered playfully but Aubrey pretended not to notice them.

Instead, she directed her attention back to her bag and stretched her hand out to him without looking. He had stolen a pencil. He did this nearly every class and every time it was the same. He seriously needs to get better excuses, she thought to herself.

While her eyes remained glued to her backpack as she rummaged around, he took her hand and kissed it, "Madam...?" Well, that's new.

"Ugh, Carter, just give me the darn pencil!"

"That's what she s-"

"Carter Quinn! That doesn't even work!" She was trying not to laugh now. "You're gonna make me late to my exam, you idiot!" she spoke through a smile.

"Okay, okay, okay, Rey, can I at least have the magic word...?"

"You're such an idiot." Aubrey tried to jump up to snatch the pencil out of his hand which he held over his head. She couldn't reach it, though. "Ugh!"

"Just say ittt..."

"You don't deserve this, but please?" She glared at him. He smirked back victoriously. To that, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Madam?" he spoke as he brought the pencil down from above his head and into her hand.

"I'm not that short, meany," she muttered as she put the pencil in her backpack.

"Hmm, I think you are," he smiled as he patted the top of her head.

Giving him one last death glare, she turned around and began to walk out of the now-empty classroom.

"You're gonna be late too, idiot."

"The name's Carter. Carter Lee," he called after her in a deep voice that mimicked James Bond.

"I like 'idiot' better, idiot," she spoke as she scrunched her nose up at him.

Having to dodge people in the halls, she ran-walked to her exam. She slid into her desk without much time to spare. Aubrey took a sip of water and pinning a loose strand of black hair back. And after that, she was handed the test and she began.

The numbers and letters flew by in her brain as her pencil raced across the paper. She understood each question, performed each operation, and checked her answers to the best of her ability. She had studied for this for months now.

Within an hour, she was finished and confident with her work. Aubrey rose and brought the papers up to the teacher at the front of the class.

"Thank you, Miss. Nadir," her teacher nodded and Aubrey returned to her seat.

Looking left and then right at her classmates who were still bent over the papers, Aubrey pulled out her notebook and pencil from the run earlier. To the sound of pencils on paper and the school air-conditioning's hum, she gazed over her notes from earlier that morning and tried to make sense of her messy handwriting.

In the remaining minutes before the exam time was up, she had drafted an outline to an essay. And, rereading her words again and again, the lunch bell rang. After lunch, she went to her last three blocks, and then, soon enough, the day was over.

Having to kneel on her bag in order to zip it closed, Aubrey waved goodbye to some of the girls from her last block and headed out to the front steps. With the morning run notebook in her hand, she began to walk down the sidewalk once more.

"Wait, Rey!" Carter's voice shouted after her before she could even leave school property. Aubrey froze in her tracks. Considering for a moment sprinting before he could offer, she turned to see him roll down the window of his car. "Need a ride?"

"Nope, I'm good," her words came out blunt and perhaps too quickly.

"Are you sure...?" he smirked.

"Yes." Too fast of a reply again, she thought.

"Hmm... well, what are your plans for this weekend?" Aubrey breathed in and then out before replying this time.

"Unless you forgot, our physics exam is on Monday. I'd like to study for that."

"C'mon, Rey-"

"That's not my name, Carter Quinn," she mimicked him from earlier.

"Ugh, c'mon, Aubrey Nadir," he tried to make fun of her back, but she just rolled her eyes at him. "You can't be doing that all weekend. C'mon, just once I got something I wanna show you."

"Nah, and I think I can," she smiled and turned to leave down the pavement.

Seeing him give up in the corner of her eye and drive away, she pulled out her notebook again and examined the outline. The small book returned back into her pocket after her glace. Aubrey then walked around to the other side of the school where her bike stood, tied up to a pole out of view. Unlocking it with a passcode, she jumped on and peddled away from the building with the peeling paint.

Pigeons soured from dimly lit traffic light lines to the tops of stop signs. Gray water splashed up under her bike tires and puffs of unnaturally warm smoke poured out from the subway beneath the earth. Homeless men cowered in doorways, begging for money, while businessmen walked right past in their expensive suits with prideful strides.

The cars on the faded streets were all grey and the people on the sidewalks all wore black with the occasional exception of an early tourist, a little lost.

Biking past all of this, Aubrey blocked it out like she had learned to do many years ago. It's how she was able to focus. In that city, there way always so much going on in so many places at once. One has to learn how to block it all out at an early age in order not to be swept away by it.

Slowing down in front of the post office in order to pick up her mail, Aubrey took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She locked up her bike and headed in. The place was busy as ever at this hour, but she didn't mind the long line. At least, she normally wouldn't have. Today was different, though. Today she was waiting for something.

Shifting from one leg to the next and then rocking from heel to toe, Aubrey couldn't help but let some of her nerves escape.

Many years ago, she had made a plan. This was just another step on her way to the stars. She knew it sounded a little silly, what she wanted, but she hung on it nonetheless. She had a burning chance that she had worked for. She wasn't going to let that pass her by. Afterall, a promise is a promise despite whether it's made when you're seven years old or eighteen.