Snippet #2459359

It’d taken almost two months, but Skylar was finally starting to feel like she belonged in New York City.

Well. Almost.

Swearing under her breath, she furiously swiped her subway card at the turnstile only to get the endlessly frustrating “Please try again!” screen over and over again. To any seasoned New Yorker she was an obvious outsider, and no amount of fake confidence could keep her face from flushing a deep red as she struggled with the machine.

“Miss, do you need any help?”

Skylar whipped around to find an older gentleman looking at her, an expression that seemed to be a mixture of pity and annoyance pulling at his features as he observed her failed attempts to get through.

“Oh, um. I’m fine, thank you.” She replied hurriedly, suddenly feeling even more flustered. She didn’t like seeming vulnerable or asking for help, the dumb machine testing her pride as she struggled to retain her last shred of dignity.

It was at that moment that her card decided to finally work, the turnstile dinging and letting her through. With a sigh of relief she hurried through, quickly glancing up at the map on the wall before heading to the train she was supposed to take.

Much to her surprise the subways were fairly empty, giving her a moment to pause and gather her thoughts. Her next class wasn’t for another two hours, maybe she’d sit in Central Park and get a head start on some of her reading. After all, it was gorgeous out, and while New York’s version of autumn was incredibly different than the weather in Florida she found herself enjoying the newfound crisp briskness in the air.

That and the fact that it gave her an excuse the wear the cute charcoal colored cardigan her best friend had given her. Normally clothes weren’t that important to her, but she was a new person now. Long gone were here brothers’ hand-me-downs (aside from a few pairs of basketball shorts and flannel shirts- some habits were harder to get rid of than others), replaced with clothes deemed “New York City appropriate” by Kyra. No longer was she “just another Grayson kid,” she was finally on her own and out of her siblings’ shadows- and according to Kyra, she had to look the part as well if she was going to be “the new and improved Skylar Grayson.” Regardless, Skylar was just happy to be somewhere where teachers wouldn’t mistakenly call her by her brothers’ names.

Getting off at her stop, Skylar pulled her messenger bag a little closer to her side as she hurried up the concrete steps and in the direction of Central Park. The streets were much busier than the subway had been, groups of lost tourists clogging up the sidewalks while street vendors tried to make a quick buck off of knock-off designer purses. It had definitely taken some getting used to but she found herself loving the city more and more every day. In a way it reminded her of home- after all, living with eight other people was a whole new kind of chaos in itself. Skylar loved her family, she really did, but sometimes she felt like nobody ever listened to her. She could have committed murder and gotten away with it, her parents were so preoccupied with her genius older brother’s latest accomplishments or the macaroni crafts her younger sisters had brought home. It was one of the reasons why she’d decided to go away for college (well, that and the killer scholarship she’d received). She needed time to be herself and not so-and-so’s baby sister, time to let her voice finally be heard and not overshadowed. And sure, maybe a city so big wasn’t exactly the most ideal place to be noticed, but it was a start. Besides, anything was better than being the lonely middle child.

Central Park seemed to be the happy medium between the subway and the streets, busy without being too overbearingly loud. Smiling to herself, Skylar walked along for a bit before deciding on a spot to sit. A group of teenagers stood huddled nearby the bench she’d chosen, and she figured that at least she would have something to distract her when her philosophy textbook got too boring. Tucking a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear, she pulled out her book and began to read.