Right Side Up

Sheer Coincidence

Dinah POV

I looked outside my bedroom window to scope out what the weather was doing this morning. The wind blew the dried, brown leaves about the sidewalk and street.

I looked up at the sky, overcast. It looked decently chilly outside, so I settled on checking the weather app on my phone just to be sure of the exact temperature, 29 F.

"Wow..." I said aloud to myself, taking in how cold it was. Well, it couldn't hurt to go on a quick jog to wake myself up properly.

I slid out of bed and made my way over to my closet, pulling out a pair of full length leggings, fleece joggers, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, a vest, thick socks, gloves, and finally a pair of running shoes.

I assembled the outfit on myself within a decent time frame before brushing my hair, pulling it into a high ponytail, then brushing my teeth. Sliding my phone into my pocket, I popped my headphones in and pressed play on my music.

I noticed that no one else was up yet, so I quietly left the house, putting a copy of the house key safely in my vest pocket and began jogging.

Only 20 minutes into my jog I was still managing to be getting cold as the crisp, November breeze nipped at my nose, so I decided on heading back to the house.

I glanced down to open my phone and select a new playlist, still jogging, when I felt myself run into someone else. I quickly put my phone away and went to apologize,

"I am so so sor-" I looked down at the small girl who was now covering her ears and crying.

"Hey... are you alright? I'm really sorry, I should have been looking where I was going," I told her with a gentle tone present in my voice. I honestly felt bad if I had frightened the girl so badly as to make her cry.

I remained beside her, pondering what I should do. She slowly uncovered her ears and rubbed her eyes with shivering hands. I only now had the spare attention to take in what the small girl looked like.

There seemed to be a layer of dust over her pale skin with the exception of where her tear tracks were. She also seemed very small, but she could just be very young, but in that case, I wondered where her parents were and if they knew she was gone.

She was also not dressed appropriately in any way, she only had on a short sleeve shirt with paw patrol? on it and writing on the back along with a pair of dirty leggings paired with converse that were dust coated as well.

Her hair which was a dark, but warm, shade of brown just like her eyes, was long to her hips and decently tangled. I was thinking about how cold she must have been and went to offer her my hoodie, sliding it over my head, only to be abruptly pulled away from my simple action by the sound of a car horn.

I quickly dropped my hoodie and ran to the small girl's side. She had walked into the road in front of a car completely nauchelaunt of the dangers of doing so. I gently, but quickly, pulled her out of the way of traffic, alarming her.

"You can't walk out in front of cars, you can get hurt!" I said out of concern, but possibly coming off a bit harsh. The pale girl hummed to herself, chewing on her wrist. I looked at her with concern and bewilderment, carefully removing her hand from her mouth.

"Hey... let's get away from the road now, I'm going to call someone." I told the girl, hoping she understood or could hear me. Maybe she was deaf and that's why she didn't hear the car, but she should have looked, right?

I picked my hoodie up and led her over to a nearby bench at a nearly empty bus stop and had her sit down. I helped her into the hoodie and kept an eye on her as I dialed Lauren's number, sitting next to her.