Twenty Keys, Nineteen Doors

1. Five to One

Tiana

She sat in the back of her family's car, a grey Toyota sedan. Her feet tapped impatiently, muffled by the car mat. She was on her phone, visibly bored as she went through her Instagram feed.

The girl's dad glanced in the rearview mirror. "There's a lot of traffic, ain't there, kiddo?"

"Yeah, I can see it too." She groaned. "Can't we go through a side route?"

He shook his head. "We're pretty close, there's just something up ahead. Hang in there, Tiana."

She needed to kill some time as they drove to their destination. Normally, they were able to make it there in fifteen minutes, but traffic was unusually bad.

It wasn't as if Tiana was actually bored though. The energetic teen was eager to see her friends again, as she had some exciting news to share to them. It was just that the unusually long trip made her feel more impatient every passing second. The news that she had to share was unbearably urgent.

Several minutes slowly ticked past before Tiana and her father could see why there was even traffic in the first place.

"That's what's been taking so long?" A construction team stood in the left lane, waving cars on the right lane to stop and let the left lane drivers pass through.

Her dad laughed. "Don't worry, once we get past that we'll be on our way."

Eventually, their car was at the front of the line, and with a simple switch of the sign, the flag girl permitted Tiana's father to drive through. Her fingers dug into the smooth leather in the back seat of the car. Now we're moving. Things finally flew by faster- blurs of colour and shapes sped past.

Tiana could finally see the building, clear as day, growing larger as the car neared. In a matter of seconds her father was pulling over to the edge of the road. He pressed the button that unlocked the doors, but before Tiana could leave, her curious father decided to lock the doors again.

"You feeling alright?" Her father took a brief glance at her through his rear-view mirror. "You seem so anxious to go."

Tiana grinned. It was as if he could read her mind. "Just really hyper to see my friends, that's all."

"Mm...I see," he said. "Anything special going on today?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she tried to shrug casually, but she was inwardly begging for the doors to be unlocked.

"If you say so. Farewell, my dear!" Jokingly dramatic, her father unlocked the car with a flourish. "Have fun. Call me when you're done."

She grinned. "Thanks, dad."

Waving goodbye, Tiana pulled the handle and pushed the side door open, immediately bombarded by the blazing heat. Although it was only early July, the temperature in Vancouver was skyrocketing past the city's record yet again. She crouched down- She could see the little waves of radiation causing the distant horizon to appear distorted.

She looked back up. The fact that she couldn't see her friends waiting outside meant that they made the intelligent decision to go inside the air-conditioned building that housed the famous and proudly Canadian Tim Hortons.