Emma Venika Dubois-Chrétien was woken up by her alarm clock at 8 in the morning on December 22nd, a few days after the semester examination period at McGill University. She had set her alarm clock at that time, the night before, so she could leave early that morning for her trip back home to Ottawa. While she now loved Montreal after spending about four months there, Ottawa would always be her home, she didn't think she could live the rest of her life anywhere else. She was lucky though because it only took about 2 hours to get from Montreal to Ottawa; and she had be able to go home on some weekends: such as Thanksgiving back in October and her fathers birthday in November.

She had made many friends during her first semester; in fact she was quite popular. This was a significant difference from her high-school days, where she had been somewhat overweight and geeky looking with glasses, braces and unflattering clothes and therefore had had low self esteem and incredibly shy. Now that she had lost the extra weight, by exercising everyday and cutting out junk food like poutine, coffee crisp bars, pizza and candy (among other types of food), she now had a slim and curvy body and her mild acne had cleared up! She had also been able to get her braces off, got laser eye surgery and bought a whole new wardrobe.

Her better physique and new look boosted her self-confidence and she was now completely unrecognizable as the chubby and geeky girl from her high school. Not that she had been really teased or anything- the other kids just didn't pay much attention to her and if they did they were just overly friendly and pitying. The four months at McGill, one of Canadas top Universities had been the best time of her whole school career. Instead of being the quiet girl she was the hot, bubbly girl who worked at the school's library.

The 19-year-old girl had spent an hour the day before packing many of her things for the 3 weeks she would spend at her parents. She had spent the rest of the night with her new friends. They had gone out to a club and had danced and drank until 2 in the morning and she was therefore still pretty tired when her alarm clock came on and started beeping. Stretching and yawning, she got out of her bed, turned off the alarm and grabbed her iPod nano. Putting it on and listening to her favourite songs immediately woke her up and put her in a cherry mood as she made herself breakfast. When she was done eating, she grabbed some clothes and proceeded to the bathroom, where she spent the next hour and a half. When she came out she was dressed in her favourite pair of black skinny jeans and a bright yellow cami under a sky blue hoodie.

She put on some facial moisturizer, curled her eyelashes and applied a bit of mineral foundation, blush, mascara, lip-gloss and put on a pair of pink hoop earrings. Emma then checked to make sure she had packed what she needed such as: a great deal of her clothes, hair and makeup essentials, body and facial gel and lotion (she didn't like the one's her mother bought, her skin was too sensitive for them) as well as several other necessary items in her suitcases. She put her laptop, portable speakers and solar powered charger as well as her camera and her Sony digital reader in her backpack; Emma also packed a few pairs of cute shoes, one pair of fashion boots, her ice skates, snow pants, gloves, scarves, and tuque in a duffel bag (she and her parents were going to go skiing at Mont Cascade and skating on the Rideau Canal).

She called home, but got the answering machine, to let her parents know that she was about to leave and would arrive home in approximately 2 hours, put on her coat and winter boots, and headed outside into the cold. It was -26 (Celsius) outside and the wind-chill made it feel like it was -35, and about 35 cm of snow had fallen just last night. She opened her car door and put her bags and suitcases in the backseat. She got in the small car, put on the radio and headed towards the highway.

An hour later, Emma was nowhere near the halfway point. No, she was stuck, on a bridge, in a traffic jam and had been for the past 25 minutes and from the look of things would be there for a long time. Cursing in both English and French, she changed the radio station and luckily landed on one that was talking about the predicament she and hundreds more were facing:

"...la route 40 est blockée , il y a eu un accident. Un camion a tombé sur une voiture, l'homme dans la voiture est mort et six personnes sont blessés" said a man in a grave voice.

"Oh," thought Emma, she sighed, feeling bad for her impatience when someone not to far ahead of her had lost their life and other people were injured. She took her cell out of her handbag and dialed home.

After a few rings she heard her mom's somewhat tired sounding voice: "Hello?"

"Hey mom, I'm going to be late, there was an accident somewhere ahead of me," she said

"Oh, how bad is it?" Devaki Dubois-Chrétien asked her daughter, sounding suddenly wide awake.

"Well I can't see anything from here, but apparently someone died and others are injured so it might take hours" Emma answered

"That's terrible, imagine that poor family losing a loved one and juste avant Noël en plus!," she heard her mother sigh and repeat the information to her dad. "Well hopefully it

wont take too long to clear up."

"Yeah, anyways I'll call back later 'kay?"

"Okay sweetheart, be safe, J'taime, oh just a minute your dad wants to talk to you, okay?"

"J'taime aussi Ma, et ouais j'veux parler a Pa aussi." Emma answered.

"Okay bye, Emma!"

"Bye Ma."

"Hallo Emma, ça va?" Came the deep voice of her father, Michael Dubois-Chretien.

"Hallo Pa, non ça va pas, ça va fucking mal!" She exclaimed.

"Hey! Watch your language young lady!" he said mock angrily.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She said grinning.

"Écoute, fait attention okay? I dont want you to get into an accident too, you got the winter tires on like I told you, right?"

"Ummm..."

"Damn it Emma! Qu'est ce que j'tai dit! Christ! Tu m'écoute jamais!"

"I'm kidding dad, god! I got them put on a few days ago" she assured him

"Oh, well... good" he huffed.

"Alright see ya later dad!"

"Bye princess! Oh! and don't forget, I packed some things in the back of your car in case you need them, okay? Love you!"

"Bye dad, love ya too!"

She hung up the phone and sighed, running her hand through her long, curly dark hair. The traffic hadn't moved at all during the conversation with her parents. She got out of her car and into the freezing cold. She quickly opened the trunk, inside was a sleeping bag she brought for her friend Chantals massive sleepover party, next to it lay the bag her dad had talked about. She took out the bag, closed the trunk and brought it to the front of the car. Once inside, she opened the bag and started taking out the contents. In the large bag, there was a large wool blanket, some non-perishable food, a water bottle container, bottles of water, juice boxes, a solar powered flashlight, night vision binoculars, a lighter, a box of matches, pepper spay and a first aid kit.

She chuckled and put the blanket over her legs, pushed her chair back in a more comfortable position and decided to rest her eyes - for just a little while. Twenty minutes later, Emma, who had fallen asleep, woke up startled. She had heard a loud groaning noise. It was quiet for a moment, than a loud cracking noise was heard followed by screams. She felt her car sway and before she or anyone else could react, a large part of the bridge collapsed into the near freezing water below; taking Emma and about two dozen other people with her.

This is my first fanfic, I hope you liked it. Tell me what you think, constructive criticism is more than welcome!