One

The California sun beat down on Karma from where she stood on the porch of a rather big house. She could feel sweat rolling down her back. The city was starting to get the heat of summer, just a couple of weeks away from summer break. Ever since she was twelve, Karma would catch a bus to Tranquility and stay with some family friends for the summer, and when she turned seventeen she bought her own apartment. She had been working at the same mechanics shop since she was fourteen to earn some extra cash before returning back to her university in Boston.

The only person who actively knew she was coming was Ron. Karma didn't really know how her family knew the Witwicky's, but they had been mentioned multiple times by her parents when she was younger, and they were in a couple of random family photos in her childhood home. It wasn't ever something Karma really looked into, it was just kind of a fact about her. The Wilder's knew the Witwicky's. End of story.

It was just after ten-thirty when the bus dropped her off and Karma had decided to swing by the Witwicky house before setting off for her own apartment; about twenty minutes out of the major city. Ron's wife, Judy, was out working at the local music store and wouldn't be back until close to seven that night. Sam, Ron and Judy's son, was at school until three. More than likely, Ron was also out working at the car dealership he managed, so in reality, Karma was only there to see their chihuahua, Mojo.

She had a key to the house that she kept on a small length of leather tied around her throat. Taking the necklace off, she turned the key in the lock and walked into the home. Mojo barely looked at her before settling back onto the chair that Judy had gotten just for him. Spoiled brat. Rolling her eyes, she walked to the small dog and pet him before making her way to the kitchen and grabbing a soda from the fridge. Any time one of the Witwicky's knew she was coming, they would stock up on all of her favorites. She had a tendency to raid their fridge and pantry.

Scribbling a note on a scrap piece of paper "thanks for the drink :)" Karma went out the back door and to the garage. The barn-like garage was always unlocked (against Ron's better judgement), so it was easy enough to snag her motorcycle. She liked to keep the navy blue bike at the Witwicky house while she was away, both for safety, and because it was rather expensive for her to fly the bike out to her university and then barely use it. She worked at the clothing store on campus, so it just didn't make sense to have the bike there with her when it would be cheaper to keep it at the Witwicky's.

Every year, before she left for yet another year of college, she filled the tank with gas, and it was no different now. The bike started with a loud roar of its engine, Mojo barking at the sound from somewhere in the house. The lazy-ass dog was probably still on that damn couch.

About an hour later, Karma had made it to her apartment. She didn't bother carrying more than what she was able to in her backpack, she had two separate wardrobes, one for her university and a much smaller one for the summer. In Tranquility, her outfits consisted of nothing more than tank tops and tee-shirts. Most of her pants were polyester shorts and spandex with a couple sets of fabric and denim shorts. Karma had maybe two dresses to her name and multiple pairs of skorts, to keep it fancy. A few pairs of sneakers, some hightops, and one pair of combat boots finished her rather miniscule wardrobe. She couldn't even be bothered to name everything back in Boston because of how much it was.

What Karma really had to worry about right now was the fact that she had no edible food. Or any food for that matter. She wasn't one to leave her home for long periods of time without emptying anything that could go bad while she was gone. Which meant that grocery shopping would have to happen soon. She glanced down at the black watch she wore. She had plenty of time before Sam got out of school. Ron had invited her to go with him to pick up his son. Supposedly, today was the day that Sam would be getting a car of his own if he had managed to keep his grades where Ron wanted them.

Karma's parents had left her a car of her own before they passed when she was fifteen. Her parents had been killed in a rather gruesome car crash. Karma had been the only survivor. She didn't necessarily have a fear of cars, but she certainly preferred her motorcycle over them. But she didn't really have a choice in which vehicle she could take. Her motorcycle just didn't have the space to fit what she needed from the store. Besides, when she drove her car, she stuck to some of the back roads to ease her anxiety a little. Ron and Judy had been the ones to teach her how to drive while Sam was in elementary school.

Taking a breath, Karma carefully got behind the wheel, checking behind her multiple times before backing out of her small driveway. The grocery store was about a fifteen minute drive, but adding in the back roads would make it closer to twenty-five minutes instead. That was perfectly fine with her.

And so, twenty-eight minutes later (stupid parking), she was walking into the familiar store and grabbing a shopping cart. She started with the basics first; hygienic products, toiletries, toilet paper, napkins, and trashbags. Then she went into the nonperishables and room temperature items. She grabbed a loaf of bread, some tortillas, bagels, and condiments. Next were snacks; chips, mini muffins, brownies, and some more healthy options; like apples, bananas, and grapes. Sue her, she liked to snack. Then came the cold foods; more breakfast items, some milk and tea, coffee, and cheese cubes, cause why not.

In total, she was in the store for about an hour and a half, and spent a good portion of the money she had saved up from both her job at the clothing store on campus, and the bartending she did on weekends. Three jobs, plus the school work was a lot at times, but the pay was always worth it. Money wasn't much to Karma, but it was kind of nice to be able to live happily.

She had struggled for a while by herself when her parents had died. She hadn't wanted to be put into the foster system or an orphanage, so she had learned how to forge her own paperwork to make it seem like her parents had given guardianship of her to a family friend. Then she met the Witwicky's and it was almost like the paperwork she had forged had become true. The Witwicky's had kept an eye on her and helped her get back onto her feet until she could manage to support herself and got into a decent college. She had always kept good grades and didn't get into much trouble (that the Witwicky's knew about, anyway), which was probably the only reason no other adult had actually taken a closer look into her past and the forged paperwork.

Karma supposed she was lucky in that way.

Loading her haul into the trunk of her car, Karma made her way back to her apartment. It was about one by the time she was back, which meant she had about half an hour to forty-five minutes before she had to start making her way back into town to meet with Ron at the Witwicky house. Plenty of time to put everything away. And maybe even make herself a cup of coffee. Smiling to herself, she put away the groceries, humming a tune as she did so. The simplicity of everything always made her smile.

Everyone always said how surprising it was that she was still able to find the nice things in life, but Karma felt like if she didn't find happiness in life, then she would spiral. And the last time she spiraled hadn't ended well. This was just safer. For herself and those around her.

Checking her watch again she decided to forgo the coffee. She could make a nice cup tomorrow anyway. She didn't want to make Ron late in picking up Sam. That wouldn't be fair to the boy. Shoving her helmet back on, she started up the bike again, listening to the deafening sound it made as the engine turned over. She sighed.

So much better than a car.

The ride back to the Witwicky house was peaceful. Karma had her music blaring in the speakers of her helmet as she rode, humming along quietly. It was nice, just being able to ride and watch as hills of grass and shrubbery turned into small buildings that turned into bigger buildings. Karma liked living out of the city, but she also liked that she was close enough to be able to ride in when she needed to. The more rural area that she lived in was relaxing to her. And the lesser traffic helped the nightmares.

She got to the Witwicky house a little after two-thirty, just in time to catch Ron pulling into the driveway. She caught his eye and he smiled at her. She gave him a grin back and parked her bike, shucking her helmet onto the handle bars before walking over to the older man.

"How's it going, kiddo?"

"Oh, same old, same old. Y'know how it is. Got back in this morning, so I spent some time with Mojo and got some groceries in my rather derelict house."

"Let me guess, you already broke into the fridge?"

"Shhhhhh…." Karma laughed, holding her index finger to her lips in a shushing motion.

Ron rolled his eyes. "C'mon, then. We're wasting daylight if we wanna get Sam."

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say, old man."

Karma gave a light pat to her motorcycle before sliding into the passenger seat of Ron's car. Sam's school was about fifteen minutes out. According to Ron, the boy had a presentation today, so it was more than likely that he'd be out before the official end of the school day. Karma had to wonder how on Earth the kid, one) managed to save up to two grand his dad was having him pay, and two) how he was doing grade-wise. Last she'd heard, he wasn't exactly an academic weapon.

She didn't really have room to talk. While she was forging her papers and parent signatures, her grades had ended up slipping. That was probably how Ron and Judy figured out she had been living on her own for those couple of months before they took her in. but, Karma had managed to get her grades back to where they should've been once they took pity on her. Again, Karma considered herself rather lucky to have the Witwicky's in her life.

It was a game of waiting when they got to the high school. Karma was nowhere near the most patient person in the world, and she absolutely hated waiting, but she packed a book in her bag for a reason. It was always nice to get some reading in while she could. She had so little time for any hobbies considering she was always working or doing school work.

She figured that Ron would tell her when Sam was on his way out, so she put on some headphones and lost herself to the pages of a new book.