Alicia was still trying to adjust to all of these new things. Most importantly how she'd ended up randomly in Salem, Massachusetts without her family, with a lot of strange things around her and most importantly, no zombies. It was all so much to take in, on top of what she'd already been trying to process back at home, in Los Angeles. One day, she'd been talking to her boyfriend, Matt about her acceptance to Berkeley and how she couldn't wait to get out of there and away from everything. One more year. That's all she'd had to wait before she was finally away from her family, out from under her brother's shadow. It wasn't that she didn't love her family, she did, but in the six years since her father had died, everything had changed. Her dad was gone, which had left her, her mom and Nick heartbroken. She'd really struggled with his death too, but it had changed them all in ways that might never be able to be repaired. Madison, Alicia's mom, she'd finally started to move on. She'd started dating Travis and for the most part, Alicia liked him. But it wasn't like her opinion mattered, she usually went unnoticed thanks to Nick. Of all of them, he'd been the one who'd dealt with their father's death the worst. Nick had turned to drugs. He was a heroin junkie and he was always coming and going, in and out of their lives and the house and always keeping their mom all stressed out and worried. He was older than her, but he might as well have been a toddler with the way he had to be watched constantly. His behavior was one of the reasons Alicia had just focused all her energy into school and her grades because that's what was going to get her the hell out of that place and away from her family. But, then, everything started changing even more. There was some virus going around, people were dying from it, people were getting shot over and over by cops and they just kept going, it was like nothing could stop them. No one knew what it was, but then something had happened to Matt and only when Alicia had come face to face with her neighbor and someone she was incredibly close to, Su-Su, as one of the things that people were turning into. It was all so much to deal with and Alicia was struggling with it.
At least there were no zombies here. That was another good thing, aside from not having to deal with Nick here. Maybe she felt a little bad for thinking that, because she didn't know if they were okay. Maybe they would end up here, she'd heard others say about their own loved ones, but Alicia wasn't holding her breath. The way everything had been going lately, she wasn't counting on anything good happening to her. Whoever or whatever had brought them here was determined for them to have as normal a life as possible. Which was why Alicia was enrolled in the local high school. She was trying to make friends, but she did tend to stick to herself, her brother had called her sullen and moody, like he had any room to talk. But, she'd managed to talk to a few of the other people here that were her age. Maybe it would get more and more normal the longer they were here, but Alicia didn't think any of this would ever stop being weird. Dreams with a weird girl who handed out a feather seemed to be the running theme with how they got here and apparently witches. Did the ridiculousness ever stop?
She had found the bookstore and had spent a couple of hours inside, picking out a few books to pass the time. Once she'd paid, Alicia put in her earbuds and turned her music back on, just as she always did (music was definitely her constant) and pushed open the door to leave. She as looking down at her phone and not paying attention to anything else when she suddenly ran into someone. "Watch it!" Alicia snapped, looking up to see the really cute, really tall guy that she'd just ran into. Tugging out one of her earbuds, she gave him a small shrug. "Sorry. I should've been paying attention."