She stepped out from the comfort of her house, into the prevailing darkness and side stepped to avoid the dark coloured car. As she approached the road, the warm light of the streetlamps illuminated her surroundings a little and she was able to see the lock securing the gates. Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew a set of keys and inserted the right one into the hole. It fitted perfectly and she shifted the key till the lock sprung open with a pop.

She lifted the latch of the unusually low gate and stepped out onto the paved street, she turned to look at the entire road. The sight soothed her and made her forget the stress that was awaiting her at school. The road was bathed in warm sepia tones of the streetlights which reminded her of some pictures she had seen in Life. A few cars lay stationary to the left of the lane. Their interiors evaded the light and remained hidden in the darkness, as if a monster lay inside waiting to pounce onto unsuspecting passersby.

It was unusually foggy today; she thought as her grandfather appeared in front of her and opened the car via remote. As she opened the silver car door, the lights switched themselves on inside and she sat down on the black leather seats, adjusting her school bag behind her; her metal keychain making the slightest peep of noise, jostling against the zipper.

Her grandfather sped along the roads as usual, reaching the place when he dropped her off everyday under three minutes. As she climbed out, she uttered a soft goodbye and slammed the car door loudly, just for the heck of it.

As she strode up the incline towards her school, a large bus appeared in the corner of her eye and zoomed past her right and started to slow down as it reached the gates of a condominium. It slowed down, almost hesitantly and its automated doors eased open.

A few young girls who had been waiting outside the guard house clamored to get into the spacious bus, their plastic pink backpacks reflecting the yellow hues of the streetlights.

Their maids stood nearby the guard house, not venturing further outside where the florescent light originating for the guard house did not fall. They leaned against the creamy off-white walls. As she strode past them, she heard bits of their unintelligible language of their home country. She smiled to herself, her heart warmed.

As she continued her walk to school, she looked across the empty road to her left. She glanced at the forested area behind the road and noticed the peculiar shapes of the trees. One looked like a raindrop, another like a cone and yet another one, fat and round. She marveled at the fact that she had walked this route over five hundred times, yet she had never noticed such small things before.

Her eyes wandered to the foot of the trees and she saw more fog lingering underneath. Suddenly it hit her. Stupid Indonesia and Malaysia with their bushfires! It wasn’t fog! It was bloody haze! No wonder her nose was unusually stuffy yesterday.

And so she walked past the school gates in a huff. Fuming about how the environment was become increasingly polluted with all those fires and whatnot.

-----

I actually started writing this on the day it happened, which was 2 or 3 weeks ago I think. I know it's lame, but I was really thinking like that; imaging that i was a writer, talking in 3rd person. Well, it's finally done (: