It was a hot and balmy day, and somebody else from another city would have been experiencing severe culture shock at the bad air quality of NYC, but Helena had spent the last year studying in L.A., so it wasn't too drastically different.

She still scrunched up her nose slightly -- She had been born and raised in Colorado Springs, and it was difficult to forget her roots amidst clean, mountain air.

She caught a taxi from the airport, heading directly to the hotel the designer she was working with had instructed her to check in at. It was roughly two weeks before Fashion Week at Bryant Park, so Helena imagined she'd have a bit of free time. The designer she was working with, though, wanted to make some final adjustments and have plenty of time to do so with her measurements.

They really hadn't changed much, she contemplated as she leaned against the window of the cab. Her appearance had remained pretty stagnant for at least the past year and a half.

She had a traditional-classy appeal with her bangs cut short above her eyebrows in a straight line -- a soft, rich sable color to match her enormous eyes. She had a delicate bone structure, and very pale olive skin. She was also probably one of the shortest models who would be at the event, at barely 5'7".

She made up for it with her long legs though, so that shortcoming was forgiven by the industry!

Truth be told, she probably would have ended up a dentist if her parents hadn't been so dead set against her going into modeling. She had been doing it "as a hobby" since she was ten, but her parents had been strongly opposed to her taking it up as a career.

To make a long story short, she called up her older brother -- who was now an executive at a large company instead of the lead of a rock band like he had always dreamed of, and made the decision to escape to an art school in California to simultaneously continue modeling. That was a year ago, and here she was.

She thanked the taxi driver as she stepped out of the car, handing him his money as she dragged her stuff out of the back seat and trunk. She walked into the lobby of the nicer quality hotel, sighing from jet lag as she hefted her overstuffed duffel bags and over-sized hand bag towards the check in counter.

She couldn't imagine doing anything else with her day, even though it was in the middle of the afternoon -- She just wanted to sleep. Maybe if she woke up at midnight, she'd order some ice cream and an alcoholic beverage.

That sounded like a nice first day in New York, she grinned inwardly as she stepped to the end of the short line.