THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT carl grimes

ˣᵛⁱ. sɪxᴛᴇᴇɴ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ sɪxᴛᴇᴇɴ
[〝ɪ ᴡᴀs ɪɴ ᴍɪᴅᴅʟᴇ sᴄʜᴏᴏʟ 〞]
—

I WASN'T SURE WHAT time it was by the time we'd wandered into a little town and found an old bookstore to settle in, But night had dawned and and mg legs aches almost as much as my wrist by the time we did. Pages were ripped out of books and tossed into a tin trash can, Tara collected water from God-knows-where, Eugene made a makeshift fire-starter out of a bullet and lit the papers. Shelves were quietly rearranged to block out the light of the fire and any signs of life from anything passing through.

We hadn't seen any pharmacies, but Maggie found some masking tape and used it to tape my wrist into a normal position, a task that nearly had me in tears for the second time today.

A few feet away, Rosita was using a piece of string and a sewing needle to stitch Abraham back together.

As soon as she tied a double knot in the end to keep him together, he stood and walked off. "I'm gonna take a sweep."

Tara stared at the water she was boiling over the fire. "What did you guys do? Before?"

Maggie sighed, finishing her work on my wrist and sitting back. "I finished up college not long before, but when everything started I was helping my daddy out on his farm." She smiled nostalgically, but it quickly turned into a slight frown. "I probably woulda gone on to be a vet, like him. My sister, Beth, she swore she was gonna be a singer. She coulda been, too. But honestly, she probably would have gotten married to Jimmy straight outta high school."

"Whose Jimmy," Tara asked.

"He was this boy that grew up not far from the farm. He was with us in the beginning," She didn't finish.

"I was a pizza delivery boy." Glenn admitted.

My eyebrows rose. Sure, I guess everyone changes in the apocalypse but I was not expecting that one.

"I was going through the Police Academy in Atlanta." Tara said.

Rosita sighed, "I was going through the nursing program at GSU."

Maggie's eyebrows rose at that one. "I went to GSU! That program is like, seriously hard to get into."

"I was a transfer. Before that I was a CNA at Piedmont."

"What about you, Cassandra?" Glenn asked.

My eyebrows rose as I turned to him, "I was in middle school, livin' it up."

He laughed, "Yeah I guess that probably right, you and Carl are about the same age, aren't ya?"

Probably right. I ignored it, "Yeah, I guess so."

Glenn snickered, "Interesting."

He shared a sly smile with Maggie, who smiled back at him. It was like a silent plan formed between the two of them.

"How's that interesting?" I asked.

"Hm?" Glenn turned back to me. "Oh, No reason or anything. You guys could just be friends," He pressed.