never strong enough, twd

14. REAL PRETTY

Millie had finished her lines before she knew it. She did cheat, but Shane would never notice. She connected each letter, down the page instead of writing each sentence one by one. It was a lot harder but was done faster, which meant she could do whatever she wanted since her father was off doing his own thing. She folded up her paper and slipped it into her new shorts pockets.

She didn't know what to do, there were no other kids to play with. Eliza and Louis weren't there, Sophia was missing, and Carl was hurt. She had to play alone.

She ended up deciding to wait around for her father, by sitting on the porch steps. Hershel eventually came outside, striking up a conversation that caught Millie off guard. His questions started normal, like how old she was; which she said 10, or maybe 11. Her favourite colour– red. Then it changed, into questions about her dad.

"He always makes you do that?" Hershel asked, leaving Millie confused. She had an idea of what he meant, but she didn't want to say anything in case she was wrong.

"Do what?" She asked, tilting her head.

"Them lines," he answered.

"Oh, only sometimes, when im bein' bad." She replies, fiddling with her fingers. She was embarrassed to admit she got in trouble, but Hershel already knew so she couldn't lie.

"Mine did too, y'know." He says, nudging her arm. "Expect it was on a chalkboard, a lot harder to do." he chuckles.

"Oh like from all those old movies?" She says, a slight giggle in her voice.

"You calling me old?" he says.

"Oh, no sir, sorry sir." She quickly says, putting her head down. She felt sick to her stomach, Hershel was being nice, she had to go and mess it all up.

"Im just joking." he snickers, nudging her. "Your dad and Rick been friends long?" He asks, trying to change the subject.

"Uh, yeah. Since I was a baby I guess, maybe even before that." Millie stutters, trying to brush off her embarrassment.

"They don't seem like they're very good friends,"

"Well, I don't know. They fight sometimes but Daddy says that's normal. He also says Uncle Rick isn't making the right decisions when it comes to our new world." Millie shrugs, rambling on.

"New world?" Hershel repeats back.

"Yeah, Dad says you gotta be really strong to be able to survive this world, especially when it comes to the decisions you make," Millie answered, she didn't know if she actually believed it but she just hoped she was strong enough to survive. It seemed like she was surviving off others, letting them protect her instead of protecting herself.

Hershel stayed silent, Millie guessed to process what she had said. Shane did that a lot too, but she thought he was just thinking up a punishment to give her. His daughter, Maggie started to approach the house causing him to stand and leave the conversation. Millie prayed she didn't upset him, or maybe scare him. She couldn't understand why she couldn't just have a normal conversation with somebody, she just had to be weird.

"Everything go okay?" He asked.

"Fine," Maggie said. "Nothing happened." She shrugged, walking around her father to Millie, pulling something from her bag.

"Here, honey. Your surprise" She smiled, opening her hand to show a red nail polish.

Millie's jaw dropped instantly, her eyes wide. "For me?" She asked, her voice high with excitement.

"Sure is," Maggie smiled. Millie gently took the nail polish from Maggie's hand, "Thank you." She smiled, her heart beating really fast. Her eyes started to burn as Maggie walked away. She felt like crying, but she wasn't upset. She's never felt this before.