Afraid of Being Alive (Shane Walsh Love Story)

The Walking Dead

Prologue

I tapped my graphite pencil repeatedly onto my book in annoyance at the work that was written up on the board. It’s not like the heat was much help either. The hot summer air streamed through the classrooms open windows and poured into maths class where we were currently studying Trigonometry, much to the annoyance of not only myself but my best friend and flatmate, Lola.

Lola and I were the exact same people. We must have been sisters in another life. We loved the same type of music, the same type of colours and clothes, watch the same shows and say the same things. We couldn’t be more alike. We share a lot of things too; from food to eyeliner to a flat right here in the heart of Atlanta.

“When the fuck are we going to need this in life?” whined Lola as she rolled her eyes at the maths laid out right in front of her “This will not come in handy if we’re like…. Robbed or something!”

“We throw maths at them, that’s enough to scare anyone away” I huffed.

“Doesn’t help that we have that assignment due tomorrow and a test on Monday, who the fuck wants to revise on the weekend anyway?” muttered Lola.

“Oh god, damn, I hate maths”

“Could you two girls quit complaining and get on to your work?!” exclaimed our miserable old hoot of a teacher. He grey hair spun in corkscrew curls around her heavily make-up painted face. It was rather off-putting if I do say so myself. Her wrinkles crinkled up further as she took the time to grimace at the two of us.

“Sorry Ms.Andrews” mumbled Lola as her eyes spun back down to her work.

“And what about you, miss Rodriguez?” pressed Ms.Andrews as her ugly face scowled at me.

I had a horrible attitude problem which I really needed to fix before it got me into trouble. Usually, I won the fights against teachers as they generally saw no point in arguing with me, but this was just going to be one of those unlucky kind of days I guess.

“I’m not sorry for a thing” I chimed, a sarcastic smile spreading across my face.

“I beg your pardon?!” exclaimed Ms.Andrews, her gross eyes lighting up in disgust.

“Why should I be sorry? I didn’t do anything to you” I could only get worse “you’re the one listening into my conversations”

“I don’t believe it-“

“So maybe YOU should get your absurdly long nose out of other people’s business” shit fuck oh god I was so going to get it this time. I knew that one day my big, fat mouth would get me into trouble.

“That’s it, yard duty miss Rodriguez!” yelled Ms.Andrews as she waved a pink slip in her hand above her head.

“Oh so you’re going to give me a yard duty for telling you to respect my privacy?!” I was on a roll now. I could hear my conscience screaming at me to stop what I was doing and just suck it up, but my cold, little, black heart was in too far to quit now.

“How about a focus room then?” focus room is where we were sent to ‘reflect’ on our wrongdoings for a while with the added bonus of getting a fabulous note home to our parents.

“How about you get your head out of your arse!” I replied snidely, folding my arms across my chest.

The whole room was silent as I sat in an aggressive position at my desk beside Lola, my face hostile and my mouth wanting to strike again. The bewildered look on my teachers face is one that I’ll never forget for a lifetime to come. Her usually thin lips spread out into the ugliest smile you could ever imagine on her wrinkly, old and unlikable face.