Tomorrow Will Come

Six

On the next council meeting later that week, Mary put her hand up anxiously at the end.
"I found a new group," Mary declared, "they're good people. I can trust them. And I'm letting them stay in one of the old outposts in the woods. And on Sunday I'm going to get them and bring them back here."
Everyone looked at Mary in shock, and the girl shrugged. "It's my decision. Give me one good reason why we shouldn't let good people in."
"Because they might not be good people!" Michonne snapped, and Mary breathed in shakily.
"They are. They're good. I trust them. They have two kids, my age, and a little girl. She's seven, and through the database I found out she has a relative at Oceanside. Do it for them. They'll die soon if we don't help. They will. And they are coming here."

The next morning breakfast was icy, Mary and Michonne not knowing what to say to each other. The others had agreed to give Toby's group a try, and Mary, Rosita, Michonne, and Siddiq were going to collect them the next day - it was earlier than Mary had originally told them, but Michonne pointed out that if they were genuinely good people, they wouldn't care about it being a few days early, in fact they'd appreciate it. Mary disagreed - she was worried even the slightest change to the plan could scare them away, but she couldn't argue with Michonne anymore.
"Is Saffy still coming for dinner tonight?" Michonne asked as she packed an extra apple into the children's backpacks.
"Yeah." Mary whispered, slightly worried. She'd explained the situation to Michonne and Judith a few days earlier, and they'd made the decision to tell Judith about her parentage too - Mary and Michonne weren't sure, but they hoped it would help Judith understand and accept that Rick most likely wasn't either of their biological parents in a way. It did, and Judith completely understood, as Mary had, which finally allowed Mary to breathe again.
"Who's Saffy?" RJ asked with a wrinkled nose, and Mary sighed shakily.
"She's our cousin. Like Gracie," Mary explained quickly, "Saffy from daycare."
"Oh yeah. She's nice. She's our cousin!?"
"Yep."
"That's cool. Can we go to school now?"
Mary laughed and nodded, ruffling his hair, "Go get your jacket."
RJ ran upstairs, and came back downstairs with Judith, the pair wearing their denim jackets, and Mary took RJ's hand as they left, Judith running to Aaron's door and retrieving Gracie.
"Wait up!" Daisy called, running over, Jack in tow, and Mary grabbed Jack, lifting him into the air.
"Hey buddy!"
"Can I go on the shoulders?!" Jack laughed, and Mary laughed back, lifting him onto her shoulders in an effortless swoop.
"You really dropped a bombshell about that group last night, apparently." Daisy commented, an eyebrow raised, and Mary shrugged.
"I'm stubborn. And it worked, they're coming tomorrow."
"So, you said there's a boy our age?" Daisy teased, and Mary laughed.
"Yeah, and a girl. Toby and Jennie. And a little girl, she's like seven."
"Yeah, I'm much more interested about the boy. Toby." Daisy laughed - she was a lot more interested in boys than Mary was, and was unimpressed by the lack of them in Alexandria - there was only twelve of them in their class of thirteen to sixteen year olds, and only five of those were boys; Alex, Joseph, Brian, Micah, and Preston. Micah was a full year younger than them, and Brian was two years older, so that only left Alex, Joseph, and Preston that were the similar age to Mary and Daisy (and the two other girls their age), but Alex was gay, Joseph had been ruled out by Daisy (she declared that he was a bad kisser then they had a quick, childish kiss at a movie night when they were twelve), so that only left Preston, but he was dating a girl called Sofia.
So, in Daisy's words, they desperately needed more boys their age to join Alexandria, because Daisy wanted to fulfill her dream of living next door to Mary when they're older, the pair married with half a dozen children between them.
"Yeah, I don't really care," Mary shrugged, "because I'm fourteen. And what if you're meant to be, but you rush it, break up, and then you're alone forever?"
"You're funny," Daisy scoffed, rolling her eyes, "and there's plenty of other boys at Hilltop and the Kingdom."
"You're so annoying. I literally just don't care about boys." Mary laughed, lifting Jack off her shoulders and watching him run into daycare, waving as he left.
"I'm just saying," Daisy shrugged, "you're probably gonna end up marrying Joseph, Brian, Micah, or Preston, and I've got dibs on Brian, for when my dads less worried about the two year age gap."
"Does Brian have a say?" Mary laughed, and Daisy laughed back.
"I mean, we know I'm one of the prettiest," Daisy said sarcastically, "and I have a stunning personality. It'd be between us two, because the other girls our age are all wimps. And you're not bothered about him."
Mary just laughed, rolling her eyes at Daisy. She was right - she was stunning. The apocalypse didn't seem to have touched her, and she had thick, flowing golden hair, blue eyes, and perfectly clear skin. She wasn't malnourished and skinny, and didn't have a scar on her body. Mary, on the other hand, looked in the mirror and felt like she was seeing a twelve year old boy - she didn't have curves like Daisy, and was so small and skinny because of malnutrition in her childhood, and she hated it. She liked her short hair, in fact it was the one thing she did like about her appearance, but she had gotten mistaken for a boy one times too many when on runs (probably because all the clothes she wore once belonged to Glenn, Carl, or her father). And then there was the scar on her face, amongst the tan and freckles and sunburn. Admittedly, it made her look fierce - it travelled from her eyebrow, past the corner of her eye, and down her cheek, right to her chin - but it was jagged and brutal. She knew she was pretty in her own way; she was a firm believer that everyone was pretty in their own way, but she wasn't as pretty as Daisy.
Or Jennie.
Jennie was beautiful. She had thick black curls, and her complexion was stunning. Mary liked that their eyes matched - she liked brown eyes. Even though people said brown eyes were boring, she disagreed. They were deep and powerful. Jennie was far taller than Mary, as was Toby, and Mary thought about how they both had really long, skinny limbs - it reminded her of when a horse was born, and they had these long four legs and a tiny body. Jennie didn't have the stereotypical beauty that Daisy possessed, but she had the beauty that Mary believed in - that she was so incredibly unique and beautiful.