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Cali's nightmares wouldn't go away. It didn't matter how much she hope and prayed for them to disappear. They wouldn't. For days she was tortured by the same images. Cali would wake up screaming drenched in sweat. It had gotten so bad that she was starting to wake up the whole camp with her screams.
Lori had no idea how to help her daughter. Shane had suggested that maybe Cali should sleep in his tent with him but the girl's mother turned that idea down.
Shane wasn't suggesting that Cali sleep with him for sexual reasons. Did he like the idea of having her close and being able to kiss her without anyone seeing? Yes, but that wasn't the main reason he wanted her to stay with him.
He wanted Cali with him because he was worried about her. She hadn't gotten more than 2 hours of sleep in the past 5 days. He didn't need to be a doctor to know that she wasn't okay. Both the girl's physical and mental health were being affected by her lack of sleep.
Cali looked extremely pale and the bags under her eyes were huge. She had also been extremely moody recently. The lack of sleep caused her to snap out at almost everyone. Cali didn't mean to but she couldn't help it. Everyone and everything was just too much of her.
To avoid snapping at people she isolated herself. Most of the girls time was spent either in her family's tent or Shane's Jeep. Sometimes when her mother wasn't paying attention she'd sneak off into the woods. That was when she could truly be alone. Unfortunately, Shane would somehow always find her and drag her back to camp.
Shane hated the idea of Cali being alone in the woods. He knew she could protect herself but it still worried him. He wanted her to always be right where he could see her. If Shane could have it his way Cali would be by his side at all times.
"Cal why don't you come out and socialize with everyone." Lori spoke startling her daughter whose nose was buried in a book.
"You know I hate being around everyone." The teen sighed.
"You don't have a choice Cali. We need people to survive. You need to get to know everyone better and start contributing. Some people have been talking..." Her mother trailed off.
"Who? Andrea?" Cali scoffed. She had heard Andrea making comments behind her back when she thought she couldn't hear. "She's a bitch. I could care less what she has to say."
"Cali!"
"What the hell does she do around here?" She shouted standing up from the makeshift bed. "She's going to complain about me not doing anything when she does even less than me. How is that fair?"
"It's not." Lori sighed.
"I teach the kids, help with the laundry, and cook for the camp. What more is there for me to do?"
"We just think it would be better if you were a little more social. I know you help Cali and everyone appreciates it. But I think you need to stop wandering off as soon as you're done with your tasks."
"I'm sorry that I'm not in the mood to socialize." Cali said rolling her eyes. "But if that's the only reason that the people here don't like me then I don't really care."
The Grimes woman sighed knowing she was getting nowhere with her daughter. "Will you please just join everyone for dinner?"
"Whatever." She huffed dropping her book onto the bed and brushing past her mother out of the tent.
As soon as Carl saw his big sister making her way over to the fire pit his face lit up. "Cali come sit by me!" The little boy shouted excitedly.
Cali smiled to herself. No matter how shitty she felt Carl always knew how to make her laugh or smile. He was actually one of the only people besides Shane that she wasn't avoiding.
The teen hesitantly sat down between her little brother and Shane. The Walsh man smiled at the girl next to him. He was happy to see her not hiding in her tent for once. The two couldn't help but keep their eyes on each other. Cali was mesmerized by how good Shane looked in the dim lighting.
What neither one of them noticed was Lori's eyes on them from across the fire. She didn't like the way that the two were looking at each other. It made her uncomfortable. Lori was only hoping that her gut feeling was wrong.
"It's nice of you to finally join us." Andrea sarcastically said looking at the brunette. "Are you done sulking in your tent?"
"Andrea stop." Amy mumbled from beside her older sister. She gently elbowed the other blonde hoping to stop her from speaking.
"Fuck off Andrea." Cali rolled her eyes.
"Cali!" Lori shrieked. She couldn't believe her daughter would use that language. "There's kids around."
"I see you're still milking the whole situation."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Cali was angry. She didn't like how Andrea was acting like she didn't have the right to be sad. "I'm not milking anything."
"Please." The blonde scoffed rolling her eyes. "Your dad died. We get it. Everyone here's lost someone but you don't see us acting like it's the end of the world and hiding in our tents."
"Shut up!" Cali practically yelled. "You have no fucking idea how I feel. Did you have to kill your best friend? Did you have to find out on your fucking birthday that your dad was shot?"
Everyone was silent. No one knew what to say or do to calm down the situation. There were tears flowing down the teenagers face. She was basically hyperventilating.
Shane immediately stood from his seat wrapping an arm around Cali's waist. In no time he pulled her up from the seat and led her away to his tent.
The group all glanced at Andrea who scoffed before also walking off. She didn't understand why everyone babied the girl so much. They were all going through their own things. Andrea felt like the teenager just needed to suck it up and get over it. It's life.
