The next day came around and I was back to my basic flannel and jeans. A few of our group went on a run for something that had to do with the solar panels.
I sat on the front porch reading a book to make sure I still knew how to read. Plus it was Flipped by Wendelin van Deannen. My class was reading it before everything went to hell and I wanted to know the ending.
"Hey." I heard as I looked up to see Rosita.
"Hey." I smiled looking up to her. "What's up?"
"I thought we could get started on that helping thing." She said looking at me.
"Well what did you want to teach me first?" I asked as I closed the book.
"Do you know how to build a fire?" She asked as I shook my head. I mean I knew how but I've never done it and I didn't know how to get the supplies. "Then we will start with that." She smiled.
She then taught me how to do it. It wasn't that hard. You get big branch, cut a hole in it that doesn't go all the way through. You get some of the outside bark in the tree and another stick. You twist it and eventually a fire will start.
I twisted the branch and it started flowing a little bit. "Okay good now be careful when you put it in the nest or it'll burn out." Rosita said as I looked to the pile of dead grass surrounded by rocks.
I put the piece of bark on it carefully in the center. We waited for a second and then the fire started. "I did it." I smiled at it calmly proud of myself.
"Nice work. You're a fast learner." She smiled back.
"Thanks. So what do you want to learn first?" I asked looking at her as I pulled out my book. "I've got stuff about broken bones, head trauma, causing head trauma, the list goes on." I said flipping through the book.
"Causing head trauma?" She asked looking to me.
"More like knocking someone out without the possibility of them dying." I responded with a shrug.
"Have you done it before?" She asked looking at me as I flipped to the page.
"Yeah once." I nodded. "It was useful. I could show you how. It's not that hard, but we can't really practice it."
"Fair enough." She nodded once.
I began to explain how you had to elbow them in the temple with only a certain amount of force. "So it's easiest if you start with your arms even and you do both at the same time. It evens out the force exerted and keeps it minimal."
"Like this?" She asked as she did the motion I just showed her.
"Yeah." I smiled lightly. "They'll be out for up to 30 minutes but they usually wake up around 5-10. It's enough to tie them up and keep them out of the way." I nodded once.
"That's pretty cool." She nodded once. "Thanks for the help." She smiled lightly to me.
"Thank you too. Maybe I could copy my book for you. You can teach me as we go and you can already have all the info." I shrugged lightly.
"Really?" I nodded as she had her arms crossed lightly.
"Just find me a book and a pen. I'll do it for you." I smiled.
"Thanks Lyla Rose." She smiled as I smiled back.
I put my book into my back pocket and I saw the van come back in. I hoped they were all there. Glenn got out and he started yelling.
"Help! Someone help us!" He yelled as I quickly ran over.
"What happened?" I asked quickly.
"Tara. She hit her head really bad. They have a surgeon here. Can you find him?" Glenn asked as I nodded quickly. I heard he was Jessie's husband. I went to there house.
I knocked the door loudly and a man answered. "You're the doctor?" I asked quickly. "Someone's hurt." I said without waiting for him to answer. He ran out closing the door behind him and headed to Tara.
"What about the others?" I asked Glenn.
"Noah and Aiden didn't make it. Nicholas- he-" Glenn started starting to get upset.
"Don't worry." I said looking at him. "Deanna will take care of it. She's talking to him now." I said as I pointed to them as they walked into Deana's house. He nodded as they moved Tara to inside a room.
I took a breath and realized what happened. Noah. He didn't make it. He was good.
It's always the good ones.
I walked to the room where they had Tara. Everyone was waiting outside. Eugene and Rosita looked the most nervous.
Eugene was with them so he must've saw it happen. I didn't want to ask because I figured it was touchy. After a while I decided to just head back to the house.
I saw Glenn and Rick talking and I walked inside. I didn't want to intrude. I knew they were talking about what happened out there. I headed up to the room and saw Carl.
"What have you been up to?" I asked looking at him.
"I've been here most the day. Did you hear what happened?" He asked looking at me.
"Yeah I did." I sighed lightly. "It sucks that no matter how close we are to being safe, we never really are." I said laying on my bed.
"We just have to try our best to make it. That's what everyone should be doing." He answered as I nodded.
"Yeah." I sighed lightly. It still sucked though that the world was so unsafe. I went to sleep as best I could. I wasn't sure what we would be doing the next day but I hoped it was better than it was today.
---------
The next day came around and I ate some breakfast that Carol made with Carl, Rick, and Michonne. Everyone else was either busy or still in bed.
"You two should start school soon." Michonne said looking at us.
"School?" I asked with a bit of a disgusted look.
"Yes school." Michonne nodded.
"But we don't need all of that now a days. We might be in a better place now but there isn't a reason why we need school." Carl explained not wanting to go there either.
"But you need to know things. You'll be the ones to grow up. You'll need to remember our history and you'll definitely need to know English and Math." Rick explained looking at us.
"But..." I sighed knowing there was no way to win.
"Alright then." Michonne smiled. "You start today."
"Today?" Carl and I said in unison. I sighed looking at Carl as he looked back. I went back to eating.
"When your done eating get cleaned up. Your classes start at 1." Michonne said looking to us. "We'll be back later." She added before they left.
"The one thing I liked about all this was that I didn't have to go to school." I looked to him.
"Well at least we don't have to get up early." He shrugged lightly. It didn't take long before the time went by. We saw Ron and he walked us to the school.
It was the five of us. Me, Carl, Ron, Enid, and Mikey all in this small garage with this woman in front who I assumed was the teacher.
"So we have new arrivals today." She smiled to Carl and I. "I'm Ms. Smith your teacher. What's the last grade you two took?"
"Sixth grade." I said looking to the woman. Carl nodded in agreement.
"So since the beginning?" She asked as we nodded. "What kind of school?"
"I went to a Christian school. It was college prep." I answered looking at her.
"I went to public school." Carl shrugged lightly.
"So you might be a little more advanced but that's not a problem. We will get you both caught up." She said with a smile on her face. "What's your names again?"
"I'm Carl." Carl said looking to her.
"Lyla Rose." I plastered on a small fake smile.
"Alright well, Carl, Lyla Rose, go ahead and have a seat. We are doing some math today so if you don't understand I can help you after the lesson." She said looking to us. We sat down at a table with two chairs.
"The one thing I didn't want to do." I sighed lightly as Carl chuckled. There were two more tables to our right. Enid sat next to me and Ron by her and Mikey was at a table by himself.
She went on to teach us Geometry. We had done some of it I think before but it was complicated looking. I still understood it. I guess the perk of college prep school is that you learn things past your age level. Also I was really good at Math. That's why I hated it because I'd always get picked on for knowing it.
"So who knows the answer?" The teacher asked as no one raised there hands. "Come on. Anyone?" She asked as she crossed her arms. I raised my hand barely. "Lyla Rose?"
"It's 4 1/4." I said looking at her.
"Good job." She smiled to me. "Is Math your favorite subject?"
"No. My favorite subject was always lunch." I said seriously to her. It was. I liked not schooling, if that was even a word.
"I see." She nodded. "Well we will do another and someone else needs to answer." She said before turning around. Enid looked at me. I was ready for a snarky comment but instead she handed me a piece of paper.
I opened it up and looked at it.
I'm going out after class. You guys coming?
I looked to Carl who nodded and I nodded too. She pursed her lips and nodded slightly looking back to the teacher who asked the next question.
Not long after we were finally done. Carl didn't really get it but I told the teacher I'd explain everything to him.
We left and Carl and I headed to were Enid left the last time, after he grabbed his hat of course. I already had my bag with me. It always had everything I needed since I refused to empty it.
She showed up and we eventually made it out. It was harder to do now since people were usually on watch so we had to go fast.
We got out and Enid started running. We followed after. She ran for a while and we followed until we saw a walker. We hid behind a tree and she threw a timer.
"Why don't you just kill it?" I asked looking at her.
"This is more fun." She replied as the walker looked at the timer and we ran away.
We sat at a couple of fallen logs. Carl next to me and Enid on her own. Enid smiled. I hadn't seen her do that before. "We're supposed to be out here. We're supposed to deal with this." She said looking at the trees.
"Lyla said you were scared of us. How come?" Carl asked looking at her.
"I don't know." She shrugged lightly.
"Because we've been out here?" I asked looking at her. She shrugged and pulled out a knife. "That's a nice knife. Where'd you get it?"
"It was my mom's." She said picking at a log.
"Mine were my dad's." I said looking to her.
"What happened to you? I mean before you got to Alexandria?" Carl asked looking to her.
"Does it matter?" She asked looking at him.
"It does. It always does but you don't have to tell us now." I explained.
"We've both been through a lot too. Lost a lot." I sighed lightly. "Thanks for inviting us to come."
"I was kind of just inviting you to be honest, but yeah, you're welcome." She nodded lightly.
"What did I do?" Carl asked defensively before we heard groaning. "We should go. It sounds like a lot."
"Can you climb trees?" I asked looking to them. Enid nodded and quickly got up one. Carl hadn't ever done it.
"In there. They won't see you." Enid said as she pointed to a tree and he got inside. I quickly went up the one he was in, just in case he needed help.
Enid was right next to me in the tree to my left. "Why just me?" I asked quietly.
"It's been a while since I had a girl friend." She said quietly. I smiled. It was exactly what I had thought. I nodded in agreement as we watched the walkers go by. There were about five in a bunch but there were more growling from the other direction, probably following each other.
We got down and I got Carl. I motioned for him to follow and we all ran back to Alexandria. It wasn't safe since there were so many.
We got inside and everyone was yelling. We quickly headed to the noise.
There was a lot of punching and a lot of blood.