It's A Fine Life

[ambrose]

Although autumn was slowly approaching, it was still warm as if it was only the middle of summer. That pleased Carl, though. He was so bored that he decided he would explore the little woods that the team decided to camp in. Last night, his group had placed tin cans at various locations around the campsite and the pond nearby, after checking to make sure the woods and pond was safe. Carl hadn’t really been outside in such a long time, at least to have some fun. The pond was some ways away from the campsite but it wasn’t too far to go by himself. He was a fast runner, too. If something happened, he could outrun the zombies. But then again, he wouldn’t really want to attract them to the campsite where the others could be harmed.

He leaned against a thick, tall tree, just thinking for a moment as he gazed at the pond. The weather was nice, and promising. The water was inviting. The campsite wasn’t too far away, nor was it too close as a mischievous thought came into his head. A mischievous grin made its way onto his face as he glanced back and forth looking to see if he had any foreboding company. There wasn’t anyone. He pulled off his shirt and started to approach the edge of the water, and then stopped there. He had dropped his shirt by the tree, and looked back to see if it was missing. It was still there, fortunately. Then quickly, he kicked off his loose shoes and pulled down his lower wear, now standing butt naked at the shore.

Without even hesitating a moment, he darted into the water. It was cool to the touch, but it was a good feeling. His father and he had only gone skinny-dipping once, and his mother had never known about it. It was a long time ago, so he was a little surprised. He had always been told that mothers knew everything. Perhaps she did know and he just didn’t know it. He started to dive under the water, and popped back up, shaking his head as he wiped excess water off his face. Then he dove under again and just basically swam around for a few minutes before his head appeared above the surface again, the boy shaking his hair to let out excess water back into its home; the pond. The water was starting to warm up to his body now, so he was getting used to it. He looked back to make sure his clothes were perfectly safe and to make sure he was still alone.

[Emmy Robin]

OOC: I was poked so here I am! Let the games begin!))

Women. Why did they always insist on talking? Andrea and Lori were quiet ones but they had the gift of gab, one Emmy seemed to lack. Vanessa LOVED to talk about just about everything. Menial things. Little things that didn't matter in the grand scale of things. Pointless conversation. Little Eliza chattered on and on and if it wasn't for the fact that she was an adorable child Emmy would have exploded announcing to the world that she didn't want to play house nor did she want to portray toe family dog. Tea parties were never her thing, not even as a little girl. There was no escaping the gabbing. Heck, even the abused house wife Carol had seemed to take to conversation.

The men were a completely different animal entirely, and one that Emmy could handle far better due to her past as a writer (a field predominantly male). She could hold her own and that carried over to her life here. She could laugh, make raunchy jokes, wrestle and fight, and heck she could banter with the best of them. But it ended there because last night one of the older men from her group, Alex, had actually asked a rather personal question about her family.. Actually he just asked the following: "What about your family?" It was a simple enough question but Emmy took it to heart and didn't respond. She didn't want to tell her story. It didn't matter. She doubted anyone would care and she certainly didn't want them to pretend to. Even then she just swallowed and smiled. Forced a fascade that she just felt like being quiet. They'd have no choice but to believe it

Emmy managed well. She could be a miserable liar but when it came to listening and responding she always gave it her all. No one was the wiser to her fighting the unseen forces within her of wanting to explode into a million tiny little pieces. Maybe the hurt would be gone if that had happened. Wishful thinking...

Making her way down toward the pond, a large one at that she looked down at her converse clad feet. God she really needed a new pair... With a bit of a sigh she looked up and stopped in her tracks. A pile of clothes. A child's clothes. A look she recognized. Upon hearing he splashing her glance quickly focused onto the body of water and she spotted him: Carl.

Without thinking she gave him a dopey sort of wave only to have the realization hit and her eyes widened with panic as her entire body went rigid. "Oh god!" She scrambled about clumsily within the same five foot radius, her legs wobbling she brought up her arms to shield her eyes. "You're naked aren't you?! Oh god... Uh... Uh.... I'll just go and you can go about your uh... business... Yeah you do that!" She went on nervously, blindly navigating her way around the beach and nearly falling down.

"Oh geeze. Oh geeze." Emmy murmured over and over again to herself. How come she kept getting into these messes?

[ambrose]

It wasn’t but only a few minutes later when he realized he wasn’t alone any more. He turned around and saw a familiar woman approaching, and immediately bent his knees to lower himself far enough in the water, enough for the water to raise to his neck just below his chin. For a moment, it looked like the woman wasn’t aware of him, but then he saw her stop, look at his clothes, and he gulped. He watched awkwardly as she raised her hand up following the trail of clothes until her eyes were laying on him. He nearly shivered just from the look, and his face was starting to turn a bright red color.

By instinct, his hands went to cover his private area, although it was already well hidden in the dark water. He kept his eyes glued on her as she started to freak out. He solemnly nodded when asked if he was naked, but dared not to say anything. But then she had basically started to approach the shore. For a brief second, only a second, he handed her an icy glare. A very icy glare at that, for he was still the untrusting child that had completely misunderstood the woman the other day. But he was also too nervous, and if he could scream, he would. But his lips had sunken into the water by now, so only the upper half of his face was visible now. However, he did gulp, with his mouth shut tight in embarrassment.

It was not really funny. A grown woman was staggering around like a drunken fool on the shore, while he was laying low nude and blushing red. He couldn’t stand up, he couldn’t move in fear she would see a little something. He was rooted to the mud at the bottom of the pond, so to speak. The only movement he was making was the slight swaying motion the water around him were making him do. The boy had a crush on this particular woman, he had finally admitted it to himself a few nights ago, but he never told anyone else, not even his own parents. He watched as the woman nearly fell down and could tell from the movement of her lips that she was muttering. Out of concern and instinct, he immediately rushed up the water to try and help her up.

But by the time he was ankle-deep in the water, he realized just what he had done. His face was now as red as the sun on a beautiful, clear sunset, and his hands had immediately found that special place and covered it. He slowly started to back up into the water until he was at least waist-deep, and glared at her. “You meant to do that on purpose, did you? Fall down so I would be all worried and come to help you.” He shook his head as if to shame her, and then he had an idea. It was probably a stupid idea, but it was so mischievous he couldn’t just let it slide. “Ever skinny-dip before? It’s actually really neat. I won’t tell anyone you were stalking me if you join me." It would not be a good idea, it wouldn't be at all, what with his crush and her not even being related. But most of the group were still sleeping, with a few people running back and forth preparing breakfast and whatnot. They would be too preoccupied.

[Emmy Robin]

"Oh god. Oh god. Why couldn't I just bump into a Walker. That would have been so much better." She murmured to no one in particular, more so herself, as her hands blindly felt about the sand and little stones. She wasn't sure what she was hoping to find but it sure as hell wasn't what she ended up getting. For as soon as she even dared to open her eyes to peer through her hands her eyes widened when she was met with far more of the little boy than she had ever intended on seeing.

"CHRIST!" Emmy yelped, nearly doing a backwards sommersault as though she had been slapped. Both of her hands instinctively shot up to cover her eyes and she grimmaced. At the moment she wasn't sure if she felt guilty, horrified, or just plain sick. In the end it was probably all three. "I am so so sorry." She went on, emphasizing her deepest apologies though they were more so for herself than for the little boy's sake. "That's uh... Oh my god.. I could go to jail. Like if there was a jail, I'd send myself there. Ugh..." Cursing under her breath she raised to her own two feet doing her best not to even look at the water.

"Alright. Hold on. Just hold on. Breathe. Breathe." She said aloud doing her damndest to focus her gaze on the ground as her eyes shakily traced about until landing on Carl's clothing. Bending down she quickly scooped the items up. "You uh... You just stay there and I'll come to you. Please god just stay there for the sake of my retinas." And with that she cringed, as if trying to provide a veil for her eyes because she had to look up and began to step toward the water.

"I'm going to come to you. Just chill out for a hot second." Emmy explained leaning down she rolled up her jeans with her free fingers and then dared to step into the water as far as she could without getting the edges of her rolled up jeans completely soaked (she'd have to wear them all day afterall!). When she deemed the distance close enough she roughly chucked the items at the boy. "There." Hopefully, he would catch them. "Now... I have to go." She turned around to wade back to shore but not before uttering: "And please god don't ask me where because I'll have to lie and make some place up." And with that she made her way back toward the shore.

Once back on dry land she picked up her socks and shoes shoving them on not even bothering to lace her converse. That's when she froze and smirked, her back to poor Carl she called out: "And don't think that I didn't hear you say you were worried! But no amount of worry will ever get me to take my shirt off." And it was true. Emmy, like most females, had body image issues... Even when the world was all but destroyed. Some things never changed. And besides... That was just wrong!

[ambrose]

Oh, no. She saw him. Not only that, but she saw it. Accidentally, of course, but he wasn’t very fond of that particular feeling he was having right now. The kind of feeling where he just wanted to drown himself and die away into nothingness. But it wouldn’t happen, she would see to it that he stayed alive, whether he liked it or not. It didn’t look like she was going to leave, either. In fact, she was picking up his clothes. Not knowing what she was up to, he gasped and asked immediately, “What the heck are you up to? Don’t steal my clothes!” He muttered, keeping his arms and hands down and shivering a little. It felt cold now, too cold for him to even care that he was having fun in the first place. Well, he was having fun until she had to come along and spot him.

He rolled his eyes at her. “Oh, stop freaking out,” he could see what she was saying, at least bits of it, and muttered under his breath, “You ain’t standing butt naked in front of a grown lady. I should be the one freaking out, not you.” He glared at her, and then she threw the clothes at him. “Hey! I didn’t want them wet! Now Mom’s gonna kill me!” He growled at her as he immediately snatched them up and tossed them back on the shore, but they hadn’t been saved in time. Even his own boxer shorts were too soaked now. It would probably seem logical, though, if anyone asked him if he went swimming. Then he wouldn’t have to tell anyone he was skinny-dipping. He could imagine just how embarrassing it would be if Eliza knew. The horror of it went straight to his head as he lowered himself even further into the water.

Something about him being worried, she had said just now. But he only glared at her, although her back was turned to him. “Bitch,” he muttered under his breath as he started to sway back away into the deeper part of the water. One way or another, naked or not, he was going to get her soaking wet as a way of having revenge. He remembered this one time when Shane had actually tried to take him skinny-dipping, but because of his mother he was too worried about it and refused to even put a toe in the water. But that was another story for later. Right now, a plan was slowly forming in his mind, and then he actually lost his balance. It wasn’t on purpose, he had just basically lost footing, and not being prepared for it, started to flail around in fright. He tried to bob up by flapping his arms violently, but it wasn’t doing much good. He tried to call out for her to help, but water poured like a waterfall into his mouth whenever he opened it, drowning out his voice and causing him to cough. If the young woman didn’t help right away, she would most likely notice something was wrong when he wouldn’t appear above the surface much longer, now that he would be unconscious.

[Emmy Robin]

"Hey back off. It's not like this is a regular occurence for me." Emmy defended herself, still using her arm to block her line of vision. "I never even saw my little brother naked. It's not like this is the usual thing for me. This isn't a part of my daily routine so take a chill pill." She rattled the words off all at once as she cringed, doing her absolute best not to look and found that she was frozen in place even more so than if she had spotted a Walker, at least in that scenario she could have at least fought back. Not here. That wasn't even an option. There weren't many.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice about jumping into anything other than a bathtub naked!" She scolded, still trying to defend her actions. Of course bathtubs were a luxury nowadays, with all that was going on, but even so that was the best comeback she could come up with. She then decided just to keep her eyes closed that way she couldn't see anything. Only darkness. That, ironically, would be safe in this particular situation. Only... It wasn't...

It was quiet. Too quiet. All she could hear was the breeze. Something wasn't right. She fought the urge to open her eyes however. The kid was playing a trick, perhaps being stubborn, either way he was trying to get her into trouble. But this was too long of a time frame for trouble. Something was up. With much hesitance she finally allowed her eyes to open. At first she didn't see anything... Just water. The horizon. Nothing out of the ordinary... Except... Where was the boy?

"Kid?" She called out, unsurely at first. Nothing. "Kid?!" A bit louder with the same result. "Carl?" That was when she saw his head pop up followed by flailing arms. Splashing. Her chocolate brown eyes widened in horror. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. Her mind swirled with thoughts and she kicked off her shoes and socks stumbling the short distance to the edge of the shore. She was no lifeguard. She could swim but one of her younger sisters had been a lifeguard she herself just swam for sport. Oh lord, hopefully this kid wouldn't need CPR. Then again that was probably the least of her worries at the present moment.

"I can never just walk away." She murmured to herself as she waded quickly into the water with all of her clothes on. "I always have to get involved." She continued going on to herself in spite of why she always had to form connections with people even when she should have just been looking out for her own hyde. "Why couldn't I just get a dog?" Was her final thought before fully submersing into the water an swimming out toward Carl.

Emmy had always had this habit of keeping her eyes open under water, even in chlorinated pools. Her yes skimmed the murky water for any sign. Finally her head poked up as she took a gasp of air. He was stil flailing and she was thankful that she wouldn't have to go down deep where it was no doubt cold. Reaching out with her hand she grabbed his cold arm and began the difficult tread of lugging him back toward shore. She was very grateful when she came to a point where her feet could touch and then proceeded, with all of her might and a grunt, to hoist Carl up as best she could befoe plopping him down on his back on shore.

Standing, out of breath, and less than amused she looked down at him with narrowed eyes. "This.... Is why.... We don't... Have nice... THINGS!" She panted, scolding him with a pointed finger before turning away and clutching her fists in frusteration, needing a moment to herself.

[ambrose]

Although he was perfectly conscious when she had dragged him out of the water, his eyes remained shut, his mouth shut, his body limp. He was pretending to be very unconscious, only for a mischievous reason. The sand under his back was a little warm but he didn’t like sand sticking to his skin when he wasn’t playing in it. He could hear the woman panting next to her, but maintained his limp pose so long it would be convincing. Why did he have to have this stupid crush on a stupid woman of all women? She was pretty, though, with beautiful lips. Besides, he had never really kissed anyone before, or so to speak. It wouldn’t exactly be a kiss, but it was similar.

But suddenly, unbeknownst to him, one of his parents had been looking for him. That part was Rick Grimes, who had wanted the boy to help him fetch some firewood. Someone had apparently seen him heading for the pond and told the man, and now his father was slowly approaching the pond only to see his naked son laying limp on the shore and the woman in very soaked clothes sitting next to him. He blinked, at first confused, but then realized that something wasn’t right. Quickly, without warning, he had run up to Carl’s side and dropped down to his knees. His hands immediately placed themselves on his chest, and then his gruffly lips lowered themselves to the boy’s own.

The boy’s eyes immediately shot wide open. He was now mentally and unfortunately scarred for life. This was way worse than Emmy, a crush of his, seeing him naked. It would be way worse than his own mother seeing him naked. Even then, Eliza seeing him naked was worse off than these two. His father was giving him CPR, yes, but his lips were in the wrong place! They weren’t even supposed to be there! Where the heck did his father come from? Not able to speak when he mumbled a scream, he pushed his father away and sat up immediately, trying to catch his breath. “Dude! I was trying to get her to kiss me - … Oops.”

But without warning, he almost puked. “Gosh, Dad, you know men don’t do that! I mean, oh, gosh, I’m going to be horrified of you for the rest of my -” “You’re grounded.” “What? But, but, but, Daddy, she pushed me into the water! She was trying… um, um, um, she saw me naked! She was stalking me! I mean, oh, c’mon!” Rick shook his head while the boy started to stammer and stutter, not able to make up even complete words. When Carl realized he couldn’t convince his father to give him a break, he slowly turned his head and glared so coldly at Emmy, it should send a chill down her spine. "Get going," Rick said sharply. "But I need to get my -" He was rudely interrupted. "Nope, you wanted to be naked, you're going to stay naked all day. You also tried to pull this crap." The poor boy's eyes widened.

[Emmy Robin]

Emmy didn't really have time to register that Carl was unconscious or even that he was faking it. That required time. And though it only required the time of a precious few seconds it was a few seconds that Emmy didn't even have for who appeared but the boy's father and the appointed group leader Rick Grimes. And before Emmy could explain or say anything the concerned father was down on his knees beginning the start of CPR on his boy. Luckily Carl wasn't actually not breathing for he soon sprouted up into a sitting up position wide eyed and accusatory. Though the things he was shouting certainly caught the young woman by surprise.

"You know me Rick. Always trying to push kids into water and see them naked." She said dryly and just seriously enough that the angered Rick, who was actually relieved that his son wasn't in harm's way, cast a little closed mouth smile her direction. Nowadays you had to find the silver lining around every cloud even if it was a poorly construded, sarcastic joke and Emmy Robin was always full of those.

"You need to get that boy something to do besides harassing me. A puppy maybe. Or tie him to a tree like a puppy. Something." Grumbling something to herself she brought her hands to wring out her wet shirt. Now she'd have to walk like this back to the camp site, explain what had happened, and find a change of clothes... None of which she was actually looking forward to.

"Sorry about Carl." He offered to the woman apologetically. He was still a gentleman after all.

"Yeah, yeah. Me too." Was all the young woman offered as she shrugged her shoulders and trudged past the two. Moving past Carl she briefly cast her gaze down upon him in a very serious, tongue in cheek manner before continuing on her way off of the shore. So much for a relaxing day.

[ambrose]

While he was glaring at the woman, he could see that she was talking to his father, and so he turned his head back and forth trying to make out as much of their conversation as they could. But his mind immediately erased everything but the fact that his father had just told him that he was grounded. What made it worse was the day’s worth of embarrassing punishment, to be naked in front of everyone of all day. Even in front of his mother. Oh, and especially in front of Eliza. Oh, no, he didn’t want that, at all. He wasn’t really athletic, was he? He was pretty skinny but he didn’t consider himself pretty decent. Heck, he wasn’t decent right now, after all.

“Please…” he started to whimper, attempting to pull the puppy’s face when the woman started to leave, “I don’t want to be naked all day. I can still be ground-.” He stared at his father when the man had completely interrupted him. “No. You have to learn your lesson. I don’t know why you were exactly naked, you have a pair of swim shorts that you could wear, and it would’ve taken you just five minutes of your time to change into them. But instead, with everyone so close they could see you and consider your parents a bad example for letting you run around naked at your age, you brought this upon yourself, young man. Anyway, this woman’s too old for you.”

He blinked, his face already bright red just from the earlier humiliation, everything. “I’m going to be scarred for -” But once again the man interrupted as he started to pick up his son’s articles of clothing. “No, son, no. A punishment is a punishment.” “But Dad -” “Two days!” “But -” “Three!” The boy snapped his mouth shut immediately. He wasn’t really pleased with his father’s method of punishing him, but hopefully his mother could convince her. Unfortunately, when they returned to the camp with a few people wondering why the boy wasn’t wearing anything, their parents had a little conversation about the happenings of the morning, and next thing Carl knew, he was walking around the campsite carrying firewood with a red butt. Two punishments in one day, and they would both last too long. He wasn’t at all happy.

After a few giggling bouts from those who noticed and a few attempts to look away so that he wouldn’t scar them for life, he was getting even more upset. His father could sense that, and for a few minutes, his parents were whispering among themselves. But Carl was more preoccupied with those who were being uncomfortable with his being nude. Big deal, he was the one who was being humiliated, utterly, in front of everyone. Even those he didn’t like a lot were staring at him and teasing him about it. And Shane was shaking his head, as if the boy should’ve been ashamed of himself. Now he really hated Shane for that. But then his father had come up and tapped the boy on his shoulder. The boy quickly whipped his head around to look up sternly at the man.

“Carl,” the man said with a pointed finger when he saw the attitude in his son’s eyes. “Drop that attitude or I will make it a whole week.” Now Carl knew he wouldn’t be able to stand that. He gulped quickly as he placed down the firewood into a container, since they felt they would probably need it again in case they found another spot to camp out at. “I will make you a deal, I will shorten the punishment if you go and apologize to Emmy, right now.” Carl started to protest, but then he knew he needed to do it. Whenever his father made a deal, he kept his word. Just like coming back to them. Disappointed, he muttered, “Okay…” before departing for the woman. He was looking for her high and low.

When he found her, he was looking down at the ground ashamedly. He was hiding behind a tree as well so that she wouldn’t really have to see all of him, and he muttered softly at first a short apology. But when he realized he couldn’t even hear it, he was disappointed since it meant he would have to repeat it again. Nervously, he allowed his toe to start drawing lines in the dirt as he muttered a little bit louder. “I’m sorry I lied and tried to get you to kiss me and all.” He looked across the ground to the side, as if he was watching nature. But really, to be honest, he just wanted to get this over with. “I just really like… Um, never mind.” He almost admitted his crush! It would be too humiliating! She already knew he had a crush on Eliza but doubted that the girl knew it herself, and for her to know he had a crush on her as well wouldn’t be a pleasant thing for him.

[Emmy Robin]

When Carl finally found Emmy she had been seated on the steps of Dale's RV. She had originally been listening to one of the old man's stories, Andrea had been close by but then the two departed to have another one of their one on one talks. Those were becoming more and more frequent Emmy had noticed but for once kept tongue in cheek and didn't comment on it. By the time Carl had poked his head bashfully around the tree she was by herself flipping through a book which was one of the many things she carried in her messenger bag along with a few 'clean' sets of clothes one of which she was sporting now though her hair was still wet (though up in a ponytail).

Instantly upon hearing Carl's voice she brought the book up and held it protectively in front of her eyes. She had purposely avoided the naked boy all day if only for the sake of not being uncomfortable. A lot of good that did now. "You're dad's making you apologize huh?" Came her response from behind the safe cover of the small book. Emmy had three younger siblings growing up she knew the tone of voice and what led to it rather well, even so she held no grudge over the poor boy because of it. There were much more important things going on in the world to worry about.

"It's fine." She sighed looking down at her lap. And what was that? It was the hint of a smile. Shaking her head she unzipped her hoodie and tossed it in Carl's direction where it landed right in front of him. Since it was made for an adult, though a short one, it would go to just about Carl's knees which would provide enough cover for the moment though there was some hesitation. "It's either wear that or walk back naked. Either way one of us loses. I'm sure you'd rather it be me." She gave a soft laugh, barely audible as she shifted in her seated position on the steps.

More than anything she wished that Jeremy was here. Usually Emmy was very good with kids but with Carl, for some reason, she clashed. Jeremy was always really good at evening her out. He was a friend. A true one and always believed in the best when it came to her. She needed that now. She needed someone that would listen to her for once. She needed for Jeremy to be alright. But it wasn't likely.

"I promise I won't look." She offered, softening somewhat before bowing her head and shielding her eyes just to make the kid feel better about the whole thing.

[ambrose]

He wasn’t able to understand most of what she was saying, so he only shrugged in response at all. He quickly ducked behind the tree when she tossed something his way. As he peeked out from behind the tall natural monument, he saw that she had thrown him a jacket large enough to cover him from shoulders to knees. He waited for the woman to shield her eyes as promised, then bent down, scooped up the jacket immediately, and donned it on without even a second’s notice. He was too happy to finally have a sense of privacy, so to speak, and it was getting a little chilly now.

When he was done zipping it up and all, he hesitated before approaching the woman. “Sorry again,” he said under his breath as he looked down at her and then at the book, wondering what she was reading. But he didn’t really care about it that much. He was more worried about what his parents would say with his wearing the jacket when they hadn’t really told him that he could put anything on yet. Hopefully, Emmy could explain to them that he apologized and maybe convince him that he didn’t need to be naked anymore. She probably understood just how badly embarrassed the poor boy was when Sophia saw him. The boy had actually almost puked just because of how he was feeling about that.

He sighed heavily as he simply sat down on the grass, although he didn’t like how it was so itchy on his buttocks. He rose just a little quick enough to tuck the jacket underneath himself before sitting down again. “Sorry ‘bout messing up your jacket, too,” he said quickly, wondering if she was even pleased with his wearing it like he was. But she had given it to him for his own security, his own want of privacy, and it was only temporary. In fact, he would be more than willing to wash the jacket before he would hand it back to her. “I probably look like an Eskimo in the totally wrong place.” He smirked, trying to joke around at least to make himself feel better.

[Emmy Robin]

Brown eyes only peeked out from beyond the book she had been holding when the boy came out from behind the tree covered for the most part in her zip up hoodie. Well that would be one thing she wouldn't be sporting until she at least gave it a decent soak in the nearby pond, preferably as soon as possible. It wasn't a judgement on Carl just merely her hesitancy to sport anything that had anyone's junk up in it. The only time this rule didn't apply was for boxers. For some reason Emmy could handle wearing someone's boxers if only for a laugh. Numerous times in her apartment back in New York City she had emerged into the common room sporting Jeremy's boxers if only just for a laugh. She missed those simple things nowadays. Would they ever be like that again?

The boy sat across from her on the grass. She wondered if he purposely wanted to maintain distance away from her. Oh well, not like she would complain. "Yeah well, just about everything else is messed up these days, why not my hoodie?" There was that wit again however today it lacked the sarcastic edge that it usually held. No, the last few days, heck weeks, had been far more trying than anything she had ever experience and frankly she just lacked the energy anymore. She wasn't at the point of giving up though... No, that day hadn't yet arrived.

At Carl's joke she actually gave a hint of a smile which was rare but she was just worn out and honestly still a bit cold from the earlier unantacipated swim. The fact that she no longer had her hoodie wasn't really helping either. "Trust me Carl everywhere you go in this new world we've got shaping up you're out of place. I bet on that." Shaking her head she picked up the book and placed it right smack dab in the middle of her lap.

"So... You apologized... You did what your dad told you to.." Leaning forward she rested her arms over the cover like a makeshift tiny table. "So shouldn't you be on your way?" Emmy wasn't stupid, quite the opposite in fact, she was well aware of how much Carl didn't like her at least that's what he portrayed on the outside which was all Emmy could make a prediction on.

[ambrose]

He only shrugged at the woman in response. He wasn’t sure at the moment what he could really do, other than to actually get up and get going. He knew she had a point, there was a lot of things wrong with the world. Everything was truly messed up. It wasn’t really home anymore to the humans, it was now feeding grounds to the walkers. There wasn’t any safe places, although his parents, or at least some of the adults, would consider a place like this campsite safe. But it was too out in the open. Sure, they could run, but the walkers could smell them and they wouldn’t know about the invasion until it would hit them right there and then.

He glanced down at the book but said nothing of it. He wasn’t really interested in it anyway. He wasn’t a big fan of reading books. He glanced upwards to the woman’s face just as she spoke, and shrugged once again as he started to stand up. He wasn’t sure at this moment where he should give her back the jacket or wear it back to the campsite. But then as he turned around after handing a slight wave at the young woman, he saw that his father was approaching them. He stood still for a moment, but as his father reached up, he only smiled at the boy and rubbed his head. “I take it you apologized to her, son?” Carl nodded timidly, and then was given the okay to go and get dressed. Gladly, he darted off for his tent where his preciously treasured clothes would be waiting for him, neatly folded in a pile and suited for the night and early morning.

When he got dressed, he decided he would join Sophia and some of the gang for dinner. He was hoping, though, that no one would pick on him or treat him unwisely. He gave out a heavy sigh but approached the group, and then sat down by Sophia’s size. His face was light pink, but when asked why, he only passed it off as being a little tired. It would be understandable, after all, what with his having gone back and forth carrying firewood.

[Wake Up Admin]

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