The sun was the thing that woke you up, rather than it being an actual person. You sat up, noticing that during the night you must of turned over a few times. If you knew yourself well, that's what happened. You looked over at the other bed, Mitch was still asleep, his face was towards you this time. He looked so relaxed and peaceful. You smile and sit up, trying to make the bed not creek as much and wake him up. You stand up and stretch, then going to your bag to dig through clothes to wear. You settled on a black sleeveless (you cut the sleeves off of it when you got too hot one day) turtleneck and black jeans that are slightly too big. Your hoodie you slept in was dirty and you had no choice but to wear it for the night. Wasn't like you had that many clothes. Maybe you'll ask to borrow some from someone later. You suppose a day or four wearing the outfit you picked out would be fine. You've done it before. There was no rush while changing since Mitch was asleep. You grab your hunting boots and put them on right after you finished changing.

You leave the room quietly, closing the door behind you while ruffling your hair into a messy style you think looks good since you can't exactly style it with an iron or anything. And you for one, didn't have a mirror so you couldn't really see the style.

You made your way outside, noticing not many people were outside at the moment. Willy was the only one that was in your sight at the moment. He was up on the watch tower, looking over the gate. "What's going on Will?" You call up to him. He turns around and looks down. "The new people and a few of us left a bit ago! Aasim, Violet, Brody, and Louis!" You cross your arms, "Why?" He makes a hand motion and sighs when you don't get it. "Marlon had them go on a food run. Since we're running out. It'll just be the rest of us for now!" You nod, "Mind if I join you?" Willy just shrugs and motions to the ladder.

You climb up and sit next to him. "I got a few crayons. We could draw something on the wood here?" You smile at him, "Who'll know?" He snickers and hands you a red crayon while he kept a yellow one. You both take a few minutes to randomly doodle things, laughing at the immature jokes and things you guys doodled. "So, how are ya?" You look at the kid. "Oh I'm fine! AJ talks to me and Tenn, I think we're all friends?" You nod, "What do you think of Clementine?" Willy pauses for a second and then continues, "Shes nice, doesn't spend much time with me though since there's Violet, Louis, Marlon, anyone older than me. I'm just glad I have two people near my age." There is only three of those kids, everyone else is a lot older, that includes you.

"Trust me, I'm happy you found your people. They seem to like your crazy ass." Willy chuckles, "And you're lucky the group likes yours, that includes me." He adds the end after a second. "Your a cool dude! I like your company." You laugh a bit, "Flattering, I enjoy your presence too. Your the only one I'm extremely immature with."

Eventually a door shutting got your attention. You both hid the crayons in your pockets and turned your gazes from the wood floor to the school door.

"Having fun without me?" Mitch calls out, walking over to the tower. "Wanna join?" Willy asks holding up a green crayon. "Nah I'm good, I'd rather not get yelled at by Ruby or scolded by Marlon." Willy rolls his eyes, "You're so boring!" Mitch just ignores it. He looks like he's thinking about something not too long after, "I almost just tried a your mom joke on you." He states as Willy grins, "Luckily that doesn't work on me! Or you! Or anyone here! Except for AJ I guess since Clem acts like his mom." You thumbs up to him in agreement.

"Well uh. I'm bored." Mitch shrugs, "Anything y'all want to do other than color profanities on the tower?" Willy acts like he's deep in thought for a minute, "Nah!" He goes back to drawing." Mitch then directs his attention to you. "Hmm?" You think for a minute, "Figure it out on the way?" Mitch nods at your suggestion. "I'll see you later Willy, thanks for keeping me busy for a while." Willy nods and waves bye to you then returns to drawing. You put the crayon down next to him and climb down.

Unfortunately though, you miss the last step down and fall onto the ground hitting your head hard. "Fuuuuuuuuuck.." You groan grabbing your head as it aches in pain. Mitch kneels by you while Willy looks down from the tower. You don't feel as embarrassed as you would've if everyone was there. "You good?" Mitch asks sitting on both his legs and cradles the back of your head and puts it on his thigh to keep it off the ground. He holds up two fingers in front of your face, "How many fingers am I holding?" You put your hands on your stomach as Mitch adjusts your back to also lay on his other thigh. "Two." You mutter picking a few pieces of grass of your clothes. "Alright so you don't have a concussion, thats- good. That's good." He sighs running his hand through his hair.

"Is he alright?" Willy calls down from the ladder. "Yeah he's fine. Maybe a little dizzy but he's fine. Go get Ruby just in case." Willy climbs down and runs inside the school. "We don't need to bother her." You grumble. Your mind was screaming at you to move away from him, but your body didn't, so you didn't bother to fight it. "Well I don't know how things work, I just know if your eyes aren't dilated then your fine. But there could be more to that. Your not bleeding are you?" He lifts your head up to check. "I wasn't even that far away from the ground." He shrugs, "I'd rather be safe than sorry." You shake you're head, well, you try. "You're annoying."

Willy comes out a few seconds later with Ruby. She runs over and sits down by you. "Shit- are you alright?" She lifts your head up and checks places that may be injured like your shoulders, back, etc. "I'm good." She moves your turtleneck shirt at different angles to see if there's any bruising or out of place bones and then looks at your eyes. "Can you see?" You nod. "Can you stand up?"
"Probably." Ruby backs up to give you your space as Mitch helps you up. You stood up fine and took a few steps. "My head just hurts now." You rub your head, "I'd assume so. It'd be better if we had ice on us. Then you'd probably not have a bad bruise there." You nod in agreement and walk over to Mitch, "Well uh thanks Ruby." She smiles, "Pleasure to be of service, even though I didn't do anything." She laughs.

Both you and Mitch wave bye to her and Willy who was still there and walk away. "Where to?" Mitch stops walking and looks around. "Suppose it's fine if we stay in the safe zone, want to go out there? I think Marlon's busy right now with Rosie anyway." Right. The dog. You haven't seen Rosie for a bit. When the group first found you, they had brought the animal along though.

"Sure, I got my knife, you?" Mitch pulls out multiple and gives you a small grin. "Obviously." Neither of you were too concerned on having better weapons. You were just going for a walk anyways. The two of you looked up noticing Willy had gone back to drawing and Ruby left to go back inside to do whatever. You both grin and open the gate, sneaking out of it and closing it behind you slowly to not make a loud noise. And then you both walk off.

It takes a minute before you both start talking, just to make sure you were out of earshot. "Well, anything I should know about you before I spend another day with you?" You kick a rock and watched as it hit a fallen branch that was lying a few feet away. "Hmm.." He ponders, looking around. "You already know I'm a skilled craftsman.." He smirks as you shake your head. "Uh. What else.. What if I told you about.. my family? Biological family. And how I got here?." You stop walking, interested. He stops walking as well and you take a seat in front one of the trees. He sits in front of you as you nod, now very curious. "Well, my mom worked for a makeup company. She didn't exactly, like me. For good reason too, I kept making stuff like flour bombs, some experiments, and setting stuff up around the house. She's the one who had sent me here to the school actually." He points to the school's direction. "My dad was a business man, barely was ever home. Eventually he left. And that's when mom wanted nothing to do with me." You grimace and scratch your scalp. "That sucks.." He nods, "Doesn't matter. I'm honestly glad I don't have to see them anymore. I've got a better family right here." You pat his shoulder and leave your hand there for a moment. Hopefully it would be more comforting than awkward. He leaned back against the tree he was against and smiled. This one seemed more genuine than any you've seen so far. Your heart sped up as you continued staring. It hasn't been that long, you don't actually like like him already? Right? Just like usual, you push those feelings down. The apocalypse isn't a time for love. Nobody has such time for a foolish thing like that. Maybe Aasim did, but this was different. Plus, Mitch could be straight. He'd never like a boy like you. Maybe he'd go for a girl like Clementine instead.

Your thoughts are interrupted by Mitch shaking your shoulder. You look at him a bit wide eyed. "Sorry man, you just seemed out of it."
"Yeah- I was. Don't apologize." You look away from him and smile. You honestly haven't felt this happy around anyone in a while though. With the kids and other teens, it wasn't the same happiness you felt right now.

You both just decide to chill there for a bit. Comfortable silence and relaxation. "It's getting really dark." Mitch points out, looking up. You take a glance as well, getting up and lending Mitch a hand. He stood up, turning around to head back. "Let's go."

———

You both sneak back in, Willy still wasn't watching. "I'm going to go find Omar." You nod at him as he leaves. You decided to take a seat at one of the picnic tables while you waited for something to happen. Anything really.