I was sitting in the kitchen and eating one of the cookies me, Sophia, mum and dad had made the day before. "You ready for your second-first day of school?" Michonne questioned, walking into the kitchen in her knew police uniform.

"Yea, officer Michonne." I saluted her. She smiled and shook her head. "You ready to walk around like a nark?" 

She hummed, also picking up one of the cookies. "Ready as I'll ever be... You actually staying in school today?"

I nodded. "Daddy's walking me over there. He's gonna have a talk with Mrs Tanner, tell her what happened and make sure I don't leave again... So, guess I'm stuck." I sighed. "Mrs Tanner has her break between twelve and one, because my class ends at twelve and the big kids starts at one. Sophia promised she'll play with Teddy and Dolly with me within that hour."

"Then remember when you come home from school, you gotta move your stuff upstairs. We're going to start settling in." Michonne took another bite of the cookie.

I hummed. "There's a room with bunk beds upstairs. Me and Soph have already taken our packs up, we just gotta unload everything. Shouldn't take too long."

Michonne grinned, just before dad walked into the room. "You ready, babe?"

I groaned. "Ready as I'll ever be." I finished the cookie and brushed my hands together. "See ya later, Michonne. Good luck on shift."

She tapped my head as I passed her. "Good luck in school."

Dad was walking me over to the garage. "You sure I can't convince you to let me stay off today as well?"

"I'm sure. Sorry, angel." Dad looked down to me.

"You still haven't showered, have you?" I raised my eyebrows. Dad laughed and shook his head before looking up as we reached the garage.

"Ah, you must be Ellie's father." Mrs Tanner came to greet us, raising her hand to shake my dad's.

Dad shook her hand. "Yea, I'm Daryl."

"I'm Mrs Tanner. How's Ellie feeling today?" She smiled down at me.

"She wasn't ill, she just didn't want to stay here because school sucks." Dad said it how it is.

"Oh, I try to make classes as fun as possible, but she left before I had the chance too." Mrs Tanner shrugged.

"School sucks either way. Anyways, she's not ill today, so handcuff her to the desk if you have too. I got some rope you could borrow, but she's not running away today, are you, princess?" Dad looked down to me with a sarcastic smile.

I sighed. "Guess not."

"Thank you, Mr Dixon. I think I got it from here." She smiled at my father.

Dad nodded. "See ya later, baby."

"Bye." I muttered, walking further into the garage and sitting on a chair by a table.

"See ya later, baby." Sam mocked quietly from the seat next to me.

I glared at him. "Why are you being a dick to me?"

"You freaked out over a car. It was pretty funny." Ben defended his friend.

"Alright, today we're going to do some science. Now, who wants to tell me what the definition of gravity is?" Mrs Tanner started to teach. And so it began.

It was a very long four hours. We had a half an hour break in between but I stayed in my seat anyway. Mrs Tanner said I needed to earn break time because she didn't trust that I wouldn't run away... To be fair, I was planning on running away.

I found Sophia walking around and talking to Enid. "Soph!" I called and ran up to her. "My school's out."

"Oh, is it twelve already? Man, I can't be bothered for physics today." Enid crossed her arms over her chest.

"I know, physics sucks." Sophia agreed with a small groan.

"Although, chem was fun yesterday when Mrs Tanner let us to the experiments." Enid replied.

Sophia laughed. "And when Mickey's bubbled all over the desk." Enid joined in on the laughing.

"Yea, that sounds great. Soph, you said you'd hang out with me now, remember?" I smiled.

"Uhm... Me and Enid were actually in the middle of something." Sophia pointed between her and the girl. "How about you run ahead, I'll join you soon. Our room, yea?"

"Okay, see you soon. Bye, Enid." I smiled.

"Bye, Ellie." Enid nodded. I ran off to mine and Sophia's room.

I dug out of Sophia's bag her Barbie doll and Dolly; I found my Barbie doll and Teddy in my bag. I sat them in a square and sat behind Teddy, staring at the analogue clock hanging next to the door.

12:05
12:20
12:40
12:50
01:00

The minutes turned into an hour. A whole hour I sat on that floor, waiting for Sophia to keep her promise. My heart sunk when the time hit one in the afternoon, Sophia's school had started. I really held out hope that she'd come see me at least once before her class. Tears stung my eyes and I let them fall down my cheeks as I cried quietly.

There was a knock at the door. "Is everything okay in there?" Abraham's voice called softly.

"Yea." I croaked out. 

Suddenly the door opened and in walked Abraham. "I thought I heard crying. What's wrong, little one?" He sat opposite me, behind Dolly, where Sophia was supposed to sit.

I wiped my eyes. "Nothing, big one. I just thought Sophia was coming to play with me. She must've been very busy."

Abraham hummed. "I see... Well, can I play with you?"

I smiled. "You wanna play with dolls?"

"Well, sure." He picked up Dolly.

My heart dropped. "Not that one." I gently took it off him and put it on Sophia's bed. "She's very special."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Abraham frowned.

"It's okay." I shrugged, passing him my Barbie Doll. "You can play with this one."

"Oh my god, Teddy, that red bow on your neck? To die for! I love it!" Abraham said in an exaggerated high pitched voice. I laughed at him, so he continued. "Ya know, I think we need tea! We gotta have tea, do you want tea? I want tea and cookies!" I just laughed more at him. "Teddy, this is starting to feel like a really one sided conversation, I need you to give me something, buddy!"

I tried to stop laughing as I cleared my throat, and tried to speak in a deep voice but it was not deep at all. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I was just laughing at you. But, yes, I would love tea." I made Teddy pretend to laugh.

I looked up when I saw a flash. I saw Rosita standing there with my polaroid camera in hand. "That's one for the scrap book." She walked in and handed it to me. "I gotta say, Abraham, I've never seen this side of you."

"I'm not Abraham anymore." Abraham said, still in the overly high voice. "Did you hear the thing about tea? I want tea. Do you want tea, Rosita?"

She nodded. "I'll go put the kettle on."

Me, Rosita and Abraham had drunk tea. Abraham really needed it for his throat because he hurt it with the high pitched talking. We'd all moved our stuff to our respected bedrooms. House one was were we'd all been staying, and had bigger bedrooms with more rooms having double beds and one room with bunk beds, so Maggie organised it:

House 1:

Ellie & Sophia
Carl
Rick
Daryl
Carol
Michonne
Glenn & Maggie
Rosita & Abraham

House 2:

Eugene
Gabriel
Tara
Noah
Sasha

Since house two only had the five slightly smaller bedrooms, we sent the single people and the people who weren't really in the immediate family over there. Michonne was basically a second mum, Maggie was practically my older sister whereas Glenn and Abraham were like big brothers. The housing arrangement worked out pretty well in my opinion because I didn't have to sleep under the same roof as the not Eugenius anymore.

Me, Glenn, Maggie, Rosita and Abraham were all just chilling in the living room when Carl and Sophia came home. "How was school, kids?" Maggie asked.

"We had an awesome day. We started to learn to cook, we did P.E today and Mrs Tanner let us do another experiment in biology." Sophia ranted. "Oh and Enid said this really funny joke in bio. Oh, I can't even remember it, but it was hilarious." Sophia laughed to herself.

"Sounds like someone had a good day." Maggie smiled

"I'm gonna head over Ron's house now. You mind telling my dad?" Carl asked.

"Your dad wanted you to unpack your stuff first." Glenn pointed out.

Carl sighed. "Right. I'll do that first. How was your second-first day, Ellie?"

"Fine." I shrugged. "Sam and Ben are dicks though and I've decided that I hate them."

"You hate people so they never really stood a chance." Carl reminded me.

"That's a good point." I shrugged. Carl smiled before heading upstairs.

"El, did you wanna unpack our stuff now?" Sophia questioned.

"No... Or you know what, I could say I'll be up in a minute and just never show up." I smiled bitterly.

Sophia sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "About that-"

"It's fine, you were hanging out with Enid. I drank tea with Abraham and Rosita so I don't care." I shrugged.

"I really am sorry, El. I got side tracked." Sophia apologised.

"I said it's fine." I raised my eyebrows. It wasn't fine.

Sophia nodded. "You wanna hang out tonight?"

I smiled. "Okay, sure."

"I was gonna go over Enid's but I'm sure she won't mind you coming along." Sophia nodded.

My smile faded. "Oh, uhm... Tonight? Yea, tonight doesn't actually work for me. Rosita was gonna paint my nails for me... Sorry."

Sophia shrugged. "Don't worry. Guys, tell my mum I won't be back for dinner, I'll see y'all like half ten." Then Sophia headed upstairs to get ready as well as unpack her stuff.

Rosita stood up and offered me her hand. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To borrow some nail varnish of Deanna. I saw she had her nails painted and I'll make her lend us some." Rosita smiled. I grinned before standing up and then I took her hand.

Me and Rosita had borrowed some of Deanna's nail varnish. She was confused by the request but obliged. We let Maggie, Tara, my mum, Michonne, Noah and Sasha join us for our little girls night in the living room. Sasha was looking in my scrap book, at the photo I have of her and Tyreese. "I can rip it out if you want, you can keep it." I said to her while my nails were drying.

She shook her head with a smile. "Thanks for showing me... But, I like it better in here."

"Did you see the group one?" I asked.

She nodded, turning to the page. That night in the Church, before me and Bob were kidnapped, we took a group polaroid. All seventeen of us. That was before Bob and Tyreese died, before the Eugenius was no longer a Eugenius, before we found out about how Gabriel locked his people out of his church and let them get eaten by walkers, before we found Beth.

A lot of things can change in a matter of weeks.