Alyssa Chávez has felt alone for most of her life. She was never good at making friends. She always felt a distance between her and her family. So when the apocalypse happened, her social life didn't take much of a hit. After losing her family, Alys...
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Chapter Twenty-One New Kids
Deanna had encouraged them to explore the next day, so they did. Carl and Alyssa took Judith for a walk in a stroller while they looked around Alexandria. All the houses were nearly twice the size of the house Alyssa grew up in. There was a pond in the middle of the community, across from Deanna's house. It was a nice place.
The people were very welcoming too. There was an elderly couple, the Millers, who marveled at the sight of Judith. Apparently, they hadn't seen a baby in a while. The pair had 5 children and 12 grandchildren. The holidays must've been chaos. All those kids running around, screaming, talking over each other.
"How old is she?" Natalie Miller asked, slowly rocking back and forth in her chair as she smiled at the baby.
"Couple months, not sure how many," Carl answered, supporting Judith with both hands as he held her. They'd set the stroller down next to the porch. "Probably close to a year by now."
"She grows so fast," Rick commented as he walked up the steps of the porch.
"Oh, hey Rick," Alyssa smiled. "These are Natalie and Bob Miller, they wanted to meet Judith," she explained, gesturing to the elderly couple.
"Hey." Rick nodded to the couple. "Apparently, the others kids want to meet you two. Jessie, she's Ron's mom, asked if you wanted to come over," he said. Alyssa guessed Ron was the name of one of said kids. It wouldn't make much sense otherwise.
"Uh, yeah," Carl replied, looking to Alyssa for her opinion on going. "I guess we can go."
Alyssa shrugged. "Sure," she answered. There was that fear of it being incredibly awkward, them being from outside and all. But Patrick wasn't like them either and they got along fine. It would probably work out okay.
Ron's house was right next to the two they got. Despite reassuring herself that it was gonna be fine, Alyssa started to feel nervous. Growing up on the road, killing Walkers, learning about surviving in the wilderness, and how to scavenge for food instead of grammar and mathematics. It set the social skills she already lacked back far. Between that and her ASD, it opened up the possibility for disaster.
Ron looked like the average teenager, from what Alyssa could remember. He seemed nice enough. "Oh, hey," he greeted the pair when he opened the door. "You must be Carl and Alyssa. The others are upstairs, come in." Ron led the two up the stairs. "We're almost always here after school, so you can come by any time," he told them.
"You go to school?" Carl asked. Deanna must not have mentioned it to him.
"It's in a garage. Little kids go in the morning and then it's us in the afternoon," Ron explained. "Probably you guys too, right?"
"Probably," Carl replied. Alyssa decided not to mention she'd most likely get a job if he didn't get assigned one.
At the end of the hallway was one open door, the one to Ron's room. There was a girl sitting on the bed and a boy sitting with a controller in front of a screen. "Guys, this is Carl and Alyssa. Carl, Alyssa, this is Mikey and Enid," Ron introduced.
