A Breath of Fresh Air - e.w.

9

Lia was sitting on one of the benches in town reading a book that she found in their house. Her legs were pulled up to her chest, her head resting on her knees as she read the book. She was currently waiting for the school to get out to pick up Cassie.

Cassie was the daughter of Kate. After a few weeks of being in Jackson, Lia volunteered to work in the medical wing where she was being trained by Kate. The girl doesn't push her to talk, which Lia appreciated, and her daughter was quickly became fond of Lia - even when the girl doesn't speak to her.

Lia was quite uncomfortable around Cassie. How happy she was, and how young she was, made Lia sad. It was uplifting but it was just a reminder of everything Lia never had. But, after some time with the girl, Lia's grown quite fond of her. Cassie never pushed the girl to talk. Instead, she would just tell Lia about her day and show her the things she was working on.

It was cute.

Leo was working on organizing and keeping track of supplies. Such as food, ammo, clothes and each day he kept the supplies organized that were brought in from patrols. He also helped out in the stables.

It annoyed him at first. He wanted to go straight to patrol. However, here in Jackson, they don't allow anyone to even train for patrol until they're 16. Lia doesn't know how Leo did it, but he somehow convinced Maria to let him train early so that when he was 16, he could jump straight into patrol.

Lia was pretty dumbfounded on how he did that. She's learned a lot about the people here, just spending her time observing them, and she knew that Maria was a headstrong woman.

It slightly impressed Lia. She didn't know how Leo convinced her.

Leo couldn't convince Maria to let Lia. He sort of did, but Lia denied patrol. She just wanted to work in the medical wing (which she was surprised Maria allowed).

"How is that comfortable?" Lia looked from her side eye to see Ellie standing in front of her. Lia just shrugged as she continued to read. She frowned slightly when the auburn-haired girl sat next to her, looking at the book, "You're reading that for fun? It's all about medical terms and shit like that? How do you even fucking understand it?"

Again, Lia just shrugged as she continued to read. She shuffled away from the girl, biting the inside of her cheek as she kept reading.

Lia didn't know what it was, but for some reason, she just understood the science and everything the book was explaining. Her brain just seemed to absorb the information.

She thinks it has to do with the fact that her dad was a doctor. Maybe she just understood it because she learned to read from his old stuff (her and Leo helped each other a lot, same with Andy's mom). But she doesn't like to think like that. Lia doesn't want to think she has anything in common with her dad.

She'll use this knowledge for good. Lia will make sure of that.

Ellie blue a raspberry next to Lia, causing the girl to frown and glance at her slightly. Ellie just turned to the girl, giving her an awkward smile before looking forward again.

"I like reading," Ellie said, "Not... that. But there's these comics that are pretty cool, Starlight Savage, you may like them?" Lia shrugged at the girl, nodding slightly as she kept on reading, "Um... okay," Ellie mumbled as her eyebrows furrowed and she tried to think of something else to say, "I heard Leo convinced Maria to let him train with Jesse for patrol. Lucky. I tried for weeks and she never budged, so I have to wait until I'm 16 to start. Thankfully, I will be soon, but still a fucking buzzkill. I'm on the farming rotation which fucking blows. I don't get why people volunteer for it."

Lia furrowed her eyebrows as Ellie kept going on awkwardly about her day. She wasn't sure why Ellie was trying so hard to talk with the girl - she had been since Lia got here.