Atlas || carl grimes a.u.

1.1 - becoming friends

"Hey." I hear from behind me. I was currently sitting at our usual lunch table. It was Monday morning and I was finishing homework.

I didn't have to see the face to know the voice. I turned around to see Carl was standing behind me.

He was awkwardly standing there. "Hey, what's up?" I asked, shock in my voice.

"I was wondering if I could join you all." I smiled, nodding my head. I looked over at the other three to see them speechless.

They were completely shocked. "Yeah, that's fine." He sat next to me, his eyes looking around the cafeteria.

"Hey, thanks for beating Ron's ass a couple weeks ago. It got me out of that project." Henry spoke to him.

I could feel a small smile form on my lips as I kept my eyes on the paper. "I'll gladly do it again." He half joked.

It's strange he's sitting here with us. It makes me wonder why he sat here.

"That's the new girl Sophia poured her drink on." I hear a random person say. I look up to see it's a blonde girl.

I have a class with her and she's extremely annoying, her name is Lizzie. I try to not judge but she's one of those hot Cheeto girls.

Her friend looked at me and started laughing. "I have the video on my phone." Lizzie spoke.

"Why don't you get lost Lizzie? Didn't you piss the bed until you were eleven?" Carl asked defending me.

Lizzie's face instantly turned red as she quickly walked away.

The three started snickering as I shook my head and looked back at my homework.

"This was going to be a long day." I knew that the videos and pictures were going to spread about me.

There were a lot of people at that party. "Can we go back, did she really piss the bed until she was eleven?" Enid asked.

Carl just shrugged while the bell rang. Enid said she was going to head to class while I gathered my stuff.

Henry and Lydia waited for me knowing we had English together. Carl waited too which surprised me.

When I had all my stuff together, we all headed to our classes. I kept getting looked and laughed at.

I tried to ignore it but it was getting hard at some points. "I'm never going to another party." I tell Carl.

"You can hang out with me instead." Carl smiled at me. As we walked to class, we walked past Ron and Sophia.

I could feel my heart stop for a moment. I looked at Carl to see he was glaring at the duo.

Sophia was smirking over at us as we walked past each other. "I'm going to walk you to every class." Carl announced to me.

I just looked at him as we reach my English class. Henry and Lydia walked in, leaving us two.

"I can handle myself, Carl." I deny his offer. "I really do appreciate it. Now get to class before you're late."

I walked away from him before he could say anything else. It was really sweet that he wanted to help defend me.

I sat in my seat and listened to everything that our teacher said. I tried to take notes but I couldn't stop thinking about Carl.

It's crazy how ever since I moved here, he's been on my mind. I just try to push them away and keep writing my notes.

Carl ended up walking me to every class, which doesn't surprise me. I think he was just worried about Sophia doing something to me.

Carl surprisingly sat with us at lunch as well. Him and Henry talked to each other about all the shitty things Ron's done.

I really hope that Carl does start to open up to everyone. I think they'll like him, and Enid knows that knowing they were friends.

I think it's going to take him a little bit to fully open up to everyone. It was nice seeing him talk to everyone.

During the day, everyone either talked about the video or the canned food drive.

I guess every November, they do a canned food drive for the food shelter and Thanksgiving.

They do a pep rally also. Apparently Sophia's mom, Carol, runs the whole thing so she's going to be speaking at it.

They gossiped about how Sophia could come out of someone so nice as her.

As I was walking to Rosita's room, Lydia and Enid walked over to me.

"Hey, I think we were going to have a sleepover Friday if you wanna come." Lydia offered.

I think it'll be really fun. I can't remember the last time I had a sleepover.

I almost instantly agree with the plans with them. We talk for a few minutes and head our separate ways.

I walk into Rosita's room to see she was working on her computer. I sat down and started texted Carl.

He was telling me how he didn't know what he was doing for Thanksgiving. I have no idea what Rosita and I are doing either.

Usually we don't do anything because my dad ruins it but since he's not here, we might actually do something.

I'll have to talk to her about when it gets closer. I tell Rosita how they're having a sleepover and invited me.

She tells me how she thinks it's going to be fun. We leave the school together and head over to the apartment.

She tells me that since I'm hanging out with friends, she might go out with that guy.

She tells me that his name is Siddiq and he's a really good guy. She tells me how he's in medical school to be a doctor.

"I'm going to have to meet this guy." I tease my sister as we walk into the apartment.

"What about you and Carl? The two of you seem close." She smiles as we sit down on the couch together.

I sit there for a moment and think. "Yeah, he's really easy to talk to. He's a good friend." I smile towards her.

She does the same towards me. "It's nice to see you actually have friends. And cute ones too." She teases.

I furrow my eyebrows towards her as I try to not smile. "Did you just call Carl cute?" I ask with a hint of laughter.

"I think he's got a thing for you." She ignores my question. I just roll my eyes and walk to my room.

I spent the majority of the day texting Carl. The two of us text a lot throughout the night.

I actually spent the majority of the night texting him. We somehow just learned that we play warzone, a call of duty video game.

Warzone and games like that helped ignore my dad and him being a drunken idiot.

At nine, the two of us ended up hopping on and playing together. We played for hours, and I didn't realize how funny he was.

We did lose track of time and we ended up getting off around one in the morning.

"Vanessa, wake up." I jolted awake and looked around. "Late night?" I looked at the time to see it was seven-thirty.

She has to leave here in a few minutes. I start looking around for something to wear.

"Hey, don't rush. I let you sleep in. Just make sure you're there on time." I nodded my head and said goodbye.

I grabbed my phone and texted Carl. I asked if he slept in too.

Carl: I did, be ready in fifteen minutes.