I'm Just A Kid

Chapter 8: Float Him

Three days had passed since Jasper found Wells' body.

Three days, and nobody in camp had stopped talking about it.

Not openly, at least. People tried to carry on as though everything was normal, but the mood had changed in a way Emmy could feel even when nobody said a word. Conversations became quieter whenever someone mentioned Wells, and people looked toward the trees a little too often. Nobody knew who had killed him. Some thought it had been the Grounders. Others weren't so sure. The fact that Wells had been found inside the camp made everything worse. If a Grounder could get that close without anyone noticing, then what was stopping them from doing it again?

And if it hadn't been a Grounder, that left an even worse possibility.

Someone in camp.

Nobody said that part too loudly.

Emmy had noticed the difference immediately. People were watching each other now. Not constantly, but enough that it was obvious. Whenever someone disappeared into the trees, somebody else would ask where they were going. Whenever there was a noise outside the fence, conversations stopped until someone confirmed what it was. Even small arguments seemed to carry more weight than they used to, as though everyone was suddenly aware of how quickly things could turn dangerous.

Even the younger kids had picked up on it.

Emmy tried not to.

She had enough things to think about without adding murderers and Grounders to the list.

Her eyebrow had healed enough that the cut was no longer open, although the bruise surrounding it had turned an ugly yellow and purple colour. The swelling around her eye had gone down too, but there was still enough of a mark left for people to notice. Sometimes she caught someone looking at it before they quickly looked away.

Whenever anyone asked what had happened, she gave them the same answer.

She fell out of a tree.

It was a terrible excuse.

Everyone knew it was a terrible excuse.

But nobody seemed willing to push her on it.

At least, not anymore.

Finn had become one of the main reasons Emmy didn't spend every waking minute trying to prove she could handle herself.

They'd started talking more after the night he'd found her behind the dropship. At first, she'd assumed he'd eventually get bored of her attitude and stop bothering. Instead, he kept finding reasons to sit near her, talk to her, or drag her into whatever conversation he was having.

He didn't treat her like she was stupid because she was twelve.

He also didn't treat her like she was some miniature adult who had to be able to handle everything.

That was probably what surprised Emmy the most.

She'd spent so much time trying to convince everyone that she wasn't a kid that she'd forgotten she actually was one.

Finn seemed to remember it for her.

Sometimes he'd tell her to stop working and go sit down. Sometimes he'd steal food from her when she wasn't paying attention just to annoy her. Sometimes he'd listen to her rant about something ridiculous for ten minutes without interrupting, then point out that she'd somehow managed to contradict herself three times.

She hated how much she liked having him around.

Mostly because it meant she had started letting her guard down.