South Tree * TWD

1. Mean Guy

Lillian tossed and turned in her sleeping bag which was laid on the hard ground of their campsite. With a sigh, she sat up rubbed her eyes, and looked over to her mother's sleeping bag to see she was not there.

It had been a couple of days since Lillian and her mom had set up at the camp with the people she soon became familiar with. For Lillian's mom, Brooklyn had gotten almost too familiar with one of the Dixon brothers, Merle.

This really confused Lillian, as she noticed that Merle was quite rude and straightforward with what he thought but she had seen her mom often be very giggly when around the man, she even saw her take some medicine but she wasn't sure what it was.

Her mom would often hang out around Merle Dixon and his tent, which he shared with his brother Daryl. Lillian had no idea what he was like though. He was a very quiet person and often kept to himself. Didn't pay mind to talk let alone look at Lillian. Daryl was aware of the woman that his brother was constantly hanging out with as they would often walk out into the woods together, leaving Daryl alone at his tent but only 10 feet away was another tent. That other tent had the small girl sitting outside of it, reading a book that she was given to occupy herself.

Merle would have the woman, giggling and holding onto his arm, walking away as she said, "Hey.. uh... DARLINA! Watch over Lillian for me!" She would often throw a wink at him afterward. As much as this annoyed him, Daryl ended up watching over the girl from the distance, keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't get herself into any trouble.

Lillian stepped out of her tent, rubbing her eyes as she adjusted to the bright sun. She looked around and saw that many people were already at work with their chores for the day. She was jealous of them, the only chore she got was doing schoolwork with Carl and Sophia. Not that she thought they were annoying, well Carl was rather annoying, he talked a lot. But Sophia was annoying because she was so quiet. Lillian was used to being the quiet one, and Sophia also being the quiet one left an awkward silence between the two as they worked on their math work which they were supposed to be helping each other with.

"Lili!" Lillian heard Carl call her name from behind her. She turned and quickly took a couple of steps back as Carl ran quickly towards her.

"G"mornin." She mumbled, pushing her bedhead hair out of her face.

"Good morning! I have been waiting all morning for you. Look I found this really cool rock and then I was thinking that maybe we could get a bunch of rocks and have Amy take us down to the water again to skip them!" Carl rambled out, all out of breath from running.

"But your mom said we had to finish that one worksheet-" Lillian tried to explain but was cut off by Carl.

"Oh, come on. She isn't even gonna notice that we are gone, we have time!" Carl whined, throwing his arms down at his side.

"Carl!" Lori's voice called. Lillian looked behind Carl to see Lori walking over towards them and gave Carl the 'I told you so' look. Carl rolled his eyes and turned to his mom. "I told you to stay near the RV!" She sighed, looking down disappointedly at her son.

"Well, I was! And then Lili came out of her tent. Mom, I was thinking that Lili and I could get rocks and go down to skip rocks!" Carl proposed with a wide smile, proud of his idea. Lillian looked down at the ground, kicking a rock, avoiding a gaze that Lori was sending her.

"It doesn't seem like Lillian wants to. You okay honey?" Lori grabbed Carl's arm and gently moved him to the side, speaking softly to the girl.

"Where's my mama?" Lillian asked, looking at Lori while still rolling the rock under her shoe.

"Hm. I'm not quite sure... maybe she's out with Merle again. Alright, how about we get you some breakfast, brush your hair, and then finish that worksheet we started yesterday while we wait for her?" Lori proposed, giving Lillian a smile.