Weighting Rewrite

Chapter 3

Erick grabbed Lenora's hand as they started down the road. She looked scared to bits, but at the same time like she wanted to run to the store and start. Erick smiled at her, when she wasn't looking. They walked slowly, he let her set the pace and kept her going one speed. He knew that she had a bad habit of going one speed for a while and then going faster and burning out and slowing way down. It took a while longer to get to the store but it was a much better walk for them.

Erick smiled as he watched Lenora oh and ah over all the different journals, she would pick out one and then see a different one and try to pick that one instead. He held back a chuckle as Lenora let out a frustrated sigh.

"I don't know which one to get! I like them all." She said looking at the three different ones in her hand.

Erick walked over and gently took all three notebooks and placed them under his arm. He lead her away from them before she could find any more to look at. Leading her back to the front to check out, he grabbed a couple bottles of water to drink on the way and added those to what he was buying. When it was his turn to check out he set all three notebooks and the two bottles down. When Lenora tried to protest he simply smiled at her and payed for all three anyway. Once they were outside he was ready for an earful from her.

"Erick! You shouldn't have gotten all three. I could have picked! I swear I could have." Lenora told him.

He handed her a bottle of water after opening it and smiled at her. "Le-Le, it is better to have extra books then not. Besides, you only get two of these. I want the one of the with puppies. You can keep the kitty one and the flower one. My notebook is almost full."

Lenora took a drink and watched Erick open and drink part of his water. She knew that he was spoiling her and didn't like it, but she let it go. There was no winning this fight with him.

"Hey, let's go this way instead. I know a way back home if we go to the left. It'll be fun!" Erick said as he turned left instead of right.

"Okay. What ever floats your boat." Lenora said with a shrug and followed him.

The way Erick was taking her was about twice as long as the other route. He wanted to push her a bit farther than normal just to see what would happen and how she would react. He made sure to keep them at a steady pace so as to not tire her out too badly.

"Hey isn't this the so called long route?" Lenora asked at about a quarter of the way though the walk.

Erick nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, I wanted to see how much you could handle. You doing okay? Don't forget to drink your water."

She nodded. "I'm doing fine and I'm drinking. So if the way we went to get to the store is a mile, then how long is this route?"

Erick thought for a moment. "About three miles. So in total you will have walked four miles. Which is a good start if I may say so."

Lenora smiled and nodded. "It is a good start. I haven't walked this far in a long time."

Erick smiled and put his arm around her shoulder for a minute in a hug like motion. He pulled back and opened his water and took a drink. They walked on for a while. They made it to the halfway point when Lenora spoke up.

"I need to stop for a moment." She said softly, breathing a little harder than normal.

Erick stopped and looked at her carefully. "You okay? Need me to call mom or dad? Here take the rest of my water."

Lenora smiled at him and took a sip of his water as he took her bottle from her and stuck it in the bag.

"I'll be okay in a minute. This is just much farther than I am use too."