Fibre Mortem: Rhesus Factor

18

"Atta girl, Louise!"

Reese stands in the back as we spar together for awhile. Louise is a quick study, amazingly.

She may appear to be clumsy but when you put her in self-defense mode, the girl can move.

I was also taking her under my wing in the lab. Teaching her basic science, and trying to teach her to read.

Right now, I had her reading at a third grade level, which was more than when she came in.

These things made me realize how lucky I'd been to have more of an education before the outbreak happened.

I hadn't realized just how important knowledge and learning were to me until Dean threw Louise on me.

Reese had a soft spot for Louise, and it made me wonder who had gotten left behind in his life before me.

I also thought that Louise might have a thing for Reese. If he so much as praised the girl she was tripping over her own feet and breaking shit.

I had to chuckle at that, she wasn't the only one with a thing for Reese. I'd often find myself staring at him during training, or when we were lying in bed at night.

Mostly I enjoyed the workout staring. He was something to look at, and he was mine, all mine.

I'd gotten so distracted thinking about Reese's sweaty muscles that I messed up and Louise was able to flip me and before I knew what was happening, she'd pinned me.

"Anyone ever tell you you're strong for your age? You can let me go now Lou, can't breathe."

"Oh, huh..sorry Liv. I was just so in the zone," she said getting off of me and helping me up.

"And I was not," I chuckled, "next time I'll know to watch myself around She-Hulk."

The reference was lost to her, judging by the sudden blank stare she gave me.

"Oh Nevermind. I'm eventually going to teach you some pop culture Lou, this is sad that you don't even know who the hell SpongeBob is."

"Hey! I know who SpongeBob is!"

"Better watch it Liv, I hear Lou has a heck of a grip. She might kick your ass," Reese handed us each a water bottle.

"Again," Louise said before taking a swig.

"Ohhh, burn!" Called out Reese as I gasped from shock.

"She's been hanging out with us for too long Ree, she's starting to get your assy attitude," I said laughing.

Deep down I was proud of Lou. She'd really come out of her shell. There weren't any kids and sometimes I felt like maybe she felt isolated.

Having training and then class with me have her something to look forward to, at least for a little while.

We all went out separate ways shortly after. I was famished to headed toward the lunchroom to sneak some sort of stale pastry.

I had just gotten myself a bear claw when I ran into someone and got covered in tomato soup.

"Hey! Watch where the fuck you're going!"

I scoffed, "Really? You're really going to be a dick to me Goon Squad cadet?" It was that newbie that'd been with Drake. What was his name? Sean or Shane or something like that.

"Yeah, I am. Got a problem with it?"

I stared him down, we'd met plenty of times but he was straight up stuck to my dad's ass that not only was his nose brown, so was his damn lips and it bothered me. Technically the hate I felt for him was plenty mutual.