TWO WEEKS HAD PASSED SINCE PRIOR EVENTS AND MALLORY WAS STILL FILLED WITH ANGER, though it was more managed as time went on. She needed to focus on the task of keeping everyone safe. It had been two weeks and her thoughts wouldn't settle over the knowledge that an unknown group would potentially cause an upheaval in their lives. As the days dragged on, she felt more restless than anything and just wanted to skip to the part where they defeated their new enemy and moved on with their lives. She had enough to work through already. While the distraction was welcome for the first couple of days, she started to grow irritated that she couldn't completely sit down and stew over her heartbreak.
But in the time that was spent waiting, she found herself forming friendships that she didn't think would ever happen. For example, her growing friendship with Mitch. While the boy was still an enigma to her, it also helped her relate to him more. They were not the people to sit around a campfire and just rant about everything wrong in their lives. To Mallory, while she was still surprisingly grateful to have opened up to Louis, it was nice to have someone who didn't question her. She was just Mallory, as far as Mitch was concerned, not a broken girl who had lost her twin brother and her mind all in one night.
And so when she sat next to him early one morning they sat in peaceful silence while Mitch attempted to make one of his homemade bombs. He explained briefly that the homemade ingredients they had to collect were like mock gunpowder. If everything worked smoothly, they'd have a bomb that would surely make someone's day go from bad to shitty. As long as it was those damn adults, Mallory was content with the idea.
When Mallory glanced around the courtyard, she spotted Clementine and AJ emerging from the dormitories. They had kept their distance since the day they went to the greenhouse, and when they crossed paths just by walking from one area to another Mallory found herself giving them the cold shoulder. She didn't have the energy to constantly drill her burning disgust into them all the time. Maybe it was better that way. Clementine was doing her part in helping and that was okay for the time being.
Growing bored, Mallory stood when she spotted Louis heading towards their mock shooting range. The latter noticed her coming his way and smiled brightly as she joined him. "Ah, my favorite person has arrived. Finally, after rejecting me to hang out with Mitch. Who, I will say, is definitely way more boring than I am. I don't think you talked to him the whole time you were over there," he greeted in his ridiculous way.
"Hello to you, too. You sound jealous," Mallory observed.
