Chapter Text
I winced with my whole body and closed my eyes. This was going to be just like back at school, and I didn’t know if I could take that. Before the pain could begin, however, the rough girl spoke again.
“Stop,” she ordered, “heel.” I heard her walk closer, boots treading on the hard floor. I felt her come to a stop in front of me. “Open your eyes,” she commanded. I did so slowly, my gaze opening to a view of her strong chin. Carefully I looked up into her piercing gaze before I hastily looked down again.
I don’t know what she saw in my eyes in that second, but she reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of something that crinkled. “Hand,” she demanded. Uncertainly I extended one hand. Everything had gone bizarrely off script since I joined the Undersiders at their base.
She put the object in my hand and I had to look at it a few times to make sense of what I was seeing. Two sticks of jerky and a granola bar? “Easy,” she said, “you’re safe here. Eat.”
I looked at Lisa and Brian in confusion but they just returned that same look. A glance the other way, at Alec, rendered no additional assistance. I cautiously opened one of the sticks of jerky and cautiously bit into it. I smiled uncertainly at her and said “thank you,” to which she gently swatted my nose and then ruffled my hair like Anne used to do to me and Emma when we were being ‘too adorable’ as she put it, before turning to face Lisa.
“Good job. We’re keeping her.”
What is my life?