I woke up to the smell of fire. My (Y/H/C) once in a ponytail, was now down. I felt my head and noticed I had bandages on. AJ... Clem... OH MY GOD! AJ AND CLEM! I jerk up, but my arm is taped to the bed... I take the piece of tape off and look around. It looks like someone lives here. The other bed in the room wasn't made and there was knives and clothing on it.

On the small dresser in between the beds, was all of my equipment except my bat, gun, and guitar... Where is my guitar...? I looked down and realized I was only wearing my shorts and black tank top. The jean shorts were a bit tight, I've had them since I was 13. The tank top was newer, I found it in an old campsite. I put on my goggles and pouches before grabbing my knife and trying to open the door. No surprise that the door was locked. I used my lock picks in my pouches to unlock the door. I stalked out of the room and walked around. I could still smell fire... I found an exit and walked out... There were people... then I saw them.

"CLEM! AJ!" I ran and hugged them. "Holy fuck! You guys are ok!" Clem and AJ hugged me back.

"Hey good to see you're awake!" A hand touched my shoulder, and I could tell it was a male, so I elbowed him.

"FFFFFFF-" I heard him groan in pain. "Second time... really? You and AJ are so similar." I looked at Clem and her eyes were wide. I turned around slowly and saw a boy, maybe a year or two older than me clenching his stomach.

"I'm sorry... I have a thing about people walking up behind me..." I heard snickering and saw about 7 people laughing. I gave them all a dark glare and they all stopped and looked away. "I'm (Y/N)..."

"I'm Marlon." He let out a large breath before standing up a bit more. "You are exactly like AJ, aren't you?"

"I guess so...? You walked behind AJ didn't you?" He nodded. "Ooo... ouch..."

He finally recovered and stood up a little better. "Welcome to Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth." He gestured around himself. I looked around and was in awe.

"Who runs it...?"

"Just like Clementine too." He said chuckling. "I run it!"

"Awesome!" I said smiling.

"Go ahead and meet the others. Food's almost ready."

I walked over to a red headed girl who stood by the fire.

"Hello. I'm (Y/N)." I said.

"Hi hun. I'm Ruby. How's that head of yours?" She said eyeing my head.

"It's doing fine, thank you for asking."

"Glad."

"Bye Ruby!"

"Bye." She waved and I waved back. Next I walked over to a graveyard area... people still do this? There stood a boy and girl.

"Hello." I said softly.

"Hey." The blonde responded. The boy stayed quiet though.

"I'm (Y/N)..." I said.

"We know. I'm Violet, this is Tennessee, Tenn for short."

"Who's buried here?"

"Tenn's sister's stuff."

"Oh... I'm sorry about your loss..." I said with sorrow.

"They died about a year ago its fine..."

"Goodbye Violet, Tenn."

I walked away and let them mourn. I walked over to Marlon. He was sitting next to a girl.

"Hi! You must be (Y/N). I'm Brody." She introduced. "Also you were awesome earlier." She whisper-yelled at me and Marlon elbowed her in the ribs.

"That's me. Guess my little stunt made me famous?" I rubbed the back of my head with my hand and gave a small laugh.

"You should go meet the others! They'll love you!" Brody said before turning back to talk to Marlon.

"Bye!" I saw two boys. One was cooking the other was just standing there. It looked like he was annoying the cooking boy. "Hello."

"Ah! (Y/N), right?" I nodded. "I'm Louis! And this is Chef Omar!"

"Could you stop calling me that Louis? I love being your chef and all, but I don't need to be reminded that I'm a chef every second." Omar said.

"Alright, alright! We'll talk to you later, (Y/N)!" I waved goodbye. I looked around. Only three more people. I looked at the boy who sat alone. He looked like he was deep in thought... I'll leave him alone. I turned back to the last two and walked over.

"Hi there." I greeted.

"Hi." The older boy responded. The younger boy looked at me and just stared. I stared back.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"You taught..." He paused. "AJ?" I nodded. "how to swear right?" My eyes widened.

"Uh yeah... why?"

"Little dude said fuck in front of us. Was quite hilarious." He put down the knife he was carving and stuck out his hand. "I'm Mitch and that's Willy." He said tilting his head over to the younger boy. I shuck his hand and was completely flustered. "You woke up in my room by the way, you'll be staying in there until Marlon can find another bed to put in the room Clem and AJ will be in."

"O-ok." I stammered.

"Yo! Food's ready!" Louis yelled.

"Bye." I waved to Mitch and Willy and ran to sit by Clem and AJ.

"So you met him, right?" Clem teased me. My face turned as red as a tomato. "Ah how little you has come to bite in the butt."

"What's got you so red, (Y/N)?" Louis asks in a playful manner. "Is it L-O-V-E?" My eyes widened and I could feel my face flush even more if that's possible.

Clementine looked around and spotted Mitch at the other table. She pushed my off the bench before saying in a hushed tone, "When (Y/N) was 7 she told me her future husband's name would be Mitch."

"CLEEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" I whined. Louis and Marlon chuckled and looked at me.

"Really? Cold glare said that as a kid?" Marlon said. I returned his comment with the same cold glare I gave people earlier.

"Well now I got some blackmail..." Louis laughed maniacally and rubbed his hands together.

"Clem! Look what you've done!" I mumbled in frustration and embarrassment.

"No. Look what little you did!" Clem shot back. Ruby giggled at our childish feud while Marlon and Louis laughed. AJ was busy eating his food, but I could tell he was listening to the conversation. His eyes would dart over to us every so often. I enjoyed eating with them. It has been forever since we last had a hot meal! We talked a little more, had a burping contest, Ruby did not like that, and finally finished.

"Now what do we do?" AJ inquired.

"I'll tell you what." Louis said while turning his chair backwards and sitting down. "Time for something very important." He reached into his coat and pulled out a deck of cards.

"Oh God. Good Night." Brody said while walking away.

"Violet! It's time!" Louis called Violet over and she sits next to Marlon.

"What's the game tonight, Lou?" Marlon says.

"War. The oldest game around. A game played by man and beast alike. The only game there is." Louis answered with a dramatic tone in his voice.

"I don't know the game... The only card game I've played had less people." Clem said. I remember her talking about the game. A boy she met, Gabe, had taught her before they saved Richmond.

"Don't worry you'll pick it up as we go! What about you, (Y/N)?" Louis asked me.

"Oh. I used to play it with the other girls at... uh..." I paused. "the ranch..." I finished. Clem held my hand under the table to comfort me. "Anyway! Yes, I have played it before..."

"Ok..." Violet said before turning to Clem. "It's simple. Everyone gets a stack of cards; everyone flips one over. Highest card wins."

"AND the winner gets to ask Clem and (Y/N) a question!" Clem and I gave Louis a confused look. "What! I wanna get to know you, we all do." He finishes.

"And if we win?" Clem asks.

"Then you get to ask us one. It's only fair." Louis answers.

"Wait. What about AJ?" I ask quite concerned. I turned to look at him, but he's gone. I would have gone into panic mode, but Marlon said,

"What about him? Looks like he made a friend." He proceeded to point to the other table where Tenn sat drawing and AJ hovered over him. "C'mon you can take your eyes off of him for one game, can't you? I bet you three could take a break from each other."

"yeah... maybe..." I said in awe of the two boys.

"This is his first time he's been around anyone his own age. Sometimes he acts more like an adult than a child. It's nice to see him act like a little boy again." I nodded in agreement of Clem's statement and turned back to the group.

"Louis? If you would?" Marlon said. Everyone flipped over their cards. Violet won.

"Way to go, me. So... about you guys... you all don't really look related, so... what happened there?" Violet asked.

"Well as a baby I was abandoned at the hospital... my mother didn't want me. But Clem was actually supposed to have a twin sister... she died in birth... so Clem's parents adopted me." I explained. Violet nodded. I nudged Clementine. "You can tell them about AJ..."

"They're dead... They were nice people for the most part." Clementine said looking down.

"Makes sense. He's a nice kid for the most part." Louis said comforting us.

"For the most part." Clementine chuckled.

"When she says, 'for the most part' she's talking about the time they locked us in a shed." I said. All of their eyes went wide. That gave Clem and I a good laugh.

"Why would they do that?" Louis asked.

"Well we angered a dog when we were maybe 10 or 11. His name was Sam. He bit me in the calf and Clem in the arm." I showed them my scar and Clementine showed them her scar. "We met two people in their group, and they took us with them and when we got to the house they lived in they noticed the bites. They couldn't tell if it truly was a dog or walker. So they locked us in a shed and didn't touch the bites. They didn't want to waste materials on lost causes. Me and Clem escaped the shed and got stuff we needed to stitch the wound. We finished stitching and a walker got into the shed. We killed it and they came outside to find us stitched up, perfectly fine, and in front of a freshly killed walker." I paused. "And Clementine said the best thing ever!"

"We're still not bitten." Clementine finished. The group was in awe of our story.

"Well back to the game." I exclaimed. We flipped over the cards.

"Hey I win!" Clem said.

"Hey you do! So what do you want to know?" Louis mimicked.

"Grosses thing ever eaten." Clem asked.

"It's pretty easy, horse eyeballs." Was Violet's answer.

"Slugs." Was Marlon's.

And "Cantaloupe." Was Louis's.

"C'mon." Violet said in annoyance.

"Dude! I fucking HATE cantaloupe." Louis says.

"We ate a guys leg once... Kidding...?" Clem was figuratively sweating.

"Are you?" Louis asked concerned.

"She's not kidding. Poor Mark... I hate those stupid people. One of them was definitely a pedophile." I said nonchalantly.

"(Y/N). Now they're gonna think we're cannibals!" Clem said. "It happened when we were 8. Maybe a couple weeks into the apocalypse. This freak family fed us one of our own group members."

"Anyway! Flip your cards over!" Louis said not wanting to puke. Louis won this round. "BOOYAH!" He paused and started to stutter a little.

"C'mon spit it out." Violet demanded.

"So... uh ever... uh ever have a boyfriend?" Louis finally said.

"Oh my god..." Violet said disappointed.

"What? It happens! It's a perfectly valid question. You can ask me if I ever have had a girlfriend before. I haven't by the way." Louis defends himself.

"Oh I'm sure she's really surprised by that one." Violet shoots at him.

"I... met a boy one time." Clem starts.

"And...?"

"And we were... friends." Clem finishes.

"Just friends? Nothing else? Nothing at all?" Violet pushes on.

"HA. NO. He was such a total dork." Clem laughed nervously.

"Oh, dude, you fucking loved him, didn't you?" Louis giggled like a little schoolgirl.

"NO!" Clem shot.

"Yeah, sure you didn't love Gabe." I teased.

"I didn't!" Clem was turning bright red.

"This is adorable." Louis teased as well.

Once we finished teasing her, it was my turn. "(Y/N), you don't have to do this." Clem said. The others shot looks at each other.

"It's fine Clem... I'll be fine." I paused and took a deep breath. "Yes, I sorta did have a boyfriend. Eventually he became my fiancé, and I was going to marry him. Thank god I killed that asshole. He just wanted sex. McCarroll Ranch was fucked up. All women were basically auctioned off to men so they could reproduce. They took away my freedom... I was only like 14... You don't do that to a child! I now wear the ring I was supposed to marry with around my neck as a reminder that I was a weakling that was stupid and useless." I finished. I took the necklace that held the ring out from my shirt and revealed the shiny piece of metal. I glared at the ring for a second. "They also gave me this..." I pointed to a small circle burned into my left collarbone. "It was a way to show that I was a taken woman." Everyone was silent. "Let's get out of my depressing story. Flip 'em over." We all did, and Marlon won.

"Ha. I win. So... You two couldn't have been alone all this time... who took care of you? Family? Friends?" Marlon questioned.

"Lee..." Clem started.

"And Kenny..." I finished. Clem was always attached to Lee. Yes, I was the same when he was around... but after we found Kenny again I didn't want to let go of him. Funny... Clem and I killed the people we loved the most.

"Lee was the first person to teach me about survival..." Clem said.

"What'd he teach you?" Marlon asked.

"Lots of things..."

"What was the most important thing?" Marlon pushed.

"How to say goodbye..." Clem finishes.

"What about you, (Y/N)? What did 'Kenny' teach you?" Violet asked.

"Don't end it because it's hard... Keep going for the people you love." I said almost quoting Kenny himself. We flipped our cards,

"I win again!" Clem said excitedly.

"You do indeed. Hey, (Y/N), I thought you use to play this all the time?" Louis said teasing me.

"I said I played it all the time not that I'm good at it, idiot." I sneered at him.

"Anyway ask away, Clementine." Louis said chuckling.

"What is the worst injury you have witnessed?" Clem asked.

"I saw a walker get hit in the head so hard, both of his eyeballs flew out. Pretty cool." Violet said proudly.

"I saw someone have their intestines out, like ALL the way out. It goes on for a while. We got a lot of guts." Louis said.

"I watched a man get his face beaten in with a crowbar, badly. There wasn't even any skin left."

"Ouch." Louis commented.

"Carver deserved it." I said blatantly. Everyone just stared at me. "What it's true!"

"It is true." Clem said backing me up.

"Let's just flip our cards already." Marlon said. We all flipped them over.

"Victory Violet. Here's something I like to ask while in groups. Out of the five of us, who do you think will die first?"

"Marlon." I said plainly. Clementine nodded in agreement to my statement.

"Oh, really?" Marlon said.

"That's what happened to almost everyone I know who tried to keep a group alive." I said full of sorrow.

"ALMOST everyone." Marlon reminded me.

Everyone flips their cards. "I am the greatest card player of all time."

"Just ask your damn question." Violet demands.

After Louis, Violet, and Clem going back and forth, Louis finally asks, "Ever had to kill someone you loved?"

"Louis." Marlon said scolding his friend.

"Hey, she wanted me to ask." Louis said defending himself.

"Lee. I killed Lee." Clem said. "It was the same day we found out our parents were dead... I shot him."

"That sounds like a rough day..." Louis said.

"Yeah. Worst day of my life..." Clem finished.

"I shot Kenny." I almost whispered.

"What... happened? What, like, led up to it.?" Violet asked.

"He was broken... he lost his wife, Katjaa, and child, Duck or Kenny Jr., in the beginning... and then he lost his second wife, Sarita, later... his heart broke... and he couldn't put it back together again. I did him a favor. Ended his pain." I felt a tear fall down my cheek.

"I think we're done playing for tonight..." Clem said standing up with me.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best..." Marlon said. I could hear Louis and Violet bickering as we walked away, probably about what he asked.

"C'mon AJ... say goodnight." Clem told AJ. He said his goodnight to Tenn before running over to us.

"Long day, huh?" Marlon said as he walked beside us.

"Yup... Real long..." Clem responded.

"Sorry about Louis... He's just the world's biggest dumbass... And I'm his best friend so I can legally call him that." He opened the door for us. "Now rest up, go feel human for a change, and then in the morning we can talk about making this long term."

"We can stay?" AJ asks.

"We'll talk about it." Marlon replied smiling. "I hope Mitch told you guys about sleeping arrangements?"

"Yep." Clem and I answered in sync.

"Good. Well goodnight." Marlon said before running back outside.

"I don't trust them yet..." I told Clem as we walked to her room. "I'll be nice... but for now I don't fully trust them... they are nice I guess though..."

"Trust them soon ok... I know you don't like the idea of groups... but they seem alright, have good a system, and are good with walkers..." Clem reasoned. I sighed and nodded my head.

"Fine... good night Clem." I hugged her and turned to AJ. "Good night goofball!" He gave me a disappointed look. "oh... right sorry. Good night... shitbird." I smiled and gave him a hug.

I walked away and found the room I woke up in. I knocked and heard a muffled, "It's unlocked." I walked in and saw Mitch sitting on his bed carving another weapon. He looked up and I gave him a small smile. He gave an even smaller smile and looked back at his weapon. I looked around and saw a closet. I grabbed the pair of jeans Ruby told me she would put in my room during dinner and walked into the small closet and shut it behind me. I guess it confused Mitch because he said, "What are you doing?"

"Changing? Would you rather me change out there?" I said sarcastically while trying to undo the zipper of the small shorts I wore.

"NO!" Mitch replied.

"That's what I thought." I sighed. It was silent for a bit while I struggled with the tiny zipper. "FUCK!" I screamed.

"What is it?" Mitch asked me quite irritated.

"Nothing important... I'll just ask Clementine for he- GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!" I screamed.

"WHAT THE HELL IS IT NOW!?" Mitch yelled at me.

"Clementine is probably asleep... how the hell am I supposed to do this now!" I spoke out loud to myself.

"Supposed to do what?" Mitch asked.

"It's... uh... quite embarrassing..." I said.

"Supposed... to... do.. WHAT!" He was really aggravated now.

"Unzip my stupid shorts! OK! Are you happy now!" I said flustered.

"You seriously don't know how to?" Mitch chuckled.

"NO! It isn't that! I've had these shorts since I was thirteen! They're small... and the zipper got stuck..." I said annoyed.

"Ugh... I'll help you... as long as you don't tell anyone... and I won't look..." He said.

"Shit... can't believe I'm doing this... close your damn eyes..." I said. I opened the closet door and walked over to where he was. His eyes were closed, and he had put his stuff down. "Just hurry up ok..."

"Planning on it." I looked away completely flustered as he messed with the zipper. We sat there for a couple of minutes before he got it undone. "Finally."

"Thank God." I ran into the closet and shut the door. "You're safe."

"Holy fuck. That zipper was stuck..." Mitch said.

"Yeah I know. It was on my body." I said while changing. "Thank god I shouldn't grow anymore..." I whispered. I opened the door of the closet. "Damn! These are comfortable!" I took off my goggles and boots and put them with the rest of my stuff. My weapons are with my stuff... Ruby must have put them there when she also put my jeans in here. Mitch was lying down in his bed facing the wall. I got under the bed and was about to fall asleep.

"Where the fuck did you go?" A confused Mitch questioned. I was too tired to respond so I just fell asleep. Though before I was fully unconscious... I felt myself being picked up by something warm and heard a soft, "You're safe here dumbass..."