KAIYA'S POV:

I pulled my backpack out of my truck and looked through the bigger pocket. It might be the end of the world, but that's no reason to let my education be discontinued… or at least that's what Lori said.

I growled in annoyance and slung the backpack over my shoulder. "Even in the apocalypse I have homework," I grumbled, stomping away toward the motel.

Carol passed by me, smiling good-naturedly. I tried to smile back, but the prospect of returning to my algebra book (along with the fact that Carol was in cahoots with that traitor, Lori) made it feel like a scowl.

I walked into the motel, expecting it to be cooler inside, but it was just as sweltering in here as it was out there. Oh right… Zombie apocalypse = no AC.

"Backpack?" Glenn asked as I walked into the manager's office (which had become our makeshift living room).

I nodded. "Lori thinks I need to keep up my studies and set a good example for Carl and Sophia." I glanced over at the two kids, who were sitting at a small table, adding numbers and writing essays and whatnot.

Lori walked in, holding a 5th grade level English book. She handed it to Carl who grimaced.

"I feel your pain, little man," I muttered, holding my Spanish workbook up so he could see it.

"Okay, now get to work," Lori said, sternly pointing to our work and sitting down beside Glenn in the couch.

"Yes, mom," I said, play-glaring at her.

She chuckled.

"Why do I have to do this?" I asked, groaning. "I should be out with Shane, Rick, and Daryl, hunting for supplies in the city! It cant be even close to as dangerous as the terrible headache this work is going to give me."

She shook her head in exasperation. "You're still a high school student, regardless of your enrollment status."

"Damn," I whispered. I whined and let my head hang back as I sat at the table across from Carl and Sophia. I looked back and forth between them. "Either of you know Spanish?"

They giggled and shook their heads no.

I sighed, "Figures," and opened up the workbook, turning to the page I had left off on. I only had 3 or 4 more chapters left in the book. Maybe if I finished it, I wouldn't be forced to do this shit by Lori the slave-driver.

"I wish Miguel was still here. He knew Spanish." My stomach clenched up. My detached tone and the pained face I pulled made Glenn frown.

Lori, trying to keep me from being depressed, changed the subject. "So why do you hate Spanish so much? It seems like all I ever hear from you is griping about Spanish."

I gave her a flat look. "That was the one class I never understood a single thing in. It was like a foreign language or something. Plus… I'm convinced Spanish is the sole reason for the apocalypse. I was taking a Spanish final exam when I had my first run-in with a walker who ate the only other classmate who showed up for the test. I blame Spanish."

She raised a brow at me, but asked no questions.

I made it through about 4 questions in the time Sophia and Carl had finished their math homework and had been learning to play checkers with Glenn.

"Lori!" I whined pathetically. "Will you help me?"

She had been on her way out the door, but she stopped in the doorway and turned back to me with an unimpressed look. "Do I look like I speak Spanish?" She left the room.

I dropped my pen and stood, stretching my stiff legs.

I glanced back at Glenn and the kids. They were too preoccupied with the fact that Sophia was totally beating Glenn at checkers (she deserves a trophy; Glenn had kicked my ass at checkers since forever) to notice that I was about to sneak off and totally ditch my not-even-anywhere-near-half-way-done homework.

Merle would love to help with my academics neglecting behavior. Hell, if I knew Merle, he would probably give me the Dixon seal of approval just for tricking Lori.

Making sure the den mother from hell wasn't anywhere in the hallway, I knocked on Merle's door. He didn't answer and I got paranoid that Lori might be just around the corner.

"Merle, let me in," I hissed, knocking again.

The door opened, but it wasn't Merle that came out. Emily, holding her shoes in her hand and her shirt a bit lopsided, squeezed past me, avoiding my eyes. I watched her walk down the hall back to her room, my eyes wide and I'm sure my mouth was flopped open.

"Whatcha need, baby doll?" Merle asked, standing shirtless in the doorway.

I fought the urge to gag. How could he and Daryl be related? "Put a shirt on, old man." I pushed past him and entered the room. It was hot in the room, stickiness in the air all around us. "Smells like sex in here," I said, wrinkling my nose.

He closed the door and walked over to the bed, pulling on his old ripped up shirt and said, "So what do ya need?"

I sighed and sat on the floor, unwilling to sit on the bed. Ughh…

"Lori's making me do homework. I have had to kill my parents, learn about the existence of walkers, fall in love with a temperamental hillbilly close to twice my age, get lost in the woods after almost getting blown up, get my memory lost due to the trauma of being a rape victim, and after surviving all of that bullshit, I'm STILL not excused from handing in a report on Oliver Twist."

Merle's expression had hardened through my rant, around the part where I mentioned the rape that had happened to me multiple times after I was abducted by some hooligans who were now safely tucked away as the mush in the non-operating digestive system of a walker. Merle had become very protective of me, sort of like Glenn. Like a big brother, only… bigger.

"So I snuck out. I figured you could appreciate my lack of respect for our completely deteriorated educational system, so I came here. But I guess you were a little… busy?" I gave him a cocky grin.

He broke the hard mask he wore and chuckled, nodding. "She came in here askin' 'bout Daryl, ended up leavin' with a little taste o' Merle."

I retched (unsure if it was real or not) at his suggestive expression. "TMI, dude," I shuddered. Nappy. "So she was asking about Daryl?" I started slowly, trying not to sound too nosy-girlfriend (I still couldn't get over that title).

Her snooping was a bit suspicious. Way back when (meaning a couple weeks ago, before I developed and overcame amnesia), Daryl and I had come up with a plan to detract attention from our growing relationship and draw that attention toward the "relationships" we developed with other people while in public. We hadn't let them in on the little charade, but we snuck off to see each other often.

Emily had been Daryl's other woman. I was the first one though. So Emily could suck a big one if she was still hung up on him. But while I had been stuck in forgetfulness, she had apologized, requesting me to remember the talk we had when I regained my memory. She had been making atonements for all of the hateful things she had done to me. And I supposed it was time I womaned up and did the same to her.

But she had seemed to be over Daryl (I don't know how the fuck that happened; one does not simply "get over" Daryl Dixon). She had been keeping her distance from him and now she was asking about him again?

"Yeah, she just wanted to know if he had said anythin' 'bout her avoidin' him like a goddamn leper." So I wasn't just going crazy.

I nodded. "And… has he?"

He looked over at me, smirking. "Ya'd know better than me."

I looked away from his light-heatedly accusing gaze, face burning. "I haven't had sex with Daryl if that's what you're trying to say."

He shook his head. "Nah, that aint what I'm sayin' at all, baby doll. I'm just sayin' y'all talk to each other more than we do. Hell I aint had a meaningful conversation with that boy since we was in high school. So nah, I aint implyin' anythin'. Ya brought the sex thang up on yer own. Guilty conscience?"

I gave him a sneer. "Hardly."

Why did I hang out with him again?

"So why ya sittin' in the middle o' the floor?" he asked, looking around.

I glanced cautiously at the bed, surprisingly tidy for what I had almost walked in on. "I don't wanna sit up there where you two did the dirty. That's just gross."

He snorted, trying to hold in laughter.

"What?"

"We weren't on the bed." He stared pointedly at the ground under me.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. An intense wave of nausea swept over me and I surged to my feet, throwing the door open and running out into the hall with Merle's laughter following me out. But before I got halfway down the hall, I ran right into Lori. "Oh, fuck me sideways!"

So, I'm back and have brought another sequel with me. I made the first chapter kind of a random, lighthearted little goof so I could get back into the habit of Kaiya-ness after having to make her such a little goody-two-shoes during her amnesiac-attack. But anyway, it might take a while to get another chapter out since I have basically no idea what to put in here other than the plot between Shane and Merle to kill Rick. But then again, maybe I will have a lightbulb and post another chapter by tomorrow. Thanks for reading! Hope you guys liked it! Review! :)