Next period is science. Daryl leans back in the chair. He always sits with his back to the wall and all know this. The chair next to him is empty and he´s almost drifted off to sleep when the new girl sits down in it. He gives her a look and she just glares right back.
The teacher doesn´t call on him, they seldom do. He gets a little rest and wonders what he´ll do for food tonight. His options are limited; he can hope, that the old man has remembered, he has a kid and left some food in the house. He can try to shoplift or he can hunt. The last solution seems to be the best. They aren´t too fond of him at the supermarket.
After school, he gets the crossbow his Grandpa gave him before he died. Gramps was a drunk but not a mean one and if he hadn´t taught Daryl to hunt, there would have been a lot more hungry days in his life.
He gets a squirrel right away, so he decides to go to the lake. It´s a hot day and a soak would be nice. The lake is his secret place, it´s where he goes to relax and be alone.
He is about to remove his Metallica t-shirt when someone speaks.
"Umm." She says and he realises it´s that girl from class.
The thought that she almost saw his scarred body infuriates him. "What the fuck!" He says as he turns around. She is sitting behind some tall grass, that´s why he didn´t see her.
As she gets up, she pulls her shorts back on, and he realise, she was properly peeing.
He blushes and she does to. He has no idea what to say to her.
"So umm. I didn´t know anyone else comes here." She says.
"Well umm." He says, sounding like a moron.
"Hey is that your crossbow?"
"Yeah."
"Cool." She says, and adds "Your Daryl Dixon, right? My names Carol." Daryl wants to say that he don´t give a shit what the girls name is. Instead, he finds himself answering her question about his crossbow and shows her the squirrel he caught. Suddenly they´ve been talking for an hour, and some people might call the feeling, he is having, disappointment, when she has to go home.
Next day Carol sees him at lunch. He is sitting alone and she joins him. He seems a little startled and he has bruises on his face.
When she asks about them, he says he fell. Carols mom falls a lot too, so she knows not to pursue the subject.
"Tell me the truth," she says and he tenses "It was a squirrel, wasn´t it?" He shock them both by laughing and she joins him.
He is cute when he smiles.
"But seriously, I've been wondering, what do you do with all the pelts?" she says.
"Throw them out."
"You should save them. You could make something cool."
"What like a fur coat? Like some pimp coat?"
"No." She laughs, "I get your point but maybe you could make a blanket or something…"
"Maybe…" Both of them are silent for a while, lost in thought.
The next couple of weeks, she finds herself seeking out his company. It isn´t just, that she has no friends at this school or because they are both outcast. There´s something special about Daryl.
She´ll overhear the other kids complaining about how they didn´t get the shirt they wanted or how their parents did something unfair and it astonishes her how they can be so innocent about the world.
Life isn´t fair. Life is watching your Dad beat your Mom. Life is your Dad telling you, you are nothing. Life is painful.
But Daryl…without ever having said anything. She knows that he knows this too.