A/N - Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows they mean a lot! I should probably mention that Lori is going to be a bit difficult at first, but she is someone who I want you all to see change and progress over time. Again thank-you and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 2: First Steps
"Oh, so you finally decided to show up, huh?" Rosita joked as she placed her hand on her hip with a raised eyebrow.
The boys had been fifteen minutes late. All the other groups had gone on and went down the dirt path that led to the lake to look at some of the summer activities available for the six-week stay while their group stayed and waited for their other half.
"Sorry, we got held up…" Abraham looked around and noticed that no other group was around, "So, what did we miss?" He questioned with a sheepish smile.
"Everything and then some." The brunette named Lori complained.
Abraham looked at the girl blankly then turned to the boys standing behind him with a brow raised. "Right," He finally spoke, turning back around to Rosita. "We better get started so we can catch up with the others."
"If that's even possible." The girl, Lori, interrupted again.
Rosita held back a laugh as she motioned for the boys to come closer and make a circle. "Okay guys, we are going to do a quick ice breaker and every time we meet up we will be doing one so get used to it now." She smiled up at Abraham when the kids sighed and moaned in disappointment. "Okay, okay, we get it. Now, Abraham, would you like to explain the ice breaker?"
Abraham cleared his voice, "So, since I already know that not all of you know each other, we are going to name someone who was or is an inspirational person in our life and how they were inspirational. We will go around in a circle starting with me then go to my left, got it?" The tall, young man directed.
"Got it." The rest of the group, including Rosita, simultaneously agreed.
Abraham nodded once then started in, "Someone who I found, and still find, very inspirational is a young woman. From what I have observed she is very hard working, strong, independent, smart, patient, and I have learned a lot from this woman just by working with her. You all know her as Miss Rosita." Abraham glanced at Rosita with a small smile. He smirked when her cheeks flushed to the same color as his red hair.
The girls in the group glanced between the two with smiles plastered across their faces. While the boys all cocked an eyebrow at the same time. Abraham and Rosita weren't together, but there was a spark of something when they were in each other's presence. Abraham was very clueless as to when a woman was flirting with him and, apparently, he didn't realize when he was flirting back.
Abraham took his gaze off Rosita and turned it to the group, "Your turn, Lori."
Lori huffed and thought for a minute before she spoke, "My dad is someone that inspires me because when I get older I want to be a woman of power and get the things that I want when I want. Oh, and earn lots of money just like him."
Abraham nodded, then motioned to Carol who bit the bottom of her lip. "Go on, hon." He said reassuringly.
Carol felt her palms sweat. 'So what, you can stop a boy fight but not share a small little thing about yourself!?' She thought to herself. She could feel people turning to her so she sucked it up and stopped herself from blushing out of embarrassment. "My mom." Carol shrugged, seeing from the corner of her eye that he, Daryl Dixon, was staring at her with all his force. "She does good things for people all of the time and I think that takes a lot of guts because not everyone is nice." Carol took a quick glance over to Daryl, as he put his head down, so did she.
Michonne nodded once she figured it was her time to share, "Mmm, I'd say my teacher. She's really smart and I want to know a lot of things like her one day." She kept it short and sweet so that she didn't have Rick's attention on her any more but unfortunately his blue eyes were glued to her even as Glenn started in.
"My mom because she's able to keep my three sisters from tearing me apart." He looked around the group and seeing some of the guys chuckle quickly explained, "They're monsters, I promise!" He assured, hoping he doesn't seem like a wimp - especially in front of the beautiful country girl, Maggie.
Tara shook her head. "My old eighth grade teacher because I never knew one human being could be so evil, and that inspires me to be even more evil than her." Tara said, determination in her tone, as she received a smirk from Abraham.
Shane cleared his throat. He really didn't want to be there but there was no way he could go home so, he told himself he would stay just for the 'hot babes'. "I inspire myself. Each day I strive to be a better person. It's kinda hard with how awesome I already am but y'know..." He turned to look at Kelly, who had her brow raised, and winked at her, causing her to narrow her eyes in annoyance.
Rick looked nervous. He had thought of something sweet to say after seeing that his best friend had offended pretty much all the girls in their group with the 'I inspire myself' bit. He also wanted to impress a certain girl with dreadlocks. "To be completely honest, girls and women in general inspire me. Women have proven that they're able to complete the same tasks as men, if not do it better and they're also known to have accomplished greater things than men… I mean, look at Carol. What she did earlier was pretty brave getting in between Daryl and Shane like that." Rick gave Carol a nod and a small smile as she appeared shocked. He looked in Michonne's direction, to his surprise, she was looking him in the eyes with a kind smile on her face. All that he said was true, but seeing her make eye contact with him for the first time was icing on the cake.
Kelly didn't mind speaking to a group of people, since she would always talk to co-workers at both her dads' business offices, but she was a bit nervous now because she honestly hadn't thought of her answer as the others shared their own responses. "Mm, I'm not sure... my dads inspire me to be a good person and do the right thing." Kelly shrugged.
"That's a great example." Rosita assured.
"Dads, did she say dads?" Abraham whispered to Lori who stood next to him.
Lori looked up at the tall man with a reassuring nod that he had heard right.
Abe nodded looking back at Kelly, "Well okay then." He said to himself with a few nods.
Daryl stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. "My brother." He muttered. "'Cause he's my brother, no matter what."
Rosita smiled at Daryl when he glanced at her. Now, it was her turn and she already knew what she was going to say, "Well, what kind of person would I be if I didn't say Abraham?" She smiled at him as some of the girls giggled. Maggie who stood in between the two felt a bit awkward. "He's a good and caring person who's always there for me when I need him. Plus he puts up with me all summer long and that inspires me to be as calm as he is." She smiled at him again and he returned a kind smile back.
Maggie had already thought of her answer, seeing as she was the last person to go, she had more than just enough time. "There isn't really one specific person who inspires me because everyone inspires me. Knowing that there's so many different types of people in this world inspires me to be different." She said with a sweet and kind smile which everyone returned, even Daryl.
"That was very good guys. Now lets join the others." The group broke into a line as they made their way to the camp grounds by the lake.
Rick caught up with Maggie, "Wow, you've got us all on your side now." He joked with the younger girl.
Maggie looked over to him, then looked up at the tall trees they walked passed, "Yeah? You too, Mr. Girls-Rule, very touching by the way." Rick smiled at that and when he looked ahead to glance at Michonne, Maggie noticed and shook her head. "We've only been here what? Two hours."
Rick shot his head back at her nervously, "Yeah, so?"
"So, you look at Michonne like she's your soulmate. How 'bout you talk to her before you decide to marry her." Maggie simply suggested.
Rick raised a brow, "You're probably right. Thanks, for the advice…" He rubbed the back of his head nervously and began to walk faster to catch up with Michonne.
Kelly smiled and held back a giggle when she saw Rick pass by her, almost tripping over his own feet. As she watched Rick make his way to Michonne, she noticed Shane look back at her and he slowed down immediately. Now she wished she was talking with somebody because the last thing she wanted was Shane's annoying presence around her.
"Hey, how's your day going?" He asked once she reached him.
"It was going good." She folded her arms across her chest. She looked behind her to see two quiet group members walking side by side.
Carol smiled at Kelly when she looked back at her but it only put more attention on her from the quiet boy next to her. She didn't know why Daryl kept close to her, but she didn't mind it. He was a good looking guy but she knew a guy like him could never like a girl like her.
'Why is she so nice lookin'? She would never fall for a loser like me… it jus' doesn't happen.' Daryl thought. He made himself mad enough to let out a grunt.
Carol looked up at him, "You okay?" She asked nicely.
'Am I okay? No one's really asked me that before.' Daryl withdrew from his thoughts and glanced at her. "What's it to you?" He didn't mean for his voice to sound so harsh, but unfortunately it did.
Carol shrugged, "The assurance that one of my group members doesn't die on me." She glanced at him as he let out a smirk.
"No, then." He answered as he saw her, from the corner of his eye, looking up at him with a worried expression. "Was wondering..." He shrugged.
"Wondering what?" She felt her heart race and butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.
"Was wonderin' why the hell did you get in front of me? I could have socked that punk kid square in his face." Daryl kept walking not looking at her reaction.
Carol's heart stopped racing and the butterflies all died. She turned the other way so he wouldn't see her roll her eyes. "Sorry I ruined your chance." Carol noted in a tone that sounded like she was annoyed.
"S'not the point. I coulda socked that kid in the face, then you got in the way… meaning I coulda socked you in the face... It was just dangerous to do what you did." He rushed the words out, seeing he had upset her. Why the hell did he even care if he made her upset? He never cared before.
Carol hide her smile from him and the butterflies were somehow resurrected, but she decided to play it 'cool'. "I guess." She also shrugged, nonchalantly.
"So why'd ya do it?" He pressed.
"I don't know. Nobody else was, so I did." She felt her cheeks heat up.
"You coulda got hurt… I'm sure you know that now... thank you, is what I'm tryin' ta say here." He cleared his throat as he dared to take a glance at her but again both of their eyes met for what seemed like the longest moment.
"Okay, we're here!" Abraham, who had lead the way with Rosita, announced.
The kids all looked around taking in the sights of all the activities they could do from zip lining to water skiing, rock climbing, cliff jumping, bike racing, and other fun summer sports.
"Summer camp just got interesting." Michonne said in awe. The rest of the group, who stood behind her, nodded slowly in agreement as they took in the sights.
Rosita and Abraham laughed to themselves seeing their kids' reactions to the activities. "Hey guys… guys!" Rosita snapped her fingers in front of them, as they slowly and simultaneously turned their heads to her as they were still trying to take in everything. "Now that I have your attention… I need you all to pair up!" She said cheerfully.
"Pair up?" Shane asked rudely.
"Yes, pair up, did she stutter?" Abraham enforced.
Rosita turned to Abraham with a 'knock it off' face. "Yes, pair up. It has to be someone from the opposite gender, I understand that we have less boys, so two girls will need to pair up with each other. I'll pick the two most responsible girls before you all start fighting each other." Rosita assured.
"Well who's the two?" Kelly persisted.
"Um…" Rosita looked at the six girls who tried putting their best innocent face on and all she could do was smile. "I'll say... Tara and Lori."
Lori smiled, "Yes, yes, yes!" She squealed, happy she wasn't pair with a boy, because she wasn't good in physical sports - unless you counted cheer leading and gymnastics which going by the activities by the lake wasn't really an option - and didn't want to be an embarrassment.
Kelly looked disappointed, "Thought you were picking the most responsible." She mumbled.
"Kelly stop." Abraham demanded as she rolled her eyes. "Keep rolling your eyes and they're going to get stuck like that, and that goes for all of you. No more eye rolls." He pointed out.
"Everyone pick your pair. Your partner is going to be the one you're spending all day with tomorrow so choose wisely." Rosita mentioned.
The group that was strangely divided by girls on one side and boys on the other, turned to make eye contact with who they'd pair up with.
Maggie kept her eyes on the ground. She didn't want to be paired with a boy because she would feel uncomfortable. She especially didn't want to be paired with any of the boys in her group, seeing that most of them were older than her. She lifted her eyes off the ground and her cheeks flushed red when they landed on a boy standing a little too close for comfort.
"Glenn?" Maggie sighed, stepping back a little. She was glad to see it was just Glenn and not one of the other guys. Glenn, to her, was just some weird kid who tried to be funny from what she observed. She didn't even have the slightest crush on him… he was just there...
Glenn knew it would be a bold move to walk to Maggie as fast as he did. He didn't want any of the other guys getting to her, and he knew she would be one of the first to go since she was so beautiful. In just the two short hours that he had known her, Glenn all ready thought the world of Maggie. He also made it official (to himself) that she was the prettiest girls he had ever laid eyes on. He lit up seeing that he caused her to blush. "Is it cool if we're partners?" He decided to play it off 'cool' as if she were the one who had a crush on him.
Maggie titled her head at his strange behavior, and shrugged. "Sure… why not?"
"Oh cool, cool, so tomorrow then?" He again acted in a different light.
She thought the way he began to act was definitely weird… weirder than usual. "Tomorrow then." She decided to smile and be polite, but it only encouraged his strange behavior, as he went on about how he was forced to come here and how he had planned to get buff this summer.
Carol watched as Tara pouted, complaining about something along the lines of wanting to be paired with a boy so she could have competitions and beat them. Carol smiled to herself then looked over, now she was panicked. The only boy she felt she would be comfortable with was Glenn but Maggie was already paired with him. Carol definitely didn't want to be paired with Shane, he gave off a weird vibe and was happy when he started heading off into Kelly's direction. Turning around to look for Rick, she realized why Shane veered in the other direction… it was him again.
"So, looks like it's just me and you!" Shane said putting his arm over Kelly's shoulders which she quickly shrugged off.
"You're right... I guess it's your lucky day." She stated. She felt disappointed at the turn of events, she thought she would be paired with someone... more decent than Shane.
"No, I feel like tomorrow will be… you know, when we spend all day together." He winked at her adding, "We should sneak away maybe, just you and me, fooling around… if you know what I mean."
Kelly raised a brow, "Yeah, then I could get pregnant and put you on child support for the rest of your life... sounds like a great plan at the age of fifteen." She sarcastically put as Shane swallowed hard. "Shane, why can't you just be a gentleman? Then maybe you could get a nice girl like me."
"I could get you?" He questioned missing the whole point.
"No, I said 'like me,' you're not lucky enough to get the real thing." She joked as he smirked. She was stuck with him for all of tomorrow so she was going to have to make this work before she turned crazy. Besides what was the worst that could happen?
Daryl walked slowly to Carol. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and his eyes on the ground as Carol watched him make his way, slowly but surely, over to her. "We don't have ta be partners, but I think you're the only girl here who isn't afraid of me." He said, looking up at her with a shy smile.
Carol smiled back as she nodded. "I don't mind. Would rather have you than him." Carol nodded over to Shane who pulled a flower out of the ground and was trying to give it to a very annoyed Kelly who kept telling him to not pull the flowers out.
Both Daryl and Carol laughed as they turned back to each other.
Rick walked over to Michonne as she folded her arms, not surprised he was going to her. "You gonna talk to me now?" She question as he gave her a confused look. "Really? You caught up to me on the trail but you didn't even say a word." She pointed out.
Rick felt a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just... I didn't know what to say." He shrugged.
Michonne nodded. "It's alright, besides, whether we like it or not, we are going to have all day to get to know each other tomorrow." She lightly smiled as a wave of anxiety crashed over her from realizing she was going to spend all day with him.
Rick nodded, looking around to the other pairs and then over to Abe and Rosita who had been talking with other camp leaders. As he was turning his gaze back on Michonne, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye that caught his attention. "Guys!" Rick called to the others, as they slowly walked over to him. Again they created a circle. "Do we like this place?" He asked, as if they were all one person.
"We?" Lori asked, "I like the sound of that." She added, mostly to herself, but all of the group heard, as they nodded along.
Daryl looked around, even if he didn't want to admit it, he definitely did not want to leave now. "We like it here." He spoke, and for the first time, it didn't come out as a grumble or a growl.
"Alright, good." Rick said a bit weary for what he was about to tell them next. He looked back at the large wooden tournament bracket board that was set up on a raised platform that he noticed earlier to make sure the information he gathered was right. He turned back to the group and saw some confused faces.
"What is it Rick?" Lori asked, placing a gentle hand on Rick's shoulder.
"I think this is competitive." He said at once.
Kelly shook her head. "I don't know what you mean, competitive what?"
"Competitive sports." He said, still a bit weary.
Lori's mouth dropped. "What…what, what-"
"What she is trying to say, is … what the fuck!?" Tara interrupted, "I'm good in sports but I wouldn't say I'm the best and I can't pull the weight of the rest of the group."
"Rick, what are we going to do?" Lori asked, as if she were a damsel in distress.
Rick swallowed hard, the group was looking at him as though he had all the answers. He put on a straight face, stood up taller and said, "We show them what we got. We give them the best that we got."
Glenn bit the bottom of his lip, "Rick? What is it that we got?"
Rick thought for a short moment, he was a quick thinker thanks to all the times Shane landed the both of them in the principal's office back at his high school. "Well, look at us. None of us showed that we cared when we got here. That's good because it shows that we all have a good poker face. We'll be able to show our opponents that no matter what their size is or what they say we aren't intimidated by them. You guys are brave, and capable, and I can tell you right now that nobody is going to mess with Dixon." Rick nodded to his taller group member.
"How is that good for us?" Carol questioned, head tilted to the side.
"'Cause if no one messes with him, no one messes with us. We are a group and we take care of each other." Rick explained as Daryl nodded in agreement. "This is only the first day and I think we've made quite a bit progress, if I say so myself."
"I still really wish this wasn't competitive." Kelly complained.
"Hey, it's like you said earlier, let's make the best of this." Michonne smiled back when her friend smiled at her.
"Hey Guys?" Rosita questioned. The quiet whispers coming from the tight huddle the kids were in worried her that maybe they were planning an escape route out of the camp. "What are we talking about?"
"Nothing, I'm getting kinda hungry, though." Tara said, patting her stomach, as Kelly and Glenn nodded along.
"Well, I was just about to tell you all it's dinner time." Rosita smiled, placing her hand on her hip after hearing a few sighs of relief.
Hope you enjoyed... but what is going to happen when they spend the day with their pair? Guess you'll see next chapter! See you soon, and don't forget:
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...Until Next Time...