Walking Dead: Dark Burdens
Chapter 1 of a new Walking Dead story, somewhat bigger than most of my other stories, dealing with controversial themes, so be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.
Broadly split into 3 parts, part 1 is 10 chapters long, so, let us begin.
Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead or its characters.
Chapter 1: New Day
'Why the hell do I have to wear this, damn that school…' The eighteen year old short girl thought to herself. 'Trust me to end up in a school with a goddamn uniform policy and get stuck wearing this…'
Even as she thought that she surveyed with distaste the school uniform as she made the final adjustment to the red ribbon tie that was part of it. The rest of the uniform consisted of a dark blue pleated skirt reaching mid-thigh length, a white tab collared blouse with a blue and gold insignia on the left breast pocket, white calf-high socks and dark blue flats. For the girl in question, the worst part was the skirt and sock, combined their length showed far too much of her legs for her liking. She was so pale and skinny and her long legs, long despite her only being five foot two, were the worst of it when it came to her skinniness, which in her view really showed with the uniform.
Brushing the heavy bangs of her short blonde hair out of her eyes she sighed. 'Might as well just have a sign pointing to me saying laugh at those skinny sticks, or my flat chest.'
The girl wasn't actually flat, being more average sized in her chest but, compared to some of her friends, she felt she might as well be. A pair of emerald green eyes set in a face with strong features finished her look as she turned away from the mirror and made her way out of her bedroom, dreading breakfast as much as anything else.
Of course the uniform was only one part of her problems at school, the other was her being the shy loner. She had friends, she supposed, but she wasn't really close to anyone. Not since the heartbreak of the rather messy public breakup she had at the start of the school year. Not that home was a refuge for her as was made clear to her once again as she reached the chipped kitchen table for breakfast. The apartment was a mess as always despite the best efforts of her mother to keep it tidy.
'Speaking of, I see mom is out to her first job of the day already.' The girl noticed.
Her mother was a harried looking woman of thirty-seven, also pale with blonde hair and green eyes, her hair was cut in a bob style and while she was thin she still looked healthier than her scrawny malnourished daughter. She was wearing the black pants, light blue blouse with nametag and black shoes she wore to her candy store job, one of a number of jobs she worked to try and make ends meet. Money that was, usually, drunk away by the other person in the room. Her father, tall and overweight from his drinking with brown hair, already thinning despite his age of only thirty-eight, dark brown red veined eyes and clad in stained jeans with a dark blue untucked rumpled shirt and brown boots. Already drinking this early in the morning.
"Fuck sake Amy, wanna make a little less noise." He snapped.
The girl's mother, Amy, merely sniffed. "Perhaps if you didn't put yourself into so many hangovers, there wouldn't be a problem, Graham."
Her father, Graham, growled at that. "You dare talk to me like…"
He trailed off, eyes narrowing, allowing Amy to leave without further confrontation, as his eyes landed on his daughter.
He sneered as she kept her face stoic and sat down to eat what meagre breakfast was available.
"So Violet, finally decided to grace us with your presence." He growled.
Violet just rolled her eyes. 'Who needs reality TV dramas when you've got us, the Adlon family.'
"Don't you sass me, you stuck up little-" Her father snapped. "Like you have any right to judge me, wearing that thing, flaunting yourself."
Violet finally narrowed her eyes and shot back. "I'm supposed to wear it, it's the damn uniform and you know it, you put me in that school."
"Not that damn short, it's not."
She shook her head, focusing on eating, despite the fact her insides squirmed with fear as they always did around her father. He had once been an engineer, until his best friend seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, at which point he began drinking heavily and as she and her mother soon learned, he was a very nasty drunk, frequently abusive towards them. Then he was fired from his job for being intoxicated at work and things just spiralled downwards from there. But for Violet, the worst part was the fear, the fear that he would discover her secret, she feared her mothers reaction too, for although her father was more fervent, some would say manically so, both her parents were religious and so she hide a 'terrible secret' from them. One that she was glad remained secret as she finished breakfast and quickly left for school before her father could start up again. The secret that her breakup had been from a girl, the secret of her sexuality.
XXXXX
In another part of town, in an actual home, not the sort a rich well connected family would live, but still quite notable, well off, reasonably large with an expansive back garden and well maintained front lawn, lived another family. It was unusual in that no members of the family were connected by blood, but the love and care they showed each other was still strong. One member of that family had just finished getting dressed, attending the same school as Violet Adlon, her uniform was the same. The girl was sixteen, only five foot one but had an athletic build which hinted at her true, remarkable strength, her average sized figure was still viewed favourably by some boys, the more perverted ones focusing on her average sized chest naturally, but she had long since made it clear that no one got fresh with her and got away with it. She adjusted her tie, her skirt and made sure she was presentable for the day ahead before tying her somewhat short curly brown hair into her usual small twin ponytails. By far however, the most aesthetically pleasing parts of the girls appearance were her striking golden brown eyes, framed with long lashes which she had inherited from her late mother. While not completely African-American like her father, she inherited enough of said heritage to be considered as such, with a pleasant caramel skin tone which in the eyes of many heightened her beauty. With a nod she left her room and headed down to join her family for breakfast.
Despite the beauty many people, boys in particular, claimed she had, the girl didn't see herself as such, rather simply seeing herself as average and being happy with that. Although, there was one exception, one person she hoped would see her that way, the one whom she was crushing on.
"Clementine?"
The girl, Clementine Hutchison, started as she realized she had been daydreaming.
"Sorry, was just…" She stammered, biting her lip to suppress a small smile.
The woman who had called her name did no such suppression, smiling as she shook her head. She was reasonably tall with brown skin and long brown hair tied in a bun, dark brown eyes sparkled with merriment as she shook her head.
"Well, now you're with us, sit down and eat, can't have you going hungry, can we?" She remarked jovially.
Clementine laughed. "Thanks Christa, Morning Omid."
The man already seated at the table nodded, grinning. His name was Omid Thomas, slightly shorter than Christa Junot, his fiance, with whom he was close in age. He had short dark hair, dark eyes and stubble, as well as an olive skin tone, and like Christa, was dressed for the day ahead. Christa in a black pencil skirt, purple blouse and black flats, Omid in khaki pants, a brown shirt and black shoes.
The final member of the household was five year old Alvin Jr. 'AJ' Lockett. He had been adopted by Christa and Omid, at Clementine's pleading, after the untimely death of his parents, Alvin Lockett Sr. and Rebecca Lockett. He grinned up at Clem, a typical excitable five year old with light brown skin, brown afro hair with matching brown eyes, skinny but still having some baby fat and dressed for his day at Kindergarten. Much like Clementine's school, AJ's kindergarten had it's own uniform policy, somewhat connected as most students from said Kindergarten would go to a connecting elementary, then middle school before going to the exact same high school that Clem was at. As such AJ was dressed in the blue school issue shorts with a yellow shirt and blue high socks, blue shoes and a blue and yellow tie.
"Hey Clem." He greeted her enthusiastically.
Clementine smiled as he took a mouthful of cereal. "Morning goof-ball."
AJ pouted. "Clem, you know I hate that."
"And you know what we've said about talking with your mouth full, young man." Clementine shot back with a grin.
AJ swallowed and pouted again before laughing, as did the others before they settled in to enjoy breakfast.
Over breakfast they made simple easy conversation, mostly asking Clementine about her friends, her classwork, her grades. Asking AJ about how things were going at Kindergarten to which he, following Clementine's example, answering openly and honestly. It was that openness and honesty with each other that not only drew them close together as a loving family, even without the usual blood ties, but also meant that Christa's next question was not an awkward or difficult one, at least not in the way it usually was.
"What about what we spoke of last week, about this...crush of yours?" She queried.
Clem shrugged. "I...yeah, there is someone like I said. I just...I'm not sure how to approach her, not sure how she feels."
Their expressions barely flickered. While open and honest with each other it was only recently Clem had worked up the courage to come out and reveal her bisexuality to Christa and Omid. AJ as well for if there was one person she would never lie to or keep secrets from, it was him. To her great relief they had all been accepting, if a little confused at first in AJ's case.
"Well Clem, you should talk to her." Omid encouraged.
Christa nodded. "Yes, even if you can't let on how you feel, talking to this girl would be an important first step."
Clementine smiled at that, nodding, taking their advice to heart as they finished breakfast and began leaving the house, Omid and Christa going to drop AJ off at Kindergarten while Clem caught the bus to school.
XXXXX
Entering school, trying to stay quiet and out of view, Violet looked around carefully. Avoiding the ones she knew were nightmares, she nevertheless managed a shadow of a smile whenever she was greeting by people she knew well enough to almost call them friends, particularly since they knew her secret, but thankfully still seemed to accept her.
'Still can't believe it but they...they don't seem to mind about me being, attracted to girls.' She mused.
The first two she noticed were two boys, best friends, chatting away but stopping to say hello to her. They were dressed in the boys uniform, dark blue trousers with white socks and dark blue shoes, a white shirt with a blue and gold insignia on the left breast pocket and a red tie. The only other part of the uniform was the gym uniform which was unisex, consisting of a pair of black mid-thigh shorts, a plain white T-shirt with white ankle socks and black sneakers. Violet couldn't deny, despite not being attracted to boys, the two she had seen, Louis Sulieman and Marlon Chase were good looking boys, both eighteen. But Louis was far too busy with lame jokes and puns and Marlon was too busy trying to cultivate a bad boy image to give much attention to dating. Both were tall, Louis had medium length dreadlocked brown hair and brown eyes with light brown skin and a lanky build while Marlon was somewhat stockier with muscle with a blonde, slightly ragged looking, mullet, green eyes and fair skin.
Shaking her head at the silent invitation to join them she turned to go and head to her first class. As she did so she spotted two other people she could consider friends. A tall eighteen year old young man with medium length brown hair parted over his left eyebrow, brown eyes and fair skin, Mitch Daymond. The other was Omar Silverstein, a slightly chubby dark skinned sixteen year old man with brown afro hair, brown eyes and a casual smile.
'All these boys who know the real me...plus two other girls, that's it really…' Violet thought to herself. 'God, I was always so nervous about them finding out...only because I ended up dating a friend of theirs. But, but even after all this time, they've not told anybody. They know I'm not ready.'
"Violet, hey, how are you?"
She started but then smiled lightly. "Hi Brody."
Despite herself she couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of the girl before her, despite their friendship. Brody Burress, a girl of above medium height with fair skin, long auburn hair tied in a ponytail with light blue eyes and full lips, she also had quite a generous figure, being notably busty and round and while she had long legs like Violet, hers weren't skinny sticks but healthy, with somewhat thick thighs which only increased her sex appeal.
Violet controlled those spikes of jealousy however, valuing her friendship with Brody more, if she had to admit it she was closer to Brody than the others that knew the truth about her. In fact Brody was the first to find out after Violet had, in a fit of stupidity brought on by Brody's model-esque beauty, tried to flirt with her. Brody had taken it well thankfully, just quietly admitted to Violet she was straight. It was weeks before Violet could even look at Brody after that.
"Off in your own world again, huh?" The remaining girl joked; in a distinctly southern accent.
Violet shrugged. "Yeah, sorry um...was just going to class, you know Ruby."
Ruby Hillis nodded, smiling too. In contrast to Brody, Ruby disliked the uniform as much as Violet, albeit for different reasons. She was no taller than five foot six with short red hair and blue eyes, pale skin with freckles but her reasons for disliking the uniform was her build. Compared to Brody or Violet, Ruby was chubby albeit still as busty as Brody was.
Ruby nodded. "True, we better hurry, it's almost time for class after all. Some of us can't afford to be late again huh."
"Yeah." Brody agreed. "We better warn the boys. See you later Vi."
Violet nodded and continued on her way.
XXXXX
Arriving at school herself, Clementine met her friends almost immediately, two boys and two girls. Both girls were taller than Clem, around five foot five. The first had short but thick black hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders, olive toned skin with soft brown eyes behind red framed slightly thick glasses, she was skinny, rather petite. The other girl was also petite with shoulder length brown hair with thick eyebrows and brown eyes as well as light tan skin. Their names were, respectively Sarah Chaikin and Becca Jones.
"Hey guys, Sarah, Becca." She greeted them.
Both girls smiled, greeting her too, the boys smiled too.
Clementine nodded to the boy who was next to Sarah, her oldest friend whom she had known since she was eight, he was currently eighteen, two years older than her, the same as Sarah and Becca. He was lanky with short brown hair, brown eyes and fair skin with prominent ears, Kenny Hammon Jr. better known to those who were close to him as Duck.
"So Clem, what's up?" He asked. "You look like you're on a mission?"
She shrugged. "Well, I kinda am. I was talking to Omid and Christa this morning and they gave me some advice, encouragement."
They all gasped, surprise, the last boy, her ex-boyfriend notably reacted.
"Wait, really?" He asked. "You're gonna ask Violet?"
Clementine shrugged. "I'm gonna try and talk to her at least, Gabe."
Gabe was Gabriel Garcia, seventeen and tallest of the five of them with short messy brown hair, brown eyes and tanned skin from his Cuban heritage, a toned athletic build and, somewhat against the rules, his usual orange beanie.
She and Gabe had dated when they were younger, he was fifteen, she was fourteen. Their relationship ended at the start of the year, thankfully amicably. They both admitted that things weren't working anymore and drifted apart. As it was they all knew about her crush on Violet now and now she had just explained how she planned to at least go and talk to her, at last.
He grinned at that. "Well, good luck Clem. You'll do it, I know you will."
The others nodded in agreement, offering their own words of encouragement, making Clem smile.
"Thanks guys, okay, I'm gonna go try and catch her before class starts." She said.
With that she bid the others farewell and made her way to her first class, which she knew, much to her relief, she shared with Violet.
XXXXX
Meanwhile Violet was on her way to her class, lost in thought as per usual, her one solace and the only place where she felt completely secure. At least until she was interrupted by walking into someone.
"Oh shi-sorry." She burst out, only to stammer and taper off.
The girl she walked into glowered. "I should think so, Violet."
She swallowed nervously, her face heating up. For standing before her was an eighteen year old tall girl, easily five foot eight with short red hair, the left side shaved, cold blue eyes and a scar in her left eyebrow and an average body that was still enough to turn heads of the boys who walked past. In fact in spite of the scar she, like Brody had what could be considered a models level of beauty. But it was a waste of time, she wasn't interested in boys either, for she was indeed Violet's ex, Minerva Leigh. She wasn't alone either, standing with her was her twin sister Sophie Leigh, the only way to tell them apart being Sophie lacking a scar and having long hair instead, still equally beautiful. She also had warmer eyes.
"M-Minnie…" Violet stammered.
The girl just snorted and didn't say anything. Sophie however smiled, still kind despite the awkwardness that reigned between her and Minerva, that had been there ever since their breakup.
"Hi Violet." Sophie said kindly. "How are you doing?"
She swallowed nervously. "I...I'm fine, thanks."
Still Minerva said nothing, shifting, looking surprisingly awkward. She glanced at her phone and her eyes widened.
"We better get going Sophie, don't wanna be late." She said suddenly.
Sophie nodded slowly. "Um sure. See you later Vi."
Violet just nodded and watched as they left, sighing with relief as the awkwardness passed and she made her way to her first class, already wanting the day to be over.
Finally reaching her first class, Violet leaned against the wall and let out a sigh of relief. Slowly taking out her phone she checked it. It was a miracle she had a phone at all, it was an old model of course, but even that had stretched her finances.
"Hey morning, um, Violet?" A voice caught her attention. "Violet Adlon?"
Violet looked up, wondering who on earth would be talking to her at that moment. She froze, eyes going wide as she saw who it was, the last person she ever expected to talk to her.
It was Clementine Hutchison.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.