Clementine had stowed her gear in the garage and retired to the bathroom to get cleaned up. Sarah had washed a dress Clem liked in preparation of the party, suspecting Clem would like to celebrate in something more festive than jeans and an old polyester jacket. With functional plumbing being largely a thing of the past, Clem made do the best she could with a small rag and a cup of water.

After donning her dress, Clem examined her reflection in the mirror. The dress was a striking shade of red that hung down just above her knees and seemed to contrast nicely with her light brown skin. Looking at her hair, the young girl removed the elastic tie, pulled her hair out of a bun and reached for a brush. After getting most of the tangles out of her curly hair, Clem took one more second to admire her reflection. Looking at herself, dressed in red and her hair neatly brushed, Clem felt like she was ready to party.

Leaving the bathroom, Clementine found a roaring fire that cast a warm glow over the living room. Leaning over the couch, Clem discovered Sarah sitting on the floor arranging something on the coffee table. Moving closer, she saw a pair of plates and glasses set between a single candle sitting in the middle of the table.

"Clem, come sit down." Clementine eagerly obliged, taking her place on the other side of the coffee table. Looking at the meal Sarah had prepared, Clem found herself shocked by what she found.

"Peaches, pears, and…" Checking the glass, Clem was surprised to find it was warm to the touch. "Is this hot chocolate?"

"I used one of those instant hot cocoa packets."

"Yeah, but… I thought we ran out of this stuff."

"When I noticed we were almost out, I hid two of each in the Brave."

"Why?"

"So it'd be a surprise for your birthday."

"But, that was like two months ago, I think," recalled Clem. "You were planning this back then?"

"There's not much else to do around here. You're not mad I did that, are you?"

"Mad? This is amazing. I can't believe you did this for me, and when I was in the bathroom just now."

"I had most of it under the coffee table," said Sarah. "And you were in there for a while."

"It wasn't that long."

"It was pretty long," noted Sarah with a smirk. "I mean, I had enough time to start a fire and warm up the water for the hot chocolate."

"I was brushing my hair, and there's a lot to brush," reasoned Clem. "I wanted to look nice for you. Do you think you I look nice?"

"You're beautiful." Sarah's swift and sincere response surprised Clem. Looking at Sarah smiling sweetly at her from across the table, Clementine suddenly felt her cheeks blush. She was overwhelmed by Sarah's kindness, so much that she suddenly had to look away from her.

"What's wrong?" asked Sarah.

"I… I didn't do anything for your fourteenth birthday."

Sarah reached across the table and gripped Clem's hands. "You've done more for me than I could ever ask," professed Sarah. "A good birthday is the least I can do for my best friend." Clem turned back to Sarah and found herself unable to ignore the older girl's sincerity.

"Thank you." Sarah released Clem's hands, which immediately reached for a fork set next to the plate.

"Wait." Sarah placed the portable CD player on the table and pressed play. "I figured since it was just the two of us, it'd be nice to have some relaxing music for dinner." Clementine listened as the sound of a classical orchestra playing a soothing melody filled her ears.

"It's perfect." Clem figured she should save the chocolate for dessert, then decided it was her birthday and she shouldn't have to wait. Powdered hot chocolate wasn't quite as good as real hot chocolate, which Clementine realized she only had a passing memory of anymore, but it was still a much better treat than just plain water, and heating it up first almost made it seem like the real thing.

The peaches and pears were delectable too. Clem didn't necessarily like most canned goods, but canned fruits were usually an exception. She had regretted going through most of them so quickly, but tasting those succulent morsels in her mouth made her remember why she had eaten them so often. Her favorite part was the sweet syrup that came with the fruit. Sarah must have realized that, as there was no shortage of that sticky goodness sitting on Clem's plate, or on her hands now.

"Thank you so much for this Sarah," said Clem as she licked some of the syrup off her spoon.

"You're welcome," said Sarah as she took a sip of the hot chocolate. "It's the least I can do for you. Living here, these last few months, with you, have been great. Well, not great, but—"

"They have been great," insisted Clem with a smile.

"It feels weird saying that, but you're right. Even with everything that's happened, living here has been… great," realized Sarah.

"Yeah, when we're not taking care of OJ, or getting stuff we need, we get to do whatever we want. It's like being on summer vacation."

"Yeah, but now the summer is ending…" Clem looked over at Sarah, noting the concern on her face. "I'm… I'm sorry," apologized the older girl. "Like you said, we'll worry about that tomorrow."

"Just think about the fun stuff we did," suggested Clem. "Like when I brought all those dresses back from that one house and we just spent all day trying them on."

"I think that was more fun for you than me. I don't like wearing dresses."

"I wish you did, you look really good in a dress."

"I still remember when you brought home all those CD's, and we started fighting over which ones were better."

"Only because you wanted to keep listening to that Floyd stuff."

"It's really good if you give it a chance."

"That's what started the fight; their songs went on forever and you kept insisting you listen to one more before I got my turn."

"That's because the whole album is like one big song and I wanted to listen to the whole thing."

"I like the CD's that have lots of good songs."

"You mean lots of short songs," teased Sarah. "Maybe if you had a longer attention span, you'd win at chess sometimes."

"I'm getting better," insisted Clem. "I almost had you last time."

"No you didn't," giggled Sarah.

"One day, I'm gonna beat you," asserted Clem with a smile.

"If you were more careful with your pawns, you probably would have already."

"You always kill my pawns before I can get them across the board."

"That's because you send them too far too soon. You have to wait until there's not much left that can stop them. Pawns make a big difference in the endgame."

"You never let me get to the endgame. That's why all my pawns die."

"Yeah, I used to play all the time with my dad." Sarah sighed. "I… I still think about him sometimes."

"I still think about my parents too."

"It wasn't always bad."

"What wasn't?"

"Living at Shaffer's," said Sarah. "I hated it most of the time, even before I found out what they were doing. But there were a few good days."

"Like when?"

"Right after Christmas, it snowed, and my dad let me go out long enough to play in it with him. He actually made a snow angel with me, and… we were happy."

"I… I remember that."

Sarah looked up at Clem in surprise. "How? We hadn't even met yet."

"I mean, I remember it snowing one day in the winter, back when I lived at the cabin," clarified Clem. "Omid, you know, OJ's dad, he talked me into coming outside with him, and we built a snowman."

"That must have been a lot of fun."

"I was cold and wet afterwards, which annoyed Christa. It annoyed me too actually. I didn't have any winter clothes, so I didn't want to go back outside until it warmed up. I spent most of the winter just staying in my room after that."

"All because you went out that one day?"

"No. I mostly stayed in my room before that too. That's probably why Omid wanted me to come out so bad. Because I was so sad most of the time."

"But it didn't work?"

"I think it kinda did. Even though I was wet and cold afterwards, it was really fun when we were making that snowman. I just kinda forgot about everything for a little while. And thinking about it now, I'm glad he got me to do that. I think I would have felt sadder if he hadn't," said Clementine as she reached for her hot chocolate. "Where is OJ?"

"I put him down for a nap, so we'd have an evening to ourselves." No sooner had she said that than she heard Omid crying from the bedroom, prompting Sarah to sigh loudly. "I'll go take care of him. You just stay here and I'll—"

"I'll get him. He probably wants to come to the party too." Clementine sprung up from her seat and hurried into the bedroom. She found the tiny boy curled up in a ball in a corner of his crib, crying softly. "Why do you always make so much noise?" teased Clem as she carefully took hold of the bawling baby.

Clementine adjusted her grip to get a better hold on Omid, finding she needed both arms to carry the infant. Toting him into the living room, she thought back to when Omid was a newborn and weighed almost nothing. Now it was a strain to carry him into another room.

"Come on, don't cry," urged Clementine as sat down in front of the table. "We're right here." Clem tried to soothe Omid by moving her hand up and down his back, but it didn't seem to help.

"I changed his diaper before his nap," said Sarah. "He's probably hungry again. I'll go make another bottle."

"Well, maybe he'd like something else to eat." Clem balanced Omid on her lap and scooped a spoonful of chocolate out of her cup. "Come on now, it's a lot like milk, but better." Clem maneuvered the spoon towards Omid's mouth. The baby looked at the spoon, then pushed it away.

"He just doesn't seem to like anything but formula yet," said Sarah.

"It's good, see?" Clem swallowed the spoonful of hot chocolate quite eagerly, then scooped more out for Omid. "Just try it, you'll like it." Omid was no more receptive to the idea than before, clumsily shoving the spoon aside with his chubby fingers. Clem shrugged and swallowed the chocolate.

"I guess he's just not ready for new foods yet," shrugged Sarah. "The book I read said babies should be ready for more than formula after six months."

"It said babies are all different too, and he's barely six months old," reminded Clem. "Maybe he just needs more time." Clem looked down to see Omid putting her fingers in his mouth. "Or maybe he wants to eat my fingers." Clem watched as Omid started sucking on her fingers next. "Hey, I wasn't serious." Clem wrested her fingers free from Omid, who reached after them.

"Muh-bah," babbled Omid as he kept reaching for Clem's hand.

"He really likes your fingers."

Clem eyed the plate sitting in front of her. "Or what's on them." Clem traced her finger around the leftover fruit, collecting as much syrup as she could. "Do you like peaches and pears?" Omid didn't hesitate to suck the syrup off Clementine's finger.

"He's eating it!" exclaimed an overjoyed Sarah. "Omid's finally eating something other than formula."

"We never tried fruit with him because we didn't have any left by the time you tried feeding him new foods," realized Clem as she pulled her finger away from Omid.

"We should vary what we eat in the future, instead of eating our favorites first."

"Yeah, but right now." Clem collected a spoonful of syrup from the plate. "You want some more?"

"Bah-bah!" babbled an excited Omid as he reached for the spoon.

"Down the hatch." Clementine thrust the spoon into the infant's mouth, who started eagerly sucking on it. "He'll probably be able to eat solid foods soon."

"Maybe he already can." Sarah took her spoon and mashed up a bit of the leftover pear into a fine mush. "Come on Omid. You want more than just syrup right?"

"Bah-bah!" Omid happily swallowed the spoonful without hesitation. "This is great. We should—" Omid reached for the spoon as Sarah pulled it back, accidentally knocking Clem's plate off the table. "Omid, no," scolded Sarah.

"It's okay, it was just an accident," assured Clem as she picked the plate off the ground.

"It's just, that was the last of our fruit," noted Sarah.

"I'd already eaten most of it." Clem set the plate in front of Omid, who started laughing as he stuck his fingers into the leftover syrup. "And besides, I think OJ just wanted to come to the party too."

The girls finished their meals, then cleaned their plates, and Omid, who had gotten nearly as much syrup on his hands and face as he did in his mouth. Placing the baby in his crib, Clem convinced Sarah to read to Omid until he fell asleep. All though Omid seemed to enjoy Sarah reading to him, Clem enjoyed hearing Sarah read stories out loud even more. She always seemed to get into them, sometimes even doing different voices for the characters, and it always made Clem smile.

"It's wrong, all wrong, we shouldn't even be here," read Sarah off the page, her voice teeming with concern and desperation as she encompassed her role. "But we are. It's like in those great stories. The ones that really matter. All full of danger and darkness, and you didn't want to know how they end, because how could they end happily? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened?

"But in the end, it's just a passing thing. Darkness will pass, and a new day will come when the sun shines clearly. And those are the stories that stay with you; that mean something, even if you were too small to know why." Sarah paused and looked down into the crib.

"He's fast asleep," said Sarah. "Maybe if we're lucky, he'll sleep all night for your birthday." Clem watched as Sarah moved to close the book.

"Wait." Clem placed her hand on the page before Sarah could shut it. "Could you read maybe a little bit more?"

"You can borrow it if you want to read it," said Sarah.

"I like it better when you read it," said Clem. "The way you do it, it just sounds so much better than it does in my head."

"Well, I have read Lord of the Rings before, so sometimes I change up the words a little when I'm reading it out loud." Sarah opened the book. "But just a tiny bit though, I don't want to forget where I left off with Omid."

"Okay." Clem watched eagerly as Sarah looked down at the page.

"I understand now. I know why those stories stick with you. It's because the folks in those stories had lots of chances to turn back, but they didn't. They kept going, because they were holding onto something."

"Holding onto what?" Sarah giggled at Clem's question.

"That's actually the next line in the book," explained Sarah. "What were they holding onto?" read Sarah.

"Well?" asked Clem. "Come on, both me and the book want to know."

"That there's some good in the world, and it's worth fighting for." Sarah closed the book and just smirked at Clem. "That's it for now. If you want to know what happens next, you'll have to wait."

"I hate waiting."