Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to TWDG's Final Season) [Walking Dead]

79. Quinceañera

Clementine could see light shining in past the edges of the curtains and instinctively covered her face with a pillow to block it out. Her hands reached out under the covers for Sarah, but she found nothing in her grasp. Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, Clem realized she was alone in bed. Checking her watch on the dresser, she was surprised to see it was already past eight in the morning.

Hurriedly getting dressed, Clem was also surprised to see the house was empty. Omid wasn't in his room, and even heading out into the yard there were no clear signs of the others. She was starting to get worried when she heard voices coming from the driveway. Moving around the side of the house, she found everyone gathered by the door to the Brave.

"Just a bit longer, and there!" Sarah stepped back and Clem could see Patty holding Omid still on the bottom step of the Brave.

"He's getting so big," noted Patty as she helped Omid down.

"I know," said Sarah as she wrote a date over the mark she made on the door. "We're gonna need to get him new clothes again before long."

"Just put it on a list," suggested Devlin. "I'll grab something when I go to check Tulsa in a couple of weeks."

"Here, measure me," said Sarah as she handed Patty the bag of markers.

"All right." Clem quietly approached the group as Patty checked to see how tall Sarah had gotten.

"I knew it," said Jet as he leaned forward. "You're taller than me now."

"Well, it's more like we're about the same height," reasoned Sarah.

"Your mark is just above mine," argued Jet. "I haven't grown at all since the last time we did this."

"Complaining about it won't make you any taller," dismissed Sin.

Jet crossed his arms as Clem joined the others. He looked over at her briefly, before looking away in shame.

"Look who's finally up." Clem turned to see Anthony looking down at her. He had that weird little smug grin on his face that somehow felt like he was mocking her. "Sleep well?"

"I—"

"Clem, get over here," called Patty. "We need to measure you too."

Clem held her tongue and headed over to the Brave. Looking at the doorframe, she already saw new marks for Omid, Sarah, Jet and even Anthony at the top where another line was drawn over the old one.

"Just take off your hat for a second and we'll see how much bigger you've gotten." Clem removed her cap and stood still as Patty used a red marker to draw a line above her head. "Well look at that, all the farm work must have triggered a growth spurt."

Clem spun around and was surprised to see her new mark was noticeably higher than her last one. "Huh," said Clem as she put her hat back on. "I hadn't even noticed."

"You and Sarah are going to be taller than me by the end of the year at this rate, although that's not saying much," admitted Patty as she dumped the marker back into the bag.

"Thanks for the help," said Sarah as she started moving towards the back of the Brave. "And you're still okay with me borrowing your bike?"

"Knock yourself out, I made sure to top off the pressure in the tires this morning," said Patty as Clem went running after Sarah.

"You're going riding?" asked Clem as Sarah gravitated to the black bike on the Brave's rack. "Get mine down and—"

"I want to go riding alone," announced Sarah as she set the bike on the dirt.