"Would you believe that I never actually hated doing homework?" she asked. Her education was far more limited than even Maddie's was, but back when there had been school, she'd actually liked it. She'd been one of the smarter girls in her class, and even when things got tougher and the whole 'school' thing collapsed, she still always strove to learn from her mom and brother. "I mean, I always kind of liked learning and school and stuff. I just only got to learn stuff until seventh grade." Which sucked. And was probably why she felt dumb around people like George.
Caitie beamed. "Mission accomplished!" she said, holding her head up and smirking. "Even if I managed to confuse the heck out of myself in the process..." she tapped the skin above her upper lip in thought and shrugged a shoulder. "Whatever, I still count it as a win."
Shrugging, Caitie nodded her head. "Yeah," she agreed. "And water trampolines," she added with a little grin. "But I still like the cold way better than the heat. Honestly, I don't even really like either one. I like it better in spring and fall and stuff." When it was warm enough to be outside, but not hot enough to make her want to melt into a Caitie-shaped puddle on the ground. "See, I half expect someone to call us from Alaska and tell us that there's no zombies there." She snorted a laugh. "Like in the movies."
It was hard not to make Caitie's expression turn a little derisive at Maddie's snooty older sister who only paid attention to her siblings when she felt like it. But she managed, only really allowing her lip to curl just a little. But it turned to a smile when Maddie mentioned being glad she'd reached out to Caitie. "Hey, so am I. I was scared because the lady who made me come out of hiding was going to make me return everything, and I figured everyone'd hate me." For the most part, she hadn't been wrong.
Brown was boring. Caitie nodded her head at that. She grabbed an old photo album from back in the city, when she was seventeen, and opened it to a picture Christina had taken. "See? I looked boring and dumb with brown hair. That was one of the times that I ran out of dye, but I snuck out and raided an old salon for everything they had the next day," she laughed.
She shrugged. "Christina always used to say that she celebrated Singles Awareness Day." Caitie half-smiled. "I never got how much sense it made until now."