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Ellie sticks her hands in her coat pockets as soon as she steps out of the makeshift movie theater and into the streets of Jackson. The puffy thing is still way too fucking purple—sorry, eggplant —but it beats the thin green raincoat she’s been meandering around throughout late fall. She can already feel the quality difference when she meets the chilly air. She doesn’t need to hunch her shoulders up to her neck anymore, and the only part of her that’s even cold is her face.
Jackson is bright and comfortable, and she doesn’t really know how to handle that. The Boston QZ had electricity in the school and dorms, but the bulbs were this dim, puss-colored glow that would only turn on at sundown to save power. They never had fairy lights strung through the Boston streets, never had a damn Christmas tree in the center of town. They barely had holidays. Christmas, New Year's, all that shit—they were just a day off and, if it was a good year, some extra rations.
People are starting to stream into the streets again, the children bickering with each other about whether “The Goodbye Girl” was funny or not. Ellie moves away from the pack; after spending nearly three months alone with Joel, she’s at a loss for how to talk to the other kids. Especially when they all have their own friends and families. God, Ellie thinks, as she moves closer to the tree, is being a new kid just going to suck balls every time?
The packed snow makes a crunching sound like pulled styrofoam when Ellie walks on it, and she puts more force into her steps, relishing in the noise. She’s gotta ask Maria for some new boots soon, though. Her red Converse haven’t been cutting it lately, and she’s sick of having wet socks all the time. She’s gonna get, like, foot rot, or something.
The closer Ellie gets to the tree, the less she can hide her awe. She’s never seen a real Christmas tree, not really, and it’s one of the coolest things she’s witnessed since the mall. It’s a wonder how long it took them to lug the thing into town and decorate it with lights. There are a handful of ornaments on the lower needles, cardboard circle cutouts colored in bright crayons with things like Happy Holidays! And Merry Christmas! Scrawled on them in a child's handwriting. She’s twisting a fuzzy orange pipe cleaner around her finger when she hears footsteps behind her.
She assumes it’s Maria, coming to tell her to get to the house they’ve set her and Joel up with before she freezes, but when she turns it’s just a girl.
Or, well, the girl. The one from the Tipsy Bison. The one who had stared at her while she ate. The one who’s staring at her right now.
“You got a thing for spying on people or what?”
The girl shrugs, and the fabric of her vest makes a swishing noise. She’s kinda pretty, now that she’s not hiding behind a pole. An inch taller than Ellie, maybe. Her hair is dark and thick and wrapped in a long braid that falls to the middle of her back. She has freckles, not the light dusting that Ellie has, but dark, needled points across her olive skin. Her nose is strong, and her eyes, a deep brown, are bright when she speaks. “Is it spying if you’re in public?”
Ellie’s shoulders raise. The girl’s face looks relaxed, but Ellie’s been dealing with vicious girls all her life in the QZ, and she knows how they can switch up at the drop of a dime. She’s ready to punch her in her pretty face if she has to. “Uh, it was spying when I was trying to eat, yeah.”
Staring Girl’s face breaks into a grin that lights up just as brightly as the fairy lights on the tree. “I was just wondering who the string bean girl stealing all the jerky was.”
Stringbean? Ellie thinks, flushing. She glances at her arms before she can stop herself. How can she even tell when I’m in this stupid coat?
“I didn’t steal it. Maria gave it to me.” Ellie huffs indignantly. Then she stands up straighter, puffing out her chest, hoping it distracts from how red her cheeks are. Riley always said she blushed like a tomato.
"Relax," Staring Girl says, holding up her hands placatingly. “I’m teasing you. The food is always a shocker when you’re new here. You’ll get used to it.”
Ellie glowers, rocking on her heels. “Doubt that, I’m not staying here past tonight.”
Staring Girl blinks, taken aback. “Oh, that sucks. Why?”
“None of your business,” Ellie hisses, kicking snow lightly with the toe of her shoe. Part of her feels a little chagrined at the childish display when the girl frowns at her.
“Well fuck me I guess. Sorry for wondering why you’d wanna leave, like, the only relatively safe place for miles,” She rolls her eyes, hands thrown in the air. “I was gonna ask you to hang out later, but since you’re ditching on some top-secret business, Stringbean, I guess this is where we say goodbye.”
“Oh,” Ellie says, ears warming with embarrassment. She’s always been a little defensive with new people, it’s basically a necessity in the QZ. And after only being able to trust Joel for the past three months, she finds herself fumbling over normal conversation. God, shit is so much easier when it’s just her and Joel.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be a dick. Um. I might come back here after I’m done. Maybe.” She stands up straighter. “And stop calling me string bean," She huffs, gesturing to her arms under the puffy eggplant jacket. “This is a hundred percent, bonafide muscle.”
Staring Girl laughs, it makes Ellie smile. “Well, until I know your name, I’m calling you stringbean.”
“It’s Ellie,” She nods, aiming for nonchalance and landing solidly on some awkward attempt at being cool. Why am I so bad at this?
Staring Girl smiles back, a thousand times more graceful than Ellie could ever hope of being. “I’m Dina.”
The snow is coming down again in little flurries. It catches in Dina’s hair and on her eyelashes. The fairy lights reflect in her brown eyes, lighting them up with mischief and something else. She looks ethereal like this. And it’s then that Ellie realizes she hasn’t responded, too busy waxing poetry about some random girl in her brain.
“Uh—cool, cool,” Ellie coughs. “I should probably head out now though, before Joel starts to worry or something.”
Dina nods, “Sure thing,” she says, then starts to walk towards Ellie. Dina thumps her shoulder as she passes. “I hope I’ll see you again, Ellie. Hopefully, we can watch a better movie together, sometime.”
Ellie bobs her head up and down, feeling a little bit like a chicken. “Uh, yeah, sure. I hope so too, Dina.”
Ellie turns just as Dina waves her hand behind her. She kinda wishes she wasn’t wearing this thick coat anymore, for no reason other than to have felt the warmth of Dina’s hand.