Being, despite everything, almost sure, the girl and boy follow (8)
I believe the answer is:
survival
'being' is the definition.
(I know that survival is a type of aliveness)
'almost sure the girl and boy follow' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'the girl' becomes 'viv' (short for Vivienne).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'boy' becomes 'Al'.
'follow' says to put letters next to each other.
'sure' with its final letter taken away is 'sur'.
'sur'+'viv'+'al'='SURVIVAL'
'despite everything' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for survival that I've seen before include "Persistence" , "Something continuing to exist from an earlier period" , "Continuance" , "-- of the fittest (Darwinian concept)" , "Continued existence" .)