DISTRICT 4
CLAIRE
1

How did I end up in the Circe room with these officials? Redricks smile vacates as Blake comes in to take me from my duties as commander. The air smells of chocolate cookies and the warm summer leaves that float around district 7.
I smile to the Amerrates, as I leave with Blake Listo. He seems annoyed. His eyebrows rise way up high on his forehead, and he rarely ever smiles except when he is with Carleigh. I tie my long brown hair in an official bun at the back of my head. My face is cleanly powdered, and I am wearing my commander jacket with my pinstriped skirt and pink polo shirt. Five years ago I was bloody and beaten and now-
"We are adopting!" Ash yells. Her face shines, but her eyes dig into her head. Everybody groans they have 6 children, give it a rest. Travis kisses her but he looks uneasy. He didn't want anymore kids after thirty. He is thirty one. Ash hands everyone a chocolate cookie to celebrate.
"Are you sure you don't want to rethink? I mean you can barely keep up with the what is it now- 5 that you already have Ashlyn." Evanns says. His crazy grin echoes off his face and moves into the room making everyone smile.
Carleigh steps closer to Blake. They have been inseparable since reuniting. Some people, like Evanns have already started planning their wedding. Honestly, they only just moved into each others apartment last month. When you look at how long they have been dating they are taking baby steps.
Casey starts laughing, like bloody murder laughing. I know Carleigh has done all she can for Casey, but somehow it just isn't enough. Connor was buried in a patch of oak trees just outside Avalon, the small underground hollow which is a temporary home. Casey sleeps by his grave. When she is upset she will be next to the grave talking to it, and acting like it answers back. I don't know how she is going to survive in Clintasta, but we may just leave her in charge of Avalon.
Philip Kang, the Pro-trade leader from a country called Sun-yaki, is going to move us to a place he calls Clintasta. He claims Clintasta is a cave in one of the mountains outside of the capitol that has been made into a city.
Blake is unsure about Philip even though his best friend, Evanns loves him. Most people don't know everything about him so they act like they do and move on with their life. Everybody files out of the tree grove we call the living room. Philip comes in wearing his capitol clothes.
"People! We leave now all of the preparations have been made." The room quiets and I stifle a scream. Nobody moves a muscle, even people outside the door. Now! He said in a week! "Just kidding! We leave in three days so start packing." I punch Philip in the arm.
"I told you so." Blake whispered in my ear as he walked by with Carleigh. I stacked the chairs in the living room. "Philip is so annoying sometimes but if Evanns likes him so do I." Casey says. She trusts Evanns completely. Casey runs out to Connor's grave. "I'm coming!" She said. I see her blonde hair curl over the grave as a silver object flies up over the grave and lands. There is a blinding flash so I think it is the sunlight catching it. She picks it up and starts talking to the ring like it is Connor himself.
Hmm. All alone. I collapse on the sofa. It has been hard to sleep with Philip checking my room every night to make sure I have done a certain amount of paperwork. For the big move to Clintasta.
Redrick, the co-commander, called me back into the Circe room. I walked into him in the hall. His short military buzz cut style, gold hair plastered to him with sweat. "Stupid Philip and his lousy escape plan almost got us sidetracked. Oh and Ash is just lonely. Travis won't pay her much attention because of his General duties. Everything here is a time waster. We could be overseeing military training right now!" Redrick says and for a moment he looks like Roger. I smile at him.
When we walk in the people put on hold stand up to attention. We nod them off and resume to our seats. There was Alonnie, Amy, Leastander, Hunter, Kimbolip and Jupiter. They all stare at us with attentive eyes.
"I am sure you heard the message... we will be leaving in three days. Meetings of the Amerrates will resume in the room called Bostfow Loft in the Clintasta. Now down to business. Food should not be held back like it is in district 13. We will have gatherers, and hunters, like Casey for example, to do work."
"Casey is a mental case!" Alonnie exclaimed. "She belongs in a hospital, not in the woods with explosive tip arrows." Her face was knit into anger and frustration. Her strawberry hair looked like a curly raspberry. Her beautiful silver blue eyes glowed with more stubberness than they could handle.
"You weren't there when you saw Connor killed. You don't know how it feels to have your heart ripped out and stepped on. Casey does." I say staring daggers at Alonnie.
"Stop... all we need is for her to here about this and have a relapse. She is barely surviving this one. I know she thinks she can do it on her own, but she doesn't want to admit that she needs Connor. That she cant do this alone. They must have been engaged or something like that. She wears a ring on her third finger. I think Connor gave it to her." Hunter said staring at the round table. He was exactly right.
I raise my hand for end of discussion. "Philip says he has overhead receivers taken care of. For those of you who skipped the last meeting," I stare at Alonnie who knits her fingers together. "Overhead receivers, or O.R.s, are communication devices set up through the Clintasta barracks and apartments. We use them to talk in dire emergency and to set up appointments and meetings. There will be lists under each intercom," I held up a vending machine button rack. "That will tell you who you are contacting. You will use apartment numbers to communicate. Is that clear?"
"Ma'am if I must ask, why do we need these wont there only be like 24 apartments? It cant be that far a walk." Amy asks twirling her crispy Autumn leaf hair in one of her fingers. Her eyes twitch and move constantly, as if someone gave her seven shots of espresso.
"Thousands actually. As our population grows we will fill up quicker than we think." I say. Nodding to Amy.
"You expect people like Ash, and Carleigh to re-populate Clintasta? Cuz you sure as heck ain't doing it." That's it.
"Just go! Go Alonnie. Unless you want to listen to your commanders and stop with the back talk. If you want to stay, find yourself a seat in the broom closet because that is how much you are needed here. To answer your question, no. Philip said he would find more citezens to pull to our side. Philip promised." I said. Tears brimming in my eyes. This is one of those time where I hate my job.
Redrick pats my back. "That is a message to all of you. I don't think one of you understand how much this job means to Claire. She barely gets any sleep because of this while you only have to slave away during meetings where all you do is listen. I think we are done."
By ranks people flow out of the room. Alonnie stays back and I don't wait for her to explain herself. I run past her making her hair fly up like she's in a shampoo commercial. Her eyes show fear and contempt. That's the last I see of her before I run up to my room crying my eyes out.