Chapter Three: An Insight
No signs from the Capitol about the Gamemaker opportunity had come after the Peacekeeper's initial announcement. Many had lost hope, no longer caring about the contest or its rewards. They simply saw it as a trick to get people more interested in the Games.
Rey was included in this group. He was an overly analytical man, always breaking things down more than anything needed to be. After submitting his entry, Rey had thought of every reason why they wouldn't pick his. There was no longer a motive for him to think he could have won.
"Mal, hand me that basket. I can take it in," he said to his wife, Malia. She was a petite woman and could barely lift the crop-filled bin. They switched objects, Mal smiling at him as she went back to working the fields.
The tall man shouldered the basket, his feathery blonde hair getting caught in the woven straw. It was a process that happened constantly on work days: Mal always filled a basket before he did, so he would carry it to the crop center while she finished his. By the time he returned, she would be done with another, and he would go back and forth with the heavy loads.
Other workers grinned at Rey as he passed by. One of his neighbors, an elderly woman, yelled out, "There goes the basket boy…" She smiled, too, but she had no teeth, so it was not a very pleasant sigh. Rey winked at her anyway.
"Hey, Twig. How goes it?" A burly man with blonde hair and light brown eyes similar to Rey's jumped out from the crowd and walked beside Rey, a basket on both shoulders. "Still living up to your nickname, eh?"
Rey rolled his eyes at his older brother. "It takes one to know one, Zilla."
Zilla looked hurt. "I thought we agreed not make fun of each other anymore."
"You just called me 'Twig.'"
"That's not mean. Making me an equivalent to a giant lizard is just downright awful," Zilla retorted, furrowing his brow.
"What's wrong with that? I'm saying you are as strong as a giant lizard, not that you look like one. Much," Rey said back, smirking. Zilla was a large guy with bulging muscles, which made Rey feel like an antelope standing next to a rhino.
Zilla chuckled. "You haven't changed much in twenty years. You're still my midget of a little brother."
"Thanks for noticing."
As they continued on their walk to the center, they heard shouting from the other side of the crop wall. The voices were young and high-pitched, making it obvious that they were children. Without more warning than the yells, a young boy with a lean muscular figure tumbled out of the greenery, shouting at unseen companions. His sandy brown hair was filled with seed pods, and two kids hung onto his legs.
"You okay, kid?" Zilla questioned, surprised. The boy stood to his full height, around six feet tall. He was a few inches taller than Rey, but Zilla was uncontested by his stature.
"Yeah. Got pushed down is all," he said while brushing off his tunic.
"What's your name? I know I've seen you around before," Zilla commented, rubbing the stubbly beard on his chin. "You a Larchspur?"
He nodded. "Uh-huh. I'm Kem."
The boy nodded up at Zilla. "Yup! And he's the oldest. I'm older th'n ev'rybody else, though."
"C'mon, Kem! We gots to finish pickin' early today! Ma said she wanted us home fast!" shouted the younger of the two, a girl, after sticking her tongue out at the boy clutching Kem's opposite leg.
Rey smiled. "These are your brother and sister? They look just like you."
The boy nodded with a half-grin. "Yeah, everyone tells me that. I better get going. Nice meeting you." With that, he stumbled back to his beginning location. His siblings never released their death grips on his calves.
"He's a nice kid. All of those Larchspurs are," Zilla told Rey. "I feel sorry for that boy, Kem, though. His mom lost her mind when her husband died, I heard. He's taking care of the whole family."
Rey shook his head, pulling a few strands of hair free of the basket. "Seems that things never will start getting brighter here."
"Twig, it depends on how you look at things. Half-empty glass, half-full glass. Look at it with more optimism." At the word "optimism," Zilla threw his head back in mock dramatics. His younger brother snickered.
"So you want me to think of it in a happier tone? All right, let's see… Kem is getting earlier life experience." Rey raised his other hand and brushed it through the waves of amber grain. "Taking care of five people all by yourself will really give you some practice."
Zilla shrugged his shoulders, the baskets rolling with his muscles. "When you put it that way, it sounds even gloomier."
"Exactly."
xXxXxXx
Rezzellia D'manarie laughed along with her friend, Peridot, as they walked down the street. District One citizens milled along around the two girls, exuding happiness, as they talked about the day's events at school.
"Did you see her face?" Rezzie asked, dividing the words with laughter. Her shining blue eyes were filled to the brim with glee.
"Well, duh!" Peridot shouted. "She was right in front of me!" Peridot did an over-exaggerated impersonation of the aforementioned girl's face. Rezzie threw her head back as she cackled, and her lengthy, brown hair followed suit.
Peridot hopped up and down, trying to keep herself from giggling. "You know, it was kind of mean for that guy to tie her shoelaces to the desk. She could have broken her head or something."
Rezzie raised an eyebrow. "Break her head? How would one go about breaking their head?"
The blonde pushed her friend's shoulder. "I don't know, by falling and hitting your head! It doesn't matter!"
Rezzie skipped ahead of her friend and nearly ran into a salesperson. "It does, Per. Very much so. If randomly falling could break a person's face, then the world would fall apart. People would die of broken heads all the time, and then we would have to wear helmets all the time. Everybody would have helmet hair!"
"Aw, just shut up. You think too much!" Rezzie frowned and looked back.
"Sorry. That's just how I—gah!" Before finishing her sentence, the brunette tripped over herself and did a face-plant in the dirt.
"Yes, Rezzie, you are very 'gah.'" Peridot offered a hand to her friend. She accepted the help, and the lanky girl was pulled to her feet.
While she walked forward as if unfazed, Rezzie said, "That's why you love me though."
The goofy grin on her face got Peridot laughing again easily. "You're just special, Rezzie. Nobody can trip for no apparent reason like you do," she remarked.
The taller girl flung her arms out. "I'm just trying to fly. Come on, I thought you said that you got some new nail polish!"
Peridot's hazel eyes brightened. "Oh, yeah! Let's go!" With that, the two dashed away from the crowd to her house.
xXxXxXx
A tan boy was reclining in his backyard on a lawn chair. His expensive sunglasses were so overly large that they nearly touched the edge of his windswept brown hair. The afternoon sun was receding, leaving the boy with no choice but to find something actually productive to do.
The boy leaned back and then rolled forward, using the momentum to pop up and stand straight. He grabbed his tanning towel and folded the chair. While he placed the fold-up furniture beside the house, his mother called out to him from inside.
"Dante, didn't you say you were going to see Evalyn this afternoon? We're having dinner soon. You better hurry up," she said to her son.
"Got it. I'm going now," he replied while pulling on a rumpled T-shirt and pushing the sunglasses to the top of his head.
After straightening his shorts, Dante pulled himself over the fence. He landed in the front yard. He looked around the district he called home: cared for, welcoming, habitable. It was all he had ever known. District One was a nice place.
Dante went into a slow jog, passing other people that walked leisurely on the sidewalk. He eventually reached a small shop that he always met his girlfriend, Evalyn, in front of.
A few minutes' wait brought about the girl that he knew so well. "Hey, Dante."
He grinned. "What's going on? Anything new?"
"I'm fine. Except… You skipped school today. You weren't tanning again, right?"
He looked down at himself nervously. His arms were lightly muscular as were his legs… And all of him was bronzed and sunkissed. "Er… I used sunscreen."
She tapped his forearm, saying, "You are going to get so sunburned one day, even with sunscreen. Another all-day." She shook her head.
They walked slowly down the walk, Evalyn smiling at passersby and Dante staring blankly at their faces. He didn't take too kindly to people less fortunate than he.
The two later reached an empty space in the community behind an abandoned store. She hugged him tightly.
"What's wrong, Evalyn? I thought you said everything was fine earlier." She looked up into his face, worry filling her eyes. How can she hide her emotions so well all the time? Dante thought to himself.
Evalyn shook her head slowly, keeping her embrace steady. "What are we going to do? You know we can't hide this for much longer…"
Her gaze shifted downward at her abdomen. It was growing ever so slowly. Dante softly placed his hand on her stomach.
"Everything will be fine. My dad is going to give me a job, no matter my situation. Then I can tell him," he whispered. She met his silvery eyes.
"I know, Dante. I know I can trust you," Evalyn replied quietly, her head resting on his shoulder. "I know you'll be able to support us, even with a baby..."
xXxXxXx
It was quiet in the Lector household. Aalia's father was out at work, and the only person in the small house was her mother. She was working on a custom outfit for the mayor's wife. Despite the impending horror of reaping day, it was profitable for them. Anybody with money in District Eight would come to her mother for new clothes for the occasion.
"Could you hand me the scissors?" Aalia did not hesitate to grab the tiny cloth-cutting utensils.
"No problem, Mom. What does she want this year?" Aalia asked, referring to the mayor's wife. The woman's style was a bit… unique.
"Actually, she simply asked for a dress. That was fourteen different colors," she said as she stopped sewing and picked up a conglomeration of cloth. "Heaven knows how I am going to put these together."
Aalia shook her head and her light brown hair, which was in a braid while she worked with her mother, flicked back and forth. "If I didn't know her better, I would definitely assume she was one of those insane Capitol people." The thin girl passed another roll of thread to her mother. "She reminds me of a peacock."
A light popped into her mother's pale, blue eyes. "Perfect! I could make it into a swirling-eye design… Thank you, Aalia."
The thin, short girl smiled. "Why do you always get inspiration from my insults?"
"You have quite a few creative insults, honey. Like when you said Zaireh was the equivalent of a human lily? I made her a white dress with a green hemming. She loved it."
Aalia's grey eyes sparkled as she laughed. "That's going to be my job. I'll be the town insulter. Everybody will come to me for inspiration or witty remarks."
"You'll be the next Confucius, minus the baldness and positivity."
Her mother grinned when her daughter straightened suddenly. "Are you saying I am negative?" she asked pointedly.
"Do you deny it?" her mother retorted with a raised eyebrow.
"… No."
xXxXxXx
A/N: Good mother of squirrels, that took forever. My chapters usually get written quickly. This is, what, two weeks later? Wow. Updating failure on my part.
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I introduced four of your characters (Kem, Rezzie, Dante, and Aalia) as well of one of my own (Zilla). It was fun to write, don't get me wrong.
I hope that I wrote your character correctly. If anything at all sounded incorrect, tell me immediately. No good comes from screwed up characters. Unless you mean that the character is meant to be crazy/mentally-screwed-up… Never mind.
Tribute update: I've accepted all the characters you've sent me so far. Thank you for sending them to me.
Open Female Tribute Spots: Three, Five, Nine, and Ten.
Open Male Tribute Spots: Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Ten.
That's all for this chapter. Thank you for reading.
Write on.
~~I.D.