District Four

Calais "Cal" Nott (16) D4M

"Catty! Catty, you'll never guess what happened today," I yelled to my best friend, sliding towards her in my socks. We were on wood, so it was only natural that I was sliding everywhere I could, even going so far as to lend Catty, who had worn sandals, a pair of socks, so she could slide, too. Neither of us had thought far enough ahead to realize that sandals may have been a bad choice for her, but it was fine. We had found a solution, and that was all that really mattered.

"What?" Catty replied, her tone saying she knew good and well it was going to be something stupid. Did I care what the President said? Did I care about the Quarter Quell? Was there a chance I'd be Reaped? No. Important things were boring, and I couldn't be bothered with thinking about anything that was a week away. I was thinking about Mack, who told me all about Catty - and only said things that were good.

"You know Mack, the total jock?" I started, knowing it would get Catty tense. I wanted to see her squirm for a second, wondering what her crush could have said about her. "He totally likes you. I'm not sure if he wanted me to tell you or not, but I told you now, and that's kinda his fault for not specifying. Anyways, I totally support it. He said he likes your personality and your laugh, and he didn't mention your body once." I had a quiet relationship with anyone Catty liked, watching them to make sure they weren't being creeps. Someone had to be a filter, and it wasn't going to be Catty.

"You're kidding. You have got to be lying. You're messing with me!" Catty said, stopping everything to stare at me in amazement. I just shook my head, my smile bigger than hers was. It was awesome to see Catty being so excited, even if Dad would say that was a small happiness. Dad was serious, wanting me to be serious, even if he cracked up sometimes. I was not, which he put up with a little. A little.

"You know I wouldn't kid about this. Anything else is fair game, but I wouldn't kid about Mack. Especially not about him being an actually good guy. I ain't letting you date anyone that isn't totally perfect!" I smothered my smile for long enough to get a few sentences out before letting my grin take back over. Catty was laughing into her shirt, talking to me about how to talk to Mack, and I was doing my best to listen. There was little I could do to listen. I was too happy seeing Catty be the happiest she had been in weeks.

Atticus Nott (45) D4Chosen

"I hear Catty's got her eye on someone," I said to Nate, looking up from the net I was patching. He had offered to help me when it snapped, and I knew the world well enough not to reject the offer. "Didn't think your daughter was looking around so much yet. He a good guy?" I didn't want to say too much. There was no point in risking offending somebody. But I knew Catty was pretty young, and she could easily make a series of dumb decisions. Cal was like that, too, and neither of them were good influences.

"Hrmph," Nate replied, not even looking up from the knot he was trying. I felt every emotion he was portraying through that easily. Cal wasn't looking for a significant other yet. I didn't even know if he would look for a boyfriend or a girlfriend, not that it mattered. I just had to know which gender to start giving the evil eye. Still, I could feel the touch of fear that came with a kid finding someone they wanted to date. There was a chance their heart would get broken. The world was rough enough without that.

"It's gonna be fine. I've heard good things about Mack's parents," I said, my response fitting the right mold. I could have easily insulted him. He was a dumb jock. I could have poured praise on him. He was a strong kid. Instead, I went for the safe response: His parents were nice. A kid with good parents usually ended up being a good kid. "Besides. Nobody would hurt someone in your family. You're a big guy."

"Hrmph," Nate said again, though this time I saw his knot-tying slow. His face seemed filled with pain, and I stopped talking for a second. He would open up when he was ready. We tied knots for a while for a couple of minutes, silence dripping between us, before Nate continued. "She was four just yesterday, wasn't she? She's my little girl."

I nodded understandingly when Nate drifted off. He was right. Just a second ago, our kids were our babies, not wild teens looking for a chance to get away. I remembered my teenage years, and they filled me with fear for my child. I had gotten drunk. I had had wild sex. It was only a matter of time before Cal started making his fair share of bad decisions, leaving me to feel the pain when he got hurt. "She always will be. They're always babies to us," was all I could get out. They would always be our precious young ones, no matter what happened to them.

Hey there, this my birthday present to you! (well it is my birthday today, not yours, and it was written by Silver, but you get the point, right?)

-Santiago

And also, we are finally full! We are so glad about that topic becoming closed so we can come on with the games storyline already in our minds.

We will bring you more chapters soon!

-Silver