Author's Note: Okay! We will see Ken again for those of you who are curious. If you want clues to what will happen there is no harm in pm-ing me questions, I have been doing this with a couple of you, if you don't mind getting spoiled I am willing to answer question :D
Thanks go to my reviewers as per the norm, KL10X, HL98, Mia and JB (and Arrow for chapter 12)
Also: I hope all my readers in the New England area of the states and NYC and other Sandy tormented states are safe and warm and dry. I hope you are all OK and hope to hear from you thru pm, review or otherwise. Be safe out there!
Chapter 14
Circle of friends
Lunch could be synonymous with 'slop' as Maverick eloquently put it. If the capital food is over the top District thirteen has the polar opposite.
I really think these people lack colour receptors because even the food is a shade of grey. Except the mix of garden peas and shredded carrot in the pasta it's the same shade as the walls.
I contemplate this as my feet steer me to the mess hall. I look up and Doctor Makenzie spots me and waves me over, Maverick and Ziggy are with her.
My heart as broken as it has been starts to fit itself together slowly at this, true I might have lost contact with my family but I'm not alone.
I sit down and Maverick smiles at me genuinely.
"You look like you need a rest" Makenzie says, "I thought I had told Amos to take it easy on you"
"He said he took it easy on me" I reply poking at my lunch, "I would kill for an egg right now"
Maverick laughs into his glass of milk, he remembers the arena, "or scale a cliff face for a pair?" he mentions…
It's been just over two years since then and although I never talked about the games with Tracker, Tracer or Sen; Maverick who was there, joking about it and teasing me is actually calming. He can joke about it, he had the roughest time…I actually chuckle and another rare thing happens…I give a shy smile
"Wow I can't believe it" Ziggy looks at me, "you actually can smile" she teases
"She can smile, she just doesn't show it" Plutarch comes and sits with us, "unless it is to her advantage" he slips some of his pasta onto Ziggy's plate who eats it automatically.
He then picks up something I've been yearning for.
My bag, he hands it over the table, but it's lighter…
"You have quite the talent Crane" he says, "I was tempted to post some of those pictures in my room"
I check the contents, "where is my jacket?" I ask, it's missing everything else seems to be there.
"I am having it cleaned, don't worry I told them how to care for it" he says when I look concerned, "besides you won't need it right now"
I take out the copy of my notebook that Peeta and I shared. I can feel my hands tremble a bit.
"What's that?" Maverick says and it snaps me from my thoughts, "you really do have a talent" he smirks taking a sheet and looking at a picture of Gale.
"Peeta drew that" I say
"Cute guy" Ziggy says, "your boyfriend?"
I feel a blush appear, "we never really talked I only met him once two years ago, I gave him a rose in the cemetery"
Maverick raises a brow at this, "you gave him a flower?"
I nod stuffing my mouth full so I can't respond right away. It gives me time to think of a reply that doesn't sound corny or sickening sweet as it was.
"I was leaving flowers for Celena and Archie, I did it with all the tributes and he was coming in with his family, I guess I wanted him to be able to leave something for whoever they were visiting" I pause, "His eyes are charcoal grey, he is my age…just in district twelve…whereas I am…"
"In Never Never Land" Maverick teases
Ziggy sits straighter and stares over my shoulder, "well I don't think you have to worry about a lack of admirers" she says matter-of-factly
"Why?" I groan
Maverick follows Ziggy's line of sight, "looks like some soldiers are eyeing you"
"Just because I bested them in the shooting range" I mutter
Maverick laughs, Ziggy follows suit.
I manage to finish my lunch at the same time as my watch goes off
1300 medical DR. GM hospital ward
I smile again, Ziggy whoops for joy at that small motion
"Time to get to work" Dr. Makenzie says to me, "ready?"
I look at my teacher, "you have to ask?"