XII. SABLE AND GARRICK

"O, of the other poets honor and light,
Avail me the long study and great love
That have impelled me to explore thy volume!

Sable Hayashi. 18.
District Seven Female.

She couldn't believe what she had just seen, yet at the same time the moment she saw it, Sable Hayashi knew exactly what she was being forced into witnessing. Well actually she wasn't forced and it was just an accident but she was sort of in the mood to be dramatic and act like she had just been pushed to see her absolute worst nightmare, even if it was a nightmare that was realistically bound to happen eventually, she just didn't need to see it and she sure as hell wasn't supposed to either.

It wasn't a big deal. The District Seven girl couldn't make it a big deal. They're two people and they're in love, good for them! It's just… she knew they made love, even if that thought was a permanent resident of the back closet of her mind and it didn't need to be unleashed. They were just, so disgustingly in love. The type of love she had wanted for her entire life and the exact opposite of Mom and Dad's love. Not that they had any right to even enter her head… they didn't.

(And the sad thing is that Linnea looks so fucking ethereal under Gio, her hair loosely tucked beneath an ear as she looks at him as though he's the only man in the world)

I should stop looking.

She's already a creep for looking at Linnea like that; no need to exemplify it.

Sable closed the door that the two lovebirds hadn't bothered shutting, too consumed by their affections by one another. Hopefully it wouldn't be brought up and dinner and hopefully Linnea would sit across the table from Sable again and she'd be able to sneak glances of her smile (her fucking smile), even if it was directed at Gio and not her. They were twins after all; practically the same person (not at all the same person).

She's lucky she has her own room in grandma's cottage, even if it's the size of her walk in closet from the old house. It's enough, Sable has to tell herself that it's enough, that she's enough.

(But she's not Gio, and Gio is hardly enough these days.)

At least Gio has Linnea and her innoculous laugher (that Sable wishes she could cause), her wavy brown hair (that Sable so desperately wants to run her fingers through), her pale skin (that Sable needs to feel against hers), and her beautiful brown eyes (that Sable craves to see more of).

"Could you pick the leaks for dinner, Sable," Her grandmother cut through the silence of her fantasy, "I plan on making that soup you like again."

"With the chives?" The District Seven girl stuttered, her mind still out of the present day, "I picked them all this morning. Did'ja not see?"

"My bad," She turned around and saw the vegetables on a table, "Are lavender scones okay for dessert?"

Linnea Hethway is good for dessert... "Sure thing, Grandma."

She can't think like that. Mother wouldn't want her to think like that.

I should write some of this shit down.

Sable buried herself in her room once more. Maybe writing would help; it tended to have that affect on her. Oh to feel nothing and everything at the same time.

All the things I wish I could tell Linnea. She underlined the girls name for dramatics. I don't know what led me to loving you.

You're out of my league; the furthest thing from my league actually. Lord, you're too good for even my idiot brother (as much as I love him, it's true). Please look at me the way you did that day the chickens got loose from the pen and we had to retrieve them.

(Please look at me)

Please be mine until the sun sets on the world and there's nothing left but the two of us, yet it doesn't matter since you're holding my hand (which would feel like the end of the world to me, regardless).

Make a little universe with me…

She crumbled the paper, "Useless."

Maybe it'll be nice fuel for the fireplace, though that would risk Linnea (or worse, Gio) seeing it. She opted to shove it in a drawer instead. It's probably safer there, after all.

Sable has often found peace being outside with her pet chickens, and that day was no exception. They've all got names, Pesto, Basil, Paprika, Cilantro, and Onion, as well as the donkey, Balaam, and they've always treated her better than real people, or at least better than my parents.

But everybody is better than Dorvel and Mihaela Hayashi, which is fitting since they're more ghosts than people. Not because they're dead but rather because Sable wishes they were.

No, no, I shouldn't wish death on other people. They're horrible but I shouldn't wish death upon them. They never wanted me; they made it clear that they never wanted me. That doesn't mean they have to die nobody deserves to die, Sable.

Still, the echoes of her father follow her wherever she goes, even miles away in the cottage her grandmother took her to after adopting her and Gio, freeing the twins from the oppressive bounds of their previous house.

"Be more like your brother Sable," Dorvel's words cut like knives, "You're just so weird and I don't get it. You're so damn quiet."

Still, at least those moments meant that he was acknowledging her, which was more than Mihaela could offer. All she could give to Sable and Gio were disappointed glares at the dinner table and broken promises that they would one day be successful. Not that she had the proper version of "success" defined in her mind. To her, success was just taking over father's business running the paper processing factory that had given the family their wealth and submitting to the capitalist system they were oppressed under, not that Mihaela thought she was oppressed, probably because she was the biggest example of the way it could corrupt people, save for Dorvel.

The goat and the chickens didn't care though. They didn't care that Sable was stupidly quiet and that her only human friends were her grandmother, her brother, and his girlfriend. They always had a way of making her feel like she was enough, even though they couldn't speak to her, but again, Sable was used to not being spoken to. She hadn't even spoken to her older sisters in years, as they married rich and didn't see a use for her or Gio. They were probably just as beaten down as she was, they just expressed it differently, which is I guess good for them.

Still, Sable couldn't help but feel as though she was always pitied. The twin nobody remembered or cared for, the twin who wouldn't be inheriting Hayashi Processing (though Gio didn't want it now). The twin who spoke more on paper than she did with her mouth, and the twin who didn't have Linnea Hethway.

Dinners were always nice when Linnea was there. Her brash sense of humor and dramatic winks were quite characteristic and they lightened up the mood of the broken tension Sable and Gio still felt towards their grandmother.

(Though, it had been quite awkward ever since Gio stumbled along some of Sable's poetry about Linnea a few months back, yet he was still almost nice to her about it. Well, not nice nice, but rather it was clear he pitted her, not that she could blame him.)

"And what did you do today?" Linnea's voice was as melodic as ever, and clearly she didn't notice what Sable had walked in on.

"I went to work and helped with dinner," She gulped, somewhat nervous whenever Linnea spoke to her, "A typical day. And you?"

Sable worked as an archivist for a local library, and spent manny of her days just reading to her heart's content since people in District Seven didn't really do all that much reading, probably because they were busy with labor and whatever else there was to do for them. Even then, everything the District Seven girl read was used textbooks, which she didn't mind too badly since she barely remembered anything that she learned at school.

"I was with your darling brother for most of the afternoon," Gio playfully slapped her, his face blushing the same way Sable's often did, "We had a nice time together."

"What did you get up too?" Sable immediately wished she hadn't said that.

"Oh we just chatted," Gio chimed in, "It was rather lovely."

"You're more than rather lovely," Linnea pinched his cheeks.

They're so in love. Fucking disgusting.

Luckily, their grandmother wasn't the biggest fan of displays of affection at the dinner table, "You know, there's other people here." They didn't kiss after that. Sable was grateful.

She loved Linnea though, the two of them equally blunt, but more importantly, she had a soft spot for Sable and all her oddities.

"Sorry Mrs. Hayashi," Linnea genuinely felt guilty, as if she could possibly do anything wrong.

"I've told you to call me Dasturi over a hundred times now, Linnea," Her laugh was somewhat obnoxious, even if it was charming to an extent, "I insist."

"Sorry Dasturi then," Linnea laughed as she corrected herself.

And Sable was so jealous of how carefree she was over the whole situation, especially because if she personally was confronted by somebody over sixty years older than her she would go into a panic, yet Linnea wasn't like that. The remainder of dinner was spent with the same jokes and the same flirting that Sable couldn't stand before Gio stood up out of his seat and insisted he walk his girlfriend back to her cottage, saying that it was cold outside and he didn't want her to get sick. He draped his denim jacket over her and grabbed her hand before the two of them journeyed off.

She tried to go to sleep quickly so that she wouldn't have to be awake when she saw Gio's shit-eating grin as he arrived back home, feeling like he was the luckiest man alive (which he was).

If only Sable had something that would make her feel the way Gio felt around Linnea, save for the disgust she couldn't help but be consumed with. It was a pipe dream, but Sable wouldn't stop wishing for it every night.

Garrick Bluebell. 18.
District Seven Male.

Garrick was often filled with an insatiable sense of spite when he walked down the hallways of his school. It wasn't necessarily that he was a miserable person, or that he tried to be one, but still it was hard for him to smile when everybody around him had the tendency to make his blood boil. There were plenty of reasons for Garrick to be upset too. He was surrounded by kids who would harass women for existing, kids who would cheat on their tests in the most absurd ways, and worse of all there were kids who would steal the tesserae that his family needed so desperately to keep afloat.

"Nice outfit Bluebell," His peers often made fun of the thrifted clothing, the only thing he could afford, "It looks–"

"It looks great," Garrick corrected the boy who had approached him in the hallway that day, "Well, of course it does though. I am obviously the single most well-dressed motherfucker in all of Panem."

"Obviously," The boy snickered and walked away.

These were the sorts of minor inconveniences that often got on the District Seven boy's nerves. Not violently malicious or anything, but annoying enough that they would weigh on his mind for a few hours after the fact, as if I can help being poor. At least I'm not an ass.

He was doing the bare minimum by not being an asshole, but it was the best he could do, especially when the boy who has approached him was somebody Garrick knew for a fact had harassed his sister a few years prior.

"And then that guy Hugo Figueroa said he wants to sleep with me," Garrick remembered the way he fumed that evening when his sister Capri told him about his day. She used to be way more innocent back in the day, and actually quite cautious of boys like Hugo, but nowadays, Garrick wouldn't be surprised if she had indeed actually slept with him on an occasion. She seemed to have a different boy every week or so it seemed. But Garrick wasn't jealous; he had Sylvie, and had for almost three years. She was miles better than any of the boys that Capri ever brought home, out of his league even.

Still, Garrick wished he could teach Hugo, and all the other wastes of space that flooded his school a lesson. He used to be one of the strongest kids in his grade with all the wicked punches he could throw as a result of being on the wrestling team, and while he was still the tallest kid by a good few inches, and he was indeed still on the wrestling team, being severely underfed greatly altered his performance, which wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault that his father was barely around and his mother was a nuisance, and he wished he could have more to eat than just stupid tesserae, still he couldn't complain because at least he was eating and that was already better than the few months where he was homeless.

But of course of course, Hugo wasn't done getting under Garrick's skin that day. He was seen a few hours later during their lunch break pinning an younger girl against the wall and begging for her money, "I have to eat!"

He didn't have to eat the poor girl's food though. Garrick knew damn well that Hugo's family was quite well off and he didn't need to rely on other people for their food, and he didn't need to go to the town square and steal tesserae. He didn't need to in general.

Yet this fucker actually does…

Garrick decided it was time for him to do what he thought he did best, sticking up for the kids who were bullied just the way he was back in the day. Nobody deserved to go through all the cruelties he was confronted with on a day to day basis (especially cruelties from his own parents), and he wouldn't let them either.

"Get your hands off her," He approached Hugo, and cuffed his hand around his wrist, motioning to the girl that she should try to run away, but she didn't, because she didn't understand what Garrick was trying to do, "You don't need her money. Please, just go away."

Hugo didn't, a foolish mistake, so Garrick used his other hand to pull out on his stupidly blonde hair, "I said, get away from her."

"So now you're gay?" Hugo snickered, not giving a shit, "Quit pulling my hair or I'll tell Sylvie."

"I'm not fucking gay," Garrick removed the hand from Hugo's hair and pinched his cheeks, perfectly aware at the perceived homoeroticism and not minding because he knew there wasn't a problem with being gay, "But you'll wish I was if you don't give her her money back."

The girl watching all of this was absolutely dumbstruck, and Garrick couldn't blame her. It wasn't every day one got to watch the coolest bitch in all of Panem (or at least the coolest bitch not named Sylvie Hayes) take down an enemy. She could have easily ran away if she wanted to, but being as she didn't, she was clearly intrigued by the altercation, that and the fact she needed her money back.

"Fucking hell," Hugo tried to retaliate, failing miserably and missing Garrick with a punch, "I guess the little bitch can have her money back."

He threw the currency onto the ground, which Garrick picked up and handed to the girl, "Now go get yourself something good to eat."

"Thank you, sir," She nearly had tears in her eyes.

"It's my pleasure," The District Seven boy ran his fingers through his hair as if he was a fucking movie hero, "Have a great day, little lady."

He was quite pleased with himself and the heroic action that he had just committed, even though he felt awful for the girl. Maybe she would remember the nice thing that Garrick did for her though, and maybe that would mean that she would may him back in the future, by doing something kind for him. He truly could never have too much kindness in his life.

"And then she called me sir," The District Seven boy enthused when he told Sylvie about his time at school later that day as they both worked their shifts at the carpentry studio, "And that made me feel real good."

"You weren't too angry, right Garrick?" Sylvie was always insistent that he remain calm under these pressuring situations. She was right for that too; he had a history of not doing the best job to manage his temper, and that was made obvious in incidents such as these.

"Well I pulled his hair so," He felt guilty telling this to her, "But he was an ass to me, and he was the same guy who was an ass to Capri."

"Just because I like it when you pull my hair doesn't mean that everybody else does," Sylvie giggled, standing up on her tip toes to give him a delicate kiss on the cheek, "I just don't want you getting in trouble."

And he didn't want to get in trouble either, he just really couldn't stand it whenever something wrong was happening, and he had this insatiable urge to fix it, to fix the shithole that was Panem, one asshole teenager at a time.

"I don't want to get in trouble either," He pulled her closer to him and kissed her on the forehead, "You just know how angry I get sometimes."

She did, and it was something that Garrick had been working hard to fix. Maybe even working too hard since he would get ridiculously self conscious whenever he got mad at somebody and then would spend the next week relishing in that anger. It was his worse vice even, the way he would hurt and inconvenience others if it meant his life would improve, not feeling bad in the moment. He also feared that he struggled with empathy, that he shouldn't feel that bad for the struggles of other people, but Sylvie always told him that he was a great man, and that he didn't need to worry about these things. She always said that he was one of the most empathetic men that she had the "utter pleasure" of knowing.

And Garrick tried his best to believe her, which was way easier than it seemed especially when Sylvie would try to work on coping skills with him and would reassure him that he didn't have to change a single thing about himself for her to still love him.

"I know, I know," Sylvie reassured him once more, "I just can't wait for you to get better at managing your anger, even though you get angry for the most valid of reasons and I know you can't help reacting the way you do."

"I can't wait too." And he meant it. Garrick needed to get better, if not for himself than for sweet Sylvie so that he could finally get down on one knee, marry her, and live out his dream life with his dream girl.

Sable Hayashi. 18.
District Seven Female.

Of course the one thing that could make Sable Hayashi's life more miserable than it already was just had to fucking happen to her. A fancy and proper Escort called her name from the big bowl of other names that should have been pulled and just like that, Sable's life was worse than it was before.

"I wish I could have Volunteered for you somehow," Gio approached her in the Justice Building alongside their grandmother and Linnea, trying their best to comfort her. She knew he didn't mean it though. He had so much to live for after all, way more than Sable had.

She didn't want to say anything, her whole existence filled with pure and utter dread. The District Seven girl just wanted to be held by somebody, anybody, and she wanted to know that everything would be alright, even if she had no skills in anything and she knew she was dreadfully fucked.

"I'm sorry, Sable," Linnea spoke and her grandmother repeated her.

As if they had anything they could have said or could have done that would have made this dreadful plane of existence better.

"I appreciate it," She gave her brother a hug, so scared that it would be the last one she ever gave him. So sure that it would be.

Gio was always a good hugger too, way taller than Sable and having firm arms that were nice to be comforted in. But somehow Linnea was also a good hugger, as she learned once Gio and her grandmother left and it was just the two of them alone in the Justice Building. Sable never thought this would be the situation in which she was alone with Linnea.

"Good luck Sable," Linnea winked at her before leaving the building.

And Sable wished she said something to her, not because she thought Linnea would reciprocate her feelings but rather because it would have been nice to get it off her chest before she died.

I guess I'll just have to win for her…

Garrick Bluebell. 18.
District Seven Male.

Nothing could have properly prepared Garrick for what happened to him on the morning of the Reaping for the 51st Annual Hunger Games. He thought he would be safe, it was his last year and what were the odds he would be chosen. He could have calculated them but he didn't know how and it wouldn't relieve him anyways. It would just remind him how horrible life had treated him yet again.

It was chillingly quiet when Garrick said goodbye to his family in the Justice Building. He had gotten in a fight with his father Eugene the previous night, and even if he was the favorite child, he couldn't help but feel horrible, "I'm sorry I was mean last night."

For once, the old man had a tear in his eye as he used his hands to sigh, "I don't want you to apologize son, I want you to come back to me."

He had been deaf for Garrick's whole life, teaching him Panem Sign Language at the same time as English, which in hindsight could be a useful arena skill, even if he didn't want to think about it.

"You're a strong man and you can do it," As his mother spoke she signed so that Eugene could understand, "I know you'll do well. I do."

He didn't believe a word they or his echoing sisters said. How could he, a dope with anger issues do well in a situation where staying calm was ridiculously important. Sure he was strong, but that meant jack shit when he was up against trained killers.

"I just know how badly I'll miss you," Sylvie's goodbye was the hardest for him to swallow. He was weary of the fact he didn't think he could do anything without her.

"I'll miss you more than you'll ever know," He hugged her for what could be the last time he hugged Sylvie, much less any other person.

He wished he could say that he planned on winning her but he didn't know anything regarding what would happen to him. And Garrick didn't want to know.

Well that took wayyyyy longer than I expected so sorry for that but alas, here is District Seven! Thank you very much to silversshade for Sable (by the way she has a SYOT open that you should submit to because she is brilliant) and Annabeth-TheTributeWhoLived for Garrick! They were both a ton of fun to explore. Additionally I would like to thank Brooke, Laney, and Maggie for pulling my mind out of the gutter and encouraging me to finish this chapter.

In the spirit of thanksgiving, I want to thank everybody who is reading this for all the support you have given me throughout my time writing SYOTs. It's so crazy to me that We The People was released a bit over six months ago, and over 300,000 words later, here the fuck I am!

But yeah yeah I hope everybody is staying safe and wearing masks and I am excited to deliver Checkers and Vex to y'all as soon as possible.

Cheers,

Linds