Bianca Forge, 12, District 12
One month before the reapings:
Alpha dominates
Beta follows
Gamma obeys
These are the three rules every scavenger in Twelve must understand. These are the three rules that build the basis of this community. A community consisting of people desperate to find food, desperate to find shelter, desperate to find hope.
Bianca Forge, twelve-years-old, has become accustomed to these rules. As long as she follows them, she's free to do whatever she wants.
Two years ago, Bianca still had a home. She lived with her two siblings, Brooke and Ethan, and their drunk mother. The father died when Bianca was still young, leaving little memory behind for her to hold on to.
Life used to be simple. Well, simpler than it was now.
Now, Bianca has been trademarked as a scavenger. The lowest of the low in Twelve, feeding only on garbage, with the exception of tesserae, rummaging through trash piles day in day out. It is the life Bianca chose. Is it the life she deserved?
No.
Was it her fault that her family had little money? Is it her fault that her father died and left them with even less than they already had? Is it her fault that her drunk mother then decided to also move to the afterlife, leaving her eldest daughter to take care of her two younger siblings all by herself? Life isn't fair. It simply isn't.
The only way to survive in a world that is corrupted is to act solely in one's self-interest. That is the reason why she left her siblings at a foster home and abandoned them, that is the reason why she steals, that is the reason why she cares for nobody but herself. It is the only way.
Today is a day like any other.
Bianca, searching in a garbage bin, can barely open her eyes. It is a lot harder than one might think to go dumpster diving. Not only must one deal with the constant struggle of avoiding sharp objects which seem to stick out of everywhere, but you also have to make sure that there is no threatening competition around.
As soon as Bianca resurfaces, she sees him. A boy. A gamma. She's able to tell by his posture and by the way he sneaks up on Bianca's territory with a certain carefulness like he knows that he might get caught.
Bianca is a beta and she'll make sure he understands that.
"MINE!" she hisses at him, popping out of the trashcan.
"I-I'm sorry. P-please help me…" Bianca realizes that the boy's hands and legs are shaking as he pleads for mercy. "I have nothing. I...I just lost my parents a-and I have nowhere to go. I haven't eaten in days… p-please help. Please."
"Get out of my territory, " Bianca spits out.
"You don't understand, I'm going to die. You need to-"
"Get out."
"PLEASE!"
Clearly, this boy hasn't really understood the concept of living on the streets yet. Kids like him who haven't understood how this rotten and corrupted world functions, won't survive in these harsh conditions.
"Survival of the fittest." Bianca takes out a knife from a sheath, wrapped around her waist.
"What do you mean?" the boy starts to back away slowly, his legs still shaking.
"If you're not strong and if you're not ruthless, you won't make it. This world punishes, crushes and devours naive kids like you." She points the knife at him. "I will say it once more and it'll be the last time you hear it. How you want it to be the last time you hear it, is all up to you." Bianca takes one more step forward. "Piss. Off."
The little boy gulps before turning his body in the other direction to make a run for it. His legs, already weak from being on the streets for a few days, give in a little bit midway, making him almost collapse to the floor as he rushes off.
"Pfft. Pathetic." Bianca scoffs as she continues to loot the container.
"I've seen you somewhere before, haven't I?" Her district partner lies on the sofa, face burrowed in a pillow.
Bianca, barely able to understand what the kid said, rolls her eyes before answering. "Ah, have you now?"
"Yup," he says as monotonic as it can get.
"Interesting."
"I know you're being sarcastic but you're the only person I have to talk to so I'm not going to do what I always do, I'm not going to panic and calculate what to say next… I'm not doing any of that." The boy uncovers his face and sits upright. "I'm just going to have a normal conversation like normal people and-" he stops and looks at Bianca, probably realizing that he's been talking out loud and not internally.
"Listen…"
"Have you ever felt like you needed to be perfect?"
"What…?"
Perfect. That word doesn't mean anything. A meaningless word. Perfect. There is no such thing as perfect. The world isn't perfect, people aren't perfect, life isn't perfect. Nothing can be perfect. Perfect is a word that shouldn't have been invented.
As the boy continues to talk about things that make no sense and asking absurd philosophical questions that are completely out of place, Bianca excuses herself and leaves the room, leaving the boy alone with his thoughts.
Fennel Fritz, 12, District 12
One month before the reapings:
Fennel sees a girl on his way to school. He's seen her a couple of times before. She's not really a normal girl. Fennel knows that. He's sure there's a reason why she's swimming in piles of garbage all the time. She probably doesn't have a lot of money which is sad… or she might like the smell of garbage.
People these days are into all kinds of stuff. The girls in his class started wearing these glowing bracelets as of late, before that it was elastic hair bands, shaped like animals. Maybe now trash diving is a new thing. Who is he to judge.
Fennel looks at the sandwich in his hands. Maybe he should go over there and offer it to her. What if she's really poor?
But what if she's not? That would be so embarrassing. She'd look at him like a freak and Fennel isn't allowed to be a freak. He has to be great, no, perfect.
His parents raised him to be the best possible version of himself and so far he has managed not to disappoint them. He's at the top of his class with grades better than everyone else and the respect and admiration of all the teachers at his school. Sadly, however, what Fennel lacks isn't skill, it's friends.
Amber, the only person he can truly call a friend, goes to another school so he barely ever sees her and Phillip, his former best friend, doesn't talk to him anymore. Fennel doesn't understand why Phil stopped being friends with him but there must have been something he did wrong.
His parents say that everyone is just jealous of Fennel's achievements and that they make fun of him because they wish that they could be like him. Although Fennel would like to believe that, he doesn't. Nobody can be that hateful just because of envy. That simply isn't possible. It's his fault. It is something that he did wrong.
Suddenly Fennel snaps back to reality when a pebble hits his head. The girl in the garbage pile is gone.
"Hey, idiot!" Fennel looks to his left. It's Thom and Levi. Great. "Whatcha doin' over there, huh?" Thom stays behind as Levi comes up close to Fennel and puts a hand on his shoulder. It's always been like this. Levi, the one who hated him the most, made his life utter hell in school and Thom, his trusty sidekick, would always join in but never be the one to act. He only acted when Levi told him to, otherwise he'd wait behind, just like now.
"Uh… n-nothing. I'm j-just waiting for… uh…" Fennel can't really think of anything to say. This isn't the first time a situation like this has happened. His social incapability is the main reason why everyone makes fun of him. Fennel overthinks everything he says all the time in order not to sound stupid or say something he isn't supposed to. Ironically enough, he over calculating what to say alienates him even more from everyone else. He just doesn't know how to communicate with people. He always stutters and shakes. No wonder nobody likes him…
"Whatever, dude!" Levi interrupts Fennel's awkward mumbling and snatches the sandwich from the latter's hands. "Hey, Thom! Looks like we got some free lunch!" Thom gives his boss a thumbs up as Levi starts to walk back to school, leaving Fennel alone without food and, still, without friends.
On his way out of school, Fennel throws one last glance at the garbage pile in hopes of finding this mysterious girl once more and yet there seems to be no trace of her whatsoever.
He hears some kids cackle behind him. Is he walking strangely? He straightens his back and adjusts his shoulders. Maybe that's why they were laughing. When the laughing doesn't stop, Fennel starts to panic. What more could he possibly be doing wrong? Is something stuck to his foot? Are his trousers ripped? Unable to ignore the laughter, he faces the kids. Fennel, expecting the group of children to be pointing and mocking him, sighs in relief when he realizes that one of the girls in the group was showing her friends something on her phone.
At home it's the same as always: He has a healthy and balanced meal, brushes his teeth for the third time, gets ready for soccer training and leaves the house.
His parents kiss him goodbye but Fennel doesn't feel any love coming from that kiss. It felt more like a 'Hurry-and-leave-because-I-have-other-things-to-do' kind of kiss. It's always that kind of kiss.
Something changed and Fennel isn't sure what it is and why it suddenly sunk into his brain but for some reason, he just isn't scared anymore. It's as if with one simple snap all of his worries disappeared which is funny because he should be more fearful than he is.
He's going to die.
Kind of ironic with him representing hope and all but Fennel isn't stupid. He's never been stupid. It's the one thing he's confident about. His chances are slim and he accepts that which might also be the reason why his confidence increased. The once paranoid and stuttering little boy actually started to talk… with confidence.
It's as if he has nothing to lose anymore. Back then, everyone was watching his every move, praying that he'd make a mistake so that there would be a reason to mock him but here, here everyone is like him. Everyone is scared… which in return is why he isn't.
Fennel slips into his pajamas and joins the others at dinner.
"Alrighty! So we're all here?" Helen, their mentor, asks with excitement. Helen was older. In her fifties, if Fennel had to guess but he wouldn't judge her for it. He'd take her advice any day. It's all he has to increase his already slim probability of coming back home.
"Seems to be the case. Bon appetit!" Skosarsa, their escort, shouts out with excitement. They always fascinated Fennel for some reason. He couldn't really tell if they were a man or a woman and that intrigued Fennel so much.
"So, tell me kids: What'd do you think?" she asks before chugging down a bottle of beer.
"Of what?" Bianca, the mysterious girl he finally got to meet in person, asked in an impulsive tone.
"All of this? The glamour, the pizazz, the luxury. It really is something, isn't it?" Helen offers them some delicacies on a cheese platter.
"Pff, this is heaven compared to what I'm used to," Bianca says in a grumbling tone as she grabs a handful of appetizers from the platter.
"What do you mean?" Helen asks with genuine concern.
"It's nothing..." Bianca hides her face. Fennel can tell that she's tearing up.
"Oh, poor thing!" Skosarsa exclaims, handing her a tissue. Bianca slaps their hand away and rushes off to her room.
Fennel didn't expect this at all. The way she talked to him earlier made it seem like she was a ruthless little girl out for blood. Perhaps he was wrong.
Who is he to judge... Many unexpected things have happened today. Too many for Fennel to digest and comprehend at the moment but he's taking it all in bit by bit.
He's accepting his demise.
He's enjoying his demise.
Ok, so it's been a moment but hello! Hello again! Same thing as always... school. Sadly, my vacation starts on July 5th which is still a while to go but during summer break I should be able to upload and write more frequently.
Thank you Elim9 for Bianca and Galaxy842 for Fennel. For some reason, this was extremely hard to write. The hardest one yet and I have no clue why.
Questions:
1. Which one of them will last longer?
2. Which one of them do you want to last longer?
3. Are any of them potential bloodbaths?
Please, please, please leave a review. It doesn't have to be big but it lets me know that you're reading and I'd appreciate it a lot. I'll see you guys next time probably with District Eleven and then we only have three more to go!