No sight of Tealie and the outlying district alliance and I'm worried I'm truly alone until I find purpose looking to the herbology console once more.
I sort through Nightlock, Lenten Flowers & Hemlock, until I find a particularly beautiful flower called Andromeda Buds. I've seen these grow beside the clearing where Yarrow and I would meet regularly.
I never knew they were poisonous, but the pink bulbs remind me of her because they were her favorite.
Daddy cleared them out one day when we had plucked some to show him.
I didn't know...
"You're that girl who bashed in 10's face right?" a mousy, nasally voice coming from a beautiful girl penetrates my right ear as I'm reading.
Her complexion is the same as mine, but tanned and toned, her cheekbones making her look older and more elegant. She definitely belongs to District 2 from her forearms alone, even more muscular and agile than Tealie.
Behind her is the boy from 3 and the girl from 1, her own little army.
"I'm sorry..." I say to her softly.
She bursts into laughter with 3 and 1 joining her.
"Don't apologize for her, we kicked her out after your little stunt and let me guess, she's scraping the barrel after and is pleading with you to join her alliance she thinks we don't know about?" she says arrogantly.
"I'm Demitra, this is Gemm & Watts." she introduces 1 & 3 respectively.
She reminds me of the girls who would play cruel pranks towards Yarrow & I.
Inviting us to sleepovers at abandoned homes in the outskirts, placing tacks on our chairs, pulling our hair in school when we sat in front of them.
This is no mere invitation, what could they want?
I don't respond, sifting through the encyclopedia.
"Oh, I see...well, just letting you know why she's inviting you to her alliance. You can join Hawthorn if you want in ours. He told us about your little crush on him and we think it's cute." she says placing her hand on the console, sitting atop of it afterwards to gauge a reaction from me.
Joining Hawthorn because I'm in love with him? I only looked to him because he is the only face from home, and maybe, we could work together, him being more physically able could protect me...I think about this for a moment, balling my fists and staring at the ceiling as I think about this.
I let my thoughts win again until I tell myself enough is enough.
"I'd rather not. You can have him...you seem to be more interested in his well-being than I am." I say closing my eyes and huffing through my nose.
I slam open the console once more and continue sifting through it, forcing her to move from the console.
Demitra has perfectly white teeth which she uses to grin like a shark before Gemm chides in with an "Ooo..." to exacerbate the confrontation.
Peacekeepers step in and separate us, Demitra not breaking eye contact with me until I look over to Hawthorn glancing at us, he shakes his head next to the boy from 2.
Who would want to be in an alliance with me now that the Careers hate me?
"What is it with you and this herbology course?" Tealie says approaching from behind, pulling me away startedly.
As she tugs on my arm, I resist until I see the boy from 10 and the duo from 9.
"Rosie, this is Merino." she says introducing me to the boy from 10.
His dark hair matches hers, but not her tan features. His face was nearly the same as mine, however, his farmers' tan was bleeding onto his neck compared to his face but not his body.
He most certainly worked in a factory or something that made his face covered, perhaps to protect from the bleeding of animals splashing against his freckled face.
He stood tall at 6'0 with folded his arms and clearly thought little of me with a peering look.
She grabs my cheekbones, turning me to the duo from 9 playfully.
"That's Hash and Pannette." she says excitedly.
As I examine them lost in thought with Tealie clenching my cheeks, I notice Hash is missing his left hand. I think he noticed as I am left with my mouth agape before quickly shutting it. He is completely tan like Tealie is and is no older than 14, the youngest out of all of us within the alliance, the youngest in the Reaping being the 12 year old boy from District 6.
I saw him before, but thought nothing of it. He was doing the climbing exercises, but how did he complete it without his hand?
I then look to the girl, short, mousy with dyed blue hair.
She smelled like dirt, even still with the scented soaps the Capitol provides.
She smiled a crooked smile, an overbite, however, she was the only one happy to see me along with Tealie, approaching with a hug.
The smell of dirt was even more pungent. Did this girl bathe properly?
Girls in school from 11 had brief bucket baths with water that had to be shared with families throughout the day on special occasions.
Maybe she purposefully did it so that she could have a piece of home with her until I noticed her hands are completely caked in dirt.
She smeared it on me when she embraced me, she notices as well with a slight gasp so she tries to wipe it away with her dirt caked hands.
"I'm sorry. I get nervous in this place without a little soil from home. I carried some in my dress. I'm sure you can relate!" she says with a nervous laugh. I merely look to her with a polite look, clearly not sharing the sentiment and even notice Tealie smirking.
I stop her from trying to clean my training uniform by holding out my hands and smiling myself, wiping it away.
Tealie lets go of my face, noticing how powerful her grip is until...
"She has all the more reason to join us after the boy from 11 ditched her." she says introducing her reasoning.
"She's smart and good with plants. If one of us gets stuck with an arrow, she can heal us. Come on guys. She doesn't have a reason to betray us." she says pleading.
Pannette instantly agrees, looking to the boys approval.
Merino and Hash look to each other, Hash agreeing with Pannette if not to placate her excitement.
Merino however approaches and towers over me.
"You got abandoned by your boyfriend and you think you can get Tealie to have you sign on? We saw the girl from 2 talk to you about joining them. How do we know you won't just ditch us?" he says looking down unto me with his hazel eyes, still folding his arms in disapproval.
He mirrors the boy from 2, Caesarus, I believe his name is, in his stature alone.
I had seen him as well, almost as accurate with a Javelin as Sapph, the boy from 1.
I huff similarly to the way I did to Demitra before standing up to him.
"I'm not stupid like that boy from 3. I know they'll betray me with Hawthorn, who is by the way, not my boyfriend." I say to him.
"We don't even need plants where we're going, the Arena was leaked to us by Tealie and it sounds like a wasteland, little girl." he says smugly laughing in my face at my determination before Tealie pushes him off.
"It's snow, Merino. Not a wasteland." she says defending me.
Snow...wasteland...
I'm brought to the frozen over lake in my head washing my face with the cold water, preparing for the reaping, dreading the dress my Mother was going to have me wear.
"I can do it." I say interrupting their squabble.
"If there's anything I know, it's plants in the middle of winter. If the Careers so much as get a scrape, it'll be their death. I can heal you with winter plants." I say adamantly wiping my face of welled tears I didn't notice before.
"Echinacea, Ginger, Caraway, I know of them and can stem the infection even if it's a blizzard. Trust me. If I were to use a plant on that bitch, Demitra, it'd be Queen Anne's Lace..." I say peering down at the floor.
"That's what I like to see...you found some fire in this one Teal." Merino says placing his hands on hips with a hearty laugh.
"You're in as long as you keep practicing the herb course, don't even bother with the weapons after that pitiful display at the archery range." he says, beginning to walk away with Hash.
"I'm in..." I say touching my lips noticing they're hot from standing up for myself.
"You're in!" Tealie says as her and Pannette jump up and down circling me.
I can feel a smile stretch on my face, with no desire to look over to the Careers this time, uncaring.