#Isadora Wyetka

[hungergames-fanfic]

41st Annual Hunger Games

Word Count: 2802

I raise my hand and wave it knowing for a fact Ms Weston, my fifth grade teacher sees me. With a loud sigh, she rolls her eyes and puts her hands on her hips. “What is it now, Isadora?”, she snaps.

“The other teachers never made us watch the games.. and I ain’t allowed to watch at home”, I inform. Ms Weston gives me a fake smile. “Well, I ain’t the other teachers and I ain’t gettin’ in trouble ‘cause the Wyetka’s think if they ignore some, it’ll go away. Now shut up or i’ll kick you out of my class”, she says and raises the volume. Just as she does, the classroom doorknob jiggles for a second until it opens and in walks a peacekeeper, only unlike most, this one seems to have more authority.

His uniform is just the same as every other except his armour is thicker over his chest, and has more coverage on his arms and thighs. His helmet looks different too. Usually if I look hard enough, I can see a peacekeeper’s eyes through the tinted section over the face, but not his, it’s shiny and pitch black with a couple of dings on it, like he’s been shot at before. This makes him look intimidating and even though I can’t see him, I feel his eyes on me.

His head faces my direction for a moment. Making a fist he looks up at the television screen, where Caesar Flickerman, Capitol citizen and Hunger Games host excitedly exclaims about the games starting in an hour. His body language.. he’s mad? He turns to look at Ms Watson. She sits at the edge of her table looking at him the way Jenae looks at daddy. Menacingly, he leaves the room. This makes Ms Watson suck her teeth, I’d laugh if I weren’t so sad.

This past week has been hard for me and I can’t imagine how Efrain and his family gotta feel. When we got to say our goodbyes everyone was crying, even Eddy. I hugged him so tight, begging him to not let go. “They can’t take you if i don’t let’em”, I cried. This made him chuckle through his tears, “don’t stop bein’ you, Dora”, he said right before our time was up.

Yesterday, momma Bilmin made a big meal to take to Efrain’s, when we got there, everyone was either crying or their eyes were red and puffy. Mrs Oxoro’s health has gotten real bad too. So much so she ain’t join us in the living room while we watched the interviews. No one really had much to say but when we all saw Eddy come out we were cheering and clapping. He looked so handsome with his new haircut, wearing a shiny tanned suit embroidered with cacti shaped patterns. There was this glow about him too. He was confident and ready to be part of the games. “I’m nervous ‘bout tomorrow, but don’t confuse my jitters for weakness”, he said to Caesar Flickerman, “don’t you worry momma, i’m comin’ home”, were his last works before he stepped offstage.

The Capitol sigil is shown along with a fading black screen. Flickerman excitedly presents this year’s arena. “This year Pompreek Gustav has created an arena specially made for his last year as Gamemaker, and I do say, he has outdone himself. You see, folks, unlike most arena’s this one is our very own Gamemaker’s project home in the middle of Gesler street. Yes, that big mansion you drove past this morning on your way to work is exactly where this years Hunger Games will take place. Isn’t that exciting!”

Flickerman wears his signature navy blue suit with flickering light bulbs. He sits behind a desk while a montage of this year’s tributes play behind him. A glimpse of Eddy standing on the stage, here in District 10, is shown. My heart skips a beat. The thought of having to watch him die makes my eyes watery, my nose ticklish and my throat tight. Last time he talked to me was when he told me it’s okay to like girls. That meant a lot cause momma had me believing I was different in a bad way.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the games will begin in one minute! Ha ha!”, Flickerman yelps showing off his unnaturally white teeth.

The sixty second countdown begins and everyone is elevated into the seventh floor. Boys wear tuxedos. Girls wear elegant red gowns, caked in makeup, their hair up and pretty. All tributes appear separated in small rooms big enough to just stand in. Most are motionless, some are wide eyed and hyperventilate. Ms Weston says they’re standing in the dark cause there’s a green tinge to the imagery and their pupils are big with a white glare in them. The whole class is quiet and when the countdown reaches zero, it feels like time has slowed down.

A door opens in front of them and they stand in separate rooms of their own. For the female career from District 2, she’s been placed in a small library. For the male career from District 1, he’s been placed in a bathroom. For the female tribute from District 12, she’s been placed in a large closet. Eddy has been placed in a study. A clock on the wall is shown giving them the time. It’s 10:01 A.M.

There’s a silence in the school, we all watch curiously, wondering what it is that they’re supposed to do but it’s not long until it turns obvious.

The walls of the small library close in causing books to fall off their shelves. Abruptly, they stop. Startled, the girl from 2 looks around, her eyes wide, her arms extended. I bet none of the careers expected to be treated so equally.

In a bathroom, the shower head, bath, sink, and toilet water start to flow. In a study, a fireplace turns on along with the panels on the walls which turn bright red. In a closet, from vents hidden within the clothes, gray gas leaks. The first to realize what’s going on is a girl from District 3. Water rises to her ankles, she looks all over the room until she notices something on the ceiling. It’s a hatch. Climbing on the sink counter, she grabs the handle only to realize its locked. By now, some of the other tributes are noticing the hatch as well. It seems that every room has one.

The first death happens at 10:08 A.M when the boy from District 5 is electrocuted touching a pipe connected to the wall. He twitches, his hand catches fire and within seconds he’s flung across the bedroom, landing motionless near a wardrobe. The camera zooms on top of a tall dresser near the pipe, there lies a small golden key.

Realizing the hatch needs to be unlocked, the girl from District 8 opens every drawer in the bedroom she’s in. Suddenly, she’s swept off her feet. The floor shifts violently, back and forth, once it stops, it slowly moves upwards and comes to a halt.

The time is 10:22 A.M when the second death occurs. The little boy from District 12 coughs blood, his eyes cry and no matter how hard he tries to cover his face, the gas still gets to him. One last cough and he drops, twitching and foaming at the mouth.

Sweating profusely, Eddy wipes the sweat off his forehead and watches his step on top of a desk. Having tied his bowtie to the latch, he sticks in the golden key being the first to escape. A cheer erupts in class and what sounds like the entire school as well. “Ladies and gentlemen, our first escapee!”, Caesar announces. “But not so fast, he’s been placed in yet another room, this one seems to be some sort of botanist heaven, ha ha!” he fake laughs. Confused and on high alert, Eddy breathes heavily looking all over his surroundings. There’s a smile on my face, but deep down I’m terrified for him.

Second to escape is the girl from District 3, she’s found the key and with her gown heavy from having gotten wet, she rips it up. Flickerman whistles. Ms Weston makes a sound of disgust, “she’s fourteen”, she says.

By 10:48 A.M, bathrooms have been filled almost entirely with water, tributes desperately swimming around. In studies, objects catch fire. In bedrooms, depending on each, emit lightning like surges of electricity creating fires, others have their furniture crushed by walls or floors. Gas fogs up closets. Seven tributes are now dead, the rest, if they haven’t escaped yet then their fate has already been sealed.

A body floats in the water filled bathroom. One is shown as their skin melts from the enferning heat, and another twitches their finger as they are squished between furniture. Eddy is shown again, he’s spitting a chewed up leaf on his burnt finger tips. The female career from District 1, bleeding from her nose, coughing profusely, stumbles out of the room she’s emerged from, into a hallway and is struck in the head by a swift, lethal blow with a pipe. The first to kill is the male tribute from District 7. He searches her, peeks into the room she came from and moves on to try and open other unopened doors.

The lunch bell startles me into a jump. It’s 11:00 A.M. Ms Weston tells us to make a single file line by the door, no one says anything and we silently do as we’re told.

“Now, word is, there are eight floors and no elevators”, Caesar makes a disgruntled sound. “I don’t know about you folks, but I just hate taking the stairs. Ha ha!”, his fake laugh is the last thing I hear when I leave the classroom.

Alone at a table, rubbing the tears out of my eyes, all I can see is the boy from 12 dropping dead and twitching. Any second, it can be Eddy dying like that or in an even more horrible way. The tears keep coming. I don’t like to cry in front of people, I refuse to be a wuss but it’s so hard to swallow. Somebody hugs me from behind. When I look up, my eyesight is too blurry to tell who it is, but the wild shade of red sitting next to me gives herself away. Ari rubs my shoulder.

“I know you ain’t wanna be friends no more”, I don’t let her finish that sentence. “Ari, I missed you so much,'' I say through tears a little too loud for my liking. I’m sure there’s a lot of looks on me right now. She giggles in my ear and hugs me back. Clearly she missed me too.

Lunch with her ain’t the same, but that’s cause of my predicament. According to Ari, Mr Bale actually has them doing school work, he put his sweater over the television. “That ain’t fair, everyone with eyes knows you knew Eddy”, she says with a frown on her face. “I told you Ms Weston don’t like me”, I mumble under my breath handing her an extra piece of honey walnut bread. Even though momma Bilmin heard momma tell me to never talk to Ari again, she still adds one extra. Ari smiles when she takes it, somehow this is enough to cheer me up. I smile back.

For some reason lunch feels like it’s been cut short. I’ve had so much fun talking to her about random things I learned from books. Unlike Efrain, Ari always looks interested and don’t cut me off unless she making a joke or asking questions. It’s like this whole week without her never happened. Back to class, we even hug goodbye.

I was away for thirty minutes, within that time, two more tributes died. Another was heavily injured by a career and Eddy is nowhere to be seen. “It seems that each floor has its own.. Sort of theme, wouldn’t you say?” Flickerman sits behind a desk talking to another man who looks like a founding father. “After his tumble earlier, the tribute from seven, Clarke Hale, has slowed down drastically! But so far, he’s the only one who’s made it to the sixth floor and this one seems to just be one big empty room?”, Flickerman questions. “It’s a tennis court”, the other man adds. Note to self, learn what tennis is.

Clarke is the center of attention. He’s everything the Capitol loves. Tall and visibly strong with pretty green eyes and dirty blonde hair. I think it’s silly how they shaped his mustache, the tips curl. Using the shower pipe, he limps his way into the vast room. A replay shows him running down the stairs. Just as he reaches the seventh floor the dimmed, flickering lights give in and he misses a step. Just as he stumbles down the steps turn smooth and he glides until he hits a wall coming to a full stop. The lights turn back on and he’s only a few feet away from the female tribute from District 4. Not backing down, she jumps on top of him and tries to strangle him with an extension cord. Being bigger than her, Clarke gets the upper hand by punching her square in the face. When she falls back, he pins her down and chokes her with his own hands. A warm sensation covers my whole body. It feels like I just woke up from a nightmare and don’t wanna look anymore but the sound of crackling fire calls my attention.

In the tennis court, he’s found a new weapon, it looks like a big fly swatter made of shiny metal. Without skipping a beat he swings it, hitting the ball of fire headed his way. It lands across the room. Knowing he has to get out of there, with the pole in one hand, fly swatter in other, he limps as fast as he can towards the exit. On his way he manages to swat two more before he makes it out.

My heart skips a beat, the cameras switch to Eddy hiding inside a big wardrobe. He’s sweating and rocking back and forth from exhaustion. His eyes are closed tight and he has a hand over his mouth while the other shakes holding the doors shut. Just outside roams a white figure with no real shape. It hovers from one corner of the room to the other. It’s shape looks like a person walking around with a white sheet over themselves but it’s see through. I’ve never seen a ghost before. Goosebumps form on the back of my neck and shoulders, my heart beats fast. The figure, although not really touching anything manages to open drawers and even hovers back and forth in front of the wardrobe until it disappears completely.

The setting changes and now we follow up on the male tribute from District 2, he’s found the female career from 2 and male from 1, they walk around the halls of the eighth floor looking for who knows what. Probably following up on their bloodlust. Not interesting enough, the camera switches to the female tribute from District 3. Wouldn’t know who any of these people are if it weren’t for the informational panel on the bottom right corner. Here the words that appear are the age, district and names of those shown. Her name is Ada and she’s fourteen years old. Slowly, holding herself back by her back, arms and knees, she crawls downwards inside a vent. This makes me nervous and I'm not the only one. Wendy shakes her hand nervously and whispers to Destiny. Something horrible is bound to happen to Ada here. She’s visibly vulnerable and if something were to happen she’d be forced to let herself fall. The true horror is the underlying question, how far down would she go?

Replays of all the deaths make my stomach churn. Curiosity had me watching the games attentively but now, I don’t wanna open my eyes. I cover my ears and put my head on the desk. I shut my eyes just like Eddy but that look on the choked girl’s face keeps forcing itself in my mind. By the time the school day ends I feel the urge to leave everything behind and run out of class, but I don’t. Calmy, I put on my backpack noticing how shaky I am and silently walk out of the classroom. I’ve forgotten all about Ari until she catches up at the end of the hall. I don’t say much but I do hug her goodbye again before we walk out the building. I ain’t tryna get in trouble for talking to her. It feels like if anyone were to raise their voice at me, I’d drop where I stood, dig a hole to the center of the earth and never resurface. At least Eddy is still alive. For now.

[hungergames-fanfic]

The Reapings

Word Count: 2606

Today is reaping day. A boy and a girl will be chosen at the Plaza, in front of all of Panem, and be put to fight for their lives in an arena. The winner will bring riches and fame back home, or so that’s what president Snow says on the propaganda commercials. District 10 hasn’t had a victor in over a decade.

For the 4th Annual Hunger Games, daddy’s uncle Amos was chosen as a tribute, cause people still weren’t used to the idea of the games there were riots on the street. A lot people died in my family leaving only momma Bilmin and daddy alive, daddy was a newborn. My best friend Efrain’s daddy, who was just a little boy himself got shot but survived, a story Efrain loves to tell. While all of this happened, the government still took uncle Amos, who was sixteen at the time. Being all alone, mourning the death of her husband and family, momma Bilmin was forced to watch uncle Amos survive the games. He killed the most tributes, a goal some careers claim to wanna surpass, or so Efrain says they say, and came back home as that year’s victor.

With his wealth, uncle Amos bought miles of land and divided it into two with a road seven miles long making it a detour from Bloques, where the poor live, where momma Bilmin and daddy are from, to Littleburg, where the heart of District 10 sits. Here live the rich, where momma and her family is from, shopping centers, hospitals, the Mayoral building and more are located. Uncle Amos also purchased cattle, daddy says back then they only had two of every animal. Cows, goats, chickens, horses, pigs and even sheep, but we don’t have sheep no more. He also built momma Bilmin a pretty house on the land and then years later, before I was born, he killed himself.

No one talks about uncle Amos or watches the games at our house cause it makes momma Bilmin cry a lot. So much so that last night I could hear her from my room, so I spent the night with her. She hugged me until we fell asleep. This morning I woke up to the smell of a thousand types of food.

Cause momma Bilmin knows what it’s like to go to bed hungry, with our money, she cooks big pots of food and feeds those who flock to us. Usually, on the mornings she’ll hand out her famous honey walnut bread to those who walk past our road, but on reaping day, she cooks a grand meal. This year she’s baked bread and a cinnamon version of it, two types of rice, an orange one with tomato and basil that’s a little spicy and a yellow one, which is my favotire cause it has eggs, vegetables and beef, but I’m not eating meat no more. Not after I seen where it comes from. Momma Bilmin also cooked a big pot of beans with bacon and sausage a long with another pot of mashed potatoes and cheese. Enough to feed up to a thousand people or more if portioned correctly.

Cause momma is Mayor Sotto’s secretary, she’s all about appearance. Today she wears an elegant dark blue pantsuit. It makes her look so pretty daddy wont stop hugging and kissing her. She tells him to stop with a smile on her face and makes him wear a tanned suit, threatning with “you ain’t gettin’ any honey” if he wears his cowboy hat. Daddy takes it off so fast it makes me laugh. I watch them from the mirror, where I stand and stare at myself while momma does my hair.

Momma’s made me wear a pink dress with itchy white socks and shiny white shoes I only use when I wear dresses like this. She makes a braid from the top of my head to the back, turning it into a low pony tail and adds a big bow to it. I hate the way I look. Can’t even go out to play when I’m dressed like this. I stare at my reflection wishing I could dress myself. I wonder what i’d chose if I were allowed. Then again, i’m only ten years old and can’t take a bath without supervision.

“Oh, my Dora you look so precious”, momma says kissing my cheeks. I don’t think I look like her, her skin is lighter than mines, but I do have curly hair. The curls aren’t as coily as hers though, just a little thicker in shape. I don’t look like daddy or momma Bilmin either, daddy is too dark skinned and his hair is straight, he looks like momma Bilmin but her skin is as brown as mines. Her hair is just as straight as his, too.

“Miss Esperanza”, Vano, Efrain’s cousin, knocks on the door frame. He clears his throat and takes off his hat showing off the waves on his hair. Unlike most days, him and Eddy, Efrain’s older brother, are dressed presentable and clean, that’s cause they’re both still eligible to be a part of the reapings. “We ready to go”, he says.

The reapings don’t start until one in the afternoon, but cause momma needs to be at work early, momma Bilmin will be feeding people and the boys have to sign up, we’re leaving early. Daddy’s gonna stay behind though, says last year someone stole a couple of chickens while we was in Littleburg.

The ride to the Plaza is boring and takes a lot longer than usual. The roads and highways are packed with new and old vehicles, run down wagons that look like they gon lose a wheel on a bump and horses carrying up to three people. Everyone wants to get there before noon since the peacekeepers are a lot more abundant and meaner on this day. Sometimes they break into homes in search for those that haven’t left yet and beat them out on the streets as a warning for others to hurry up. At one point, on the road we see a man getting frisked while his wife screams at peacekeepers tryna hold her back. This day is stressful as it is, peacekeepers always make things worse.

When we arrive to the Plaza, momma gives me a kiss on the cheek before leaving. She always asks if I wanna go inside the Mayoral Building with her cause there’s air conditioning but I like to stay with momma Bilmin, she doesn’t tell me to shush and sit every five seconds.

Left with just her while the boys go and sign up, I make sure to keep momma Bilmin safe. There’s always somebody ungreatful. Next to our wagon, people form a long line on the sidewalk waiting to be handed a plate of food, I help hand forks.

“Ain’t that some shit, Bilmin!”, an old man stands a few feet away eating some of the bread she’s made. “The youngin’ look just like’em”, he laughs. Momma Bilmin doesn’t look at him, she clears her throat and nods. I’ve seen this look on her before, she wants to cry. Mad at him, I scream “go away!”, he just laughs. “Same attitude too!”, he blurts outs in a laugh that turns into a gross cough.

“Come on, John, move along”, another old man says. A plate in one hand, pulling on the gross old man’s shirt with the other.

“Hey, I lost my Isabella to the games too, we’ve all lost family. You ain’t seen us cryin’ when they names be mentioned. Besides, all I said was the little girl look like Amos”, he goes on but the other man pulls him away. Too late, though. The damage has already been done and momma Bilmin has tears rolling down her face. Is that why momma Bilmin cries when she looks at me? Cause I look like her baby brother?

“When I get bigger I’m gonna beat him up”, I tell her whilst giving her a tight hug. I hate it when she cries. It’s not fair cause she doesn’t deserve to be sad.

She smiles at me, gives me a kiss on the forehead and stares for a little too long before her upper lip starts to quiver and more tears roll down her face. This happens a lot around this time, too. It just takes one look and I make her cry. I wish I could change my face. “Please don’t cry momma, I’m sorry”, I apologize wishing I could stop making her so sad. She rubs my back, wipes her tears and keeps on feeding everyone.

People come and go, they wish us blessings, some cry with thanks and others give us little gifts like handmade jewelry, pretty clothes or micellaneous items. None get my attention like this one though, it forms a big smile on my face the second I spot it. Like a trade, a woman hands momma Bilmin a black, fluffy puppy. “Issa boy, gon grow real big, Geller keepin’ the momma and she real good at guardin’ the house”, she informs. “Polomir need himself a guard dog, been hearin’ ’bout a lot of coyote attacks lately. If anythin’ it’ll eat it and not y’all’s cattle”, she chuckles. Momma Bilmin laughs and denies the pup but the lady wont take it back. She giggles when I beg to please keep it. “Listen to the baby, Bilmin, don’t deny me my gift to you”, “oh, alright, fine. Just don’t let’em near the pots of food”, momma Bilmin snaps a me.

By noon, through intercoms placed in every corner, poles, buildings and trees, we hear Mayor Sotto ask those eligible for the reapings that they have an hour to sign up. This makes a lot of teenagers scatter towards the Plaza, only a block away from where we’re stationed.

In the distance, on my skittish horse, Milk, I spot daddy galloping through the crowded road tryna get to us. Excited to show him the puppy, I hold it in the air and jump.

“Hey Isa!”, I hear an old familiar voice, “that your dog?”, Efrain asks. Seeing him walk towards me with his family makes me so happy I almost fall off the wagon but Jenae, his aunt gently pushes me back. “Careful, Isadora”, she warns helping Efrain and Abie up here with me. Compared to the last time I saw him, pale and near death, skinny and weak, he looks a lot better. “Been back outside playin’ with everyone on the block, Wendy was askin’ ‘bout you and Arielle. Says y’all ain’t go to school yesterday”, he says almost like he’s asking why. I wave my hand in the air, showing off my now dirty yellow cast, I don’t give him the same “it hurts” lie I give momma. I don’t wanna lie to him, so I let him assume on his own. Besides, I don’t wanna tell him about Ari and me not being friends no more. Instead I show him my new puppy, who I’ve named Bean cause he ate all the beans that spilled out the bean pot.

The name makes Efrain laugh. “I’d name him Edwin cause that boy’s hair just as shaggy”, he says. This makes me laugh cause it’s true.

Just like me, Efrain is dressed his very best. Although his clothes are too big for him and practically sun bleached, comapred to the rest of his hand-me-downs, he looks sharp. His curly hair has been bathed in oil making it look wet and shinny, his big gray buttoned long sleeve has been tucked into his brown pants held by red suspenders. His cousin Abie, who’s a year younger than us, wears a gray buttoned up long sleeve too, on her waist she wears a red belt that matches Efrain’s suspenders. Her curls, a lot finer than his, are also oily and shinny in the sun, slicked back with her baby hairs forming waves on her forehead. “Momma thought it be cute if we dressed the same”, Efrain says.

“I look cute”, she snaps, “you look like you need more sun”, she rolls her eyes. Her momma pinches her shoulder. Efrain chuckles.

Next to the wagon, on the street, Efrain’s daddy and momma, who came in her wheelchair cause people gotta be literally dying for them to be allowed to stay home, linger whilst talking to daddy who looks very uncomfortable. While her husband Otto helps momma Bilmin hand out plates of food, Jenae laughs and constantly puts her hand on daddy’s arm.

On top of the Mayoral Building sits a large television screen, it turns on to show a blue image. It slightly rocks back and forth but doesn’t fall. In patterns, all the other televisions around the area start to turn on too. The one above a one-floor shop turns on to show the same blue, another standing on a pole at the corner of the street turns on to show blurry images that turn clear. On the side of a big, wide complex building, a holographic image shows the same, from this one, I watch. On it, Mayor Sotto waddles up to the microphone. He’s short, balding and wears a suit too big for his own good. Behind him stands momma looking ever so pretty. Next to her is Tate Langdon, our only victor. He wears a black suit jacket and jeans with a black cowboy hat that matches. Next to him stands Jai Ngyuen. He’s from the Capitol and wears an all white suit that makes him shine bright. His hair and eyebrows are just as white along with his make up. “Goddamn clown”, I overhear Otto say under his voice.

Clearing his voice, Mayor Sotto begins. He dictates the same story from every year, I recognize it cause its one we read in our history books at school. He explains how Panem came to be, mentions the dark days, uprisings against the Capitol, District 13’s obliteration and the start of the Annual Hunger Games. The camera zooms in on Tate, who the mayor mentions as one of our victors along with “and may he rest in power, Amos Wyetka”, he reminds us of uncle Amos like he does every year. Through the crowd blinded by the sun, the camera goes on and on as if showing off our thousands of possible tributes. Once the mayor is done talking, he wipes the sweat off his shinny bald head with a hankerchief and stands next to momma. I glare at daddy who has a smirk on his face while watching the screen.

“Happy Hunger Games!”, Jai’s shrill voice makes the microphone screech. “And may the odds be ever in your favor”, he shakes his head and raises his arms excitedly. Giggling, fixing his tie, he smiles wide showing his perfect teeth. People in the crowded streets look at each other, some shake their head, others murmur to one another. Daddy turns to look at Efrain’s dad and both chuckle nodding their heads.

On stage, Jai walks over to a glass ball containing the male names. Like every year, he plays shuffling the papers, taking a lot longer than he should. Raising his hand in the air to show the folded piece of paper, two more fly out and fall to the ground. He picks them up, dances with and spreads them in his hands, choosing the middle note. Excitedly he practically skips back to the mic and opens it. Clearing his throat dramatically, he calls out the name of this year’s male tribute.

“Eduardo Oxoro”, Efrian’s oldest brother.

[hungergames-fanfic]

Sleep My Little Dora

To make sure no one steals our horses or carriage daddy pays a local man to keep watch. Cause the stew pot is hot and momma Bilmin carries the basket of bread up the flights of stairs, it's my job to run up before them to open the exit door. Down the hallway, sounds of children crying and faint yelling can be heard through the walls. When we get to the Oxoro's door, I can hear the sounds of gunshots. They're watching television, most likely an illegal film. Movies of any kind aren't allowed unless they’re filmed from home or shown on one of the government approved channels.

Eddy opens the door by just a crack. He peeks out and I'm the first he focuses his eyes on. My cheeks feel warm. Spotting daddy he opens the door wide and steps aside. In here, normally empty, it's full of people who turn away from the television to see who it is. On the sofa sit Mr Oxoro, a woman and another man. On the floor is Vano, outside the window is Omarion talking to someone out of view, i assume it’s Felix. Next to him, with her foot inside is a girl that catches my eye.

At first she looks like a boy. Fluffy short hair sticks out the front of her backwards hat, she wears a big green shirt and black shorts. Her socks too big for her skinny ankles, they fall loosely off her foot.

Mr Oxoro stands up once he sees daddy and helps momma Bilmin with the basket. He welcomes us in the house and introduces us to everyone. When he says my name everyone turns to look at my arm. Including Felix who peeks in. I'm guessing they know about what happened.

"That's my sister Jenae, her husband Otto", Mr Oxoro points, "eldest you've met Vano, that at the window is Jocabeth and", he chuckles, "the little one is Abie". From the small hallway a girl sticks her head out the Oxoro sons room. "You go on Isadora", Mr Oxoro says to me, "boy been excited to see you". This brings out a big smile on my face.

In the room, across from the door, Efrain lays in his bed. He smiles wide and calls me to go closer. "It's okay, Eddy made sure to clean everythin' up and i got my shots", regardless of what he says, I still run and give him the biggest hug. "Oof", he goes and chuckles.

"Efrain!" I yelp, "so much has happened, so much i wanna tell you", I chant happily. He chuckles and looks at my cast. "I bet", he says.

I spill the second I sit on the middle bed, Felix's. I tell Efrain about being so alone during lunch and after school. How I tried to be better friends with Wendy and the other kids we play with when I come over, but none were as fun to be around. I tell him how one day I had an extra piece of bread and spotted Ari sitting all alone. "Ari?", he asks. "Yeah, Arielle", "Arielle!?", Efrain exclaims with his eyes wide. Excitedly I tell him about all the fun that I've had with her. How every day in lunch and after school we spend time together. How at home we always play games or play outside with the animals. I don’t admit we play dolls the most. I laugh when I tell him about getting lost in the shopping center in Littleburg, taking a bath with her and then working in the farm as punishment. I tell him about being in trouble for lying, having to work in the farm as punishment and getting injured riding Milk. I also mention taking Ari home before coming here but I never tell him about the kisses.The one she gave me the other night and the one I gave her this afternoon. Secrets I plan to keep forever.

With a big smile on his face Efrain talks about how glad he is that Ari and me are friends, how excited he is to talk with her when he goes back to school and playing around in my house. I've also decided not to mention how much she doesn't like him.

"Ya'll sound like Vano and Bethy. Girls, girls, girls, i'm tired of it, so can we please finish watchin’ Lizard Sphere A", Abie snaps and rolls her eyes at us. Efrain and I laugh but neither pays attention to the animated show, instead he shows me all the drawings he's drawn while in bed rest.

While he shows me some really cool ones of me and him being space men and Abie choking in the background, I can't help but to stare at him the same way I did to Ari earlier. Last I saw him, Efrain's wasn’t this skinny. He practically resembles Ari, whom he used to be a little bigger-than. He's also a lot more pale and sickly like his momma. His eyes are sunken and his cheekbones stick out. He looks like he's at the verge of death with only a smile keeping him alive.

"Y'all come eat", Jocabeth says at the door. She leans in with a bored look on her face, like nothing is cool enough for her. For a split second, I wish I was her. I stare at my light orange dress, my frilly, itchy socks and white, shiny belted shoes. I pull on a curl that already rests on my hand, how I wish I were as comfortable as her. In the living room, I stare at her nonstop taking in her personality. Everyone laughs at everything she says, eating a piece of cooked lettuce from her soup with her hands, burping as loud as she wants, joking and laughing so care free. If I ever ate with my hands and burped that loud i'd be in trouble. I wish I was funny too.

While we all enjoy momma Bilmin’s cooking, the adults talk amongst themselves, they mention the cost of living and how the president doesn't care about us. This catches my attention.

"Some bloke started a union a few months ago, found'em dead in a ditch and a lot of folk got fired. They ain't waste a second though, next day the factory was full of new workers", Eddy says. He looks irritated and waves his arms with annoyance.

"It's like we brought bad luck or some", Jenae ways touching her forehead. She looks upset.

"Naw auntie, there was rumors 'bout this from the start. I'm just worried 'bout findin' another job", Eddy says thoughtful.

"I'm in need of some hands", daddy speaks up with a shrug, "c'mon Asmel, I've told you this", daddy turns to Mr Oxoro.

The conversation goes on and on until everyone agrees that Eddy and Vano start working for daddy from now on. Apparently Mr Oxoro's sister and family were kicked out of their home from a shark? Now they live here and will be staying until they get the money to move out. Daddy invites Mr Otto to work in our ranch too but he jokes that he's one of the new workers in the meat factory. Mrs Jenae claims she cares for Mrs Oxoro and the kids. In a way, it makes me happy to hear someone is here to care for my best friend.

After dinner we all sit in front of the television. Blowing a bubble with her gum, Jocabeth puts a movie in the VCR. "A classic", Mr Oxoro says hugging his wife who's wheelchair has been rolled right next to him. On her lap sits Efrain snuggling with her arm and next to momma Bilmin, I hold her hand and watch, occasionally turning my gaze out the window. There Felix, Eddy, Omarion, Vano and Jocabeth joke about. I wish I was old enough to hang out with them.

The movie starts off in a dessert, how humanity has decayed and withered except for a couple of people living like ferals. They fight for food and water, some even fight for money. Those wanting to be rich steal from those already poor and hungry, "not far from the truth", Mr Oxoro says. Just as I fully invest myself into the movie my thumb reminds me of all the times I bumped my hand on to something. I try to keep the pain to myself but its not until I can't ignore it that I speak up. Daddy uses this as an excuse to go home, says my pain medication has worn off and he forgot it. Jenae, who's been eyeing daddy all night is the first to hug us goodbye. She bumps into my hand. I'd shriek, drop and die but I don't want the older kids to think i'm a wuss. Instead I hold on to the tears in until we leave the apartment.

On the way home I silently cry so much I fall asleep only to wake up when I feel my hand hit the bed. Daddy's carried me inside, taken off my socks and gives me kiss before he leaves. I don't know for how long I sleep until I'm woken up again.

The lights in my room are turned on, I shut my eyes tight and cover my face with my arm. Someone slaps my hand off my face, forcing me to look at them.

"What is this I hear bout you kissin' girls?", momma snaps at me. "That. Is. Disgusting. You hear me? Where have you seen women kissin' other women?" She raises her voice angrily. Momma Bilmin, woken up, comes out her room and into mines. Momma explains to her how I kissed Ari on the lips just this afternoon. She says it grossed out as if I had stepped on poop and got in bed.

"She ain't hurtin' nobody!", momma Bilmin snaps at momma. Daddy walks in my room too, he stands in between them just as momma Bilmin tries to get in momma’s face. My warm tears quietly roll down my face just like they did on the way home, only now the pain is in my chest. I've never made momma this mad before. She ain't ever yell at me this loud either.

"No, no, no!", momma yells pushing daddy’s arm away and turns to me. "I don't wanna see that little red head in my house ever again, you hear me?" She connects her thumbs with her index fingers, making her point. "I don't wanna see or hear bout you kissin' girls, Dora! When? Where has she seen any of this? Sure as hell not from me!", she screams and walks out the room still scolding me from the hallway. Daddy shoots me a look of worry and goes after momma. The rest of the night I sleep in momma Bilmin's room. She combs my hair with her fingers, sings a lullaby and assures me there's nothing wrong with liking who I like. Still, I cry until I've fallen back asleep with only one thought in mind. Liking girls is not normal, it's gross. Momma said so.

[hungergames-fanfic]

The Talk

Efrain still hasn’t gone back to school and i’m not talking to Ari no more. She cried when I told her during lunch that momma ain’t want us to be friends and ran off. Ain’t saw her after school. This made the ride home feel empty, a feeling that’s followed me up to this moment. It feels like I'm lost but not really.

I know daddy told momma about me kissing Ari so i’m not talking to him. At least not by choice. I think he noticed this on the way home from school cause he kept asking how my day was. I kept it short. Probably to find out if i was talking to Ari so he can go tell momma again. Speaking of, momma apologized for screaming at me, she made sure to repeat just how gross it is to like girls while at it too. I didn’t say anything, not even goodbye when she dropped me off at school.

I sit at the breakfast table in the kitchen doing homework while momma Bilmin cooks lunch. When she’s done she calls Vano and Eddy to come eat. They practically fight each other just to get in the house making a huge scandal when they get to the table. Daddy ain’t join us, he eats when he wanna.

“I forgot how rowdy boys can be”, momma Bilmin says placing my food on the side.

“Sorry miss Bilmin”, both boys say at the same time. This makes me chuckle into my english textbook.

Placing their plate of food in front of them, momma Bilmin clears her throat, tilts her head towards me and widens her eyes. Vano looks at her with his mouth full and is elbowed by Eddy. “Oh”, Vano says tryna breathe out the heat off the food in his mouth. Any other day i’d stare at them non stop wishing I could be their friend, today i just want to finish my homework in silence.

“Hey, uh, Eddy. Did you hear Beth has a new girlfriend”, Vano says. I feel my ears perk up and i glare at them while they talk. I have no comment but I'm curious. “Says all the girl wants to do is kiss all the time”, Vano continues, shifting his eyes between Eddy and I as if he were tryna add me into the conversation. I hide behind my textbook.

Wishing I could say something without getting in trouble, I stuff my mouth with fried potatoes and flip pages pretending not to listen. Setting a glass of water in front of me, momma Bilmin smiles. “I told you it was normal to like girls Dora, you’re not the only one”, she says. All eyes are on me. Sad about no longer being friends with Ari, i push my plate away and close my book.

“Likin’ girls is disgustin’”, I say repeating what momma said last night. I prepare to leave the table but its hard when all I got is one good hand and another begging me to stop moving so fast.

“Dora, you ain’t gonna eat?”, momma Bilmin asks. Vano and Eddy’s eyes are still on me.

“I’m not hungry”, I say. My voice sounds angry but i’m not. I’m not sure how I feel. Her assurment lifts a weight off my chest, but momma’s words still repeat in my head.

“Dora, you like girls?”, Eddy speaks up with a smirk on his face. “You know, it’s okay for girls to like other girls, boys to like other boys or to like both boys and girls”, he goes. This makes my chest feel light and tight at the same time. Eddy smiling at me forms a smile on my face too. I never thought liking Ari would be a big deal and for Eddy to say it's okay, I feel almost lightheaded.

“Sometimes people don’t even like either”, Vano adds, shrugs and shoves a potato in his mouth.

“See, Dora?”, momma Bilmin says smiling at me with both her eyes and lips. Hearing all of this puts a smile on my face but momma’s attitude last night takes it away. Quietly, I put my books back on the table and give everyone a dying smile. They all smile too and momma Bilmin rubs my back. Pushing the plate back in front of me, she gives me a kiss on the forehead and encourages me to eat. Although everyone goes back to minding their business, i’m still left with a thought in mind. What point is there for it to be okay to like girls when momma is never gonna allow it?

[hungergames-fanfic]

He Likes Her

I ain’t go to school today, that’s cause I had to go to the doctor. He said daddy did a great job handling my dislocated thumb and that if he hadn’t, it would of been permanently damaged.

Heading back home momma Bilmin stopped at the pharmacy to get my medication, some that the doctor prescribed for the pain. There she bought Sasha, Ari and me dolls for us to play. Ari’s at school though, so I’ve been playing with Sasha meanwhile.

Sasha is a four year old girl momma Bilmin babysits everyday except for weekends, her momma doesn’t work on those days. Sasha ain’t like the other kids from Bloques, she’s chubby like me, dark skinned like Efrain and has really curly hair like Olive. Who I just realize I haven’t seen much of since Efrain got sick. She usually approaches us to talk to him but she’s always really nice and talks to me too. For some reason, thinking about her doesn’t feel the same anymore. I used to smile at the thought and even daydream of holding her hand like the time Kenneth and his friends jumped Efrain. Instead, somebody else makes me smile when I think about them. It’s Ari but not just her, it’s the thought of her kissing my cheek before she left the other night. It makes my face feel really warm, kind of like when I see Efrain’s big brother Eddy.

Yesterday night, while my heart pounded inside my thumb and made it hard to sleep all I could think about was that kiss. It helped a lot ignoring the discomfort. Also, no one has ever kissed me before, well except for momma Bilmin, momma, daddy and Mr Trent but they don’t count. At least compared to Ari they don’t.

“Dora”, Sasha calls for me, “you doin’ it again”, she points out that I’ve stopped playing just to think.

We play with our dolls, pretty girls with long hair, cute dresses and shoes. All which in a way look like us. Sasha’s is a black with puffy hair and an elegant dress like momma usually wears to work. Ari’s has long red hair and is white with a long frilly dress like a princess, mines is black too, except her hair is wavy and she wears a black and yellow pantsuit like aunt Lucia’s. We pretend that they have super powers. Sasha’s doll can sing so pretty whoever is listening is put in a trance. Ari’s doll, cause she ain’t here, is the bad girl tryna steal all of our blocks to build herself a big castle. My doll is super strong, just like daddy. It’s my job to destroy the evil doll’s castle and apprehend her while Sasha sings.

“Well, you can’t go around singin’ and expect me to not to go in a trance”, I say. It was meant to be a lie but it makes a lot of sense. Sasha opens her eyes wide and nods her head slowly. I’m guessing she’s just realizing the true nature of her abilities. We keep playing for some time, laughing here and there, having fun with our new toys.

Meanwhile, momma Bilmin sits out front handing out slices of bread like every day in the afternoon. She used to hand bread out in the mornings too but then stopped cause she’d have to wake up at 3 A.M just to bake. Now she only does so on Wednesday mornings cause a lot more people pass down the road on that day. I often think to myself, what if they only show up cause they know she hands out bread on that day?

While Sasha and I play, the front door opens and I hear momma Bilmin yell my name from outside. I put the dolls down and go to her. Down the hallway, walking towards me is Ari crying. She’s pink and sweaty, sobbing and twitching. I run up and hug her, feeling how warm see is from being outside.

“Ari, what’s wrong?”, I ask holding on to her shoulders.

“I thought”, she starts, sobbing and pausing, “you ain’t wanna be my friend no more”, she starts to cry more. “Everyone said that”, she gasps, “you ain’t go to school cause”, she pauses again sniffing her boogers back in her nose, “you ain’t tryna be friends with a freak”, she exhales into another cry. This makes me mad and I hug her again.

“Ari, you’re my best friend, I don’t think you’re a freak”, I tell her in her ear and let go. She rubs her eyes and twitches with ever sniff.

I know how she feels about being called that word. She hates it cause it makes her feel different, and she is, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing and I’ve told her this but it still upsets her. I grab her hand and shake her tryna distract. I’ve seen her sad before but never enough for her to cry, this leaves me desperate to cheer her up.

“Ari look, this is why I ain’t go to school, I broke my thumb ridin’ Milk”, I say. She pauses to look at my yellow cast, one I got today at the doctor’s. She grabs my arm and feels on it, looks at me and gives me a teary eyed look.

���So..”, she starts, “you don’t think I’m a freak?”

“You’re none of what they said”, I say. The look on her face says she doesn’t believe me. Suddenly, I can’t control myself. I’ve been thinking about it all day and for some reason it feels like this is the best way to show I’m being truthful. My heart starts beating really fast and for a second I feel like I can’t control my own body. I lean closer to her and give her a quick kiss.

The back door slams open and my body turns stiff. Standing there, looking right at us, daddy has a look on his face. He looks mad but he’s not. Poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue he takes a few steps forward looking a me and then at Ari. He raises his eyebrow, sighs and walks into the kitchen, out of view. Frozen in place I stare at Ari. She covers her mouth, smiling at me with her eyes. She’s bright pink. This makes me smile at her back.

My smile doesn’t really leave and I catch myself smiling at her almost every time. She smiles back too but is having so much fun playing dolls with Sasha and me that it leaves me staring at her even when she’s looked away. My cheeks are warm and even start to hurt from all the smiling after a while, but I can’t stop. At least I don’t until I spot daddy looking at me from the hallway. He squints his eyes thoughtfully but doesn’t say anything. Not at first.

“Sasha ya momma’s here”, he says, “Dora put your shoes on, we goin’ out”, “can Ari come too?”, I ask. Daddy looks like he wants to smile but doesn’t, he just nods and steps out the front door.

“Where we goin’?”, Ari asks and returns to make a “shhhh” noise, meant to be the noise fire makes coming out of her dolls hands. Her superpower is fire. A gasp out of me catches her attention. My eyes wide, I smile at her with excitement.

I’ve remembered what momma Bilmin said this morning. “We gon see him soon, I promise”, she said.

“We’re gonna go visit Efrain!”, I say hands in the air. I’ve been so excited to tell him about Ari being my new friend cause he... he likes her.

[hungergames-fanfic]

Grounded

Having to wake up before the sun is horrible. It’s cold but not really, my eyes are itchy and dry, daddy’s in a mood. I’m not having any fun. I guess that’s the point. I’m not supposed to have fun, this a punishment.

“First things first”, daddy says.

He makes me light an oil lantern on my own, at first the task makes me nervous. Last time he taught me I ain’t pay any attention, luckily all I had to really do was light it. “Easy, see”, daddy says when I smile at the flame.

In a way, he wasn’t kidding, that was the easiest task. For the entirety of the morning I’m put to collect chicken eggs. This takes me about an hour. Ari left so many behind that I fill up two buckets. Then, we have so many chickens it’s hard to walk in the coop without having to kick some. They flap around erratically and smack me with their wings. For a second there, I’m jumped by over twenty chickens.

Usually daddy only makes me do one thing and calls it a day, but not today. He’s still mad about yesterday. Ari and me getting lost, then finding out she ran away and we ain’t tell nobody. Has me shoveling up pig poop, carrying buckets of feed, tossing hay into the goat pen and spoils at the pigs. Has me working so hard I ain’t notice how hungry I am until my stomach starts to roar. Even then I ignore the noises and emptiness so daddy won’t have a reason to yell at me some more.

By the time the sun is high in the sky, hot with no light breezes, daddy calls me to the farm house. In a pen he has one of our bulls, he’s big and brown with the longest horns I’ve ever seen. The other one is just a calf. He hands me a brush and tells me “Billiard” needs to be brushed, then leaves me to this and goes out in the horse pen where I can hear him calling Spice, one of our three horses.

“Milk!”, I hear daddy a couple of minutes later, “Milk, down girl, down!”, followed by a loud distinct crash. It sounded like a wooden wall being torn down. “Goddamn it, Milk!”, daddy yells. Footsteps approach.

“Polomir!”, momma Bilmin yells at him, “now I know you ain’t talkin’ like that in front of Dora”, behind her are three men.

“Lookin’ like you need help”, Mr Oxoro says with a big smile. Usually his clothes look dirty like daddy’s after a long day but today he’s well dressed. Has cowboy hat on, in a bright red, long sleeve button up and navy blue jeans with the cleanest boots I’ve ever seen, he stunts with his attire. I say he can try all he want but he’s still funny looking. Short, with a big belly and the funniest waddled walk, he walks besides Eduardo and some other boy I’ve never seen before.

Eduardo looks nothing like his dad. Mr Oxoro is dark skinned. Eduardo looks like his momma. Tall, light skinned with pretty colored eyes. “Milk man’s kid”, Omarion said once. Whatever that means. The second I see Eddy my cheeks feel warm and I hide behind Billiard.

With them is another kid just as tall, he’s skinnier and tanned, his clothes are sun bleached and if there were a strong gust of wind it looks like he’d fly away with it. He looks amazed. His mouth open, looking all over the place like he ain’t ever seen so many animals before.

“This right here is Vano, one of my sister’s kids, they visitin’ for ah, y’know”, Mr Oxoro says tryna keep himself from saying “the reaping”. “Seen them a lil bored so I thought I’d bring’em down here to work”, he says holding on to his belt. Daddy swings his arm for a firm, friendly hand shake.

“Need help? Naw”, daddy says turning around to look at something. All the men chuckle.

“Since y’all here”, momma Bilmin says, “you ain’t gon need Dora no more. Dora!”, she calls for me.

I’ve been out here sweating all morning, I’m dirty and stink. I ain’t tryna have none of them see me, specially Eddy. My cheeks feel hot. “Dora?”, momma Bilmin calls for me just out the pen. Not having heard her creep up startles me into a shriek that makes me giggle out of sheer nervousness. Momma Bilmin laughs and pokes fun at me. “Girl look at you, almost feral, you been playin’ with the pigs?”, she chuckles.

Daddy puts Eddy and Vano work on the broken fence, who both stare at me walk out the barn. I wish momma Bilmin wasn’t holding my hand, they probably wanna laugh at me cause I’m dirty. This makes my cheeks warm again and I try my best not to look at them.

While daddy and Mr Oxoro go and catch Milk, who happens to be distracted by a patch of grass behind the pen where we keep our lactating cows, momma Bilmin talks about us spending the rest of the day together. She sounds excited and tells me about the book I read to her on Friday, how she wants to know more about corals. I’d be excited to read to her again but after working all morning, hungry and tired, all I want is a good nap.

Blessed with nice cold shower all I can do is laugh and play with momma Bilmin who despite finding all of them dead, won’t stop looking for live lice. Says she “ain’t stoppin’ until all those pests leave my baby’s head alone” and kisses my cheek. Afterwards, I’m made to wear a frilly dress and she ties my hair into half a braid, half a pony tail. It gives me the sense that we’re going out but she tells me we aren’t. Says momma is gonna love the way I look when she gets back from work.

For lunch she makes me a cheese sandwich with juice that has bits of fruit floating around. She sits with me at the table and talks about paying Efrain a visit tomorrow.

“You mean that, momma?”, I jump out of my seat so excited I almost fall off. Momma Bilmin smiles at me and nods. Says he’s better now and we can finally go visit. It’s been almost two whole months since I last seen him. I’m so excited to tell him about Ari being my new friend, I can’t wait to see his face. I also miss playing outside with him and the other kids. Wendy says they miss us too.

When we’re done eating, momma Bilmin and me go to her room and lay down on the bed. She has the ceiling fan at high velocity so it’s not as hot as it is in the kitchen. In no time, she’s fallen asleep and snores really low and quiet. It’s cute. I’m not sleepy though. Instead I quietly leave her room and go to mines. For a long second I stand in front of my bookshelf and stare at all the books that I have. Two shelves filled with them, none I wanna read.

Bored, I stare outside from the back kitchen door and watch Eddy and Vano still tryna fix the fence. Vano holds a plank, Eddy nails it in place making the whole fence wobble. Meanwhile daddy and Mr Oxoro walk around the open field pointing and talking amongst themselves. Looking around my eyes catch a glimpse of some of daddy’s mecate. Thin ropes he’s braided with horse hair. This gives me an idea. Daddy won’t teach me how to use a lasso cause I don’t have my own. What if I made one myself? I seen how he makes the ones he sells. It’s just four ropes braided into one that’s thick and slightly stiff. If he sees that I made one he won’t have any other choice but to teach me!

First rope over third rope, second rope over fourth rope, fourth rope over first rope. I go on and on and the ropes never seem to finish, but i am determined. Some duct tape where the braid is loose, a haircut where there are too many hairs poking out and lastly I put the lasso inside a water bucket to make it look wet and pretty. Daddy and Mr Oxoro joke and laugh while they inspect one of the cows. I’m not sure how long it takes for me to finish but by the time I do, daddy’s walking back to the barn, probably to check on Vano and Eddy.

It takes me maybe an hour to finish the world’s shortest lasso, still proud of myself, I go to them around with it in hand. “The roll of hay comes out to four-hundred, five-hundred, the O’doyles are flexible with the price”, daddy says to Mr Oxoro when I pull on the back of his shirt.

“Daddy look what I made!”, I interrupt with a big smile on my face.

“Girl you made a whip?”, Mr Oxoro asks. This makes daddy laugh but the second he sees it his smile fades away.

“That my mecate? Who gave you permission, Isadora?”, he sucks on his teeth, smacks me hard on the shoulder and takes it out of my hands. “Isadora”? Oh, he’s mad. “It took me a week to make these damn braids! I got Samsonite waitin’ and this girl..”, he pauses and pinches the brindge of his nose, “..when I open my eyes you best be on your way back inside”.

Stomping back to the house, holding in my angry tears, I notice Milk is out on the horse pen. She’s staring right at me and wags her nubby hairless tail. For some reason it feels like she’s calling me. Behind her, at the other side of the pen, Eddy climbs the new fence only to break it. Vano laughs and disappears behind the barn house. I crawl under the fence and make kissy noises to Milk. My dress is covered in dirt now. I don’t care, I making noises for her to come. After a few long seconds she finally starts walking over to me. This makes me happy. When she’s close enough I extend my arm and slowly try to touch her face. She lets me and even sniffs the palm of my hand. I remember daddy saying this is a good thing.

Eddy and Vano make me a little nervous cause I ain’t tryna embarrass myself in front of them but having broken the fence again they’re busy tryna look for more wood in the barn. With no possibility of judgment I get up close to Milk and give her a hug. Her letting me get this close for the first time makes me so happy I can’t stop giggling. Maybe this is why Ari is all giggles too. I feel Milk’s buzz cut mane and caress her face, when I stop she sniffs my hand and nibbles on my palm as if asking for more. With my yellow saddle already on, I dare myself to ride her. Part of me wants to, the other talks me out of it. I’ve only ridden her once and daddy was there to calm her down. “She already looks calm though”, I tell myself.

I stare back at daddy who’s not that far away. Him and Mr Oxoro stare and point a the hills past our land. I figure if anything happens, he’s right there. Picking up the courage, struggling to do so, I manage to climb the saddle and sit on her. All she does is huff and move a few feet. Nervous but thrilled I giggle. So happy to have climbed Milk all on my own I try to make her move forward so I can get the hang of riding a horse. Poking Milk’s neck I whisper for her to “go”, but all she does is huff and sniff the ground slowly walking towards the broken fence. I keep poking her and even dance back and forth tryna make her move to another direction but she doesn’t.

”This way”, I say wiggling my feet. She doesn’t budge. Disappointed, I give her a hug tryna hop off but suddenly Eddy speaks up. “Ain’t know you knew how to ride a horse”, he says popping out the barn. This spooks Milk. She neighs and stands up on her hind legs. Suddenly she leaps and takes off in a run, thrashing and kicking her hind legs tryna hit Eddy and fling me off. My scream is so loud that for a second I wonder who it is. My feet no longer on the stirrups, along with her trashing, makes me hit my face on the saddle horn. Unable to hold on, scared out of my mind, I let go.

Hard, dry mud rocks poke at my shoulder and my fall knocks the wind out of me. Having landed on top of my hand hurts so much I can’t move, I was screaming but not anymore, I can’t breathe and hot tears are rolling down my cheeks.

Milk thrashes and neighs running away. Eddy and Vano run up and help me sit up. Eddy takes one look at me and covers his eyes, rubbing his face and head. Vano sucks air through his teeth, he has a pained look on his face.

On their way back, daddy doesn’t run to me, he goes after Milk who kicks anything in her way. For a second I wish she was dead. Daddy should be here helping me, not her. She hurt 𝘮𝘦! Instead, Mr Oxoro comes to my aid. He helps me stand up but my knee hurts too much to stick out and the sight of my hand makes me scream only to go silent again. It feels hard to swallow. Nothing I could say or do can describe how much my hand hurts. The warm tears fall dawn my chin.

Behind me I hear momma Bilmin running up to us asking what happened. She approaches and takes a look at Mr Oxoro holding out my arm. My right thumb is bent backwards. There’s a bump where it used to be. This makes her scream too. Daddy is too busy tryna calm the stupid horse to come help.

“Why wasn’t you watchin’ her, Polomir!”, momma Bilmin screams at him. I’ve never seen her so mad before. She points at him and scolds him for having let me get on the horse. Daddy doesn’t say anything, he just walks back forcing Milk back to her pen.

“She was just with us, Miss Bilmin, she was just with us!”, Mr Oxoro says taking off his hat, scratching his sweaty balding head.

Daddy looks worried when he approaches. Momma Bilmin stands behind me, holding me so I won’t fall while I stand on one foot, she shushes and wipes my tears, caressing my face tryna stop me from crying. “You’re okay baby, you’re okay”, she says.

Without a word, daddy grabs my thumb and pulls on it fast and hard. It pops so loud Eddy flinches and looks away, Vano and Mr Oxoro wince, momma Bilmin whimpers and I scream so loud I feel lightheaded. I jump and kick tryna get daddy away from me but momma Bilmin ain’t strong enough to hold on. Back on the ground I cry so loud I feel like Sasha when was a baby.

Like a sack of potatoes, daddy puts me over his shoulders and walks off. Behind him momma Bilmin tells me “it’s alright, Dora” on the verge of tears while Mr Oxoro tells her “I swear to you on my youngest that little girl was just with us”. “Dad!”, Eddy snaps at him. All of them following us look like momma running after the mayor when he does something silly like leave out the wrong door. It makes me wanna laugh but it feels like I have my heart inside my hand and every time it beats, it hurts.

Inside the house, I sit and watch daddy wrap a white long bandage over my hand and thumb with what looks like a broken popsicle stick holding it straight. Says he’s fixed it already and I don’t need to see a doctor. For a second there, I begged him to take me to the hospital, I thought I was dying. This made momma Bilmin laugh but her hands shake and she rubs them together.

“What I tell you bout that horse, Dora”, daddy scolds me while tying my bandage, “always some with you, no but you don’t stop and think, you just go ahead”, “Polomir!”, momma Bilmin snaps at daddy. “Naw, aint nobody tell’er to go climb that dang horse”, he points out the door. He stares at me really mad and leaves. Already sobbing, I keep crying knowing daddy’s so mad he doesn’t wanna look at me no more.

Momma Bilmin touches her cheeks, her eyes are glassy and she shakes her head. “I’m sorry, momma”, I say.

“It’s okay, baby”, she assures me, “now come on, we need to figure out what we gon tell ya momma”. Oh, she’s gonna kill daddy. This makes me wail, mourning daddy’s eminent death.

[hungergames-fanfic]

Nightmare

Word count: 1636

Daddy got me feeding the chickens today, been doing it all week, actually. I think this his way to keep me busy. Been asking too many questions he says, but it’s cause he never got anything to say when I ask about Eddy. Even told me to stop talking to Vano. That’s probably cause I made him cry. All I did was ask if he been watching the games.

Besides that, I’ve been real good since I threw that “tantrum in front of the whole family”, or so momma says. I mean, daddy ain’t say none about it but she looks pretty mad. Scolds me about anything now. Even yelled at me this morning cause I was watching her throw up but I was only curious. She’s never thrown up before.

I spend the feeding playing with the chickens but daddy’s now yelling at me to stop. Says I’m scaring them. I’m pretty sure I’d know if they were scared. Them flapping their wings like that means they’re happy. I read that in a book somewhere.

When I’m done feeding them, daddy tells me to haul a bucket of water for the goats. I tell him I can’t cause I need both hands to hold it since my right is still in a cast. He said “do it and you best not drop it”, gave me a real tired look. One that says “if you inconvenience me I’m gonna inconvenience you”, with a spanking probably.

Now, I’ve already dropped it twice but daddy ain’t seen so I figure I’ll head to the barn house to see if Vano ain’t using the wagon for hay. Gonna use it to put the bucket in there and haul it to the goats. In here, I find him raking horse poo with a real sad look on his face.

“You need anythin’?”, he asks. Sounds real sad too.

“Can I use the wagon?” I ask. My hands behind my back, I rock myself from side to side. I’m a little embarrassed for making him cry but I don’t wanna talk about it.

“For?”

“I need it”

“For?”

“Isadora why is that water tub empty?”, daddy yells at me from across the dairy cow pen. I don’t turn to look at him and run straight back to the well. It’s not until I drop the heavy bucket two more times that I earn me another yell from daddy. Tells me to go back inside since I’m of no use. This hurts my feelings and I don’t cry until I’m back in the kitchen.

In here, momma Bilmin makes breakfast. Tells me everyone misses Eddy as much as I do but we all got different ways of showing it. Daddy shows it with irritation she says.

“He must be missing people all the time then”, I say. She hushes me.

“Now take them boots off, you’re messin’ up my floor and I just mopped”, she scolds, hands on her hips.

Barefoot, I skip around the cold floor tiles around the kitchen and hallway making my way to the living room. Sasha lays on the sofa covered in one of my old blankets and watches Bean murder Mrs Wallace. She’s one of my favorite dolls, I even cut her hair in a mullet cause that’s the type of gal she is.

“Bean! No!”, I yell at him but he runs off with Mrs Wallace. I should of listened to daddy when he said no dogs! At the time I was sad I couldn’t keep him though, cried until momma Bilmin talked him into letting Bean stay.

Sitting up straight, Sasha giggles. “You ain’t play with it in a minute”, she says. She’s right but that don’t mean I want my doll to be ripped to shreds by that maniac dog!

It ain’t long until I wanna cry. He’s running all over the place thinking I wanna play. Won’t let me catch him. Sasha ain’t helping either, she just keeps laughing every time he slips through my hands. Momma Bilmin says to leave him alone and that he’ll bore himself with the doll but when will that be? When he’s done and finished killing her?

Finally, out of breath and given up I lay on the opposite end of the sofa. Sasha kicks her blanket to me and we cover ourselves. She kicks me a couple of times but I ignore her, last thing I want is play with her. She always ends up crying.

It’s not long until I start feeling sleepy.

[̲̅I̲̅]’[̲̅m̲̅] [̲̅w̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅l̲̅][̲̅k̲̅][̲̅i̲̅][̲̅n̲̅][̲̅g̲̅] [̲̅d̲̅][̲̅o̲̅][̲̅w̲̅][̲̅n̲̅] [̲̅t̲̅][̲̅h̲̅][̲̅e̲̅] [̲̅h̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅l̲̅][̲̅l̲̅][̲̅w̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅y̲̅] into the kitchen, something tells me that’s where Eddy is. Last I saw him he was sneaking into momma Bilmin’s unfinished breakfast platter.

When I enter the room I stare at a big red desk. It looks fancy, kind of like the one in the mayor’s office. On the corner of the room, on a chair, Efrain sits with his back turned to me. I ask him what he’s doing but he doesn’t answer. Just bobs his head. It makes him look silly but I’m concerned.

“Efrain, you okay? Where’s Eddy?” I ask.

Efrain ignores me but he keeps bobbing his head. Just as I walk up to him, someone takes my hand. At first it’s Vano telling me it’s time to go, then it’s Eddy himself. He says we can’t stay here and takes me out into the hallway. It looks familiar and the blades spinning around in the middle of the room look familiar too.

I turn around to get one last glimpse of Efrain but there’s a wall where the door stood. I try to touch it but Eddy takes my arm and pulls me away. There’s no cast on it. Something tells me my hand is completely healed.

The hallway’s gotten longer now and the blades are coming at us from where we just stood.

Eddy let’s go of my hand, runs away and kicks the wall until he makes a hole into it. “C’mon Dora!”, he yells at me.

I run as fast as I can, but no matter how hard I try, it’s not fast enough. The blades are right behind me. Swish. Swish. They sound sharp and ready to kill. By now I’m crying but I make it just in time to crawl into the hole on the wall.

Just when I think we’re safe in my room, something in my closet starts to slam on the panels. Snapping and breaking the way it does looks like whatever it is is climbing.

Fingers peak out and grip slowly opening the closet door. I stare at it and take a step forward. A thought in my mind tells me it could be Bean making a ruckus but just when I’m only a couple of feet away, from the top of the door, emerging from the pitch black, a face peaks out.

It’s one I immediately recognize. With ugly cuts across her face and no life behind her eyes, the tribute’s head slides down ever so slowly. Once she’s reached the floor one of her arms come out from the darkness and then the other and then her entire body. Mangled with her arms snapped back like a spider she crawls towards me. As she does I can see the puddles of blood she leaves behind.

Frozen and scared, [̲̅I̲̅] [̲̅c̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅n̲̅]’[̲̅t̲̅] [̲̅s̲̅][̲̅c̲̅][̲̅r̲̅][̲̅e̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅m̲̅] [̲̅n̲̅][̲̅o̲̅] [̲̅m̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅t̲̅][̲̅t̲̅][̲̅e̲̅][̲̅r̲̅] [̲̅h̲̅][̲̅o̲̅][̲̅w̲̅] [̲̅h̲̅][̲̅a̲̅][̲̅r̲̅][̲̅d̲̅] [̲̅I̲̅] [̲̅t̲̅][̲̅r̲̅][̲̅y̲̅].

I wake up screaming. Seeing daddy run up to me from the corner of my eye keeps the scandal going and for a second it ain’t just me.

Sasha’s crying. Momma Bilmin holds on to her chest and I think I hear Vano stopping into the kitchen. Tryna force my back into the couch cushions, I keep bawling until I can’t no more. Even gone mute with a blurry eyesight from all the hot tears rolling down my face.

Daddy grabs my shoulders tight and shakes me asking what’s wrong. There are coffee stains all over his already dirty, sweaty shirt.

Just a second ago I seen that dead girl crawling to me, now it’s daddy all up in my face. If I wasn’t already screaming I sure would.

“I was in the games, daddy!”, I cry and hug him like I’ll never see him again. Out of breath from all my wailing I can only say just a few words. “I was in the games and she was coming to kill me!”

Daddy pulls me away and wipes my tears. He looks just like momma Bilmin. They both have a thin long face and straight black hair. Opposite of me and momma who have round chubby faces.

“It was just a dream Dora, just a nightmare”, he says worriedly and holds my face. I don’t feel better but daddy would never let anything bad happen to me and this is proof. I hug him again sucking in sharp streaks of air. I’m not the only one in tears, though.

Momma Bilmin holds on to the hallway door frame. Sasha pulls on her dress. “Don’t cry” she begs, but momma Bilmin ain’t listening. She’s tryna keep herself together and failing.

Daddy takes his attention away from me almost immediately and helps her on the sofa. She holds on to her chest and stares at him with a look I ain’t ever seen.

This is entirely my fault. We should never talk about the games in this house. That’s the only rule I’ve always been told to never break and this is exactly why. I hug momma Bilmin telling her how sorry I am but she ignores me.

“I can’t”, she says shaking her head and closing her eyes letting her tears fall down her face.

“No, no, no”, she rocks back and forth, crying into her hands.

“Not again, no, please not again.”

[hungergames-fanfic]

Half Human, Half Squirrel pt.2

“Littleburg used to have another name before the games. Ms. Gullard told us last year. She says it used to be the Capitol of Texas, one of the previous states formin’ the United States of America, which we now call Panem”, I say. Ari stares at me with her mouth open.

“You ever been to actual Littleburg?”, I ask. She shakes her head. I’m not surprised, this is where all the rich folk live and everything is too expensive. “Our school is right outside of Littleburg. This is the only elementary in all of District 10”, I add. Daddy says that’s how the government keeps track of us but I don’t tell Ari this, I aint tryna explain 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵.

“that’s why it’s so big?”, Ari jumps off her seat with her hands in the air. Daddy asks her to sit down. That’s cause peacekeepers are really mean here and will stop anybody. Momma Bilmin calls it abuse of power and to never ask them for help.

Cause the peacekeepers usually pick on people who look poor, to go to Littleburg we have to dress nice. Momma Bilmin combed our hair really tight into a braid and put a cowboy hat on Ari. I think it’s to hide how skinny she really looks with her hair tamed. Momma Bilmin then turned one of my yellow dresses inside out, sew it in a couple of places and made it fit Ari. She looks so pretty and hasn’t stopped smiling since. She says I look pretty in my dress too.

Driving past our school, daddy keeps going until we reach local stores. These are old, small and a lot cheaper than those deeper in Littleburg. Passing these we start to see forests and pretty green trees down the long road. He makes a lot of sharp turns I don’t pay attention to the way Ari does. She sits on her knees, looking out the window in awe. I don’t blame her. Bloques is nothing like this, aunt Lucia calls it “one big shantytown” cause the houses are so close together there aren’t that many trees.

“Look Dora”, daddy points at some ruins.

Behind a chain link fence is a completely destroyed building scattered all over a long road. The engines and wings remind me of a plane I once saw in a book about traveling. There were so many versions of planes that I spent a whole week reading just about them. “Airport?”, I gasp excitedly. I jump off my seat and join Ari at the window. “That one!”, I point at a blue and yellow plane underneath a run down hangar. “That’s a Boeing 757, that was the first largest single isle passenger plane for a very long time. Oh!”, I point at a lost wing with a jet engine holding it off the ground, “that must of been an Airbus, those were made in a country named France” I continue.

“Dora”, daddy interrupts. He says I’m not to talk about what I’ve learned beyond Panem. “Won’t do you any good to get smart, these fields are yours, this’s what you need to focus on”, he said once.

Soon, there’s not that many trees surrounding the road, it’s stores all over the area. “Pocco’s Footwear”, “Family Donuts”, “Brie’s Electronics”, and “DDDD Insurance” are some of the names on them. Behind these are neighborhoods of houses like mine. These are made of red brick with backyards. “They’re connected to the poles, they carry electricity throughout the neighborhood”, I point at the power lines.

In no time, the roads get bigger and everyone is driving faster. “These are highways and they take us to different sections of Littleburg”, I continue. Up on one of the ramps we’re able to see a big pretty building out in the distance. “That’s Spring Hills, middle and high school but you gotta be accepted to it. Momma wants me to go there next year”, I whisper to Ari. She doesn’t say anything back but looks sad. I wish I could read her mind. Maybe I could. Maybe there’s a book on reading minds.

“Daddy will there be a book store where we’re goin’?”, I ask.

“No more books, you got enough at home”, he says.

“Momma Bilmin says there can never be enough books”, I say but nothing more when I catch his eyes on me in the rear view mirror.

Off the highway he drives into a big parking lot, surrounding it are stores scattered all around. A gas station at the entrance corner, an ice cream shop in the middle of the lot, stores connected together but with signs that say what they sell. “PBS Pharmacy”, “Make U Smile Dental”, “Petstore”, a huge one named “Bullseye” and more that are too far away to read.

“Wow, can we go there”, Ari asks pointing at the pet store. We look at daddy, he says “no”, and heads for the pharmacy. He looks tired.

“Why does he sleep on the sofa?”, Ari whispers in my ear so he won’t hear. I look at her confused. Daddy doesn’t sleep on the sofa, he sleeps with momma. If he did, was it cause of what happened last night?

I don’t notice how hot it is outside until we walk into the pharmacy. A blast of cold air hits us when the door opens making Ari scream and laugh. Even though her scream scared me a little, it’s still funny and I laugh with her. Daddy looks back at us with a smile on his face. I don’t have to read his mind to know he found it funny too.

Not wanting to lose daddy I take Ari’s hand and pull her along with me. She holds on tighter. He walks a lot faster than us so we practically jog to him. We pass a couple of isles before Ari stops running and pulls on my arm. Not wanting to lose daddy, “go, I’m gonna see where he goes and come back”, I inform.

Daddy stands in the middle of an isle, on the shelves are a lot of plain gray boxes. “Earwax Remover”, “Eye Drops”, “Antiseptic Cream”.

“Lice Remover?”, I ask scratching my head.

Daddy looks down at me with a weird look on his face. He looks mad, confused, I can’t tell and I really wish I could. In his hand are two rectangular boxes that say just that. Without a word, he pushes me and we walk out the isle in search for Ari. We find her on the floor playing with a rubber chicken, making it scream when she presses on it. She giggles every time.

“Stay here, I’m gonna go talk to the pharmacist”, daddy says just before he walks off like he remembered something he’d forgot.

The chicken continues to squeal and Ari screams in giggles. Can’t forget how loud she is when she’s having fun. To keep her company I look around the toy isle until one catches my eye. It’s not really a toy but a board game, to play you need about three people, that could be Efrain, Ari and me. The instructions say that you are given a word and then you have to act it out. Who ever guesses it wins a point. Or something along those lines. I want it and I’m too excited to wait for daddy to come back to tell him. I tell Ari to wait and run around the store looking for daddy, whom I find at the back talking to an old man.

“Good news, the vaccines you ordered will be here in a couple of days”, says the old man looking at his computer screen.

“That ain’t what I’m here for”, daddy chuckles like he’s nervous. Momma says it’s rude to interrupt people when they’re talking so I run back to Ari to see if there’s a toy she’d want too. I’m sure if we beg him just enough he’d get it for us.

When I return to the isle she’s no longer there. I run to the opposite end and spot her jumping in and out the store, playing with the automatic doors. “I leave for one second”, that’s what I wanna say when I catch her and run after her who takes it like a challenge. She spots me and screams, then proceeds to giggle away. If daddy finds out we left the store he’s not gonna let me see tonight.

Outside she runs giggling her heart out past the store fronts until she suddenly stops. I know what she’s looking at, it’s the pet store. That’s where she wanted to go when we got here. She walks inside with a look of awe in her face. I follow her in and take her hand pulling her closer to me. That’s the last time I let her out of my sight.

“Ari, you can’t do that”, I say out of breath.

“Ari? Ari-elle. It’s like you wanna say my name but some stop you”, she swings our hands. I never noticed how short she is. With the hat she looks a little taller but is still obviously short. I put my hand close to her forehead and measure her. She reaches my chin in height. She giggles to this but says nothing.

“You don’t like it? Been callin’ you that in my head for a minute. Not sure when I started”, I admit.

She giggles and gives me a hug, “no one’s ever given me a nickname before. Well momma calls me chipmunk”, “I knew it!”, I scream in her face. She jumps and opens her eyes wide. I ain’t tryna admit I thought of her as a squirrel, “I knew they called you some cute, it suits you cause you’re... cute too” my lie suddenly feels like it turns true and I freeze hoping she doesn’t say anything.

“You think I’m cute?”, Ari asks. She bats her eyes and smiles but it looks made up, like she’s happy and sad at the same time. She’s turning pink. Still holding on to my hand, she barely pulls on me but I still follow.

The isle she walks to is like a bookshelf for fish tanks. Colorful fish swim around in groups with pretty rocks and castles in their tanks. In one there are about a hundred swimming the same direction until Ari knocks the tank making them swim away. The fun is back on her face. In no time we’ve roamed around the entire pet store. From looking at individual colorful fish swim around in a small container to puppies play fighting with each other in a big glass case. We even get to pet a bunny when Ari opens up a cage that hasn’t been locked. The bunny falls asleep while I pet it. I want it, I want all of the animals in here. Daddy would say we’ve got enough animals at home though. Daddy? I gasp catching Ari’s attention.

“Ari, we gotta go”, I say pulling on her hand. By now I’m sure daddy’s stopped talking to the old man and is waiting for us with an unpleased look on his face. To be in trouble scares me and I’m almost too scared to go back.

Hiding my feelings we return to the pharmacy and walk to the back but daddy ain’t there. Quickly I call out for him and run around the entire place. Ari’s close behind still holding on to my hand really tight. I go back to the toy isle, he’s not here. I go back to the isle he got the lice remover from, he’s not here. I walk up to the counter and ask the cashier, she doesn’t look older than Eduardo, she pops her pink bubble gum and leans closer to us, looking at us back and forth.

“Y’all lookin’ for the tall cowboy with the pretty braids?”, she asks twirling her hair with her finger.

“That’s my daddy, you seen him?”, I ask practically screaming at her. She sneers.

“Yeah, I seen him”, she says. I open my eyes wide and extend my arms in confusion. Is she gonna tell me where he went or not?

“He left lookin’ for y’all, almost walked out of here without payin’”, she smiles smacking her gum. “Too fine to pass the opportunity though, called him back“, she giggles still playing with her hair, “went headed to Bullseye”, she says pointing to said direction with her pinky finger.

“We need to make sure he hasn’t left”, I say to Ari running back to momma’s car. Here it looks like he came back and put his bags on the front seat before going out to find us. This makes me nervous. If daddy is actively searching then that means he’s gonna kill me when he finds us. I ain’t tryna look like a wuss though, so I keep my worries to myself.

“Look”, Ari says pointing at the ice cream shop in the middle of the parking lot. Next to it is a white peacekeeper vehicle. “Wanna ask’em?”, she pulls on my arm.

“No”, I say thinking about what momma Bilmin would do. “We should ask inside”, I add.

We actively ignore the peacekeepers, like they aren’t there but a big boring rock in their place. They notice us though and maybe there’s a look of worry in my face, that would explain why Ari hasn’t acted up in a minute. That or she’s just as scared of daddy.

“Aye kid, what’s up?”, one says. They’re both old but not too old, maybe younger than daddy. They wear their peacekeeper uniforms but have taken their helmets off to enjoy their ice cream.

“Y’all seen Mr. Wyetka? Got a cowboy hat on, really tall, really 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 tall, like this”, Ari says on her tip toes tryna draw a line way above her head. The peacekeepers laugh.

“Even the children?”, one says. “Y’all seen Mr. Doodah”, the other one mocks in a silly version of our accent. “Hey kid, look around, everyone’s got a damn cowboy hat on”, this makes the other one laugh and point at Ari and then his head, “It’s like everyone here is born with one”, he says making themselves laugh even harder. I hope they drop their ice cream.

“C’mon”, Ari says pulling me into the ice cream shop. “Hey mister, you seen-“, she’s interrupted by the man behind the counter.

“Hey kid ya daddy was just in here lookin’ for y’all”, he says.

“You seen where he went?”, Ari asks with excitement. The man shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. This scares me more. What if daddy gives up and goes home without us? What if he finds us and is super angry? How mad is he gonna be at me?

Back outside I can’t hold it anymore and start to cry so much my body moves like I got hiccups every time I gasp. Ari holds my hand the entire time. She hugs, says she’s sorry and begs me to stop crying. I want to but I can’t stop. I’ve lost daddy and he’s out here looking for me too. He’s gonna be so mad when he finds us. “If he ever does”, I think making myself feel worse.

“Maybe we should try Bullseye”, Ari says.

“That’s a really big store, we’d have better luck waitin’ for him outside”, I say through the sobs. Ari agrees and hugs me again, tells me that we’ll find him and when we do she’ll take the blame. I don’t want her to, even if it was her fault I wouldn’t want daddy to be mad at her.

Holding hands, we walk past store fronts asking for daddy but so far no one’s seen him. Back in the petstore the man behind the counter points to the Bullseye store direction. We automatically head there and plan to wait for him outside. Ari calls the plan a smart one.

“Excuse me mister”, Ari approaches a man sitting outside the store. He’s short, bald, and greasy. He sits in front of a table and looks to be selling watches. He doesn’t look too happy to be talked to.

“Go away!”, he snaps, “If you aint buyin’ get the fuck outta here, scarin’ away my customers”, he waves us off like flies.

Ari looks around, inside the store where people are walking in and out ignoring us and him. She turns to the parking lot where cars drive past not noticing us either. She looks at me and then at him, “what customers?”.

“I said get the fuck outta here you freaky little shit before I drop kick you to the moo-, hey-llo there, you tryna buy a nice watch? One for the wife? Present for momma? Friend?”, he goes from screaming his head off to suddenly being really nice.

Ari and me look at each other wide eyed. Slowly we turn around to see the tall man staring at the short bald man selling watches. Daddy stands outside the doors giving him a cold look. His arms folded. There’s no emotion on his face and he doesn’t say anything. Not to him, not to me. My heart beats fast and for a second I think he’s gonna hit me. He puts his hand on my back and pushes Ari and me towards the direction of the car. None of us says anything on our way and I’m trying my best not to cry anymore.

I look at Ari who looks very sad too. She stares at the floor and barely holds my hand. I know why she’s upset. That man back there called her a freak, she says everyone at school calls her that and she doesn’t like it. I tighten my grip on hers and it catches her attention. “You’re not a freak, Ari you’re just different”, I say leaving myself thoughtful, “in a way.. I’m different too”, I say. She gives me a thin lipped smile that look sadder than before. She wants to cry but doesn’t, instead she hugs me while we walk.

“Hey, y’all want some ice cream?”, daddy asks.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”, Ari screams jumping up and down. She smiles wide and dances in place. This makes me laugh and I look at daddy. He looks worn out but he’s not mad. He gives me a smile and pulls me close giving me a tight hug. I hope this means I’m not in trouble.

[hungergames-fanfic]

Big Announcement

Word count: 880

Delilah was running away from the careers, they were laughing and she was screaming. She went underneath a bed and found a vent that took her out to an empty hallway. In there, she got up quietly and startled walking real slow cause if the house hears you, it finds a way to get you.

It’s alive, I just know it.

Just seconds before I looked up at the television I was staring at Sarbia, the girl who sits in front of me. She had a fly on her hair and for not another second, it flew off her head and away. This is why I looked up. I wish I hadn’t.

Delilah made a floor board creek. Just like her, the whole class froze. Myself included.

From the opposite ends of the hallway two poles with big blades that swung like a helicopter’s started zooming towards her. She ain’t move a hair, just watched them blades come at her. I almost wanted to scream at her to run but I just watched knowing she wasn’t gonna hear me. The blades cut her face, throat, chest, body, everything. Her blood was spilling out like water on a hose with holes in it. She was torn and I could see her liver halfway out a slash on her stomach so big it looked like she’d been cut in half.

Her body was on the tv for very little but it’s like when you stare at a second on a clock and it lasts longer than the other seconds. It was enough for me to see every detail possible.

Momma Bilmin puts a plate of potatoes, chicken and rice in front of me. She’s been tryna get me to eat meat again but I’ve said it once, I’ll say it twice. I’m never eating meat in my life ever again, never ever! Not since I found out who we’ve been eating.

My food’s dirty now, so I look right at her and push the plate away but she doesn’t notice. This makes me even more mad.

The dining room table is different from the breakfast table. This one is for eight people, that one is for four. On this table we don’t eat unless it’s a special occasion. I sit at the edge of the table next to momma who sits at the end. In front of me is daddy and he hasn’t stopped smiling at momma all night. His elbow rests on the table and he leans his head on his hand just staring at her with a goofy smile. Momma grabs his hand. This makes me mad too.

What’s making them so happy? There should be nothing making them smile, specially when Eddy is fighting to stay alive in the games.

“Elbows on the table?”, grandma Ester snorts and shakes her head. She’s sitting on my opposite end and grandpa Alvaro shushes her. Daddy doesn’t notice but I do and I’m one more scoff away from telling her to shut up, too.

Next to daddy sits uncle Beriah who thanks momma Bilmin for his plate of food. At the edge sits aunt Lucia with fat Ignacio on the corner sitting on a plain breakfast table chair. I hope he’s uncomfortable. I’m mad at him cause he broke all my crayons.

All I said was he’s so fat he ain’t got a neck, how is he gonna be mad at a fact?

Everybody eats but me, I just play with my food until momma touches my arm. “Polomir and I have some to say”, she smiles at me and then at everyone else. Daddy still got that stupid smile on his face. It makes me wanna scream at him.

“There’s gonna be a new addition to the family”, momma says biting her lips together. Aunt Lucia shrieks and startles me. I stare at her wide eyed. She stands up and hugs momma swaying from side to side. Grandma Ester touches her chest like she’s gonna cry. Grandpa Alvaro rubs my back smiling with both his eyes and lips. “Dora!”, he hugs my head, “a big sister?”, he chuckles. Uncle Beriah congratulates daddy with a firm handshake.

All the smiles at the table make my face feel hot with anger.

Why would momma and daddy wanna have another baby?

Aren’t I enough?

They ain’t ever talk to me about this and expect me to be okay with it?

Even momma Bilmin is smiling and out of everyone I expected her to be as mad as I am. She hates the Hunger Games and another baby means another name to be added into the pool of names.

“What is 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 with you!?”, I jump out of my seat and slam my hands on the table. Now it’s aunt Lucia staring at me wide eyed. Everyone just stares. The second feels long and an image of Delilah flashes in my mind. I wanna scream in everyone’s faces but instead I just look at momma waiting for her to explain herself.

“Dora?”, momma Bilmin whispers softly. For that same second my body feels light, my eyes and nose tickle and if I wanna talk I’m gonna have to clear my throat but I don’t wanna do that. Instead, when I hear my name, without a word I run to my room and slam the door behind me.

[hungergames-fanfic]

Happy 10th Birthday

It’s been a whole year and this time Efrain and me are celebrating our birthday at his apartment. A lot of people have been invited and it’s feels like the best birthday ever because this amount of people have never been at any of my birthdays.

It’s my parents, momma Bilmin and Ignacio, who was just dropped off at my house this morning. Efrain’s family is here too, even his big brother Eduardo who I just met. Wigma, Wendy, Lucas and Dallas, the boy from next door, are here too. Edwin wasn’t invited because Efrain is mad at him for not doing none when he got beat up by Kenneth. Edwin said he wasn’t tryna get jumped but Efrain said “Isa wasn’t there for a picnic either, you just a phony”. Edwin got so mad he pushed Efrain but Wigma hit him upside the head and he cried home.

When we first got here, my friends and me played outside for about an hour before momma Bilmin called us back inside to come eat. She brought everything from home and cooked it here. She brought rice, beans and beef steaks but that’s for the adults. Says for the kids she brought something different so right now we’re eating hardened tortilla chips with cheese and beef.

“They’re called nachos”, I tell Eduardo. He’s the oldest, Efrain is the youngest. He’s seventeen years old and he smells better than Felix and Omarion who always smell like burnt grass.

“So, who’s this”, Omarion points at Ignacio who has cheese all over his chin and shirt. Omarion is a tanned, green eyed, blonde haired, skinny boy who’s always here smoking with Felix out in the fire escape. Ignacio wipes the cheese off his shirt with a chip and eats it. This makes Omarion cackle loudly. He closes his eyes, tilts his head back and laughs with his mouth wide open. He’s always laughing at every little thing. It makes anybody feel funny.

“This is Ignacio, he’s my little cousin”, I chuckle and put my hand over his shoulder. Ignacio sticks out his tongue and licks his chin, smiling at Omarion. We sit in the living room. Ignacio and me are on the floor eating on a coffee table, Omarion and Eduardo, who’s quietly eating his food, sit on the two seater sofa.

Eduardo is really intimidating to me. He’s tall, slim, has light brown wavy hair, light skinned with a wide nose and thick lips. His eyes are a pretty gray just like Mrs. Oxoro and his arms are big with muscle. Efrain says he works in one of the meat factories hauling pounds of meat on a daily basis. “Bad pay but at least it makes you look good”, Efrain says Eduardo says.

In the kitchen, momma Bilmin teaches Felix how to make brownies, Omarion says he’s excited to make them special.

“Brownies are already special though”, Ignacio says. This makes Omarion go into another laughing fit. He elbows Eduardo who chuckles but doesn’t look up, he just smiles, shakes his head and eats his food.

At the dinning table, Wigma, Wendy, Lucas, Dallas and Efrain sit eating their food. Only reason Ignacio and me are so far away is cause there wasn’t anywhere else to sit. I’m okay with this, Ignacio already feels out of place so I’m keeping him close so he doesn’t feel left out. At the table with them sits Mrs. Oxoro enjoying nachos too. Next to her, standing behind her chair is Mr. Oxoro talking and eating steak with daddy who leans on the wall. Momma is out on the hallway making a phone call. She has one of those fancy cellular phones cause the Mayor constantly needs help. Daddy says he’s a useless idgit.

“Hey, you were there when Efrain got jumped right?”, Omarion whispers at me. This makes Eduardo look up at me, he wipes the corner of his lips with his thumb and sucks on it. My cheeks feel warm. I nod at Omarion.

“Dora got beat up too”, Ignacio says smiling and pointing at me with a beef covered finger. I push his hand out of my face. Omarion makes a funny grin, cringes and makes a weird noise.

“Well, I ain’t gon let people beat up on my friend”, I say. Omarion touches his chest and elbows Eduardo who looks at him and smiles.

“Damn. That shit touched my heart, I already know Felix punk ass would‘ve probably joined them”, Omarion jokes.

“Oh, word! He ain’t had any business fuckin’ with y’all in the first place, that’s his fault”, Eduardo says pretending to punch Omarion in the stomach and they both laugh so hard Omarion goes silent. I want to laugh too but I’m confused.

“Y’all talkin’ shit? I heard my name”, Felix walks up to us.

“Naw, baby we wasn’t talkin’ bout you, c’mon, c’mere sit on my lap”, Omarion pats his leg. Felix waves him off, gives him the finger and leaves. This makes Omarion laugh again. Eduardo stands up and leaves with an empty plate, he’s grinning and nodding his head again.

“So what happened?”, Omarion asks.

“Efrain says they was botherin’ him and they told him that they was gonna beat him up after class. I ain’t know until Olive came to get me”, I say.

“What did you do when you saw‘em on top?”, Eduardo asks coming back with Felix. His voice is really deep. My cheeks feel warm again. They sit down on the sofa and all three look at me. I turn to look back at Efrain who’s black eye is still a shade of purple. He’s laughing with Lucas and Wigma.

“I defended my friend”, I say, “I ain’t care bout the beatin’, I just wanted them off of him. My back still hurts too, Kenneth called me a fatty and said he was gonna break my back but then a lady showed up and stopped them”, I say taking a bite off a soggy chip.

“Bro”, Omarion laughs. “Called you a fatty and said he was gon break ya back?”, he laughs even harder. This time Felix joins and they jump on the sofa like idiots. Eduardo just shakes his head.

“That shit so cute though”, Omarion says and smacks Felix on the shoulder, “you ain’t ever fight for me bro, what’s up with that?”.

“Aye man, I’m not gettin’ my ass beat cause you wanna test my loyalty”, Felix snarks. Omarion sucks on his teeth and rolls his eyes.

“I ain’t ever been beat up before!”, Ignacio boasts.

“You wanna?”, Omarion asks with a fist in the air. Ignacio just stares wide eyed, mouth open, breathing loudly. This makes Omarion crack up again. “Yo, some bout his boy” he laughs and points. Mrs. Oxoro calls us all to the table.

This year, our cake is square and a lot bigger than usual. On it, momma Bilmin has written “Hαρρყ Bιɾƚԋԃαყ Iʂαԃσɾα & Eϝɾαιɳ” with ten candles all over. The cake icing is baby blue with yellow birds flying across it. Momma Bilmin really outdid herself with the cake this year. Everyone loves it and tells her how pretty it is.

After they’ve sung us a very loud and silly happy birthday, they tell us to blow the candles but I let Efrain do it. Just as he does, Eduardo slams his face on the cake. This makes me and almost everyone laugh. Efrain wipes his face and slaps the icing on Eduardo’s arm, who tries to run away. Wigma sneaks a taste of icing by dabbing her finger on Efrain’s cheek. Even Wendy is smiling just as big as everyone else.

When we get home, Ignacio and me are so energized we run around the house playing hide and seek until aunt Lucia comes for him. Excited and happy, Ignacio jumps all over the place and tells her about all the fun we had. Playing out in the street, eating nachos and cake. Aunt Lucia doesn’t look happy.

“You went to Bloques?”, she screams back at momma who has her arms folded. She looks tired and bored.

“They had fun, Lucia”, momma says.

“My baby could have been kidnapped!”, she screams and grabs his hand, pulls him close and hugs his face.

“How momma? I’m too fat”, Ignacio says pulling away tryna look up at her. This makes me laugh. Aunt Lucia shoots me a stare, then at momma and walks out the house holding Ignacio tight by the arm. He waves goodbye from the back window as they drive off.

“Dora”, daddy calls me inside the house. He’s not mad. Has his arm out so I can take it. “I got you some”, he says and smiles at me. I smile back and tighten my grip. His hands are rough and strong. We walk out back towards the farm house, inside, in one of the stables is an all white pony. Her eyes are blue and nose is pink.

“You got me a pony?”, I scream at him. He laughs and pushes me closer to it. I’m so happy I can’t stop jumping and screaming while I pet her. I’ve never asked for a pony before but that doesn’t mean I ain’t want one!

“Thank you, daddy, thank you!”, I hug him, jumping up and down. He picks me up with a tight hug, kisses my cheek and whispers “happy birthday, baby”.

Best birthday ever.

[hungergames-fanfic]

An eventful Monday

The 40th Annual Hunger Games started yesterday morning, a Sunday. Today during class, like every year, we don’t have to watch but I’m dying in curiosity. Ms. Gullard has placed a towel over the hanging television up on the wall corner and has made us write down verbs. She’s also lowered the volume to mute and because the towel is thick enough, I can only see vague shadows on the tv.

Next to me, Wendy sends notes to two of her friends, Cassidy and Orchid. I’m guessing they’re talking about the games and I want to almost ask them but I just know they’ll avoid the question and hurt my feelings. It’s all they’re good at.

During lunch, Efrain and I sit by ourselves as usual and eat. He mentions watching the games but refuses to tell me about it. Says that if I was allowed to watch he’d tell me. Also says that he got a good talking about it.

“Momma gave me a good bitchin’ bout talkin’ bout it at ya house. Said that if I make Ms. Bilmin cry I ain’t gon see the light of day”, he widens his eyes and shakes his head. He stuffs his mouth with peaches from his school lunch.

Since I met Efrain, he hasn’t changed that much except he looks a lot more healthy now. I guess his daddy working at Mr. Kwan’s stables brings in good money and puts food on the table. He’s still thin, but doesn’t look as bony as he used to.

He’s a little bit darker than I am and his hair is curlier than mines. My curls are big and wavy, his are small and abundant sitting at the top of his head. He says his oldest brother Eduardo cuts his hair. Trims the back and sides and leaves it longer at the top. I really like it and sometimes wish I could cut my hair too. Mines is so long sometimes I sit on it.

After school, we go to my house and eat what momma Bilmin has made for us. It’s vegetable and egg fried rice with cooked slices of pork ham. Because Efrain is here, she’s not crying as much as she normally does around this time of year, still her eyes are red and her nose is pink.

Momma Bilmin is so pretty. She ain’t as wrinkly as all the other old people. Her graying hair is long and straight and she’s thin, always wearing pretty yellow dresses. I love the color yellow, it’s the color of sunshine and sunflowers. The color makes me feel happy and warm, just like the sun. She fills our glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice and reminds us to do our homework after we’re done eating.

“That’s a pretty ring, Ms. Bilmin”, Efrain says to her.

On her right hand, on her middle finger she has a gold ring of a horse shoe with small stones on it, inside of it is a horse on its side. She told me it used to be uncle Amos’s but it’s hers now. Momma Bilmin smiles and puckers her lips. Her eyes get watery and she stares at me giving me a painful smile. Without a word, she takes a deep breath and walks out the room. We can hear he sandals make noise as she walks away.

“What did I say?”, Efrain asks me.

“Momma tends to be fragile around this time of year”, I inform him.

While we do our homework outside, sitting under a small tent daddy made for me when I was younger, Efrain tries to call Brownie over to him. She ignores him but her calf, now full grown, runs to us like a big happy dog.

“Daddy made this tent for me so I could spend time outside with him while he worked on the ranch”, I say picking lint off a corner. He pets the cow and it runs off.

“Ya daddy so strict and scary”, Efrain admits.

“No doubt, but I can tell he loves me cause he always wanna spend time together”, I add, “he always wants me to work outside with him, or go to places with him and on the lazy days, he likes to sit in the livin’ room while I read books. He snores really loud and it’s hard to concentrate but I enjoy his company too”.

“My daddy is always workin’, momma‘s sick so she stays home. My big brother Eduardo is always workin’ too, he brings home tessera every now and then”, Efrain says.

“What’s that like?”, I ask wondering what tessera is.

“Well it gets lonely cause it’s usually Felix and me but he acts like he’s too old and cool to hang out”, Efrain says closing his science book.

I don’t correct him and accept the answer. Soon the conversation changes to what he does for fun, which is pretty much what Ignacio said on our birthday. He plays outside with the neighborhood kids but cause it’s hunger games month he watches the games. This calls for my curiosity again.

“What are the games like this year?”, I whisper. I know that every year the games are different and set in different arenas. In fact, one time, on tv I saw that one of the arenas was all tall grasslands and a couple of trees. Everyone was stuck sneaking around.

“It’s swampy”, he says. “A lot of scary animals. So far a boy ran into a body of water and got eaten by a big lizard”, he widens his eyes and nods. This scares me.

“Ain’t the games start yesterday?”, I ask. I’d expect for them to just roam around the place at random and only be killed off by other tributes, I didn’t know that the arena was meant to kill you too.

“That don’t matter in the games. Anything’ can kill you, be it another tribute, the arena or even yourself. Everyone usually just tries to survive the careers though”, he says packing his book in his backpack. He’s done with his homework but I still have a lot of verbs to come up with for mines.

Our conversations change a lot, we go from talking about the games to all the weird animals we’ve seen here in 10. So far I win cause I’ve seen an actual coyote pack but he was pretty close with the feral chickens. After that, we talk about the animal we wish we were, he says he wishes he was one of our cows cause they look like they have it good. We laugh at this. I’m not sure what animal I wish I was, but right now, I think it would be cool to be a bird so I could fly.

“More like a wild chicken”, he jokes and makes a chicken call. This riles up the chickens in the coop and we laugh harder than before.

When his daddy comes to pick him up, mines tells me to go change and that I’ll be going to Efrain’s for a bit while he and Mr. Oxoro go do some errands. In my room, while I put on my shoes, daddy comes in and sits next to me on the bed.

“I know they watch the games at your friends house. I’m allowin’ you to watch them, but when you come back, there will be absolutely no talk about you saw, you understand me?”, he looks at me and points firmly. I nod in agreement. This excites me more than going to Bloques, but I keep the emotion to myself.

We follow Mr. Oxoro’s raggedy car in our wagon and soon, we enter Bloques. I’m not sure what it was that I expected, but it was nothing like this.

The streets are dirty and there’s trash on the corner of roads. It smells like pee and I’m sure the stains on building walls are exactly that. The houses are small squares and made of cement but some have been painted and given personality by their owners. Other houses look like mines but they’re half the size. Some people sit outside theirs and stare at us, kids playing around stop to look at our horses in awe. I see some point at them, others point at us.

“I ain’t ever seen so many houses in one spot”, I say to daddy.

“You see that red, run down house over there”, daddy points. The house looks empty and in shambles. It’s roof is caved in and the door is leaning off it’s hinge. Whoever used to live there must of had nothing if they couldn’t even fix it up.

“That’s where I used to live when I was around ya age”, he says ignoring all the people watching us. I imagine patting myself on the back for not thinking out loud.

After so many turns on so many neighborhoods and so many looks from so many people, some who I think I’ve seen at the Plaza on reapings, we finally arrive to Efrain’s. He lives in a very big gross looking building daddy calls an apartment complex. Our daddies don’t go in with us, they just wave us off and leave on the wagon without saying where they’re headed.

“We have six floors and guess what floor I live in”, Efrain says with an attitude tryna skip steps up the stairs.

“I almost don’t wanna go home no more”, I admit thinking about having to walk all the way down when we finally reach his floor’s hallway.

He laughs and knocks on the first door we reach and tells me we have to wait a little. Through the walls I can hear a baby crying and some loud music playing. Efrain says that’s his neighbors. I’m not used to the ruckus but in a way, I’m having fun just standing here.

When the door opens, a tall teenager opens the door and stares at us funny. He looks like Efrain but older. He’s skinny and just as dark, same haircut and everything except his clothes fit better.

“Where’s dad?”, he says looking at me funny.

“He and Mr. Wyetka went on an errand, this is Isa”, Efrain pats my shoulder. “Isa this is my brother Felix but we call him Fee. Can Isa call you Fee too?”, Efrain asks. Felix smiles and tilts his head swiftly inviting us into their home.

Unlike mines, his living room, dinning room and kitchen are all connected. Down a small hallways are three doors. Efrain tells me the door down the hall is the restroom in case I need it and we sit on an old green patchy, two seater sofa. Their tv ain’t flat or on the wall, it’s fat and huge and sits on a table decorated with little glass tea cups with pretty flowers drawn on them.

To our right is a big open window that leads to the fire escape, says Efrain. Here, his brother steps out and closes the window. He smiles at someone and then they peak their head to look and laugh too. It’s a blonde haired boy I’ve never seen, another teen. In his hand, he has a small stick that he lights with a lighter and sucks. I watch them smoke for a minute before Efrain points it out.

“They smoke that every day”, Efrain rolls his eyes and changes the channel where previously Dan McGee, 10’s news reporter, was talking in front a meat factory. He switches the channel to the games and looks at me with a mischievous smile.

“Daddy says it’s ok to watch, but I can’t talk about it back home”, I inform him. He nods and raises the volume up to the number twelve.

For the first twenty minutes all they show is a bunch of tributes minding their business. The careers, Efrain says they volunteer to be there and train for the “honor”, he quotes his fingers making a silly face, hang at the cornucopia talking to each other. Apparently they spotted someone and are gonna go hunt them down. This makes me feel nervous. Other tributes are shown sneaking around the swampy, muddy arena or climbing tall trees, hiding. Because nothing interesting is happening they replay the bloodbath. I am not emotionally prepared for what I’m about to see because when I do, I get so scared I start to cry.

The cannon blows and everyone runs towards the cornucopia, a boy is followed by the camera, he picks up knives and just as he does, a spear is thrown right at his stomach. This makes me jump. Efrain laughs and says “that must of hurt”. My stomach churns when I see one of the so called careers stab another boy mercilessly. The boy spits blood with every breath and weakly tries to push the career off but he dies before reaching the strength. I can’t help it. This is so scary I start crying immediately.

“What’s wrong Isa?”, Efrain asks scooting closer to me. He puts his arm around my shoulder. I look out the window and spot Felix giving him a thumbs up, one he retracts and sucks in his lips before he and his friend hide attempting to not be seen.

“They’re just killin’ one another like life ain’t mean anythin’”, I say, “like who they used to be never mattered and never will cause they gone. Just a memory to their loved ones. Momma Bilmin has a right to cry. This is horrible”.

“I never thought of it that way”, Efrain says guiltily taking his arm off of me. “Wanna do some else?”, he asks but suddenly jumps up with excitement, “wanna meet my momma? She’s been wantin’ to meet you, c’mon”, he takes my hand and pulls me into the hallway. We enter to the room on the left.

In here, the room is clean and white, colorless and almost empty. All that’s in here is a bed and a dresser. Above the bed is a big picture of her and Mr. Oxoro on their wedding day. She looks pregnant.

It smells like dampness and sickness. A scent I can’t specifically describe. At first, her eyes are closed but she turns her head to see us come in and coughs in a handkerchief. She looks like she’d be very pretty and on the picture above, she is. She’s light skinned and really pale, her lips are almost white and her hair is light blonde. It almost feels like she’s a random lady in their home because Efrain and Felix look nothing like her. They look like his daddy, who’s shorter than her, chubby and dark skinned. He has puffy hair like Olive.

She smiles at me. Efrain pushes me towards her and puts his hand on her arm.

“Momma, this Isa”, he says excitedly.

“Hello, Isa”, she says tiredly with a smile. I smile back. “Efrain’s told me a lot bout you”, she says.

“Momma”, Efrain snaps with his eyes wide open and turns to look at me with an awkward laugh. He scratches the back of his head.

“I’m sleepy baby”, she says to him before he gives her a hug and invites me to leave the room.

When we step out, he runs to the window his brother and friend are at and knocks. With his thumb he points back at me and Felix nods giving him a peace sign. Efrain takes my hand and we head down to the street.

“Where we goin’?”, I ask out of breath.

“I think everyone should be outside right now”, Efrain says skipping steps, going down faster than I.

“What you talkin’ bout?”, I scream at him but he doesn’t answer and leaves me behind.

When I run out the door after him, he’s waving at a bunch of kids playing with a deflated ball. Without skipping a beat, some run up to us. Others spot me and look at each other. They don’t bother to come.

“Why you with her?”, Edwin asks. He’s tanned with shaggy light brown hair. Skinny like most and wears clothes just as big as Efrain’s. He’s sweaty and looks mad that I’m here.

“Isa’s my friend”, Efrain snaps. “Besides, ain’t we been needin’ an extra player for Wendy’s team?”, he points at Wendy who too makes a stink face and nods. She crosses her arms and looks at me.

“She can be on your team, Edwin can join me”, she says.

“No way, she’s a girl, she’s gonna be in yours”, Edwin snaps back.

“Then I’m not playin’”, she says.

“Fine, Isa can take over for ya”, Efrain snaps at her. I stand next to him feeling bad about no one wanting to play with me, but Efrain standing up as my friend makes me feel better.

“Oh c’mon it’s just for today”, another girl says. She has loose and messy pigtails, whatever she ate has stuck to her cheeks and it looks sticky. Her clothes are stained in red and her knee caps are scabbed from having fallen recently. “I’m Wigma”, she says, “I’m the oldest one here cause I’m eleven”. I give her a shy smile.

After some back and forth, Wendy rolls her eyes and accepts me on her team. She doesn’t talk to me at all for the first thirty minutes but after I successfully kick the ball into the middle between two trashcans, where we make a goal, she smiles at me for the first time ever. By the time the game ends, Wigma scores by kicking the deflated ball at a trashcan making it fall back. The boys refuse to accept that as a score and refuse to claim we won, instead they call it a tie. Laughing at them for being in denial, Wendy smiles at me, sweaty and out of breath and high fives me.

One by one, everyone starts to leave. Wigma hugs me goodbye and Wendy just waves. Edwin avoid contact with me and a boy named Lucas just gives me a half smile. Efrain and I stay outside until the sun starts to set, we climb a fence and run around pretending we’re foxes running after feral chickens, whom I learn from they shouldn’t be trifled with.

By the time our daddies get home, they find us running back to them and jumping on top of the wagon with an angered chicken tryna fly and peck at our heads. They smell like alcohol and Mr. Oxoro laughs so hard he falls off the wagon. Daddy laughs and hiccups a burp before he asks Mr. Oxoro if he’s ok.

Waving goodbye to Efrain and Wigma who I spot looking outside the window on the second floor of the apartments, I turn to look at daddy with a big smile.

“You had fun too, daddy?”, I say listening to him chuckle to himself.

“Yep, and I see you did too”, he says pulling me closer, under his sweaty armpits, and hugs me tightly.

“Uh-hu! I did! We watched the games but it was too scary”, I admit, “I never want to watch something so horrible again!”, I snap. Not to him but at myself. I’m upset that I’ve saddened momma Bilmin so many times for wanting to watch. I understand why I’m not allowed and won’t ever ask anymore questions again. I’ve had enough!

“Why do the games exist?”, I ask daddy.

“Cause!”, daddy sings, “how else is the government gonna control us? How else can they remind us that we have no power and mean nothin’? By takin’ our children and forcin’ us to watch them kill each other, that’s how!”, he chuckles and nods. “That’s why I work my ass off! So you never have to be part of that”, he says and kisses my forehead.

“Crud”, he burps. “I think we’re lost”.

[hungergames-fanfic]

I don’t want to be a girl

I love Saturday’s. No school, I get to stay home all day and read books or go outside and play with the animals. Whatever I feel like doing, I do it. It’s the best day.

The smell of momma Bilmin’s honey walnut bread makes me feel happy. Like nothing in the world could compare to such a feeling. Because it’s the perfect lazy day, I keep what I slept in and sit on daddy’s recliner. He’s out back with the animals so I don’t have to worry about him telling me some.

On television there’s nothing interesting. Same thing, different day. So and so got whipped for stealing a chicken, so and so is going to jail for not paying for bread, so and so was found dead in their home and it looks like a snake infestation. I browse all the empty blank channels even though I know there’s nothing there. Usually, for the annual Hunger Games, these have specific District television. They show live footage of celebrations throughout the districts or just what it’s like to live in there. Since I’m not allowed to watch the games, I watch a lot of District 4 because it’s so beautiful. One day, I want to swim in water that clear and pretty.

For district 10 they always show multiple farms and livestock and how rich and lavish we supposedly live. That’s a lie. They only show how those in Littleberg live. They never show the meat factories, or people in Bloques or how hot and boring it really is. Sometimes they show our house though, they’ll talk about uncle Amos and his “thriving family” but I never get to see past that since the channel is always changed.

After giving up on television, I go to my room, get a book and come back to sit on the bigger sofa so I can lay down. I’ve just started reading this book two days ago and already I can’t put it down. It’s about a boy from District 2 who finds himself falling in love with the Hunger Games holiday. His friends and family tell him that he will never be able to volunteer cause he’s too short but so far, he’s proving everyone wrong little by little.

I read two chapters until someone interrupts by knocking at the front door. It’s Mr. Trent. I don’t like him. He makes me feel uncomfortable.

“Dora, keep Mr. Trent company. I’m gonna go get them eggs”, momma Bilmin says to me and then turns to him, smiling with her pretty smile.

Mr. Trent is tall and really skinny, he’s balding and his face is wrinkly and burnt. He always smells of sweat and faint dead animal. That’s cause he works in a meat factory. Occasionally, on random days he shows up with cash in hand and pays us for some of our eggs.

While momma Bilmin is out gathering them, Mr. Trent slowly walks into the living room and sits next to me. I scoot away and stretch my big shirt over my legs. Last night I slept in shorts and one of daddy’s big shirts. It looks like I have nothing underneath and Mr. Trent has noticed.

“Look how big you’re gettin’”, he smiles showing off his nasty yellow teeth. “Turnin’ into a very pretty girl”, he says, “I like pretty girls. I like you”, he puts his hand on my knee and rubs it. He does this and stares at me for a very long time.

Outside the kitchen backdoor, momma Bilmin yells something to daddy and comes in the house. Mr. Trent squeezes my knee, pats it and stands up leaving his nasty smell behind. He walks in the kitchen where he meets momma Bilmin and pays her for the eggs. Soon enough, they’re sitting at the kitchen table talkin’ about nothing I care about.

I leave the living room, go into my room, lock the door and change. Afterwards, I sit in bed staring at my long curly hair over my shoulder. I hate it. I hate my clothes. I hate my room. I hate my toys. I hate Mr. Trent. I hate anything that says I’m a girl. I don’t wanna be a girl. I don’t wanna be anything Mr. Trent likes.

[hungergames-fanfic]

The redhead

I went to the restroom before lunch so now all the tables are taken except for two. On the closest one is Kenneth and one of his goons, on the farthest is a red headed girl no one dares to get close to.

A couple of weeks ago she got beat up by a bunch of girls a couple of years older than her and since then, anyone who comes near gets a face full of fist. She’s in Efrain’s class and he told me that she’s really fast. That he seen her jump on a boy’s back and bite his ear. He wants to be her friend but admits he’s scared of her. That makes her sound scary cause Efrain likes to act tough a lot.

Hoping she don’t say anything, I sit at the opposite side of the table and avoid eye contact with her. When Efrain spots me, he looks at me, stops and looks at her. He smiles at her. She doesn’t smile back, just stares at him and then at me. To let her know I don’t plan on bothering her, I give her a smile and turn to look at my food. I notice she doesn’t have anything to eat.

“Does she ever bring lunch?”, I ask Efrain and turn to look at her, who stares at her hands. She hugs her stomach and suddenly stands up, walking away.

“I don’t think so”, he says reaching into my lunch box to grab his slice of bread momma Bilmin packed for him.

“She’s really pretty, don’t you think?”, Efrain says with a stuffed mouth. Crumbs fall off the side of his lips. His finger nails are dirty.

“Never seen anyone like her”, I admit, watching her leave the cafeteria.

Everyone is District 10 is a range of dark skinned, tanned or light skinned with light brown or blonde hair. No one is so pale, freckly with crazy orange, red hair. It makes her stand out. Efrain says it makes her special, beautiful even. He makes me laugh.

[hungergames-fanfic]

In Trouble

By the time momma gets home I’m sucking on my lower lip from so much crying. Momma Bilmin says daddy ain’t gon hit me but he ain’t say otherwise so I know for a fact he will. I have no idea why I’m in trouble and no one has said anything other than momma Bilmin telling me it’s ok and to stop crying.

“What happened?”, momma says putting her purse on the kitchen counter.

Her hair is down and her dark brown curls look wet from all the hair products she’s put on it. Above her eyes she’s painted them a shade of brown and her lips are a dark red. Momma is very pretty and even though she’s bigger than most women, she’s not fat. Daddy calls her “slim thick” every time he hugs her from behind. She wears a black suit jacket and a skirt along with high heels. That’s cause it makes her look professional and that’s how she’s supposed to look as the mayor’s secretary.

“We caught Dora locked in her room with a boy today, they was gigglin’ real hard too”, momma Bilmin says looking at me. She doesn’t look mad, but she doesn’t look happy either.

“That’s why I’m in trouble?”, I ask wiping my tears. “We ain’t even do none momma, I swear!”, I grab her arm and shake her.

“What was that dang door locked for?”, daddy snaps and sits up with a hand on his hip, elbow on the table. He looks about ready to take off his hat and hit me with it.

Not wanting to admit we were cussing at each other for fun and talking about uncle Amos I don’t say anything. I rub my eyes and cry again because I just know daddy gon hit me. Momma grabs a chair and sits down, she folds her arms and looks at me.

“We waited until you got home so we could all have this discussion”, momma Bilmin says.

“Dora, why were you locked in your room with a boy?”, momma asks calmly, “was this that Efrain?”, she asks pointing at nothing. I nod shamefully.

Impatiently, daddy slams his hand on the table making me flinch. “Answer to ya momma”, he says through his teeth.

“We were talkin’ bout the games momma, I swear that’s all that happened. I ain’t ever seen the games cause y’all don’t let me so I wanted to know since Efrain gets to watch it every year”, I admit crying even more.

“Dora, in this house we don’t watch the games. You know that”, momma says calmly. “I know you’re curious, that’s normal, but you’re too young to be watchin’ any of that”.

Momma Bilmin is quiet and thoughtful. My hand still on her arm, I rub her skin. “Momma, please don’t be sad, you got me, you got us”, I say to her knowing how much she must miss the family she has lost. I want her to know that even though they’re not here anymore she still has us and I hope she understands what I mean. Maybe she does though, cause after I say this she starts to cry.

“Bilmin, I’m sorry”, momma says putting her hand on momma Bilmin’s shoulder. She just nods, takes her shirt and wipes her tears.

“Baby, no more lockin’ the doors with boys around, alight?”, momma Bilmin says changing the conversation.

“No more”, I say guiltily. “..but why?”, I ask wanting to know why this is such a big deal.

“Cause you’re a girl and he’s a boy”, daddy snaps. This hurts my feelings and I start crying again.

“I don’t like that”, I say making an ugly cry face.

“What you goin’ on about?”, daddy asks.

“I don’t even like boys”, I admit.

“Don’t matter if you like ‘em or not, no boys in ya room, and no more locked doors”, daddy says. After a while of pretty much repeating the same thing in different words momma and momma Bilmin leave the kitchen and it’s just me and daddy. He doesn’t look mad anymore so I don’t feel so scared.

“What did Efrain tell you”, daddy asks in a low voice. He looks tired.

“He told me why momma is always so sad”, I admit hoping I’m not getting him in trouble. “Please don’t be mad at him, his momma told him not to tell me but I asked him to anyway”, I say begging with my hands. We didn’t get to spend much time today but I still had fun and I’m excited for tomorrow after school too. I’d hate to lose my only friend. I tell daddy this but he tells me it’s ok, Efrain can still come over but we can’t talk about the games anywhere in the house. Says that next time, Efrain won’t be allowed back.

“Daddy?”, I ask. He nods once as he stands up and stretches. “What does curious mean?”

[hungergames-fanfic]

Tour de Wyetka

Today Efrain is coming home with me cause his daddy just started working in Mr. Kwan’s stables. He’s a really old rich man who’s managed to outlive his last stable keeper. He has twice as many horses than us and is really paranoid about who he allows in his home and land. Only reason Mr. Oxoro got to be stable keeper is cause he was a good friend of the previous man, according to Efrain.

My good friend lives an hour away on foot from Littlberg, his family is one of the few that have a gasoline based car. It’s really old, loud and sometimes won’t even start, but it’s what they got. My family ain’t got any cars, daddy says we’re lucky cause we got horses. Cause Efrain would have to walk such a long way home, he’s gonna be staying with me until his daddy gets out.

There are three roads connecting Bloques to Littleberg. The shortest road is seven miles long and it’s a lonely road apart from the only house standing four miles in. Both left and right are open space of drying, sandy land with patches of tall green and yellow grass. From far away small hills and mountains close the land in, giving it the image of it being inside a shallow crater.

A small wired fence wraps around all the open land reaching halfway up the hills. Throughout the open space, cows, calfs and bulls can be seen far apart from each other, some huddled up together, enjoying the tasty grass.

Closer to the house at the forth mile mark, it’s not that hard to spot the unpainted farm house yards away. Next to it, on the right is a large chicken coop the size of a regular house in Bloques. To the left, a small section is closed off by a wooden fence. The side of the farm house, where horses are held is open and allows them to walk freely in within the small enclosure. Out by the farm house doors is a small shed where their water is placed on a large tub. Yards away is an old well we use to fill these up.

Opposite of the horse stables inside the farm house is an open stable where we bring injured animals in order to treat them. This is where I milked Brownie the first time. We kept her there cause sometimes it’s hard to differentiate cows from each other. It’s easier to keep the lactating cow on a short leash than look for it through thirty-seven others within seven miles of land.

On the left side of the house, seen from the front, is a large area kept within another wired fence keeping momma Bilmin’s flowers, vegetables and fruit safe from the pesky cows that enjoy sweetness in their lives. It’s not just cows daddy worries about though. Sometimes kids will be caught sneaking in and stealing the edibles but momma Bilmin told daddy not to do anything. After all, “they steal cause they’re hungry”. Even then, daddy jokes that if they can get past the bee stings, they deserve what they snatched. Momma Bilmin has two wooden crates filled with bees that constantly make honey.

In front of the house is a baby walnut tree thin enough for me to wrap my hands around it. A small, dusty tile passage leads us towards the house. An hacienda style, miniature home the size of two classrooms. The house is naturally orange and the tiles on the roof are just as bright along with two large solar panels. Uncle Amos really outdid himself building this house, and I ain’t officially shown Efrain the inside yet.

Stepping into the house we automatically enter a long hallway. At the end of the hall is a large potted plant blocking a window. Feet from the door is another, but this is a closet. Here we put foldable chairs, umbrellas or rain coats.

“Momma would of made this my room until I outgrew it”, Efrain says chuckling.

To the left are two doorless rooms, one walks us in the kitchen, it’s not that big but it’s perfect in size for momma Bilmin to bake all of her heart’s desires. Across the doorway is a small round table with four chairs.

“This is the breakfast table” I say to Efrain who stares at the colorful square patterns on its surface.

“Y’all have a special table to eat breakfast on?”, Efrain asks wide eyed. “Back home we just got one table but it’s bigger than this”, he adds.

“Is it this big?”, I ask taking him by the hand into the room next to this one. “This is the dinnin’ table. We don’t really eat here unless we got company”, I turn to him and notice the blank facial expression. I think he feels bad cause his table might not be this big. “We wouldn’t even have this table if aunt Lucia hadn’t bought herself an even bigger one”, I say flamboyantly just like she does when she’s tryna be snobby. This makes him chuckle. He witnessed this back at the lake.

To the right, in front of this doorway is another doorless room. This is the living room and the biggest room in the house. Here we have a big brown sofa that matches the interior walls. Next to the sofa is a reclinable chair.

“That’s daddy’s recliner so make sure to never sit on it”, I raise my eyebrows warningly.

Feet away from the sofas is a small table adorned with a potted pink succulent momma Bilmin found while one of her walks with Sasha.

“Who’s that?”, Efrain whispers pointing at the little girl sleeping on the sofa.

“That’s Sasha, momma babysits her while her parents go to work”, I whisper.

On the wall, on top of the chimney we rarely use hangs a big television screen. Here daddy watches the news. It’s just the weather and stuff that happens throughout District 10 like whippings or someone dying on the side of the road. Unless it’s Hunger Games month, all of May they’ll bombard every channel with the games and televisions will even turn themselves on so we won’t have any other choice but to watch. We still don’t, though. We just lower the volume and avoid the living room. I’m not allowed to watch the games.

“You’re not allowed?”, Efrain asks wide eyed. “But that’s where all the cool fightin’ take place”, he says chopping the air with his arms, mimicking a fight stance. He makes me smile.

“Momma Bilmin gets sad when we watch the games. She says it’s so cruel to force children to fight for entertainment”, i inform him.

“My momma said that when she was young watchin’ the games Am-“, I put my hand on Efrain’s mouth and look around. My index finger over my lips, I take his hand and drag him out the living room, down the hall to the second door on the right, passing the restroom.

My room is the smallest in the house but momma Bilmin says she’ll give me hers when I get bigger. I don’t know how I feel about sleeping in the room uncle Amos used to sleep in. In here, to the left of the door is a big bookshelf filled with books, to the right is a tall dresser I hide in when I’m upset. Usually when daddy hits me.

In front of the door, across the room is a small noisy spring bed. I lock the door and explain why my bed sheets are yellow and why that’s my favorite color but Efrain still giggles about it. I pull him under.

“Why are we under your bed?”, he asks.

“I’m not allowed to talk bout uncle Amos”, I admit.

“Why not? Everyone says it was the craziest times in ten”, he says wide eyed with a big smile on his face. Like it were cool or something.

“You know what happened in his games?”, I ask wanting to know everything that he knows.

“You don’t?”, he practically screams.

“Shhh! Just tell me but be really quiet”, I snap.

“Daddy says that this was the fourth hunger games so nobody was used to it yet. Every year when someone’s name was called people would go crazy and start beatin’ on the peacekeepers. When ya uncle Amos got called all ya family started fightin’ them. A lot of people joined up too” he nods matter of factly. “So when the peacekeepers saw that they couldn’t calm them down they started shootin’ all over the place. They done killed ya grandma’s parents, her husband and older brother and then still took ya uncle away. Momma says that this was really traumatic for ya grandma cause even after losin’ everyone she was forced to watch her baby brother play the games”, he says with regret when he notices I’m crying.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you any of that. I forgot momma told me not to”, he admits and stares at me. I nod and let him know it’s ok. Even though what he’s telling me is horrible, I want to know more. I’ve never heard about any of this before and when momma Bilmin told me about it, she just mentioned her husband.

“It was really cool cause Amos killed a lot of tributes, no one in ten has even killed more than two”, he says tapping his fingers on the wooden floor. “Daddy says that cause of him District ten survived the famine. Him and ya grandma helped feed a lot of people throughout the years. That’s why no one likes Tate, all he does is hide in his mansion and show up on Reaping day”, he says.

Tate is District 10’s only living victor. He doesn’t look scary or intimidating, just like any other guy but the fact that he killed someone to stay alive is really scary. His mansion is also really creepy looking. He never goes out.

“That’s why everyone knows who I am?”, I ask. He nods and gives me a shy smile. Tells me the Wyetka’s are famous cause we’re good people. This makes me cry again. What if I don’t grow up to be a good person just like momma Bilmin and uncle Amos?

“Don’t cry Isa, I don’t wanna get in trouble”, he says worriedly. I wipe my tears and stay quiet.

“Did I tell you my daddy got shot when the peacekeepers started shootin’? Said he was bout two years old, mindin’ his baby business when the peacekeepers started wildin’”, he chuckles. “He got shot right here”, he points at his hip. “Said it hurt like a bitch”, he opens his eyes wide and puts his hand over his mouth. We stare and laugh at one another. I ain’t ever cursed before.

“Bitch”, I say wondering if the words can come out my mouth. Efrain laughs and joins in. “Fuuuuck”, he sings showing off his missing front tooth. After a while we start saying every curse word we can think of and laugh out loud at all the funny ways we say them. It’s all fun and games until daddy starts pounding on the door.

“Isadora!”, daddy yells behind it. When I open the door he stands there with his hands on his hip, quiet with a crazy angry look on his face. Did he hear us saying bad words? I want to apologize but what if that’s not what he’s mad about?

“Ya daddy’s here boy”, he says to Efrain who darts out of my room without saying goodbye. Behind him stands momma Bilmin extending her arm for me to take. If she wasn’t here I’d get a beating, I just know it.

Scared out of my mind, I don’t know what to say. What if they heard us talking about uncle Amos? All my life I’ve been told not to talk about him and I ain’t listen. Momma Bilmin ain’t crying though, so maybe they ain’t heard us talking about him. Her and daddy sit at the breakfast table staring at me. Nobody has opened their mouth before I start crying my eyes out. I’m in trouble but I don’t know why.

[hungergames-fanfic]

Our 9th Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday but because it was a Friday daddy said we’d celebrate it today. We’re going to the Reservoir lake for a family picnic and he said I could invite Efrain too. That’s cause my family ain’t that big. It’s just momma, momma Bilmin, daddy, momma’s momma Ester, momma’s daddy Alvaro, momma’s sister Lucia, Lucia’s husband Beriah and my only cousin Ignacio.

Momma didn’t wanna invite aunt Lucia cause she’s always mean to daddy. Likes to throw jabs at him and remind him that without momma or uncle Amos’ money we wouldn’t be anything. She thinks daddy married momma cause she was born rich but I’ve seen how daddy looks at momma. How he hugs her and always wanna be with her when she gets home from work. Momma Bilmin says “that’s called love, some Lucia has never heard about”. I overheard her talking to Mrs. Khan, Beriah only married her cause the lady he liked denied his marriage proposal. I should ask Ignacio about it but I doubt he’d know, he’s only six.

This is the first time Efrain is gonna meet my family. When his daddy drops him off he and daddy shake hands and talk for a long time before he leaves. I ain’t ever seen daddy smile at anyone who ain’t momma Bilmin, momma or me. I’m gonna say this a good thing.

“I pass by ya house every mornin’, never been inside though”, Efrain says taking off his backpack. It usually looks flat cause he only carries a notebook but it’s really fat today cause he has extra clothes in it.

“You know, my birthday in two days”, he says nodding his head, raising his eyebrows.

“Really? What y’all gon do?”, I ask. To have my birthday party and then his every year? And then with Christmas around the corner? So many gifts and so much food!

“We don’t really do none, momma likes to make grain cakes but since she got sick she kinda just sleeps a lot”, he says.

I can’t believe Efrain doesn’t celebrate his birthday. It’s always been one of the best days of the year for me. I take his hand and walk inside the house and into the kitchen where momma Bilmin is preparing today’s food.

“Wow!”, Efrain says staring all over the house.

“Momma!”, I say getting her attention. “We’re celebrating Efrain’s birthday today too”, I demand.

“We are?”, Efrain asks shocked.

“Yes. My birthday is my favorite day of the year and it should be yours too”, I say to him.

“So this is the famous Efrain?”, momma Bilmin says. She puts her hands on her hips and smiles at him with her lips and eyes. “Dora, bring me some icin’”, she says. The smile on Efrain’s face says it all.

While grandma adds his name on our cake I show him around back. Smiling wide, Efrain pets Brownie and feeds her some hay. We don’t get to play with the cows as much as we want cause we have to leave but still, Efrain tells me he had fun from just the little bit that we got to do. So much so, the entire ride to the lake he just talks about how big cows are and how funny their noses look. He admits he’s never seen one so up close before and always thought they were cute. I couldn’t agree more.

Cause it’s December the water is a little cold but after being in it for a minute, I get used to it. Efrain and Ignacio don’t get along so quick but after a while, when they see me struggling to swim they turn into good friends laughing at me.

“So ya momma been rich and ya daddy was poor but then got rich but cause he wasn’t born rich Ignacio’s momma don’t like him? That make no sense?”, Efrain says to me watching Ignacio swim in circles around us.

“Momma says uncle Polomir married aunt Esperanza for her money”, Ignacio says. This makes me mad.

“How could daddy have married momma for money when he was already rich?”, I say putting my hands on my hip.

“Y’all makin’ no sense to me”, Efrain says shaking his head. “Wouldn’t ya daddy have been richer than ya momma at some point?”, he asks.

“Momma Bilmin says as long as we aint strugglin’ for a meal and got enough to help others we shouldn’t be fightin’ over money”, I say mimicking Ignacio’s arm waving tryna swim too. “Quit movin’ boy, I’m tryna learn from ya”, I say making Ignacio cackle.

When he swims away Efrain says the only reason the boy can float is cause he’s shaped like a ball. This makes me laugh but I don’t tell him cause it sounds mean and if someone told me that I’d be hurt.

Cousin Ignacio is chubby, tanned and has eyes so black they look like there’s nothing behind them. He has big fat cheeks, bigger than mines and his hands and body look a little bloated. That’s cause everything he wants, he gets and all he wants is food. Aunt Lucia gives him everything, that makes him bratty sometimes.

“Hey, Efrain, where you from?”, Ignacio asks. I think this makes Efrain uncomfortable cause he doesn’t answer immediately. He looks at me instead and then at his hands, pretending to wipe the water off of them.

“Bloques”, he admits. That’s where the poor people live. Ignacio is from Littleburg, his house is so big a hundred people could live lavishly in it.

“I’ve never been there but a lot of kids from my class live there and they’re always talkin’ bout playin’ ball in the streets. It must be fun livin’ in Bloques. Littleburg is borin’”, Ignacio says. That’s a lie. Littleburg is fun. All the stores are there. Sometimes there’s parades in the streets held by the mayor and when we go visit I see a lot of kids riding their bikes down the street.

Still, this makes Efrain give him a half smile. I guess he thought Ignacio was gonna be a snobby bully like Kenneth. Nah, he doesn’t have that many friends either and I’ve met them, Timothy and Evangeline are really quiet. I don’t think they like me just like all the other rich kids but that doesn’t matter. Efrain likes me and he’s happy to be my friend. This makes me smile at him back.

The adults sit on a picnic table but no one is really talking to anyone but momma Bilmin, she’s always so friendly. She tries to get momma’s momma Ester to talk but she just acts like momma Bilmin smells bad. At least grandpa Alvaro talks back. Aunt Lucia looks sad and plays with her food listening to momma talk. Daddy and Beriah just stare at the grill tryna get the flame to grow.

After watching us desperately tryna swim, Ignacio tells Efrain and I that we ain’t supposed to kick our feet but our entire legs. Efrain starts swimming before I do but after trying for over an hour I finally get it. If it were up to me, I’d keep trying but momma Bilmin calls us out the water to eat.

Usually she makes me a plate of food before anyone else but today she makes it for Efrain first. She fills his plate up and tells him that if he wants more that he shouldn’t be afraid to ask. Momma Ester looks at Efrain like he stinks too, but he doesn’t. I smelled him.

“You should eat with your mouth closed”, momma Ester says to him.

“Yeah, that way food won’t fall out of your mouth and you can eat more”, Ignacio says spitting food on my arm.

“Oori!”, momma Ester snaps. This makes me laugh. Momma Ester and aunt Lucia only use Ignacio’s middle name when they’re mad.

“Francis!”, momma Ester snaps at me. This startles and steals my smile away.

“Now, really Ester? You that bitter?”, momma Bilmin says, “Alvaro why is filth talkin’ to me?”, momma Ester says to daddy Alvaro. “Count yourself blessed there’s children around”, momma Bilmin says to her smiling at me.

After we’re done eating, momma Bilmin brings out a cooler where she’s put the cake. She calls everyone to the table and sets Efrain and I next to each other. This makes momma Ester mad and she walks off talking to momma who’s smile goes away almost immediately. Aunt Lucia looks mad too but she stands behind Ignacio who’s laughing and pointing at the cake.

It’s round and tall, lathered in white icing and at the top, it has strawberries, blueberries and slices of peach in patterns that look like flower petals. On the side of the cake it says “Happy Birthday Isadora & ᴱᶠᴿᴬᴵᴺ”, where momma Bilmin managed to add his name in too. Efrain’s smile is bigger than mines. I put my hand around his shoulder and wave at momma Bilmin who takes out a plastic camera, winds it and flashes a picture.

In no time, momma Ester, still mad, joins us along with momma and they all begin to sing happy birthday to us.

“Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Dora.. and Efrain, happy birthday to you!”