#mrs oxoro

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

A new friend?

District 10 so big it takes a whole day to drive around it, daddy says. He also says that in north of 10 is an old black market where people can buy just about anything for half the price. That’s why it’s rare to see those from Bloques in the stores at Littleburg. Usually it’s kids leaving school or Reaping day that has them walking about the area.

He tells me this cause Mr. Oxoro came over and they talked for a bit. Apparently he took Efrain and his brothers there but when they came back Efrain wasn’t feeling well. This morning he woke up with chicken pox and can’t go to school, leave the house or be visited by anyone until he gets better. This makes me sad, that means I’ll be all alone during lunch and after school. I already miss him on the weekends.

It’s easy to forget he ain’t here during class, but when it’s lunch time I’m stuck remembering what it was like before we met. Lucas and the other kids we usually play with out on the streets wave hello from their tables and even ask me to join them. On the first day I join him and Edwin who complained the entire time. He gave me looks and sometimes said things that only made sense to him. “We was good before”, he said, “she ruined it”.

Not wanting to feel unwanted again, the next day I joined Wendy and her friends. Of course, Cassidy and Orchid ain’t know about us being friends now.

“Why is 𝘴𝘩𝘦 sittin’ with us?”, Cassidy snarked. Orchid rolled her eyes. Wendy told them “she’s my friend”, but they just gave her a look with a lot of attitude. I ain’t talk to Wendy after lunch, not even during class when she sent me a note asking if I was gonna go to Efrain’s. She knows he’s sick and knows Ms. Weston is gonna kick me out of class if I get caught with a note. It made me mad so I just put the note in my notebook and pretended to forget about it.

Yesterday I ate by myself and it made me sad. I asked daddy if I could go see Efrain but he said I can’t cause he’s contagious. Says there’s a vaccine but it’s expensive. This made me cry cause if it’s too expensive for us, it’s definitely too expensive for Efrain’s family. Daddy assured me that he’s helping in every way that he can and that it’s best if I just wait until Efrain is better.

Today during lunch, while unpacking mines I spot momma Bilmin added an extra piece of bread inside a handkerchief. On top of it is a note that says “ʂԋαɾҽ ιƚ ɯιƚԋ α ɳҽɯ ϝɾιҽɳԃ”. Not wanting a new friend, wishing Efrain was here, I put it back in my yellow, metal lunchbox and unfold my food. It’s a croissant bread sandwich with eggs, ham and bacon, my favorite.

Just as I take a bite, my eyes wonder and I spot that same redhead I see every day. She’s writing on a notebook. I ain’t ever seen her eating before and she’s really skinny. What if she doesn’t eat cause she ain’t got any food to bring?

I stare at my lunchbox for a minute, wondering if I should approach her. After all, she screams and hits anybody that gets too close. I ain’t tryna fight her or even be her friend, but I do wanna share the extra piece of bread.

“Save it unless you wanna knuckle sandwich”, she says. Her fists up ready to box. She has really bright orange hair and freckles that match. It’s curly and untamed, wild and frizzy like she never combs it. Her skin is really white like a sheet of paper and her cheeks are pink. She has pink lips and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. She’s so skinny I can see her bones and her clothes look like they were chosen for someone a lot younger than her. She’s also missing two front teeth.

“How bout an actual sandwich? You wanna share my lunch with me?”, I say lifting my arm holding my lunchbox. She puts her fists down and sits up. She shakes her head and taps her hand on the table inviting me to sit in front of her.

Seeing how happy she is to eat with me, I rip my sandwich in half and give it to her along with the honey walnut bread. She smiles with every bite and laughs spitting bits of food out her mouth.

“I’m Arielle, I know who you are”, she says before I can introduce myself. “I love this bread so much!”, she says rolling her eyes, waving it in the air. “Every day after school I run all the way to ya house just so I can’t miss me a piece. Ya grandma really nice, mine’s mean”, she says.

“You know where I live”, I ask surprised.

“Duh! Everyone knows where you live, everyone knows who you are too. Isadora Wyetka, daughter of the Wyetka’s! Y’all the nicest rich folk in ten”, she smiles and takes another bite. “I ain’t ever ate any like this before, what’s this?”, she points at the ham and bacon. I explain it’s pork. She smiles and laughs. “I know what this is, it’s egg. Sometimes on my way home I steal some from chicken nests. They real mean if they catch you but I’m good at sneakin’ so it’s alright”.

“You steal from the feral chickens?”, I ask surprised again. They really are mean. Sometimes they peck me for no reason. They think I’m tryna bother them but I ain’t even know they‘re there until they start to attack. She laughs showing off her missing teeth and nods. She’s funny looking. This makes me laugh with her.

“Hey! You aint missin’ any teeth!”, she points.

“Daddy pulls‘em out the second they get loose. Says it helps’em come out straight”, I nod with my eyes wide open. I believe him. No teeth of mine are crooked. “Last time I lost one was two years ago. I was eight. I’m ten now”.

“Hey, I’m ten too!”, she says with a wide smile. “My birthday was last week, on April first”, she nods and takes the last bite to her sandwich.

“Really? What did ya’ll do?”, I ask remembering how fun my birthday was.

“Huh?”, she tilts her head.

“What did you do for ya birthday?”

“Oh, momma made me some mint tea and I got to eat a chocolate chip cookie, it was good”, she smiles wide with her eyes closed and rubs her stomach. I wanna ask if that’s it but she changes the subject. “That was real brave of you the other day”, she says. I’m confused. “When Efrain was gettin’ beat up by Kenneth and his friends. I’ve been beat up before, wouldn’t go askin’ for another one”, she shakes her head.

“Me neither”, I admit scratching an itch on my neck. “So you saw the whole thing?”.

“Uh-hu, seen how it started all the way until it ended. I waved at you afterwards, ain’t you seen me?”, she asks tilting her head.

“I saw you, just ain’t think you was wavin’ at me”, I admit.

“Why not?”

“You not the friendly type”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah”, she giggles.

The bell rings for us to return to class. While the class is quiet, doing our nouns, Wendy slides me a note. In it she’s written:

YOᑌᖇ ᖴ��IEᑎᗪᔕ ᗯITᕼ ᗩᖇIEᒪᒪE ?

YEᔕ Oᖇ ᑎO

I don’t circle anything, instead I look at her and shrug. Arielle ain’t call me her friend once, we just shared our lunch together. She was really happy to talk to me though.

After school, walking to the front where daddy usually parks his wagon and reads his newspaper, someone yells my name. I recognize her voice immediately. It’s really shrill. When I turn around, Arielle runs up to me with a big smile. Her backpack, a lot bigger than her, bounces all over her back. She waves in my face and holds her own hands, rocking back and forth.

“Can I pet one ya horses?”, she asks. I shrug.

“Thanks for the ride Mr. Wyetka!”, Arielle yells jumping off the wagon. She waits for me to climb down before she talks again. “Wow, by the time I get here ya grandma always has two or three slices left!”, she says running towards momma Bilmin.

I stare at her talking to momma Bilmin for a moment. It looks like they already know each other. Daddy pats my shoulder when he walks by and smiles at me.

“New friend?”, he asks and stares at Arielle jumping and dancing in front of momma Bilmin, who claps and dances with her. I shrug. She looks wild and acts the part. I’m not sure how I feel about having her as a friend. I walk up to the front door in hopes to change out of my school uniform when I hear Arielle call my name. She runs up to me so fast I stumble back.

“You wanna do homework together?”, she screams in my face taking a bite out of her bread. I look at daddy, he smiles and opens the door wide for us to walk in the house.

“Wow!”, she screams running all over my room, looking and touching my stuff. She pokes the books for no reason and takes them out one by one, reads the front page and puts them back on top of the others instead of where she found them. I try to put them back but just as I do she runs up to my dresser and picks up my perfumes. She sprays my entire room, sniffing the air, smiling wide.

“Your closet is half the size of my room!”, she says looking through it and kneels at my tub of toys. “Wow! That’s a lot of toys!”, she says taking out a doll with red hair cut all silly. “She looks like me!”, Arielle laughs and climbs my bed to jump on it. “I sleep on a mattress on the floor, I can’t jump on it”, she giggles and tries to touch the ceiling.

I don’t know what to do. I try to ask her to stop but she runs around the entire room ignoring me. I can’t keep up. I don’t wanna be her friend. I want her to go away. I wanna tell her to leave but before I can say anything daddy opens the door and tells us momma Bilmin made us lunch.

“How’s Irene?”, daddy asks Arielle while we eat.

“You know my momma, mister?”, she asks wide eyed.

“Yeah, I know ya momma”, daddy chuckles. Momma Bilmin takes his hat and smacks him with it. This makes me laugh. Arielle joins and it takes my smile away. She’s annoying.

“I don’t like her”, I say to momma after she’s dropped Arielle off back home. Arielle lives all the way in the back of Bloques, in the old houses. It’s a two story rundown house, the white paint chips off the panels and she doesn’t have any neighbors. The nearest house looks a mile away. Momma says it’s a generation house and that her family has probably lived in it since before annexations. I ask her what that means but she doesn’t answer, she just complains about the dirty roads.

“Oh, you’re probably her only friend, Dora”, momma Bilmin says while she tucks me in bed.

“I think so”

“She’s just excited to have met you”, she kisses my forehead, turns off the light and leaves the door slightly open. Momma Bilmin always leaves my door open, says that if I ever have a nightmare she’ll be able to hear me call her name. My nightmares ain’t ever scared me enough to call her, but it makes me feel better knowing she’ll be there when I do.