The first hunger games- Abandoned

Chapter thirteen: Peacekeepers

As I'm walking out of the door of my house, my mom calls after me telling me to have a good day at school. What she doesn't know is that I'm not going to school today, I still feel a little bad about not going but I can't change my mind now, its to late, because Emerald will be waiting for me behind the school. then we'll go and sit on the hill that overlooks the construction site. It's the perfect place to watch without being seen. We can look down and see the construction workers but they can't see us, I told her that that was the perfect spot to sit when she was listing of ideas of where to go. We are meeting up behind the school and heading over there together. As I'm walking to school I can still see the depression on everyone's faces. It makes me even more depressed about the reaping then i was before, and about ditching. Everyone else is depressed too and they're still going to school, but I don't want to have to deal with the pressure of school today as well, so it's good that Emerald and I can just relax for once. As the school comes into view I make a detour to the other side of the street and shield my face. We have a teacher guarding the doors to make sure that all the students get inside the school and don't ditch, and to make sure that no one other then the students and teachers get through. So I have to hide my face so that he doesn't see me. Once I'm out of view of the teacher, I go behind the school and lean against the wall waiting for Emerald to show up. It's a good thing no one is ever at the back of the school, after about five minutes of waiting, Emerald shows up and i can hear all the students file through the doors in the front of the school. "Hey, sorry to keep you waiting, the 'guard' Saw me" Emerald says air quoting the word guard. We both think that he is defiantly not a guard, especially since he also happens to be our science teacher. "That's fine, it's only been five minuets" I say back to her, "what did he do? And how did he see you?" I ask. "I forgot to shield my face. But he didn't do anything, just told me to come over and line up" she answers with a shrug. "Alright, let's get going then" I say getting up from the road.

As we get to the top of the hill, Emerald pulls out something from a paper bag. "What's in there?" I ask. "It's a giant cloth" Emerald answers laying the cloth down on the grass. As I a start to take my shoes off so that I can feel the grass in my toes, Emerald starts to look a little shocked, "Shot! Get down!" she hisses pulling me down with her, "calm down, they can't see us remember" I say getting comfy by laying on my stomach on the cloth, "yeah, if we're laying down, but they can see us if we're standing up" she counter argues, "well, we're laying down now so calm down" I say back. "Yeah, I guess your right. I gotta take a breath and relax" Emerald says taking a deep breath and also lying on her stomach. "So what do you wanna talk about?" She asks, "I don't know, its really peaceful and i love the sounds of the birds, why don't we just watch the construction for a little bit? We have like, 5 hours" I answer, and Emerald seems just as relieved to me saying that as I was saying it, if that makes sense. I think that we just both don't want to talk about anything because the reaping will eventually come up and we're here to relax, not to stress. As the day goes by, the birds keep chirping and the peacekeepers keep working we keep silent. Not complete silence though, we say things here and there but beer go into deep conversation, maybe that's best though, cause then there's no way for the reaping to come up. Shot! How in the world am i supposed to know the time if i don't have a clock? Idiot! If I'm not home by the time my mom gets home I'll be in so much trouble. "Um, Emerald, how are we supposed to know what time it is?" I ask very concerned, but she doesn't answer, instead she shows a mix of emotions. She starts out looking very surprised, then worried, then she looks determined after looking down at the construction, then she gives me a smile. Uh oh, we're about to do something we're not supposed to do, that always happens when she gives me that smile. "We check the clock that the peacekeepers have on the construction site" Emerald says, still giving me that smile by the way, what is she thinking? We could get killed! I know that sounds harsh, but that's what they'll e do if they find out we ditched school, especially if it was to 'spy' on the construction, it not like it's that top secret of a project, I mean President Snow announced it to the whole country! "No! We could get killed! Although... if we don't get home in time, my mom will kill me. No! We can't, it's way to dangerous." I say towards her, I can't believe I almost said yes! I'm such an idiot, "that's just like you! You never do anything risky and you always obey the rules, do something fun for once!" Emerald starts attacking me. "I don't always follow the rules! I just don't want to die!" I argue back, this goes on for a while and I feel like our friendship is going suffer from this, i feel like we could keep on fighting for ever, but then I hear screaming that isn't Emeralds and I know she has the same fear as I do as soon as I look over at her. Peacekeepers. We must've been so loud that they heard us arguing, now they're after us, there's one yelling to run after us and there two running up the hill, in one look both Emerald and I start to sprint off to who's knows where. We leave the cloth on the hill, thankfully I put my shoes on during our argument because I was going to storm off, but now I'm sprinting off instead, and not away from her but with her, I knew this would happen! The first time I break a rule and I'm gonna die, no, I'm not gonna die. And neither is Emerald, we are survive this chase, maybe it's good that I have a rebellious best friend, because that means that we know all the allies and back ways. As In running through the roads the wind is rushing through my hair and blasting my face, my hair is flying and I can hear the peacekeeper yelling at us to stop, because in running for my life I can't make all the calculation but I'd have to guess he's about 12 meters away, I'm glad that Emerald has my hand and is pulling me with her, because she is a much faster runner then me. "I'm gonna let go of your hand, meet me in ally way next to the sweet shop!" Emerald yells at me while releasing her hand, she doesn't say it because we're in a hurry but she's doing this because then the two peacekeepers following us must split up. We know all the back and ally ways of District six, we spend a lot of time after school searching for new routes and looking around, it's not because we don't have homework every night, because we do, it's because District six is so boring that we have to find new ways to entertain ourselves, it's a good thing that we did that to, cause its really handy at this moment. My chest is heaving and my lungs are burning up, I feel like I'm about to pass out and I want to slow down, but I know I can't. Not when the most dangerous people in District six are chasing me, Emeralds probably already there by now, and the thought of her cheering me on is what keeps me going. My breathing becomes sharp and quick by the time I reach my destination, and I feel as though I've been running for hours, I turn a corner and run through the ally, I search for Emerald and I can't seem find her, there are so many places she could've hidden. "I'm over here" I hear her whisper, I whip around, breathing heavily, then I spot her behind a trash bin and next to a pile of boxes that have been badly damaged. I skid behind the bin and shimmy myself so that in not seen. "How" breath "long" breath "have" breath "you been waiting" then I take a very deep wavy breath. "Around 5 minuets, what took you?" She says, I told you she was a better runner then me, "you know I'm an awful runner" I say back, still in between breaths though my breathing is coming back to normal, "yeah, I know. I'm sorry about our fight, and almost getting us killed" she says, and I can see sincerity in her eyes, "I'm sorry too, and it's not just your fault, I was yelling too. You're right, I'm a goody goody" I say "and I'm fine with that, I'm just glad that neither of us is dead, I was so worried" she says "me too, I'm glad they didn't catch up to us and I hope they don't find us" I say, finally normally breathing again, "don't worry they won't find us" I say, then she leans in and gives me a hug, I hug her back and we stay like that for who knows how long, but it feels good.

After about a half hour of taking turns watching out for the peacekeepers, we get up from our spot and start to walk into the town. We pass by the people selling veggies that we ran past earlier and they give us weird looks, oh well, now they think we're rebellious teens who get in trouble by the law, I just hope they don't tell my mom, considering she buys her food here everyday. That reminds me, "what's the time?" I ask one of the towns residents, "4:00" she says, "uh oh" Emerald and I say in unison, "lets go" she says, running through the crowd of people before I can say anything else, I guess we're running again, oh joy. I start to run after her and she slows down so that I can catch up, we start to jog together back to the school and we see the students walking back home in several directions, we head back to Emerald's house where I run to her room and grab my notebook and pencil, then I head back to my place. "Bye! See you tomorrow!" She yells at me as I leave, "yeah! See ya!" I yell back, since both her parents work they don't get back till 6:00 so she didn't have to worry about getting home in time, but I do.

I walk through the door of my and my moms house, and start to wash the dishes from this morning, I wash them every day after school and she expects them to be washed by the time she gets home, I finish the last dish and go to sit down at the table to work on a project for engineering when my mom walks through the door. She walks in and places the food on the table like she always does then examines the dishes, she seems pleased and comes to help me with the project. She doesn't suspect a thing, perfect. Now all I have to worry about is the reaping, which unfortunately is not so perfect.

A/N: hey guys! I'm back, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next chapters the reaping! Sorry I haven't been on lately, I've been super busy. Thanks for reading! Love you💖