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WITH A HALF HOUR TO SPARE BEFORE SCHOOL, CARI TREKKED DOWN TO THE ZOO. Despite getting home before two, she spent most of the night up, crafting fish hooks as she thought about her friendship with Coriolanus.
It was so simple, before the Reaping. She was District trying to be Capitol, and he allowed her to tag along with him most days, regarding her with a cool friendliness that filled the void left from her life in Four. Now, with the presence of the tributes, he was pulling away from her, from the image she had constructed of him in her mind.
It had been such a short time, but Treech had shown her truer friendship than Coriolanus had ever offered.
Arriving at the curved enclosure, she peeked around for Treech, finding him not there.
"They took him and some others to the bathroom." She had recognized the voice slightly, the same manner of speaking that she once had before she was forced to adapt to the Capitol.
Turning slightly, she found the redhead, Coral, sitting on a rock. Her face was impassive, but she put her hands on her knees and stood, approaching Araucaria. "I didn't recognize you at first, not until the Lumberjack said you were one of us." Debarker, Cari silently corrected.
"Recognize me?" Cari stepped closer, curiosity piqued. The girl wore the navy blue and white stripes common on sailors back in Four, earrings shaped from fishhooks framed by a pixie haircut to avoid getting tangled in propellers. If she knew her then, she had drastically changed.
Coral nodded, grabbing two bars and putting her face close to the gap. "You're that girl that moved away, Flinch."
"Finch."
Coral scoffed, "Right. You lived out in the woods, right? With your inventor parents in that log cabin. I remember seeing you around. Always hanging around the docks, trying to talk to everyone, but they never talked back."
Usually she was selling her fish hooks and lures— unsuccessfully. Most of the time she would sneak them into the fishermen's tackle boxes when they weren't looking. Cari shrugged, "I wanted to help, that's all."
Coral considered her words. "I'm sorry about your mother."
After narrowing her eyes, Araucaria decided the girl was being truthful. "Thank you, Coral. I'm... I'm sorry about all this." She gestured to the enclosure.
Behind Coral, a few peacekeepers were making their way in, Mizzen, Hy, Velvereen, and Treech escorted back in at gunpoint.
Coral backed up, "Not your fault. I'm sorry they didn't realize that back in Four." She jogged back to her spot, greeting Mizzen who peered at Araucaria curiously.
"You trading me as your tribute, Four?" Treech was approaching her, glancing back at Coral.
Cari shook her head with a small smile, "Of course not. I was just informing her that you are not a lumberjack but rather a 'Debarker."
