𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 / 𝑻𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒄𝒉

𝐈𝐕

I walked back to my house, not wanting to talk to my parents, but it was inevitable. I entered through grand the doors that led to our penthouse apartment.

My mother immediately stormed up to me, thankfully my father was still at work, "Marigold Calla Trinket, what on earth were you doing in the cage with those vermin district  tributes". Her words were like daggers stabbing into me. "And holding hands? Have you gone mad?" 

I felt the tears prick the corners of my eyes, "How can you say that about them" I mumbled. A look of disbelief shot across her face, "When your one of them". My mother's face grew red with rage, I knew I had crossed a boundary, but I didn't care because she knew who she was. 

My mother huffed and walked off muttering curse words under her breath. I felt the tears rise, I missed everything and everyone so much, but my mother had cut them all off. I ran off to my room letting the tears stream down my cheeks, I got changed into a white tee and overalls and made my way to my garden on the rooftop. I let all my emotions pour out as I picked out weeds and watered flowers and fruits. Then I climbed up my lemon tree and sat on a branch admiring the view. I could just make out Coriolanus' grandmother's rose garden atop her rooftop. 

My thoughts drifted to Treech, and how he stared at me with such concern as I was being pulled away from the madness. Arachne's funeral was tomorrow, and I wasn't looking forward to it, the tributes were probably going to be there as well. I wondered if Treech was hungry, the sky was on the verge of sunset, my mother was going out for dinner and my father returning much later in the night. I figured I may as well make my way to the zoo, and bring some dinner for Treech and Lamina. 

~

The sky was a beautiful orange when I arrived at the zoo, I was a little exhausted from walking as I did not want to face the avox in the car. On my walk a few tears still managed to slip out of my eyes as I reminisced over everything, over Arachne.

When I got to the old monkey house where they were being kept, I almost fell to ground, I sat down legs crossed and took out some food from my bag. Treech managed to notice me as I did not call out for him. He shot me a smile which quickly faded when he saw my puffy eyes and sadder deminer. 

"What's got you down" he said quietly.

"Just a small argument" I replied passing the food through the bars.

He bit into the rap I prepared for him as I drew flowers in the sand-like dirt below me.

"I've never seen a Capitol girl looking as rough as you do now" he exclaimed, it didn't necessarily feel like much of an insult considering that I was in my dirty gardening overalls and my hair was messily pulled into a half-up half-down style.

"These are just my gardening clothes, I don't look this bad all the time" 

I tried my hardest to not look over at the dried up puddles of blood from Arachne and Brandy's deaths, but couldn't help it. I suppose Treech noticed me staring and began to talk again.

"That girl seemed a bit harsh towards Brandy, I mean sure Brandy had a short temper, but she was pushed to her limits" Treech said, slightly aggravated. 

"Arachne was mean, although her death still hurts, we grew up together, most of us did" I mumbled, Treech falling silent.

Once Treech had finished his rap he began to sip on the water I gave him. The sky was beginning to turn darker as daytime dwindled.

"Why are you doing all this for me?" he said looking up at the sky painted with dark shades of pink, purple, orange and midnight blue.

I was a little taken aback by his question, wasn't it obvious enough, because I didn't want him to die before the games. "Because I care for you Treech, unlike some other Capitol folk, I actually have some human decency".

"Really, no prize, no fame?" he rebutted as if he was trying to prove me wrong, like I was some sort of monster who would rather want the tributes dead than alive in the 'heavenly' Capitol. 

I couldn't lie to him though, after all it was probably best if he knew, "There is the Plinth prize, but I don't really care for it that much. You used to be able to win it by having the best grades, but this year its who can get there tribute to 'be the best spectacle' or whatever that means". The words practically fell out of my mouth, I wasn't thinking straight, how could I with everything that had happened that day.

"So you are treating me good to get money" Treech replied, anger lacing his words.

I looked up at him from drawing swirls in the dirt below, "What, of course not".

"So why are you treating me like this, like I'm the same as you, like I'm Capitol" his words rang in my ears, the bars between us becoming a lot more visible.

"No Treech, your district, your just in the wrong place, and I'm doing my best to get you back home, here" I mumbled looking away from his face.

"And what would you care if I died in that arena, just go on with your life, with all the money and fame because you shoved me in font of a camera" he argued back, voice raising.

I didn't want to argue with him, but he wasn't hearing what I was saying, he was ignoring me. All he wanted to do at that moment was make me out as the villain, like I purposefully pulled his name out to fight in the games. 

I could feel the tears prick the corners of my eyes, "Treech today has been hard, I watched one of my childhood friends die, as well as a tribute" now my voice had raised above a whisper, so he could hear it clearly now. "And then I had to get scolded for Coriolanus' stupid actions," I had begun to rise from sitting, wanting to get out of the zoo as fast as possible. "All to just go home to my mother who criticked me on every step I took and called the district children horrible names, all because she can't accept that she is one!" My hand immediately came to my mouth, covering any more words I could of possibly said and began to speed walk away from Treech. I could practically feel the disbelief in his eyes as I walked off, tears streaming down my cheeks.

I took a few random turns to stop in front of an empty cage and sat down onto a bench. I had never told anyone my mother was district, not Livia who had been my best friend since we were 2, not Lysistrata, whom I could fall back on, not my favourite aunt on my dad's side who knew all my secrets, not anyone. Here I was, in the Capitol zoo spilling my guts up to some district 7 boy who would die in a few days.

𝐀.𝐍 okkk, first off if the last name 'Trinket' has been already featured in a fic i didn't know and its an iconic last name so🤷‍♀️.  Also I'm not going to feature any of the funerals because they are kinda brutal. Also don't be a silent reader, I love the support you give smm. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!

Au revoir my cabbages 💕