drapetomonia - the overwhelming urge to run away.
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When Junia Beaumont, her brother and their classmates get a last assignment before the end of the school year, she doesn't know just how quickly things will change for her.
Who would have thought t...
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51. the market
Birdie has to admit that she was almost worried she wouldn’t be able to leave the house at all.
But at least she gets it now — what Treech would always complain about whenever she says goodbye to her fiancé. It’s hard not to feel awkward and like the third wheel when her brother keeps on delaying her and June’s departure by finding more excuses to touch and kiss her. She knows this must stem from his fear of being without her for the first time in a while, even though he seems acutely aware that he needs to work on his separation anxiety for both of their sakes.
June doesn’t mind. Of course she can’t say no every single time he comes back with another thing he “really needs to tell her," but when he’s eventually whisked away by his gentle but increasingly impatient mother, she can’t hide her smile. And it might be for the best to give her lips a break as well, because as much as she embraces the kisses wholeheartedly, she’d like her chapstick from the Capitol to last a while longer.
Once out of the house, June is again overwhelmed by the sheer greenery. The sky is tinted bright blue with not a single cloud in sight, the sun is casting warm rays upon anything it can touch, and the smell of all kinds of flowers, the chirping of the birds high up in the trees, and the gentle trickling of the stream next to the dirt road accompany the girls.
A warm, comfortable breeze sweeps over June, and she can’t help but marvel at everything around her. She has said this at least once every single day since she and Treech arrived here, but everything feels so much more alive than back in the Capitol. This is real nature, not the fake kind she’s used to. And from the looks of it, she can tell that lumber yards aside, the people in Seven have made it an unspoken rule to leave as much of the District’s nature as untouched as possible.
Birdie notices the girl’s wandering eye as well. The smallest noise is enough to make her eyes dart around or to make her turn her head to find its source, and she finds it strangely endearing. She hasn’t seen much of the Capitol — at least nothing outside of buildings where the Games were hosted or broadcast from — but to her, it almost feels like June has never left the house before.
“You haven’t been to the market yet, right?” Birdie asks after a few minutes of silence pass. She holds her basket loosely in her hand, lightly swinging it back and forth. “I mean, I got no idea which way you took to get here.”
“We took a carriage,” June tells her, finally able to tear her gaze away from a particularly colorful bird up in the trees. “But no, I don’t think so. There were a few houses around, but I didn’t see anything that resembled a market.”
“Well, that ain’t a problem. You’ll know it when you see it,” Birdie chirps, now walking with a light pep in her step. “You guys ain’t got a market in the Capitol?”
