Outside the walls

Chapter 2: Tryouts

Emma stepped into a small store. She wiped the dirt off her shoes.

"Hi Emma, long time no see!" A young girl waved at Emma from across the room.

"Hi Sarah, I'm going to tryouts do you have any leggings and possibly a tee shirt?" Emma waved to Sarah as she walked in.

"You have no idea how many times I have here'd that today. Yeah we do, I have a black pair of leggings and tee shirt in your size. Is your mom ok with this?" Sarah asked.

Emma had earned 30 dollars from work and was going to use it to by some new clothes. She didn't want to show up to tryouts in her muddy clothes. But she was going to buy completely new clothes something that she only got once a year. This was different however, if she showed up in her cut shouted and muddy tank top she New they wouldn't except her. They wanted someone who looked like they had been training for this there hole life. Not someone who looked like it they were fired to do it by there parents just so they could let you die and just let them get the cash.

"Yeah, she said it was fine," Emma lied.

"Ok well here you go that will be 50 dollars," Sarah muttered. "How much do you have?"

Emma was scared, she only had 30 dollars. How was she gonna pay of all of this?

"I only have 30..."

They stood in silence.

"Well... here you go," Sarah hands Emma the clothes. "But you gotta find a cell tower ok!"

Emma laughed. Then nodded. She set the 30 dollars on the counter and ran out the store. She saw Sarah waving out of the corner of her eye.

Sarah was Emma's good friend when she was in school. However they lived in two different parts of the city so they only saw each other when they visited each other at work.

As she walked down her city's main strip she saw teenagers. Lots of them where giving hugs to there parents and said "Good luck!" It then hit Emma strait in the face like a frying pan. She never told her mom that she was trying out! She scrambled to ideas of how she could tell her mom. She wondered maybe she thinks I am doing tryouts... or she thinks that because it's tryouts we stay open longer... She was going to watch tryouts with there so she just figured that she would see her on tv and understand.

She walked into a tall tower and quietly ran into a bathroom. She never made eye contact. No one ever dose unless you know each other or have a close relationship. She snuck into one of the stalls. She changed out of her clothes and brushed out her hair with her fingers and quickly ran to a trash can to through her old clothes away. She always had a spare hair tie on her hand. Just in case she ever gets into a fight and needs to put her hair up. With the water she smudged off the dirt marks and rubbed off some of the dirt that was on her shoes.

She then walked out to the main hall. Again never made eye contact. She put up her long dark brown into a high ponytail. She waited and waited. Then she saw the cameras. She tried to not sweat. She looked around the other kids. Some older then her. She was just at the age to qualify. She looked pass the cameras into an arena. It had different stations. She couldn't get a good view from where she was in line. But she caught a glimpse of a kid with a hood. He threw a dart at a board and moved to the next station. Emma had seen him before. He was the kid from the the store!

Emma turned to a desk.

"Your name please?" The nice lady asked?