Eleven

The Outsiders

      I jerk away, scrambling on the rocks. I'm panting, although I know the worms can't hurt me. Except for when I drink them. I grab my friend's canteens, stuff them in my sack, and run, trying not to let the Careers who have set up camp next to the river hear or see me. Too late. The guy who is watching sees me and yells to the other Careers. Soon the whole gang is chasing me. I dash up a tree and cling on as if it's my teddy bear or something. One of the boys starts to climb up, too. I race to the top of the tree and scan the arena until I've found the rock wall. After taking a deep breath, I leap on to another tree and grab on to a branch. A sudden memory comes to mind. Long before Rue had to go to the Games, she taught me how to jump from tree to tree. We would do it on the edge of the orchard, for an hour. Once I fell, and was hurt so badly I couldn't go to school the next day. I glance down at the ground. If I fall now, I would definitely die. I jump to the next tree, and then the next. I keep doing it until I come to a tree next to the wall. Then I scramble down and over the rock wall so fast I'm out of breath once I find Sienna, Rylan, and Cypress.

"Poisoned," I manage to choke out.

"What? Are you poisoned?" Sienna looks at me with concerned eyes. "What happened?"

"Jeez, I'm not that bad." I roll my eyes.

"So the water was poisoned," I start.

"Wait, the whole river is poisoned?" Cypress asks.

"No, you've got to let me finish,"  I say. "So the water is poisoned, but not how you think. It's got little poisonous worms that are swimming around. One boy drank some, and he died. That was the cannon you guys probably heard."

"Yeah, we heard that," Rylan says. "Sienna freaked."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Okay, so what do you call this? 'Aah! She's dead! Sage is dead! Oh my goodness! Yahh!'" Rylan imitates Sienna using an extremely high pitched voice.

We laugh. "Shut up," Sienna tells him, but she is smiling a bit too. Cypress's stomach growls.

"How are we gonna get food?" I ask.

"We could hunt," Cypress suggests.

"What's there to hunt?"

"You never know."

     So we all end up spending two hours setting up traps, looking for animals, and hiding from tributes. At two and a half hours, I say, "I don't think there are any animals here, guys."  But they shrug and Cypress says, "You never know," and we keep going.

At three hours, I tell them, "Face it. There are no animals here."

"How are we going to eat?" Rylan asks.

"We could eat plants," Sienna says.

"They might be poisoned," I reply.

"Might be," Cypress cuts in.

After a while, we end up finding a type of plant that Sienna says is edible. We make a fire (a small one) and sit around it. I take a bite out of my serving of leaf and nearly gag. "Is this what you people eat in District Ten?" I say indignantly.

"Yes, something like that," Sienna replies. "Why?"

"Well, it's quite different than what we eat in District Eleven," I say.

"Eat your veggies, dear," says Rylan.

"Don't you think we should all tell about ourselves? I mean, like our family." Sienna suggests. Ooh, touchy subject. So we all learn how Rylan is the middle child of a family of boys, how Sienna is an only child with no mother, and how Cypress is an orphan whose father died of sickness and whose mother disappeared one day.

        Now it's my turn. "Well, my older sister was named Rue, and she died." My eyes start to tear up and it becomes harder to talk. "She died because she was in the Hunger Games too. My parents are still alive. I've got a little sister, Saffron, and three younger siblings named Willow, Lila, and Heather. I guess after Rue died we all changed. Saffron wasn't so happy and bright anymore. Instead, she is scared of everything now. Father doesn't joke around that  much, and Mother is a lot more sadder." By the time I finish, tears are pouring down my cheeks. "Oh, I'm sorry," Sienna says. Soon, we change the subject.

    After, the national anthem plays and the dead tributes start to show. The boy from 10, the girl from 7, female from 5, and female from 6. Not much. "Jax," Sienna whispers. Jax, I think, is her district partner. I reach over and pat her on the back. We keep on talking after a pause.

"We should name our group of allies, kind of like the Careers," I say.

"What should we name ourselves? The Superstars?" Rylan asks.

"How about... The Tributes?"

"The Champs?"

"The Tribute Slayers?"

"The Unemployed? You know, career means job, and we are the opposite," Rylan explains.

We keep on naming names, but all of them are kind of pathetic, so we almost end up with "The Tribute Slayers" until Cypress, who has been quiet all this time says, "The Outsiders. You know, we're all on the outside of the districts. Twelve, eleven, ten, and nine."

"Hey, that's pretty good," Rylan says.

"Yeah," Sienna agrees.

  When everybody except for me is asleep, I think things over. I think the Outsiders is a pretty good name. "The Outsiders," I say out loud. And then, I smile. Now I know what it's like to have friends.

Authors note: Cypress is on the side.

Copyright © 2012 anniema3