The First Hunger Games

Lexus and the Flirtatious Teal Monster

"Are you, are you, coming to the tree. They strung up a man, they say who murdered three. Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree,"

"Lexus! Are you here? Lexus, come on!" Axle yelled in the distance. Lexus had no interest in returning home at the moment. She had found a spot by the lake where the sun shone and the water rippled around her feet. Perfect inspiration for her new book. Unfortunately, ever since the rebellion her older brother Axle had made it impossible for her to relax in quiet by herself. He stated that as her older brother it was his job to protect her. He didn't seem to understand that she no longer needed his protecting. The fighting was over and she was 16 years old. Which meant she was certainly old enough to watch after herself. Their grandparent's had died when their mother was 15 and she did just fine on her own. With one last look out at its reflective surface, Lexus turned from the lake and headed into the woods to find her brother. When she finally found him wandering around a bog she almost had to laugh at him. He had been incredibly far off from where she had been, but still managed to scream loud enough for her to hear him clearly. He pretended to be tough, stern and clever, but Lexus knew what he really was. He was an idiot. If he actually had the ability to think, he would have figured out that she was at the lake. It was a beautiful day. He knew she worked on her swimming whenever she got the chance. Not to mention the heat! That day, the temperature had been brought up to a scorching 90 degrees. Their air conditioner had broke a few days ago, so swimming was really the only way to keep cool. Lexus had figured he wouldn't find her for at least a few hours, she had of course been right. Lexus had enough time to walk down to the lake, swim for an hour and spend another hour writing before he had found her. "There you are! I've been looking for hours! Where were you?" he asks her.

"At the lake," Lexus replies with bored tone. She knew Axle hated when she acted like wandering off was nothing. To her it was nothing, but to him, it was this huge thing he always had to make a scene over. It drove her crazy, but he was legally in charge of her until she was 18. She knew exactly what she would do when she did. She would take a train further down the lakes, get a job as a designer, fall in love, get married, have kids and live her life in peace. She looked up at Axle, his eyes showed anger, there was something else there too, but she couldn't quite identify it. Was it confusion? No, it was more sincere. Admiration perhaps, yes that was it. Although she made his life difficult, he admired her. Maybe it was her creativeness, or possibly her free spirit, whatever it was, he prided her for having it. They tromped home in silence. After about half an hour, they broke through the treeline. They ended up in their garden, as it was right on the edge of the forest. Lexus and Axle had been given the family home when their parents died. Their mother had studied medicine and animals, so when Lexus was old enough, her mother passed that knowledge to her. While Axle worked as a mechanic in town, Lexus was District 6's healer. She had come up with many new remedies over the years, they worked to various degrees. To her, it was about trial and error, trying something until it worked, just creating something. Weather it was medicine, a design, music or food, she always kept busy with something. Lexus sighed and dropped herself onto the couch in their small living room. About 3 years ago they'd expanded the house, adding on 4 more rooms. One was for Lexus' experimenting, another for Axle's. The third was the hospital room and the fourth was a place for patients to stay overnight. That room was currently occupied by Hans Grovinger, who had an unfortunate run-in with a bear and Flynn Turner who had developed a nasty cough. She suspected it was from the particles in the air of the lining factory he worked at. As Lexus sat in the living room, she found herself wishing they had expanded that room as well. She stood and entered the infirmary to check on Mr. Grovinger and Flynn. She knocked tentatively on the door.

"Come in," A voice grunted from inside. Lexus opened the door and entered. Flynn peered up at her from over his book. The Daring Ladies of Lowell, many people would have laughed at him, saying how the book was written for women. However, here in the infirmary he was safe from ridicule. Flynn loved telling Lexus about the Mill Girls and the cotton factory's. It was a rather rebellious topic, but Lexus found herself interested in the topic. She wondered if that's what things were like in District 8. People from 8 had come down to 6 during the rebellion, but Lexus hadn't gotten much of a chance to ask them anything about 8. Everyone was to busy fighting at the time. Flynn smiled at her. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company Miss Way?" he asks Lexus slipped passed a sleeping Mr. Grovinger and sat at the edge of Flynn's bed.