Hurters and Healers

6

Alex and I woke up the next morning and got breakfast, this time without things going missing. Some people made small talk with us but no one tried to have an actual conversation or talk about a rebellion.

"There's not really anything for us to do today. A ski lift broke yesterday a little bit after we finished in the trails and it hasn't been fixed yet. That's pretty much the only thing to do here," Alex said as we were eating.

"Is there anything to do in the hotel?" I asked.

"Not until later."

I was about to ask what was happening later then realized that he must be talking about the meeting. I wanted to ask how the meeting works but didn't think it was the type of thing to bring up during breakfast. Instead, I asked about how he thought Gracie was doing. When in doubt, ask someone about your little sister. That doesn't make any sense but that doesn't matter. We needed something to talk about and we both love Gracie.

"I think she's fine. She's smart and she knows what to do in almost any situation and if she's put in a situation where she doesn't know what to do there's people there to help her," he told me.

Of course, he would be telling me that she's fine. I was her older sister who had watched her get beat and think it was normal since it also happened to the rest of us, it was in my nature to be worried about her.

"But she's always had the option to come to me for help," I told him.

"Then maybe it's a good thing that she might have to ask for help from someone else. At some point you won't be there help her anymore."

"I know."

We didn't talk for the rest of the time we spent eating, which was really only a few minutes. We went back to our room and tried to come up with things to do. Eventually, we decided to walk around to the parts of the hotel we hadn't been to yet. Apparently when Alex was forced to come here with his mom every year, he usually spent it with the other kids his age in the trails.

"Why didn't you spend it with them this year?" I asked him while we were walking.

"the first night that everyone's here there's this big dinner where all of us are forced to sit together while our parents catch up. It's really formal and I have to wear a terrible suit and make small talk with the leaders and try to get along with the kids. I hate it every year. Thankfully, we missed it this year since I had to wait until your shift was over and had to give you a chance to pack," he explained.

"You could've started talking to them at any point."

"I would rather talk to you."

"You can talk to me anytime; you only get to talk to them once a year."

"Ok, honestly, I don't care about them. They all complain about the people in their compounds and about how they can't find a worthy opponent. They think they're all high and mighty. None of them really care about how the people in their compounds are. Our compound is weird like that. We're all family and we know it."

"You're a bit of a hypocrite, you know," I told him.

"How?"

"Well, to start with, you the only people in the compound you care about are the people your age, your mom, and me. We're a family, but not everyone knows and there are still people who bully each other in our compound. And you definitely act high and mighty sometimes, but that's usually only when you need to win an argument against me."