𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐎𝐝𝐝𝐬¹

XI. Step by step

°•°•[Step by step]•°•°

"WHY DID YOU ally with me and Mike?" Julia asked Tucker soon after when she woke up. That question has occurred to her when they first allied, but she never asked him until now. She did not know when was the right time, but she realised it would never be.

"Why do you care? You know that our alliance is going to break soon."

"Just curious. I mean, you could ally with Careers, and you choose to ally with us, random tributes from District Three."

Tucker sighed and looked out of the window. It was getting dark, but the national anthem hasn't played yet. "Pearl and Xavier are good friends. She suggested to ally with you because she knew that your reaping was rigged just as mine, and she knew that Xavier and Beetee are going to suggest to you to ally with me. She was sure that you will say yes because she knew that you knew my reaping was also rigged. And besides, you are the best allies I could possibly get. Careers would kill me in my sleep even before they would kill you, or before you or Mike would kill me." 

"So you allied with me and Mike because Pearl told you so, and because you knew that we would not kill you," stated Julia.

Tucker felt the need to defend himself. "I allied with you because I wanted to and I was able to. I only took Pearl's advice into consideration."

"I doesn't matter now anyways, as you said," a silence filled the room. "You should sleep, Tucker," suggested Julia. "You'll need rest."

"After the anthem plays," Tucker looked out of the window again. 

        They waited another half an hour for anthem to play. Julia went through their supplies. She hid few knives and a package of dried fruit in her pockets. A bottle didn't fit in. I felt wrong, like she was cheating, but this game had no rules and you would win only if you were the best of the best in it. 

"How did you and Mike met? Just curious, as you would say," Tucker asked. 

"When my parents died, I was left alone with my sister Amber, whom was four months old, and I had nowhere to go. I stumbled over the house and found Mike in it. His parents died in the same factory accident that my parents died in. We befriend and helped each other. Soon, other orphans started to come, and we formed a small community, along with many other orphan groups. We are like little bands."

"Do you have to work in factories?" Tucker glanced at Julia. "I mean, few orphans there are in Eight aren't even going to school."

"We still have to work after we turned fourteen, but it actually helps us. We got some money, and we filled out time after school. We still do everything other kids do so we wouldn't stick out so much. We befriend some of kids that aren't orphans in school and factories. Most of them say we smell because we don't have a decent shower," Julia answered. "We have to share." Tucker decided that, when he returned home, he will befriend an orphan and offer them a home.

"I never had to work, but I guess you know that. Pearl won when I was eight. She told me that I was lucky I didn't have to work, that conditions in factories are terrible and that she wishes she could change it."

"In our factories, it's not that bad, I guess. Even though everyone wishes that orphans would get reaped because they don't have a family that would ever mourn them, they are generally nice to us during other occasions than reapings. Some even give us food, but they are greedy, some other, rare ones, poor. And in the factories, we pretty much make technology shit for Capitol."

        Anthem started playing, and Julia's eyes were already filled with tears on the thought of Mike's face in the air. She saw Naia's face in the sky first, and guilt started to wash over her. I killed her. When Alexander's face appeared after Naia's, redhead looked at Tucker, and saw hurt and culpability on his face and in his eyes. But the worst was when Mike's face appered in the sky. Julia looked at it one more time, trying to memorise it, not wanting to remember him weak and bleeding out on the floor. After his, face of girl from Ten, Taura, emerged, and Julia realised that she overslept the cannon. She wasn't sure how, but she managed to.