Compendium of Fairytales (Open)

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

I sigh. "You guys have such entertaining dreams. I wish I could still dream. I rarely do anymore. Then again, I'd be bothered too much if I had such a dream. If you knew you were going to 'back-stab Ulysses, then why couldn't you stop yourself? This is mighty strange--like you won't let your brain rest even at night."

I sip my smoothie a little too quickly, and I can feel the icy coldness as it travels down my esophagus. Thinking that reminds me of that one dissection we did to learn more about the interaction of body systems in class...Ugh. So not going there.

It strikes me that Bean's talking. Autumn Radiata. Didn't know her. The instant I think that, I feel an intrusion.

Autumn? I knew her! Man, I can't believe she got Reaped. She was in my math class.

Jon! Stop that. Another girl? Really? What I can't believe is how you can just look at girls like that so casually. Focus on your chemicals.

Yes ma'am.

Oh, stop mocking me.

I was being serious!

I shut him out of my head. "Autumn... I think Jon may have talked about her a few times. Then again, Jon doesn't really get out a lot, so he's quite talkative about many people he meets. In fact, he said quite a bit at home about you." Would this be my form of revenge against Jon for bothering me? Ah, maybe it's too harsh a punishment. He can get shy around girls, even though it doesn't seem so.

I kick at a random flattened can laying on the ground. It skitters a few feet away. As we pass by, I lean over and scoop it up. Then, I turn to one of the trash cans placed at street corners and toss it in. It doesn't even brush the edges of the trash can. Beautiful.

Who's beautiful? Did Amy just call someone beautiful?

Jon, what part of 'leave me alone' do you not understand? Get back to your experiment and concentrate! I was just congratulating myself on a beautiful three pointer.

[Prince Inigo]

Belameane was rubbing her temples with a frown. "I have not a clue. This entire thing is confusing." She laughed weakly, "Oh, how many times I wished for the opposite. It bothers me so much at night. Argh. Maybe we should stop talking about it. It's confusing the heck out of me."

"He did, did he?" she asked after sipping, her eyes wide in curiosity and slight bewilderment. "Now why would he do that? We've only met a couple of times. Nothing much to gather from that."

The girl watched as Amethyst played around with a can, kicking and then finally tossing it into a nearby trash can. Everything was confusing to her at the moment.

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

Oh, the irony.

"Don't worry," I say hastily, "I'm sure he's just too excited over meeting someone. Like I said, he usually stays in the labs all the time. I'm sure he's not trying to stalk you or anything. He talks much about his new lab partner, too. If I hear anymore he does this, he does that, I am so going to kick him out of the house one of these nights when Mother's away nursing someone and Father's at the Capitol!" I finish my smoothie and drop it into a trash bin with a light clunk. I don't tell her he's been talking about things beyond their conversations, like her hair, or whether or not she likes Ralve, or anything else he fancies.

[Prince Inigo]

Belameane rose a brow. "He makes me think he's a player of some sort, but I guess it can't be helped if he's excited over meeting people. He kind of reminds me of myself, with me staying home a lot of times and he at the labs." She was sputtering thoughts forming in her head.

Her smoothie was now nearing the quarter mark. "Both of your parents are away? Doesn't it get lonely in the house?" Big blues turned to Amethyst. "I know you still have Jon, but you said he's in the labs a lot of the times. Aren't you lonely?"

I know I would...

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

I laugh uneasily. What can I say? He's my brother, for goodness' sake! "Oh don't worry. He's definitely not that. This is a little strange, talking about my brother in that way, but I think he just wants more friends. He's surrounded by rats all day in the labs, and homework at night. It's about time he wanted more company.

"My parents are home for now, but they're often called away to various places. For Father, it's always the Capitol, where he shows the high-and-mighty the new medicines developed. They do that just about every month--send a representative up there from one of the university labs here. My mom..." I pause. Where does she go? "It depends with my mother. Sometimes she's nursing people the entire night, and sometimes she helps out at the orphanage. She spreads herself pretty far, and has done so ever since she first saw that Jon and I didn't need her anymore to survive.

"Yes, Jon's at the labs a lot, but I'm at the hospital/orphanage a lot, too. I don't get lonely. In fact, I seek company by visiting Mrs. So-and-so at the hospital and caring for these kids or those at the orphanage. As you've seen, I often take the kids out for events, so I'm far from lonely. Working with the kids makes me feel like I'm being whisked back to what childhood was supposed to be. My childhood seemed much too short, but now, it doesn't matter, because I'm living it all over again with the orphans." I glance at my friend. "You should come by and help sometime, too. They don't pay you, but it's a reward itself to be with the kids. Don't worry--the hospital is very sanitary. It has to be, or else the patients, who probably have even weaker immune systems than you, would get sick, and that'd be awful and very troublesome."

A dark cloud suddenly finds itself covering the sun, changing what was a bright and breezy spring afternoon to a hot and humid early-summer storm. The first fat droplets of warm rain that hit the back of my neck are almost disgusting. I keep my eyes to the ground and say, "Come on." I take Belameane's arm and drag her to a nearby shelter, holding my backpack up as a makeshift umbrella. So unpredictable, this weather. It's not even the refreshing, cool kind of deluge. It's a full-out hot shower. Don't need any more of those.

[Prince Inigo]

Belameane tilted her head down. "Hm... well, if he wants more company, he should just ask someone to see his lab. That would be logical, right? Then they could visit him whenever and he could have all the company he wants."

She turned to Amethyst with curious eyes. "How interesting. No wonder Jon is in the lab: his father is a medical person too. In fact, your whole family is into medical stuff. I don't even know what my mother does..." Laugh. "If you say it like that, I wonder if I should go to this hospital-orphanage. Maybe if I brought Ralve, the kids would be all over his stories. But I don't know. Some of them are sickening."

Belameane saw a drop fall onto Amethyst's back; having not registered yet, she was surprised to get dragged to a shelter. Milliseconds passed when she finally realized a downpour had begun. "Oh, this stinks. What shall we do now?"

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

Under the shelter from the rain that literally does stink, I seriously consider her suggestion."We'll just wait it out, I guess. You know, I believe that's the most logical thing I've heard for the situation. He's always so involved in his internship he doesn't really think about his social life when he's working. Also, I'm not sure about safety levels and whether or not they allow visitors whenever, but I'll bring that up with him." I open my mind to him and let him listen in on what I say. It'll keep me from having to remember and passing it along later.

Hey! That is a good idea! Wait. What did you tell Belameane? I can imagine him standing straight with all of his 6-foot something or other towering over my short five feet, his hands on his hips. I close him off from my mind, just as he begins to suspect and protest.

"Yes, we're all pretty involved in the industry of this District. We have ancestors who have lived in this area and had jobs in this field since I don't know when. Mayhaps even before Panem was formed, but I didn't say that." I shrug and glance around to see if any Peacekeepers heard me refer to the past.

"Censor a few of the stories before you two come by. The kids'll adore it--they always love having visitors. I'll give the nurses a heads-up."

[Prince Inigo]

Belameane smiled proudly. "Jon's going to have some friends, even if his science gets in the way. Well, I don't have much to complain since I do the same with books." She rose her brows with a mouth slightly agape. "Ever since before Panem? That's so far back." The girl scratched her head. "I don't even think my family can remember that far back. Seems like ages ago.

The black-haired girl smiled more fully. "I'll think about it, and I'm sure even Ralve will think about it. Then we could visit you and Jon. I'll have to talk it over with my mom; she can get so worried about me."

Friends aren't so bad...

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

I laugh. "I love how you sound so confident. Yeah, he'll have to get friends soon, or else I'll have to drag his head away from his chemicals and microscopes and get him some. What kind of books do you like to read? Jon reads mostly medical-related, with a few bits of sci-fi thrown in."

I glance out from our shelter. It's still pouring this hot wet gunk. The sky is tinted with almost a yellow-ish color. "Sure! Your mom? Is she the one that always makes you wear the masks? What of your dad? I don't hear you mention him very much."

[Prince Inigo]

Belameane laughed at Amethyst's comment about Jon. She had to wonder if siblings always acted the way Amethyst did. She finally settled herself as she was asked a question. "I like fantasies and... that's about it, actually. Fantasies. I know I've read adventure in the past, but I really love fantasies."

The girl nodded. "Yup, she's the one. Dad... hm..." She scratched the line of her face. "He's usually in his room studying. He's an analyst and part of a diagnostics team. Dad worries about me too - almost like Mom - yet I think he wanted me to go outside from time to time and talk to people. He used to say that if I stayed cooped up in my room for so long I would get sick also." Belameane shrugged.

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

"Fantasies? I should try that someday, as soon as I have the patience to sit down with a book. I used to love adventure books, so much so that I wanted to go on an adventure myself, and then Jon had to take all my books away to keep me at home. That's when I began to realize I needed to train, I think."

I have a feeling Jon would really like to meet Bean's dad. Better keep my twin away, I remind myself, or he'll trap himself up twice as much, doing whatever her dad is doing. "I see his reasoning. It's nice to get some fresh air and exercise--I think that's what keeps me from catching as many whatever contagious illnesses there are throughout the year. Say, would your mom mind much if we went out for a walk every morning or something? It's quite nice in the mornings, just warm enough, but still with a few cool breezes. We could walk a trail through the training woods, if you'd like. Or, if you're bolder still, we could--" I lower my voice and continue, "we could duck under the fence and go to the woods there." Now, I'm usually a law-abiding citizen, when the law is reasonable enough to suit me. The fence, though--well, I think the Peacekeepers know about it, but they don't say anything because those that are daring enough to sneak under the fence are also the ones that bring back the real herbs, the needed ones, that end up saving all sorts of lives, even that of the Peacekeepers. Thus, as long as we don't completely raid the forest, and as long as the Capitol doesn't hear that their precious drugs are being created from wild weeds from the untamed forest, all's well.

Personally, I think the woods are one of my favorite places to be, especially if there are too many high-and-mighty Careers in the Training Center. It's wonderful to sometimes just climb a tree and just sit up high, held by its gentle branches, rising above the issues of life and just letting the warmth of the tree and the swaying of the branches in the wind make everything alright again. I think out there, I can control my mind best. Out there, Jon can't enter.

[Prince Inigo]

The black-haired giggled. "He's considered for his sister, I suppose. Somewhat." Belameane could not get the feeling that he liked everything indoors, providing that he is in a lab almost all the time and wanted his sister to stray from embarking on a grand adventure.

She tilted her head and thought it over. "I'll ask her and Dad. I think he might persuade her somehow, since he knows more of my medical documents and can read them better than her. Of course, she'll probably agree after she says I have to wear a medical mask all the time, or something." Her voice got to a low whisper. "I've been to the woods quite a few times already. Aren't I bad? I'd probably ask them if I could be outdoors, but not specify 'where' outdoors."

Belameane sighed deeply.

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

"Sure. Don't worry. Even after he took away the books, I still meant to go on an adventure; there are just more, stronger things than Jon keeping me at home, such as the Capitol. As much as I dislike the Capitol, my running off on a big adventure won't cause anything but trouble. It's definitely not the right way to make my point."

I shrug. It's worth a try. As nice and peaceful the woods are, sometimes it's nice to explore with a friend. Friend. I realize that that's what Belameane has truly become. In fact, she might be my first true friend. The others--well, they're acquaintances I know from school that just befriend me so they can ask me questions on homework easier.

I sense Jon trying to enter again, to make some remark about how I always get the friends and all he gets are lab rats, but I shut him out just in time. Sorry, big guy.

"It's a good first step, I suppose. Why wear a mask all the time, though? Fresh air is at its best in the woods. Ooh--have you seen the waterfall? There's a small but really pretty one, deep in the woods. If you follow the path and then veer to the right... you can't really hear it until you're pretty close to it, so not that many people know about it." In fact, the only other living creature I saw there when I've visited was that fawn that went for a drink of water.

[Prince Inigo]

"I wouldn't if I could; Mom keeps fretting about my immunity. I sometimes take it off when she's not looking because I don't like it... but I also don't like getting sick." Belameane sighed deeply.

Blue orbs turned to Amethyst. She grew slightly curious. A waterfall, you say?" A ladylike smile creased. "I haven't seen a waterfall. I don't venture too deep." Blink. "Is this an offer to see it? I would hope it's beautiful and not dirty at all."

Would he have seen it? Does he even go out into the forest?

[-xXInverted FlyingJennyXx-]

Amethyst

"Well, if you think it helps..." I shrug. From my experience working with the nurses, I don't remember ever using a mask on the patients. It's usually the doctors that use them to protect the patients.

I get an idea. "Hey, do you want to go now?" I whisper excitedly. "Would it be okay with your mom? We can drop off our backpacks at home and just sneak through the fence right now--and don't worry. It's probably one of the cleanest places in the District. The water's clear, the spray is cool--it's amazing!"