A New Friend (Naya)

[DiDi Is A Ninja]

<sub>The trees were so beautiful, even in the winter. Snow piles onto the branches and makes them wet and damp. While many are at home, sitting by the fire, Ardis Leslie Copse walks outside barefoot with a sweater and jeans on. The girl looks around, admiring the beautiful trees. She remembers her past with these same trees.

Ardis pictures her mother before her father and Mike were killed. Happy, smiling and bright.

Mrs. Copse took Ardis outside one day to pick berries. They sat in the middle of the forest while Mrs. Copse told stories of Panem. She stroked Ardis's hair and said soothingly, "Huzzah, Huzzah."

Ardis started laughing. "Mama, you're so silly!" she chimed. "No, my dear mermaid. When all is not okay, let this word cheer you up. Make you giggle."

The girl looked up at the sky. How strange. The word does not appear so silly anymore. Kind of, oh, ancient and important. Ardis now thinks of this word as not funny, exactly, but soothing. She can hear her mother's voice. "Huzzah, Huzzah." The memories, that seem so silly and unsophisticated that they are worth forgetting.

So Ardis climbs a nearby willow and sits on a branch. "Ow!" Ardis yelps. A branch is stuck in her hair and she struggles to take it out. When she does, she decides to climb higher.

And higher.

And higher.

Crack.

The branch Ardis has stepped on falls, and she almost follows it. She climbs even higher, looking for a sturdy branch to sit on. She steps on a nearby branch, and--

Crack.

Ardis falls, down, down, down. The wind seems to try to push her up. No use, Ardis is falling. Falling, falling, falling. It shouldn't be that big.

Next thing that Ardis sees is total blackness.

OOC: I know, I'm not all good at starting threads.</sub>

[Naya]

As of now, Alta was wondering aimlessly around the forest, just looking at the plain, beautiful mystic beauty. The light snow covering the trees made it even more pretty. Alta just liked to walk around and enjoy the scenery, by herself, of course. Sometimes one of her friends would probably sneak up on her and scare her, but hopefully not today. She wanted a day to herself. To get away from her mother, father, and the rest of her crazy family. She wished that her much older brother was still around. He helped her through all the hard times, and even encouraged her to go on with her one fear, heights. Since her brother died, she gained 2 more fears. The fear of injury and the fear of time.

Alta heard a small crack. She looked around the forest, alarmed and alerted, like a predator ready to attack. Another crack. Her natural born leadership instincts told her to find out what the source of the noise was, so she looked up, down, and all around. Nothing. She looked up to the branches of the large trees one more time, when she saw something crashing towards her. She shielded her face with her arms, but it was too late. Followed by a bang, she was flat on the ground, with a branch and a girl laying on top of her. Blacking out, and then waking up in a 7 year old girls body..

"Alli-ta, please get me the bandage." Her mother ordered, the small, frail tiny girl rushed towards the cabinet and got the bandage. She danced across the kitchen floor, completely unaware of what was happening. "Mummy, what do you need the bandage for?" The curious, tiny, blonde girl asked her much older mother. She carefully walked to the counter, where her mother was wrapping something in the bandage. She stood on her tip-toes. "No, Alta, don't look." But it was too late, the damage was already done. Alta saw the lash marks across her sleeping brothers body. The tiny girl ran away, screaming.

The now 17 Alta woke up, in a screaming fit. She was unaware of what was happening, but was bawling her light brown eyes out. The noisy girl tried looking up at her back, and could only see the figure of a sleeping girl right on her back. She wiggled herself out of the dog pile and looked at the girl. Tears were still streaming down Alta's cheek. Afraid if she moved her body too much, it would be in pain, the blonde girl examined the girl's body who was still lying on the tree branch. She put two fingers up to the girl's pulse, and noticed it was still going. "H-hello?" She waved an arm in front of the girl's face, even though it wouldn't effect her. "Wake up! She shook the girl. "P-please... A tear streamed down Alta's face. She didn't want to witness another death. Her brother's, alone, was enough for her entire life.

CREDIT SAM !? of Confronting the Faceless. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore

[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[DiDi Is A Ninja]

<sub>"Huzz, Huzz." were Ardis's first words when her eyes blinked open. It is followed by a huge moan. Her pitch-black hair is all tangled and she has a new scratch on her back. Was someone talking to her?

"Mother?" Ardis yelps. The girl looked so much like her mother, but so young, about Ardis's age. No, this is not her mother, unless Ardis is dreaming her last dream before she drifts off into heaven.

Ardis feels no pain. She is real dizzy, though, eyes blinking and hands shivering. Is this what it was like to be dead? Was the girl an angel?

Ardis stares at this girl for a while. She looked so normal. Maybe she saved Ardis's life. Maybe she was one of those ax murderers or lunatics who had chomped off the branch of the willow on purpose.

But she couldn't be. The girl looks so innocent. Maybe... no.

That's what you get for climbing a tree without any purpose. Your head is swirling with all of this nonsense and you can't stop it.

"I'm sorry, hello?" Ardis mumbles. There is no telling what kind of injuries Ardis has suffered. But she feels no pain. Just dizziness. Pure, pure dizziness.

Suddenly, Ardis feels a sudden urge to run away. Pretend nothing happened. Tell mother that she was sitting on the stump of the tree that killed father. Stand in the same spot where Emerald fell in love with Elizabeth Martin. Skip stones at the river where Mike and Kyle used to play.

So what now? Ardis can just sit here and stare into the girl's eyes or trudge off into the forest and pretend nothing happened. The whole thing was her feeble attempt to climb the top of the tree and stare into the skies of District 7. Nothing more than that. But Ardis sits there. She stares into the girl's eyes.

Running away won't do any good, would it?</sub>

[Naya]

Alta sighed in relief as the girl made said something, she wasn't sure what, and made a large groaning noise. Her eyes fluttered open. "Thank god..." Alta said to herself, looking at the girl. "You OK?" Alta asked, and stifled a small laugh when she called Alta her mother. She thought of what to say... maybe calm her down? No, she doesn't seem freaking out and in shock right now. Tell her you're not going to hurt her? Nah. Alta noticed that the girl had long, straight, jet black hair. Her eyes were hazel, kind of like hers. She looked about Alta's height, maybe a bit shorter. Not to mention skinny, like the most of District 7.

Alta slowly and steadily moved the large branch off of her, and heard her say something loudly. She was asking 'what', but Alta really didn't know what 'what' meant in her case. Alta just pointed to the branch of the large weeping willow tree that just fell on top of her. The fact that she had a fear of injury didn't help the fact that she got trampled by a large branch. She looked around just in case anybody was watching, although nobody would be in this part of the forest. "I'm n-not going to hurt you."

CREDIT SAM !? of Confronting the Faceless. LYRICS brick by boring brick - paramore

[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[DiDi Is A Ninja]

^{Ardis smiles when the girl speaks. Not her mother. She had straight blonde hair and her eyes where like Ardis's, hazel, but so much less cat-like. The girl was a younger version of her mother. And a female Emerald. Kyle, Mike and Ardis were always on their dad's side of the family, jet-black hair, cat-like hazel eyes.}

"Why would you hurt me? You seem more like a healer kind of person." says A, laughing a bit. She sits up, her knees touching the girl's chest for a moment but quickly jump under Ardis's bottom. "I'm fine. And Ardis. I mean, my name is Ardis. Ardis Leslie Copse. Erm, and what's your name?"

Talking to this girl made Ardis feel a bit safer. She wasn't like the other people in the District, the ones to shake you and start to panic and scream for help when not necessary. But the girl was different. Calmer. Easier to talk to.

When Ardis finally notices the girl's pointing hand, she makes a small 'o' with her lips and lets out an "Oh....." Her lips jump from a 'o' expression to a half-smile.

This girl was nice. Ardis wanted to blurt out "Huzzah, Huzzah" but she didn't. It seemed like an idiotic thing to do at this time.

Ardis never picks the right time for anything.[/sup][/color]

[Naya]

“H-healer?” She repeats as she coughs, trying to hide her stutter (even though that probably wouldn’t distract her, Alta was always ashamed of her stutter). Alta always stuttered around people she didn’t trust, but she trusted this girl. She didn’t know why. “I’m not a healer…” She lightly caressed the pain on her back. Exactly why she was afraid of heights. And injury. Even though it was only going to leave a bruise the next morning.

“Hey, Desty!” Alta ran towards her older brother who towered over him. “Desty, Desty, I want to go on those.” She looked to her right and pointed her chubby finger towards the ‘monkey bars’. “Ok, Alli-ta,” The much taller boy lifted up the girl with the long, blonde hair and reached her up to the bars. She tightened her grasp onto the bars and laughed. “Destin…” She heard a feminine voice call her brother’s name. Destin looked over, and there was his girlfriend (at the time) Lena. Destin let go of Alta, and walked over the tall red-headed girl. “Desty!” She called, as she felt her hands sweat and slip off the bars. “Desty!” Screaming, she fell down and onto the ground, calling Destin’s named while she cried.

“O-oh…” Alta turned her attention back to Ardis, as she introduced, and said. “Alta… Alta Murphy.” She offered a hand, and expected her to shake it.

Alta thought more of the times that scarred her life, and impacted it. Forever. If she wasn’t so emotional, maybe she wouldn’t have the fear of heights. Or time. Or injury. But, Alta was Alta, and she couldn’t do a single thing about it. Nothing.

[DiDi Is A Ninja]

She's not a healer? That's a surprise to Ardis.

"Oh," says A, and she stares at the girl more. She was stuttering. was she scared of Ardis? That was impossible.

"Alta.....Alta Murphy," the girl says. Alta. That was a pretty name. Alta offered her hand. She's polite, too, Ardis thought.

And so Ardis took her hand and shook it. She stands up, and tries to make Alta rise with her. "Um, hi." was all Ardis can say.

Ardis then had an unexpected flashback.


Ardis raced through the garden, laughing and picking flowers. Little did she know she was the only one with a smile on her face. "When is Mikey going to come home from the Hugger Games? Is he having fun?" young Ardis asks. Emerald, who was sitting beside Ardis, clenched his fists. Kyle sits inside, swaying from side to side while Mother weeps and Father tries to hide his tears by covering his face with a newspaper. "He's not coming back, mermaid." says Emerald. "He's not coming back at all." "Why?" asks curious Ardis. And there are no more words. Just a big, sweaty hug from Kyle.

The so-called mermaid recovers, and she kicks at the dirt. This is the most common, yet least liked, flashback.

Flashbacks. That's all she'll ever have.

[Naya]

-------------------------------------------------

Give me a second, I
I need to get my story straight
My friends are in the bathroom
Getting higher then the empire state

“Oh.” Says the girl, who’s name was Ardis. Ardis sounded like a familiar name. Maybe they teamed up together on a project at school? Or maybe they just had a lot of classes together. What ever it was, she seemed to remember her from some where, some how, some day. The girl took Alta’s hand and let her rise up with her. Alta let her, and as they raised she took advantage of that opportunity to examine Ardis’ features, finally stopped calling Ardis ‘the girl’. She was pretty, Alta told herself. Jet black hair… she looked a lot less ‘girly’ then Alta did, or at least standing next to her. Alta had beach blonde hair that flowed down to her chest. Alta was one of the few people in District 7 to have hair as light and blonde as hers did. She could find a couple of people with dirty blonde hair, but never as light as hers.

“Um, hi.” She heard Ardis say, almost whispered, as soon as they were up the full way. “Hi…” Alta awkwardly replied back, letting go of Ardis’ hand, and placing her own hand by her side. She looked up at the tree that Ardis feel down of. That was exactly why she was afraid of heights. Because, well, that could happen. “I have a fear of heights.” She randomly said, pointing up to the tree Ardis was in like a child.

Even though she was just pulled up, she sat down by a log on the ground, resting her chin in a cupped hand. “So… Ardis.” She said. “Tell me a bit about yourself.” She said, very curious of what life Ardis had. She seemed like a somewhat fun person. She was in need of a new friend. Even though, she had a group of loyal friends that would never turn their backs on her.

But still. You couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a new friend. Not never, in your whole life.

[/size]

[DiDi Is A Ninja]

^{Don't judge a man
until you've walked two moons
in his moccasins.}

---

^{Ardis liked Alta's name. It was so smooth and simple and plain, how the girl appeared to be. Now that Ardis had studied her more closely, she noticed she had straight, light blonde hair and eyes that looked like brown olives.}

"Hi..." Alta Murphy muttered awkwardly, and Ardis couldn't find anything to say. Maybe, um, ask her to walk? Or maybe just tell her a little bit about herself? Ardis just stared, and hoped that Alta would add something.

And she did. Alta Murphy pointed to the tree Ardis had fallen out of. "I have a fear of heights." A District 7 girl who is afraid of heights? Ardis couldn't believe it. What to say? "Oh." Oh. That's what Ardis says?

Ardis looks down and started swaying. She bit her lip. "So... Ardis. Tell me a bit about yourself." Alta said suddenly.

About herself? "Um.... I live in District 7..." Of course she knows I live in District 7, you idiot Ardis thought. "I live with my brother and mother. My brother was killed in the Games and my father was hit by a tree. I like the woods. My favorite color is blue. My family calls me a mermaid for some reason. My favorite tree is the willow at the entrance of the forest, where I used to play. I fear... mice."

Ardis stares into Alta's eyes, waiting for a response. Should Ardis ask Alta about her life? She should. "What about you? Can you tell me something?" Ardis had asked.

Then, the mermaid did something weird. She took Alta's hand. She squeezed it.

There are somethings that we regret in life. What Ardis did what not one of them.

[/sup][/color][/center]