Nixie Summers | District Four {FIN}
May 1, 2017 12:10:22 GMT -5
Post by kap on May 1, 2017 12:10:22 GMT -5
Nixie Summers
District Four
Age
Female
“Nixie!” my mother’s harsh tone came from the other room. It was the tone she used when I’d done something wrong; she was scolding me. Clearly, trying to swipe a piece of Marina’s jewelry from her jewelry box and put it out of reach had gotten me noticed. It was difficult to do things when messing around with my sister that wouldn’t get me caught at this point in my life. I remember when my parents used to think that I was innocent, up until the day they caught me snipping all of Marina’s hair ties with a pair of scissors. That certainly didn’t go over well, as they weren’t very happy with me. I was only seven at the time, but no one ended up happy by the end of it. Now, I’ve learned that if I’m going to do something I’m not supposed to, damaging property is not a good idea.
“Nixie! Get over here, now!” she shouted again. Reluctantly, I rose to my feet and shuffled over to where the voice emanated from. My mother was standing in the doorway, her arms crossed, and Marina was standing next to her with a scowl on her face, directed at me. I wouldn’t let it be obvious that I was upset about being caught. In the past, when I did that, my parents wouldn’t show any sympathy. Therefore, I didn’t find it worth it. Instead, a grin appeared on my face when I approached the older females of the household. I looked at them for a moment with this expression on my face, until I heard a canine whine. Our dog, Emma, was cowering in the corner of the room, certainly not happy with my mother’s rage-filled voice. My smile faded when I saw that, as I hated when Emma was upset. That was the one individual that I felt guilt in bothering. In the past, before we got Emma, it was a lot harder to get me to stop yelling, as I didn’t have to worry about scaring anyone.
My voice was quiet, and I apologized with a polite tone while looking down at my feet in what appeared to be embarassment. I wasn’t even sure myself if that was a genuine apology or not, but when I looked up, I could tell that Marina and my mother didn’t seem to think so. My mother’s arms were still crossed, and Marina still appeared quite irritated. It took a moment of looking at them while faking a guilty expression, but eventually, they seemed calm again. Marina no longer had quite as harsh of a look on her face, and my mother had uncrossed her arms before speaking to me.
“Not that you should ever be doing these kinds of things to anyone, Nixie, but you especially shouldn’t be doing them to your sister with what she’s going through at the moment. Please, go back to your room and stay there until dinner. You are not to come out until then,” she told me sternly. Suddenly, I felt guilt. It was actual, real, true guilt this time. Marina was going through a lot, having lost her best friend, Chloriphina Sills, to the 75th Hunger Games, and now I was just making things worse by making her deal with me. I nodded slowly, and went back to my bedroom, latching the door behind me.
“Excellent, Nixie!” Mrs. Polish praised me as I answered a difficult question correctly. I had been the only one in my class to raise my hand. I’d always been school smart, and was rather well behaved in public, even if my parents saw a more devious side of me at home. When I smiled, my pearly white teeth showed, and I pushed my shoulder-length brown hair out of my face. It always felt good to be praised. Though, I still liked being mischievous, so perhaps that’s why I behaved in public, but not at home. That way, I could get both ways of experiencing life.
“Would you mind helping Jessica?” I was asked. My dark brown eyes looked in the teacher’s direction when this was requested of me, and I told her I’d help my fellow student. She thanked me, and I went over to the girl named Jessica to assist her. Jessica made quite a bit of progress when I helped her, and seemed very grateful for it, in the end, as she thanked me. It didn’t take long after we had finished that the bell rang to end the day, I gathered my bag, and went to leave the classroom. Mrs. Polish stopped me, however, and said she wanted to speak to me.
Immediately, I told her I would stay, although, panicked thoughts were running through my mind. Had she heard about how I behaved at home? Was I going to get in trouble? Surely that couldn’t be the case! As the other students emptied out of the room, my heart was pounding quickly. The hair on my skinny, somewhat too hairy arms was standing up as if I were scared, though if anything, I was more nervous than frightened. Regardless of how nervous I was, though, I went over to Mrs. Polish to see what she wanted to speak to me about.
“You’ve done a great job today,” she informed me. Immediately, my mind and body relaxed. I wasn’t going to be getting in trouble. No, she was praising me instead. “I want you to keep doing as well as you have been, okay?” she said to me. I nodded. “Excellent. Now, have a great afternoon, okay, Nixie?”
I nodded again when she said this to me, and told her to have a great afternoon as well before making my way out of the door of the classroom. It felt good to be held in the classroom after the other students left when it was for a positive reason. Then again, I’d never been held after the others’ departure for a negative reason before. Hopefully, it would stay that way. I then headed down the sidewalk with my unevenly sized feet thudding against the pavement.
