Well, this is awkward... (Tyler & Ariana)

Tyler nodded in agreement. At least they seem to be getting along now, he thought to himself, as he munched an apple slice. "Do you two want any?" he asked them, nodding to the slices. Sure it was seemed lame, but he couldn't help but feel awkward as the only one eating during lunch time.

As a force of habit, Wren's brain went straight to trading. "If you give me a slice, I'll give you three walnuts!"[/color] she said, flirtatiously. It was naturally for her to behave this way and didn't see anything wrong with it. It was a little bit more difficult acting this way with a boy she actually liked though because she cared what he thought of her in a long term way. He wasn't just someone she could manipulate to get what she wanted or for entertainment. It was going out on a limb for her but she didn't let herself become uncomfortable and had fun. After all, she had a lot to be thankfully for. She lived in one of the better districts and dodged the Reaping one more year.

Tyler gave a flirtatious smile to Wren, and purposely nudged his foot into hers under the table as he was about to answer her, but was then cut short bu Ariana, "Oh what? Uh, sure I guess so we could," Tyler said awkwardly, but attempting to sound nice.

But: Isn't that a little rude to not invite Wren? - is what he really thought.

After he gave his response to Ariana, he quickly pivoted back to Wren, and told her softly, "Don't worry Wren, you've already given me enough," and lightly patted the bulge in his side pocket, the wooden bird craving Wren had given him, and then proceeded to shove an apple slice into her mouth, "Now eat it!" he laughed.

When Tyler nudged her foot, she eyed him flirtatiously and let a playfully giggle escape her lips. She reciprocated by nudging him back. him back. He signaled to the whittled little bird she had given him as a token in case he got Reaped and she remembered hers. It was in the tiny pocket in her jeans. He had given her a black stone with drawing on it reminding her of the impromptu and romantic story he had told her on the day they first met. She pulled the stone out and held it in clenched fist, only separating her fingers enough for him to know what it was.

Just then, the pale girl said goodbye, looking quite choked up, tears threatening to spill from her bright eyes. Wren gave her look of disbelief and almost pity. "Bye, then...,"[/color] Wren said to her. And then when Ariana left, she turned to Tyler and asked, "Seriously, what is that girl's problem?"[/color]

To Wren, the girl was being extremely overdramatic and completely ridiculous. It took a lot of effort for her to suppress some sort of laugh or grin. Growing up, Wren never cried, except maybe when her Ma had died. But when she fell down, a kid was mean to her, she didn't get what she wanted, was hungry; she didn't cry. Her Pa taught her to be stronger than that. Why wasn't this girl?

It gave her a twinge of annoyance to be called stiff to the girl. To be fair, the girl came completely out of nowhere and interrupted a perfectly nice lunch and then got all huffy and flipped out. Could Wren help but not be overly friendly with the girl. She hadn't exactly been rational or nice herself. Obviously, she went out of her way being contemptuous and brat-like. Wren had no time or patience for people like that. Besides, Wren was always better at interacting with boys instead of girls. That was just how she was. She was better at socializing with them, talking to them, relating with them and she even got to flirt with them which was one of her favorite things. She couldn't flirt with girls. To her, boys always held much more interesting in socialization. It took a lot more effort to tolerate and befriend girls to her.

Wren shrugged and said, "Dunno. She seems kinda off-the-wall about things. You'd think she'd be upset if a butterfly landed on her. And I wasn't trying to be stiff. It was just awkward how she came up to us out of nowhere and then was shoving her pictures in my face and accusing me and falling all over you. It was just... an awkward situation, wasn't it?"[/color] Her cheeks flushed a bit after mentioning Ariana falling all over him. Did she just say that? Now he was going to think she liked him! But didn't he like her already? Yes, she was sure of that. She knew when a boy liked her. But was she ready to like him back? Or at least let him know it. That she didn't know for sure.

She cleared her throat in attempt to cover it up and changed the subject. "So, I hear they're giving another lecture on 'The History of Panem'," [/color]she said, putting sarcastic emphasis on the name of the lecture. "This should probably last until the Games start. And then we get the fortunance of watching that instead of learning something useful."[/color] The sarcasm was in the entire sentence that time. Honestly, the Games did teach them something useful. It taught them how to survive in the Games but did anyone want to watch it? No. And she was as mad about the Games as most of Panem was.

"Yup,"[/color] she said desolately and plainly. It was hard not to accept it. When people are oppressed for a certain amount of time, they begin to accept it and that's what the citizens of the districts of Panem were beginning to do. "Like the Games don't enforce that enough."[/color] She thought about a lot of things. Her father was a simple man, not too bright but he did know a thing or two about the immorality that was the Capitol. Back before Wren could remember, her Ma, Greta, would repremend her Pa, Brutus, for saying such things. She worried Wren would repeat it. After her Ma died, her Pa had no one to filter his thoughts and they absorbed into Wren's young mind like a sponge. Her opinions were strong but she didn't have anyway of putting them to use so she kept her mouth shut to stay under the radar.

Somehow, her impecable gift of blurting things out came in to play at that moment and she said, "Do you ever think there's more outside of the Districts? Do you think people escape and survive?" It was a stupid question. Of course not. That wasn't even possible but maybe... No, she decided to herself before he even answered. That was impossible, for sure.

Doing a double take, Wren gave him a wry look. "You've thought of this before."[/COLOR] She didn't ask him or yell it at him. Her words were matter-of-fact but had a slight raise at the end in tone to imply her desparation for explanation. Obviously Wren had thought about things like this before. After all, her newest nickname was 'Rebel Wren' but Tyler was such a rule follower. It wasn't something she could picture him thinking about or inwardly planning out like her. She knew she never planned on using the ideas but she could play 'what-if', right? But Tyler... he didn't seem the type. Maybe she had misjudged him in that way. Maybe he had some rebel in him too.