Magnificent ~ Steffenee & Sarella

Iris had been walking to pick up her daughter from daycare after she got off work. She wanted to stop and get her a new outfit for the spring that was fast approaching even though it was still cold. She wasn’t paying attention and was rubbing her face with her hands and thinking. She didn’t like what her life had come to. She didn’t like having to take care of her daughter on her own with no one to rely on. It was hard for her to handle being alone and an adult raising a child at the age of eighteen. It was nearly impossible and most people would have doomed their child to a life in a group home. She wouldn’t be able to do that. What if she saw her daughter again. It’s not that that thought had never crossed her mind, because it had crossed it more than once. She just didn’t give up easily.

She sometimes still hoped in her own secret desire that Nick would come back and save her from all this fear and regret and hatred of the world. She wished that he would come back and make it so that in her will it didn’t say that her daughter would go to the best adoptive family they could find for her or the group home and that her money would not be touched unless she was eighteen. She didn’t want to worry about if she was called up for the games in her last year that she would need to leave her daughter here unprotected, without a family. If Nick was here she wouldn’t worry as much, he wouldn’t be called up for the games because he was illegal he was a wonderer and if she was picked he could take their daughter away, far away from here, that way she wouldn’t have to worry about the capitol getting her hands on her daughter and her daughter would be safe.

While she was rounding a corner she was ran into and almost knocked over by a small girl that she caught before she hit the ground. She looked down at the small girl that almost reminded her of her daughter in the way that she looked sweet and innocent but she does know the pain of not having what she wished for on every birthday. She looked down at the little girl with sympathetic eyes. ”Are you okay?” She asked her as she looked down at her. She wasn’t sure what exactly happened and why the girl had run into her or why she had run into the girl, whatever way it was. She didn’t like the fact that a child was out on the streets alone anyway.

Iris looked down at the girl who looked at her before down seeming shyer then she figured a girl of her age should be. She smiled at her when she introduced herself. She didn’t know what to say to the small girl after she introduced herself. She ran her fingers through her curly hair before smiling and introducing herself. ”I’m Iris” She said before looking at the girl once more, she didn’t look like a street kid, she had seen enough of those to understand what they looked like and how she needed to avoid them otherwise she would take them home when she didn’t have nearly enough money to take care of another child.

”What are you doing out here?” She asked her before looking around for the girl’s parents and biting her lip. ”Where are your parents?” She asked the girl looking back to her hoping she would give her the answer because it seemed like she was out here on her own and that meant she either ran away or her parents just didn’t care, neither was the solution to the problem of the young girl standing in front of her.

She saw her expression and knew that was the wrong question to ask the young girl, but she didn’t have a choice, she knew nothing about this girl who was out wandering in the streets alone without any parents. She heard the girl’s story about her parents and she felt bad for her and smiled at her some though it was sad. She knew what it was like to not have any parents; she knew what it was like when you didn’t know what happened to them. She didn’t know this particular incident though, she knew that her dad lived just on the other side of the square in the slums and she knew that her mom had died in child birth, but she also knew what it was like to raise yourself and get almost no help from the one parent you had. She knew what it was like to not have your parents there for you, which is what the girl was probably going though.

She looked at the girl when she asked why she would care about her. She assumed she was just getting defensive with a stranger she had never met before and was asking all the crazy questions about what was going on in her life, she didn’t want the girl to be freaked out so she figured she had better explain herself. ”Because” She started ”I don’t want you out wandering these streets on your own by the time night comes around and I don’t want someone to find you half starved to death in the morning if you have no one to stay with. Are you staying with anyone here?” She asked her seriously, she was already getting too attached to the girl for her own good. What if the girl wasn’t staying anywhere and was a homeless orphan. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself from taking the young girl into her home, even if it was just to sleep on the mattress on the floor. It was hard for her to think about taking care of another child. Lilly looked like she was clean and well fed though so she hoped that she was staying somewhere so she wouldn’t feel bad if she just had to walk away and leave the poor girl there on her own.

She looked at the little girl as she told her where she lived and then she started crying. Iris looked down at her and sighed wanting to hug her but knowing she probably didn't want to be hugged. She just waited for her to say something else and then try to decide what she should do about it. If she was in the foster care system with Panem then there wasn't anything she could really do to help this girl. She would adopt her if she could, but she could barely support herself and two year old, adding another child into the mix would not be a good idea. She stood there looking down at her trying to decide what she could do to help her, because she obviously wasn't happy at the house she was at now.

"I live over on the left side of the square with my daughter" She replied honestly. She wasn't sure how old she looked to this girl and she wasn't sure what she would say to her about having a daughter. Maybe she wouldn't believe her about her, or maybe she would yell and scream and run away. Over-emotional almost-preteens were not her speciality. She was having a hard time thinking what to do with her and wished she would stop having mood swings. "Do you want me to take you home and talk to your parents with you?"

"I'd love that, but good luck getting within three houses of them."

Iris looked down at the little eight year old and thought about what she had said. She didn't believe that her parents were that cruel, especially if she was bring home their daughter who she had found out roaming the streets quite a ways from home. She sighed some and knelt down some so she was at her height. "I promise I will help you talk to them no matter what okay? I'm sure they are not as bad as you think" She said looking at her. She didn't want this girl to hate her parents, because she obviously had pretty good adoptive parents. She wasn't going to grow up how she had grown up with an abusive father, and she wasn't going to grow up how her daughter was without a father. She didn't want this girl to think that she had it really really bad.

"Do you really have a daughter?"

She smiled some and nodded. "Yes I really have a daughter, that I need to pick up. If you will walk with me after we get her we can go talk to your parents okay?"

Iris walked with the young girl in silence. She didn't know what to say to the girl or what to talk to her about. She was going to help her talk to her parents in hopes they would actually listen to the eight year old. She knows adults don't always listen to children and children don't always listen to adults, she hoped that being a mother she would be able to sit there and hear both sides and both sides would listen to her. She ran her fingers through her hair and pulled her bag higher on her shoulder. Finally they reached the small daycare not far from her house and she went in. She signed her daughter out and paid the every lasting bill at the daycare before looking over at the two year olds waiting for her daughter to realize she was here.

"So which one is your daughter?"

She smiled and pointed to a little girl with blonde hair and brown eyes. "That's her. She's almost two." Charlotte saw her mommy with another little girl and she ran over "mommy!"