Arika Rathbone D2 (DONE)

Flowers bloom at different times with different colors, patterns, and shapes. Some flowers wilt before they even get the chance to bloom, their death forgotten by the wind and the earth. They were all like the flowers. Some ready to bloom, bringing beauty to the world. Others ready to wilt, saying goodbye to the beautiful world that they had created. They were all like the flowers growing, blooming, and dying. A world that they created, but all she could see were the flowers that had once been there. Dead and broken like she'll become.

She had only been five when she saw her first flower. The radiant yellow and the brown middle that attracted buzzing bugs always caught her brown eyes. A smile on her face as she shouts in glee to her mother. "Mommy! Pretty flower!" The lips of her mother rise in happiness, something that she could barely remember seeing. How she wished she could see that smile once more, but in the end, that could never happen. Her mother's voice singed into her ears, lightly tickling her. "That's a sunflower, honey. Their seeds are edible. Want to try one, Airy?" As she nodded her head in agreement, they ran off to the market where Arika tried her first sunflower seeds and repeatedly asked for more since then.

She had only been six when she received her first flower as a gift. The purple petals of a violet stare back at her, as the words Happy Birthday were labelled upon the pot. The little girl shrieked in joy as her mother hugged her. Everything was perfect that day. The purple violet that stared at her from her room. That day was one of her favorites for so long. The purple flower was taken care of with special care everyday since she received it. It only grew and grew, more flowers sprouting upon the stem. They put it out on the front yard where it grew and shined with the weather. It had only been a month before the violets were ruined.

A man who she couldn't recognize at all stood, admiring the violets. Talking to himself about something. Little Arika watching from the window as the man began to move towards the flowers. The one thing she was proud of since she had seen the beauty of flowers was being admired. That was what she had thought the man was doing, instead she watched him inch closer to her creation. The knife in his hand barely noticeable, until Arika watched him tear her most precious creation apart. Tears welling her eyes as she screams for her mother. "M-Mom!"

At the time, she didn't know what she had done. Never once did it cross her mind that her mother would confront the man tearing up her flowers. The two screamed at each other. All young Arika wanted to do was hide away and wait for her mother to come inside and tell her everything was going to be okay. Arms wrapped around each other, a smile upon their faces as she would tickle Arika into joy. That wasn't what happened. Arika sat at the window watching as the man turned the knife on her mother. Terrified in every way, the world was collapsing around the young girl, Arika. That day the flowers wilted and died. Screams echoing around the home as she watched her mother get cut open. Tears filling her eyes like the petals falling into her mother. Purple turning a shade of red, until they became one. The peacekeepers were too late, nice men and women asking her questions, but she only sat in silence as they covered her mother. Purple petals lying on the ground, the only reminder of the scene that was there.

That had been the past. There was still so much more for her to experience in life. That day changed who she was forever. The grief she felt for her mother grew within her heart. Silence became her best friend at the orphanage that they took her to. All she would do at the orphanage was hide away from the other children. Eat, sleep, and live. Her heart that once felt full of love was empty. The world around her collapsing at such a young age, that she learned what true sadness was. All she wanted was to not have been weak. She regrets not being strong enough to stop her mother or to have stopped the man herself. All she wanted was to receive her thorns.

The first time she had received a rose was at the age of nine. A family that had been nice wanted to foster her before they decided if they wanted her. They fostered her for a year before the rose. Arika knew they didn't want her. She was too quiet, locked up in her own issues. The family knew of the incident, keeping it out of conversations and minds. The home didn't feel like the home she had wanted and had before. All she wanted was to get stronger. Strong enough that she could have been able to do something. Stop her mother from leaving the home. Strong enough to take the man on herself. All she wanted was to get it out of her head, but she couldn't. The family was kind to her, but it wasn't her family.

Their son always tried to talk to her. He was kind for an older kid, unlike the ones at the orphanage who used to laugh at her. Something about the way he acted towards her made her feel wanted in the family. Only a year older than herself, he would smile at her and try to converse with her. She never spoke a word once. Only silence as she would stare at him and wish she could be happy like him. Every day, he would try to speak to her, but she'd only watch him as he huffed in frustration. That had been until he surprised her.

"Arika!"

His toothy smile rises as she stops and pays attention to him. A hand behind his back as she watches him look at her. Expecting a reply from her was inevitable, but he gave up when she coughed slightly. More words came out of his toothy smile. Words that set her off. Hands scrunching up as she heard him speak of flowers. The last thing she wanted to hear coming from anyones lips at the time. "I know you like flowers, so I thought I would get you one. I hope it means alot to you. It means alot to me. Ma says you're supposed to give them to people you like. I like you." His hand comes forward as the red of the rose shines in her reach. Tears fall from Arika's eyes as she feels herself becoming sad and angry at the same time. Fists scrunched up at her sides. She reaches for the rose. Eyes studying it carefully before she drops it. The red petals falling softly as he foot crunches the flower. A fist colliding with the boy's face as she runs off to her room. She was taken back to the orphanage the next day.

Once she got back to the orphanage, that's when her heart was set on becoming stronger for herself, so no one can hurt her again. The start of it came from watching flowers bloom. Learning how to face the objects that tick her off became the first thing she would accomplish in facing. Flowers were put in her room at the orphanage. Her steady hands taking care of them every day that she could. This was the start of how Arika would become Arika Rathbone. The flowers in her room becoming a sign of the change within herself changing. Days at the orphanage turned into years. Fist fights and crushes became new interests. Fist fights broke out over the simplest of things in the orphanage. Crushes that happened and died became her life, but she only grew stronger from every failure. Weakness wasn't a part of the flower that was blooming in her heart.

Resorting to fists and harsh words were what fell into her daily life. Fighting girls, guys, or anyone who wanted a fight became her way of growing stronger. Girls within the orphanage knew her name. Fear or praise flowing in their heads as they saw her. She was only twelve when she was taken in by the Rathbones. It took only a few signatures for her to become Arika Rathbone. A girl who was stronger than what she had been in the past. A girl who could grow into a fighter like she dreamed of becoming. Strong like the flowers that she raised on her own.

They accepted her in like a child of their own. For once in her life, she felt apart of something more than just a girl who could fight and liked flowers. Thorns growing within her as she grew into a fighter that she wanted to become. Career training became her life for the rest of the time she is apart of the family. Weapons, skills, and her own fists becoming second nature to her. Treated as an individual and a child of their own, Arika enjoyed life with the Rathbones. Opening up to her siblings, she allowed them into her heart. The gentle natured Arika that once had been locked up was coming alive again. The anger of the families that had wanted to see her and how she behaves, then giving her up vanish at the thought of the Rathbones. For once, she feels like she has a home that she can bloom in. Her flower's petals shining brightly as she grows into a person she could be proud of.

Dark brown hair, wavy in looks, lays on her back as she softly watches her older brothers get along. Brown eyes that had seen her mother be cut open, stare at them studying everything they did. A softly look on her face as the tense life before her vanishes. The memories of the past following behind her as she continues on with the new life of being a Rathbone. A nose, cute and wide, breathes in softly, allowing her body to relax on the beautiful spring day. Lips, pink and plump, smile at her new family. Her words escape her lips as she shouts out into the yard.

The flowers bloom around the district as she focuses on the yellow flowers. Hands, smooth and rather large reach to pluck it from the roots. Lifting the flower to her nose with toned arms from training, she smell the beautiful creation. Shorter than the boys, she stands before them with a flower in her hands. Even if she was shorter, she still could keep up with many of the other careers. Legs, toned and strong, walk around the grassy fields, picking up flower after flower. As she heads home with the flowers, her toned body sweats softly down her skin. When she enters the room she lives in, she places the flowers in a vase by her bedside. A smile upon her face, a rare sight from the past that she's lived through. The Rathbones brought peace to her and are showing her how to be stronger and better. She wanted to prove that she could be like them. A strong member of the Rathbone family that was her true family now.

As she lays in her bed, she remembers her first few weeks in the Rathbone home. Many children filling the home as she would watch them with curiosity. Always she had been silent, observing them from a distance. The bickering of Fox and Layton making her chuckle slightly. The first time she had done it that wasn't because of a fight or harsh arguments in the orphanage. The older siblings always were role models to her as she would watch them train and become great. All she wanted was to become like them, strong. The stronger she could become, the better she felt.

When she became seventeen, she knew of the parent's situation. It wasn't her problem and that's how she dealt with it. Nothing would change her mind about being a Rathbone. After all, family comes with secrets like her mother had secrets in the past. Like how her real mother used to hide sunflower seeds in her room. The Rathbones had secrets, but nothing that mattered to her. Unlike the damned Salvatores who seemed to hate them. Arika was an easy target being one of the adopted children of the Rathbones. All she did was ignore them or she would only smile at them, expecting a fight. The damned Salvatores were nothing compared to the Rathbones. Her thorns were strong enough to deal with them, anything they said bounced off of her. Growing up in an orphanage had done that to her.

Her siblings were her family in every way. They cared about one another, even if they argued. They weren't perfect by any means, but they were good enough. They treated her like family and that's all she could of asked for. Amaryllis had been a sister that she looked up to in every way possible. Strength seemed to surround her and at a young age Arika had wanted to learn things from her. That's when she asked her to teach her how to use the weapon that she's never seen before besides the rich and peacekeepers using them. Arika could feel her heart pound as her sister handed her the weapon that could fire out a round to create a hole in the skull. The words off of her sister's lips bringing forth a newfound confidence.

"You can do this."

A light smile pulls at her cheeks. Her hand holds firmly to the weapon, eyes looking down at the target as she shoots the weapon. The kickback pushing her arm slightly in pain, but she could handle it. The bullet missed the initial spot she wanted to hit, but it was good enough to please her. Everything Arika did made her stronger and stronger. The smile pulling at her cheeks was real and she felt at ease around them all. This was her new family and she would stick by them even if they were to be faced with a deadly situation where she could die. They opened their arms for her and she would pay them back with her life.

Flowers bloom all over the district. Different shades of colors, shapes, and sizes. They wilt and die. When the broken flower returns to the earth a new one takes it's place. Just as bright and vibrant, just as strong or stronger. The original forgotten, but not gone forever. The new flower uses it's previous as nutrients to survive to help it become stronger.

Arika Rathbone was a new flower, blooming in place of her mother, thorns and stem, stronger than she could imagine. This was Arika Rathbone. Gorgeous and gentle, but also able to protect herself from the evils of the world.

Never again will she let her loved ones wilt away.