twinkle twinkle {Kaplan} blitz

dick dwarryhouse.

The girl was eager to help Dick. ”I love the stars,” she said, they’re some of my favorite things to study.” The word ‘study’ was so foreign to him. He hadn’t studied in so long, probably not since his grammar-school spelling tests. But after that, his carelessness and pure focus shifted from a childhood mindset to a physical mindset, and it was all ignored from then on. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t spell ‘refridgerator. Or.. refrigerator?’

”I have a book on it, actually, if you want to look at it?” the girl said, her beautiful blonde hair spinning as she got the book and handed it to him. Dick took it and began to flip through the pages. The words were extremely alien to him, Ursa Major, Gemini, Ursa Minor, and the pictures only confused him more. So many stars were shown in each, and it only confused him to see twenty or thirty stars when the constellation was only seven. The dark light probably didn’t help him read it much better either.

Frustrated, he turned the book back to her. ”I don’t mean to be rude, but, what the fuck does any of this mean?” He said with a laugh. ”I just, don’t really get it. And I want to.” He hated the part of learning where Dick Dwarryhouse was completely lost. It felt humiliating, and that was his worst fear.

dick dwarryhouse.

The girl suggested that the lesson should start with more ease, and for that Dick was grateful. Diving right into the hard exercises seemed to be his method to physical strength, but intellect would not go down in history as that easy for the Dwarryhouse boy.

”You see that? The brightest star? That's the Dog Star. Lots of people call it Sirius. Its real name is Alpha Canis Majoris, but I just like to call it Sirius.”

Sirius, he thought, trying to remember the name. Alpha Canis something-is. The bright star.

After a few seconds, he forgot all but the bright star. It took time to remember Sirius again after being sidetracked, but he just ignored the big part. Skipping the paragraphs with no bolded words was his current method.

”So, why is it so important? Like, why care about that one when there’s all the other ones,” he pointed at the other stars in the sky. It was like math, who needs to know how many cubic feet can fit in the Justice Building? Why not just as someone who already knows instead of struggling to figure out the answer?

dick dwarryhouse.

"People used to use them to navigate. If you get lost, you can find your way around by using the stars as a compass."

Dick was about to pry further into the question, but she didn’t stop talking. He wanted to know how it affected him personally. It wasn’t like he planned to ever get lost in a place that he knew almost like the back of his hand. He’d never used the stars before and navigated fine, but it was possible that it was just a piece of history for the pioneers of Panem to use.

So many years ago it was useful, and Dick studied it now to honor them? It made no sense, but when she fired back with a question, the thought turned to it and left the need to know why.

”Oh, and my name’s Astraea,” it wasn’t really a question, but Dick implied it to need a response.

”Dick.” He said, letting the humor of his name give time to settle in Astraea’s head if it needed to. ”Dwarryhouse.”

dick dwarryhouse.

For the first time in a long time, Dick didn’t hear the recurring laugh about his name. His real name, Richard, just seemed too plain for him as a kid, and so he used the common nickname ‘Dick’ instead. It got a kick out of people, which was quite intentional on his part. It made people remember him, a great advantage for one aspiring for greatness.

She kept talking about how the stars greatly interested her and then Astraea apologized if it felt pointless to Dick. It was to him, but he didn’t dare say it. Learning starts somewhere, and it might as well start with a nice girl rather than a nasty professor.

Astraea offered him to keep her book, saying her duplicate was at home. Holding both hands up in the air, he declined the offer. ”I don’t think I can. Not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, I just don’t think asterology is the thing for me.”

He kept the conversation going though with another question. ”What is it ‘bout the stars that you like so much?”

dick dwarryhouse.

"When I was younger, my dad used to bring my older brother and I camping a lot. We'd lay out under the stars, make a campfire and just point out the constellations to one another. It was good bonding time for us,” she said, it was a valid thing for her to say, too.

It made Dick wonder though, what did he do with his family as bonding? Day in and day out included work, work work. Striving to be the best of the family in everything, from running to lifting to fighting to any sort of exercise. But there was never any happiness. Only the never-ending battle.

The thought of not being a true family placed an unsettling feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. ”Sounds nice, Astraea. I mean, my family’s very competition-focused. Don’t think there’s been a day where I haven’t thought of winning something,” I took a glance back up at the star that Astraea pointed out moments ago. ”Wish I had that, Siriously.”

He laughed at his pun.

Dick always won the pun competitions.

dick dwarryhouse.

”You’re funny,” her laugh was a funny one. It wasn’t the reaction Dick was expecting, but he was glad it turned out the way it did. When she questioned if he made clever plays on words a lot, he shook his head.

”S’hard to think of those kinds of things on the spot. Even harder if they flow do well to make people recognize ‘em. Keep them in my head most of the time,” Dick never considered himself much of a comedian. Not surprisingly, he preferred skills in the action field rather than entertainment.

”It’s really stellar that you know so much about constellations. Maybe I should get a hobby like that,” he watched the stars as he saw them barely twinkle. ”Watcha think I’d be good at?” he asked Astraea as he counted stars. One.. two.. three.. already board, Dick silently agreed to it not being stargazing.