everyday adventures [Kaplan]

The strangest thing about fame—or infamy; that seems to depend on the person, and so far, the uncomfortable prickling over Wander's skin doesn't feel particularly different either way—is the way strangers keep talking to ver as though they expect ver to know them as well as they know ver. Coming home to surreptitious stares in District Four, where ve already couldn't go a day without bumping into someone ve knew from school or work or a nebulous oh, you know, around, had been strange enough; it's something else entirely to find total strangers with accents Wander only recognizes from the Games asking after vis siblings like old family friends or twisting sentences around so they can show off how good they think they are at pronouns. Sometimes they actually want to fish for gossip about Annie, in which case telling them to talk to her themselves usually sends them off in a huff. Once in a while someone even marches up to defend Fiona's or Parson's honor, as though the two of them aren't alive to speak their own damn minds, or to rant about Carmen, as though Wander wants to hear about how some grown-ass adult thinks a kid Teresa's age should have died.

Capitolites are the worst about it, or at least the most frequent offenders, but also the ones Wander feels most comfortable telling to shove it. With Districters ve tries, right up until ve gets fed up enough to point out that they don't have to tell ver what happened during the Games because, thank you very much, ve died in them.

Sort of. Obviously not exactly. Saying so startles most people into backing off, anyway.

Getting to see the rest of the Markets would have been worth just about anything short of going back to the Arena. Wander throws verself into reunion hugs with shouting and a full heart and laughs until ve tears up out of sheer joy the first time ve sees Denali in a dress with so many attachments ve suspects it weighs as much as she does. Each evening ve and vis mother excitedly show each other the old books and painted trinkets they've found to bring back home as gifts, then make faces as they realize they need to find room to stuff their newfound treasures into their luggage. Still, after half a day of periodically dodging weird questions and weirder comments, it's a relief as well as the usual delight to see Nixie. Wander arrives at the paint-splattered Summers stall and makes a cheerful show of looking up, then stepping dramatically over imaginary tripwires, grinning all the while so she'll know ve's only teasing. By the time they're trying on rented skates on the shore of the frozen lake, ve's in the best mood ve's had all day, dampened only slightly by the pang of wishing vis siblings could be here to tag along.

Naturally, after all of one wobbly push and the briefest glide across the ice, ve wipes out. It's too cold and ve wasn't going fast enough for it to hurt much, but the shock of impact knocks all the air out of vis lungs; for a second ve can only lie there, staring up at the sky and coughing faintly.

Naturally, exactly like the first time ve tried to copy Annie's expert hop onto a surfboard and toppled face-first into saltwater, ve cracks up.

"C'mon, this is just hard water!" ve says, mock-plaintive but still laughing, as ve props verself onto vis elbows to see how Nixie is faring. "I'm great at water."



(:melting_clock: because I've owed this for a while :whistling:)

title is after Lullatone's Soundtracks for Everyday Adventures!