ANYWHERE but HERE. //shunado}

Fresh air is not all it's cracked up to be. Seriously. When the lovely, cheerful little rays of sunshine I've been lounging around with lately suggested I 'go get some fresh air', it was obvious that they actually wanted me to get out of that cramped excuse for an apartment for a couple hours. Can't say I blame them for wanting to be rid of me - I've never exactly been pleasant company, and these past couple days have really made me a bit stir-crazy. Of course, it wasn't like we could just stroll down the streets as if we hadn't just killed two members of this lovely little District (even if they were nasty bastards who deserved it, or so I'm told - didn't exactly ask...); could arouse suspicion. Luckily, in a District that trains kids to kill other kids for a living, two relatively hushed-up deaths didn't exactly shake up gossip.

Anyhow, I digress. My point is that I hate the air here. It's far too clean. See, back in the Capitol, there were always repugnant smells in the air: perfumes, sewer leaks, the dirty lies people told. Smelled like crap, but at least it smelled like home. I think maybe all that nastiness in the air made me feel better, because it was honest nastiness. If the air smelled like some icky new haute couture perfume, that meant that a dyed-blue lady in a fur coat would probably come prancing by you at any second. Here, though...people backstab and gossip and wear stupid-looking getups just like in the Cap, but it smells like a frickin' wonderland of unicorns and sparkles or something! Where's the metallic tinge of blood in the air? Or the faint smell of acid from girls who don't think they're skinny enough even if they're on the brink of self-induced starvation in Panem's second-wealthiest region?

Abruptly I realize I've come to a fuming standstill. It takes concerted effort to smooth my features out of that oh-so-comfortable snarling grimace of annoyance and suppressed rage, but I manage. Can't have people giving me weird looks, now, can I? Even if I am used to it, what with being the only girl in the Capitol who hasn't made an attempt to look any size under 'healthy'. But careful's the name of the game now that I'm off home turf, so I continue my stroll down a street in one of the shopping districts and try to convince myself I enjoy the opportunity to stretch my legs and be alone for the first time in days. Ah, aloneness: so quiet, so nice. How I have missed it.
As long as some Districter punk doesn't pull something stupid like trying to converse with me or something, I might actually be able to feel a bit of happiness here. Heck, I've waited nineteen years to get out of the Rainbow City: I should at least enjoy it now that it's finally happened, right? Right.