A loaf of bread.{+a…ToA`s^fRiENd~}

[[Eep, sorry it took so long for me to post! I've been head over heels dealing with marching band and sorting out Ludwig's situation in the Games... ^ ^;;]]

Fyuori always said my reactions were always slightly exaggerated. "It's a good thing 'cause it helps you when you're acting," she said. "It's a bad thing because when you're not acting, I can read you like an open book." I wondered if Raina was one of those people who, like Fyuori, could "read me"...well, it wouldn't have been that hard with whatever expression I had on my face right now.

Raina smiled and waved me over to her table, one of the small ones by the window. I returned the smile and walked over, sitting down in the seat across from her. Her hair was slightly damp, and she was dressed real breezy: lime-green shirt and jean shorts. The chairs were high up, so her feet dangled a few inches off of the ground; mine could almost touch the floor. In the amount of time it took me to notice all this I tried to think of something to say...but what do you talk about to a person you've only known for one day? I was no stranger to talking to people I had just met, but in those situations they're just classmates or acquaintences of my dad in the market. The "one-on-one" situation made me feel a bit awkward.

"You know what I find funny?" Raina suddenly said, staring out the window at the passersby. I turned my head to join her. It was the height of morning now, and the plaza had come to life with all sorts of people making their way about their day. "Look at these people," Raina continued. "They're so caught up in the here and now...they don't even look up to see what's right in front of them. They go through life...rolling through life on some speeding train. Looking through the dirty train window, never stopping and living. Imagine how many people they would meet if they just got off the train. You know what I mean?"

I knew what she meant. It could almost be a rule I live by, in a world where there were no Games. Then Fyuori wouldn't have to worry over Terry, Patyrck and me, and Jaysi would still be here, and Terry might not be so poor, and I wouldn't have any guilt. I could grow up to be an actor, or even a politician; Fyuori could design all sorts of machines and gadgets, and Terry could be a comedian, and Patryck could find a cure for cancer. There was so much potential in Panem -- in us -- yet, the Capitol's decision is to systematically wipe us out each year. How much was lost in those Games along with lives? Any of those children could be the next savior of mankind for all we knew. If the people of Panem weren't bound by the laws of the Capitol, who knows how many ideas would blossom into being to improve mankind...

"Yeah, I know what you mean," I said. I knew she wasn't talking about the Games, but I still understood the meaning at heart. "I guess we're just so caught up in what we think is the boundary of our lives, while in reality it stretches so much further. We think we're bound in place by the 'laws' of the land; we're so positive that those restrictions exist it never occurs to us that we were never tied down in the first place."

But it's quite ironic, I thought to myself. Even knowing that we're not tied down, we don't do a thing. That's why we always find ourselves back at square one...