crashing waves // open

Hazel left her parents house and walked down to the beach. Her mother had for once let her alone with any chores and Hazel had the whole afternoon to herself. A whole afternoon without running around the house, cleaning, cooking or taking care of her younger siblings. A whole afternoon to do whatever she felt like. The first thing that came to her mind was to meet up with her best friend Bella and ask her if she wanted to go for a swim , so she went to her house but when she rang the doorbell, nobody would open. Bella was probably busy working in her parents shop, so Hazel decided to go down to the beach by herself. It was long ago, that Hazel went for a swim just for fun. Usually she went swimming when accompanying her dad to go out for pearl diving .

When she reached the beach, she slipped out of her shoes and tossed them in the bag that hang around her shoulders and in which she carried her towel . She walked barefoot on the sand and had her eyes closed. Hazel loved the feeling of sand between her toes and she smiled when a small breeze caught her hair and send it flying around her head. The red haired girl took a deep breath and smelled the salty air. She loved the ocean, like most people from District Four did. The ocean was by any means their source to stay alive. Most people from her district made their living with something provided by the sea. Of course, most of them were fishermen, providing fresh seafood for the Capitol, but some also had other jobs. Like her best friend Bella’s father who made fishing nets or like her dad who went pearl hunting and delivered those pearls to the jewelry designers in District One. Hazel couldn’t think of a better district to live in than District Four. Not being close to the ocean would be like torture to her. Her dad had offered to take her to District One when he went the next time to show his pearls to the jewlery designers but he hadn’t traveled there for the past few years. Traveling between the districts was rare and even though Hazel was eager to find out how the people in this other district lived, she wasn’t too upset that they didn’t get around to travel there yet.

She opened her eyes again and looked to the horizon. Standing here, on the beach looking at the sea that extended all the way to the horizon and far beyond always made her wonder what the world beyond the ocean looked like. In school they didn’t learn anything about the world outside of Panem, which was a shame as Hazel thought. But the Capitol apparently didn’t like people to think about a world outside of Panem, well actually outside their own District. Hazel shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

The red haired girl walked closer to the ocean when her eyes caught sight of another girl with bright red hair sitting on the beach. She didn’t move and had her face turned towards the ocean. Obviously she didn’t want to be disturbed, so Hazel started to walk past her. She only stopped walking when she heard a sigh from behind and a voice asking her who she was. Hazel turned around to look at the girl. Hazel knew her by sight, they went to school together, but she never really talked to her. „I’m sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you.“, Hazel said in a soft and quiet voice. Then she remembered the girl’s question. „I’m Hazel. I guess we go to school together,. I’ve seen you in the hallways a few times, but I’m afraid I can’t remember your name.“

The Games. Hazel scowled as the girl mentioned this barbaric event the Capitol invented to keep the districts under their control. She hated the Capitol for tearing families apart and to have kids fight against each other to death. A shiver ran down her spine as she thought about having to face other kids her age and having to kill them. As always, when she thought about the games, she wondered if she would be able to kill somebody. Probably not, but maybe if she had to fight for her own life, that would be different. Hazel never understood, that some kids from her district trained and then volunteered to become a tribute. Why on earth would somebody stand up and freely give away his or her own life? The only reason Hazel could think of, to volunteer for the Games would be, if her younger siblings would get drawn. She couldn't bare to have her siblings killed in the games without any opportunity to protect them. So stepping in for them would be her way of protecting them, even if that was the last act of protection she could offer them in her life.
Hazel still looked straight at the girl who though she needed to boss her and Raina around. "I don't think I want to train for the Games. I don't have the desire to volunteer and get myself killed in the arena." , she replied, almost spitting the words at the other girl. One of the good things about growing up in District Four was, that almost nobody had to sign um for tesserae and that there was almost always somebody who volunteered because he or she had trained to become a career tribute. "Oh, please. Just leave us alone. You're wasting time by talking to us, aren't you?" Hazel had to force herself to not start laughing out loud when she heard Raina's words. "She does have a point right there." , she said, addressing the other girl before she turned to Raina and winked at her.