A Day At The Beach (Open)

As I walk away from the crowed of chattering children I began to lose myself in thoughts. Teacher told us we would be learning about something very different today, not about agriculture, the games, or even the capital. I couldn't help but be overly curious about the subject. What else was there? Its probably about something dumb. I bet she's trying to trick us to get us to listen. Despite my doubt, teacher had never done anything to mislead us so bluntly before.

Arriving back in class I take my spot in the back of the room. I'm not stupid or anything, I just like to be able to see everything that is going on. I watch as the other kids file in, "fun" time was over, time to get back to work. Everyone seemed to be in pretty high spirits today, I wonder if its because of teachers surprise lesson.

When our teacher walks in everyone finds their seats and the room falls silent. It's not often that we see our teacher with a real smile on her face, she normal wears the fake smile that a lot of adults in district 11 seem to have on. Spotting this small difference excites me even more.

Our bright eyed teacher sets down a small bag and starts her lecture. She starts to speak of things I was never sure existed outside of the story's my mother told me at night. She describes a place that the water licks beaches covered in sand as white as snow. She shows us pictures of the beaches that other districts have and explains to us how it provides food, plants, and has thousands of animals in it. Then she reaches into her bag and takes out more pictures. These pictures are different, they are old but they are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Pictures of the old civilization and their beaches. I feel my insides becoming jealous of these people, I know she didn't mean to but teacher has ignited the sparks of my rebellious nature.

The rest of the day is a blur to me, I have been lost in the pictures of those smiling people, those people who looked so healthy, so happy, so free. I want to see those kind of smiles on the faces of my people, I want the children to be as round as the kids in those pictures were, and on the greedy side, I want to feel the sand around my toes and the waves spraying me with their salty water. It's decided I thought to myself. I will bring the beach to district 11

I knew exactly where to go, I had over-heard some of the older kids talking about a place where they go to get away, a place where I knew I was not supposed to go. I set my path to the woods, past the orchard, past my hallow tree, into a place I had never been before. Lingering in front of the invisible line that I was told to never cross, I take a deep breath before taking that last step.