Dancing in the Rain [OPEN!]

As I watch my young mentees pick up their bags and say their goodbyes before leaving the dance school, I have a smile on my face. We have had a good lesson today as I decided I would start to teach them one of my favourite routines to do. They seem to have enjoyed it and this makes me feel happy. Watching them as they went through the routine perfectly made me prouder than ever of the small group of girls and of myself. This is the dream I have always wanted, being able to share my love of dance with others so they too have the chance to feel the beat of the music flow through their minds. Now I am alone in the studio area and I start to pack up the equipment that had been used and putting it away neatly. Once it is all put away I take a walk through the building to check that everything i from the s in order for my imminent departure. Finding everything as expected I pick up my handbag and head for the exit, locking the main door behind me as I leave. As I step off the porch I realize that it is raining and I reach into my bag for my umbrella, a blue one to match my hair, before putting it up and holding it over my head. Most people I can see are rushing about with their umberellas to try and spend minimal time in the rain but I am different. I don't mind the rain and plan to take my usual walk home.

I start my walk down the street and head into the city circle. As I walk I get looks from some of the others around me. It isn't because of my hair since blue hair isn't that uncommon in the Capitol. It is simply because I look perfectly content to walk through the pouring rain and am not looking for shelter. Very few Capitolites like the rain as nobody likes getting their clothes or hair wet. As I walk into the city circle however, the attention of the capitolites seem to be focused on something else. Out of nowhere I can hear bursts of laughter ring out across the circle and I walk in that direction to investigate. As the laughter gets louder I chance a slight run and I am getting closer when I forget to keep an eye on the path and trip over on the soggy remains of somebody's takeaway food. For a moment I just lay there on the ground, casting a dirty look at someone who laughed as they walked past. After a few more seconds I managed to prise myself back onto my own two feet. I look myself over to survey the damage. The rainwater has drenched my lovely black and white outfit and the fall has blown my hair all over the place. I give an annoyed groan at the thought of my ruined outfit and curse myself for being so clumsy. I also utter some choice words towards whoever was too lazy to bin their rubbish. I quickly fix my hair with a hairbrush from my bag and continue on towards the source of the commotion. When I get there I am surprised by what I see.

There is a crowd of capitolites all gathered round laughing at a young girl in the center of the crowd. The girl has a dirty blonde colour hair which has a lovely curl to it. She is wearing a long brown coat which doesn't look too warm. It takes me getting closer to the scene to realise why everyone is crowding her. This young girl is dancing in the rain. This brings a smile to my face and I feel like joining the girl but restrain myself to just watching. Sure she could do with a few dance lessons but I can tell her dancing is something that is making her happy and in my view that is what dancing is all about. As I watch this girl I remember someone else who always danced at a young age to make herself happier. Myself. For a moment I managed to connect with this girl, a stranger. My smile widened as I saw her grab hold of another young girl, most likely a friend of hers, and got her to dance too. There was water flying everywhere from the puddles as they danced together though the girls seemed blissfully unaware of this. It was while they were dancing that I surveyed the other girl and my eyes rested on her white tunic. I couldn't be. Was it possible that these girls, the girls that danced so happily, were avoxes. No, who would possibly own an avox as young as these 2, I thought to myself. The younger girl couldn't have been more than four. It was then I remembered that I didn't know what was under the older girl's long brown coat. It was possible that she was wearing a white tunic too. Suddenly, I hear a voice shout out amongst the crowd.



When this was shouted I saw the younger avox running towards an older girl wearing a white dress. This girl no older than four was now burying her face in this older girl's dress. It is surprising but I start to feel sorry for this young avox. I know why people are made avoxes of course, because they have commited a crime against the Capitol but now I start to wonder what these children could possibly have done to deserve to be made an avox. What harm could a four year old do? My eyes glue to the scene before me as I watch the middle one being pushed towards the other two by a tall man. I want to speak against it but I know that I would be heavily punished. Worst case scenario I could even be turned into an avox myself and I wasn't willing to risk that. I see the man is now yelling at the oldest of the three girls and I see her punish the other two for their action, making the youngest of them cry. I watch as the attention seems to fade away from the commotion and people move away. I, however, stay put with my eyes fixed on these three young avoxes. Now there is no more crowd and I slowly walk towards the three children. I curve my face into a bright smile in an attempt not to scare them as I approached. As I reached the three of them I bent down so I was on their eye level. "You know I really liked your dancing", I spoke softly towards the younger two with a happy tone. I know they won't be able to speak back to me so I make sure to choose my words carefully. "Is there somewhere I can get you to? You can write it if you want". I wait patiently to see their reactions.