What to Do.... (Cinder)

No force or power on this Earth could have prevented Jezebel from thrusting the apple into Deklan's hand.She danced backward, nearly falling onto his bed again in the process of doing so. Jez had done this many times before. You give a poor person something and they immediately try to give it back to you. The people of District Twelve were full of pride, just another difference between me and them, they certainly wanted no help from a girl who did not belong. A dead mother and a Peacekeeper for a father. Strange hair and eyes that resembled the surged out looks of a Capitolite. Odd speech patterns and a thin figure, slight by her own choosing. Jezebel Winston-Strange was an anomaly. Perhaps Deklan had heard of her before and thought it better to appease the monstrous girl who pretended to be a Saint instead of sincerely standing up against her.

Her impish grin fell from that strange face for a moment, before she remembered her sworn oath not to dump anymore baggage on Deklan. Jez grinned at him, trying to be playful and elegant at once. It didn't seem to be working. "See? I'm fine! Please eat, please do it for me," she told him kindly. There was a manic edge to her words that worried even Jezebel herself. She sounded like a beggar on the verge of hysterics after a long day of numb pain.

Jezebel found herself wondering whether or not she was going mad. Recently her thought had been that of a raving lunatic, like the ones her father imprisoned in cramped cells and left to die. Her whole life was a cage, a sickeningly small cell that even tiny Jezebel couldn't fit in. Her role in life had always been that of a shining star, she was meant to wander and learn with her brother and sister for company. Her destiny was not to be the pretty girl from District Twelve who was born, grew up, married a nice boy, went to work, had kids, went to work more and finally died. Just the very outline of her could-be life frightened Jez. She was brave enough to evade this possible future, strong enough to say to the District Twelve norm, but too cowardly to break free of her homeland once and for all.

Jez had tried, believe me, she tried.

The train whooshed across Panem at speeds her illogical mind could not imagine. Fifty miles an hour? Three hundred miles an hour? It was all the same to Jezebel, who sat among a pile of boxes and caught glimpses of the Districts right outside the high-up window of her box cart. Her friend, her 'beloved' Peacekeeper boy had stashed Jez in this very cart a few hours ago, told her where to meet him and what to do. She had nodded her head like the obedient doll that Jezebel was, so unsuspecting and innocent, on her way to the glitz and glamour of a Capitol life. The boy had grinned and waggled his slim hand at her as he exited her hiding place.

Jez had met another boy in the woods and tricked him into helping her find a way home. A Career boy, he had taken advantage of Jez, set up an elaborate plot to make it seem like she had chosen to stay with him. He had wooed her and finally when the hour came that she had to choose between going home or staying in District One, Jezebel had scrambled onto the train at the last moment possible. Looslic had been grinning, Jez had been thinking of the bizarre similarities between the Peacekeeper and the Career. He shook his meaty fist at her and that same flash of tricky anger had overwhelmed Jez.

She had finally been free.
Free.

And now as Jezebel finally came back to her senses, she realized what a cage she had built for herself. It was just as tiny as Deklan's uncomfortable room, just as empty and painful as his stomach. Jezebel quivered for no reason in particular except that she was suddenly confused, possibly having a mental breakdown, if you will. With trembling arms, legs, lips, fluttering eye-lids and soft panting breaths coming from her mouth she flung herself at Deklan. Her 'attack' was violent, she was crushing her lips against his and tears were springing from her eyes as though finally her duct-tape quick-fix had come undone.

The girl pushed herself away and covered her mouth for the second time that day. She stumbled backward, her back banging against his bedroom door. Jez turned around quickly, flung it open and ran straight into a person.

occ- Eh, you can say who the person is. A relative, neighbor, Peacekeeper, or somebody who saw Jezebel faint and got worried about her. -smacks character- Sorry, blame her empty stomach. Jez seems to have gone insane for the moment.