Boom Said Thunder [Open]

There was a squelching sound from underfoot as she almost lost her footing on a rotten peach, it's pit poking out from beneath emaciated peel. There was nothing to be worried about given the state of the fuzzy fruit; the overripe balloons often fell and burst into pulpy leavings that only served to degrade into compost for the questing roots of the trees in that particular orchard. But those fallen peaches were of no consequence, it was the ones that still hung from swollen branches that she gathered into her woven basket, nearly full, but not quite there just yet. She picked three more and dropped them next to their fellows just in time to hear the sound of the bell chiming an end to the workday. Lining up with the other pickers was a fast procedure, as she'd done it five days a week every weed for the past two years. They filed out of the orchard, placing their baskets in the back of a hovercraft.

It was faster than the trains, and the Capitol so loved the freshest fruit delivered posthaste. The peacekeepers gave each of them a cursory once over to make sure that none of the workers have pocketed fruit and nodded, signalling that each person could take their allotted share and leave. Katelyn received two dozen peaches for her trouble and smiled courteously as she exited. What would those things become? Sweet snacks for a hot summers day, using teeth to rip the juicy flesh away from the core, or perhaps some preserves, kept stored in a glass jar until such time as it was needed for toasted bread and tea. But she could do better than that, oh yes, the peaches could be baked into a warm and flaky cobbler crust and served with a nice tall glass of cold milk. Many were the people who could do with a nice sugary dessert during the darkest time of the year.

The eleventh district had rarely done well when it came to tributes; how could a place filled with beautiful orchards and windswept fields have any room for training bloodthirsty careers? And it showed. District eleven had only made it past the first day a handful of times in the past decade and the general feel to the air was quite morose for many people. With the sixty-fourth annual reaping looming only a few weeks away, Katelyn had noticed that things seemed a bit subdued. She hoped it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a smile or a hot pastry, but it didn't seem very likely. She walked down the road for a bit before opting to take the scenic route and spend some time in the shade of the trees. It had been rather hot this summer and the temperature seemed to only be arching higher.

She wondered if she had the time to stop by one of the watering holes to cool down, but then remembered that she didn't have her bathing suit, and goodness sakes, but she wasn't about to take her green summer dress off and take a dip in her knickers. That would be downright embarrassing. However, maybe she could find a nice rock to sit on and trail her feet in the water while munching on one of the peaches in her basket? After a few minutes of indecisiveness, she convinced herself that her mother wouldn't mind if she was short a fruit or two and happily made her way downhill. As she drew nearer, she caught sight of a flash in the water, and realized that someone was swimming. Or drowning. Small children fell in all the time.

Without meaning to, she started to pick up speed, wondering if anyone needed her help, and then stopped a few feet from the water's edge when a red dog came bounding up and started barking at her. She clutched the basket a little tighter but held her ground. "Sshhhh! Nice doggie! Shh!" There was a splash and a small boy started out of the water and apologized for his pet. At this distance she could tell that he was young, maybe eleven or twelve and thin as a rail. But he certainly didn't need her help concerning swimming. She flashed him a goodnatured smile and cocked her head to one side.

"Friendly? Well I certainly hope he thinks so!"

She took a few steps to the left as the dog quieted and sat on a small flat rock, placing her basket next to her and letting her legs sink into the swirling water with a satisfied sigh. Maybe the younger kid would make pleasant company for the afternoon.

"I didn't expect anyone else to be at the waterhole around now, but I'm Katelyn and it's nice to meet you!"

Serenity. Quiet. Comfort. A pleasant conversation with one person. These were all things that vanished like a puff of smoke. One minute, Katelyn was contemplating offering the younger lad a peach and the next, the watering hole was awash in people shucking off their shirts and getting into the water in their undies. Kate didn't know who any of them were, though the older shirtless boy introduced himself as Emery. The other two arrivals were both girls, one who was apparently trying not to be seen and yet not going away, and the other who got slipped into her underwear and got in the water.

Katelyn was fairly certain that the look on her face was confused, and she clutched the basket of peaches closer to her side. It would be horrible if one of the other kids upended it and sent the fruits spinning into the depths of the murky liquid. She managed a weak smile at the newcomers and then turned away, focusing her attention on the younger boy, whose name turned out to be Sampson. Which was about all she got out of him before he disappeared under the water. Maybe the sudden presence of so many people -even though one of them seemed to know him- was a cause for dismay in his mind.

Kate was pretty dismayed herself.

Sampson asked the assemblage if they were getting in the water, to which Emery wasted no time in getting in, splashing Katelyn and the others. There was a war being waged in her mind, and a decision to be made. On the one hand, she could join them in swimming, make some friends and such, or on the other hand, just go home and collect her thoughts instead of being put in a potentially awkward situation. She just wasn't sure what the best thing to do would be, so she looked down at the swirls and sucked her teeth in. She was generally nice to people, but she was usually the one that instigated the conversation. The one that knew what she was doing. In a situation like this, she'd have to concede that she couldn't really ask questions or make small talk.

No, here she'd have to socialize. And that terrified her.

"Hi...everyone.."

The words came out slowly, almost painfully, grinding their way out from between her teeth. She always felt out of place in groups like this, and that some of them seemed to know each other from elsewhere didn't help. Another moment and she had taken her legs out of the water and grabbed her shoes.

"I was just...leaving."

Maybe she was being rude, maybe she was being fearful.

Whatever the case, she felt as if she had overstayed her welcome.

- Katelyn has left the watering hole -

“Of course I am comin’ in Sampson! Don’t gotta be all shy about it.” I sent a splash at him as he fell under the water as well. My eyes turned back towards Emery wide with surprise to see him stripping down to his boxers. My cheeks burned that hot boiling red that even covered my freckles as with a grin as I saw him launching himself in the water soaking us all, I couldn’t help but dive after him determined to pay him back for that splash. Turning quickly to invite the other girls help I noticed one getting up and hurrying off, her words mumbled and muffled with the sound of the splashing girl who tumbled down the hill and was now flailing around in the water. Girls were so strange.

”It’s nice to meet you, Tessa! I’m Emery,” I told the younger girl again politely when her head popped out of the water. She swam kind of like Sampson’s dog did, and even though it made me want to smile, I kept from doing it, just in case she thought I was laughing at her and got embarrassed. I turned back around to swim towards Sampson and noticed that Katelyn wasn’t sitting there with her legs in the water like she was before—she must have picked up her basket and left while I wasn’t looking—and I wondered what had made her go. Maybe I had splashed too much water on her or something when I’d jumped in? For a moment, I felt kinda bad, mostly because she was missing out on everything. I’d just got here, and I was already having loads of fun. Some people just didn’t like to get wet, I guess.

My heart jumped in my chest when I felt myself being pulled under—the water was too murky for me to see Asha out of the corner of my eye—and a small, childish part of my brain, for a split second, flashed to the watering hole monster that Arian used to tell me stories about when I was little and he didn’t want me tagging along with him and his friends. Then I realized it had to be Asha, because she was the only one I couldn’t see above the water. I let out a booming yell, just to be a good sport, before I was dragged under the surface, accidentally taking a mouthful of the stuff down with me. We bobbed up at the same time, and my breath caught in my throat when I felt Asha’s slender fingers catch in my boxers, sliding up my thighs and sending electric prickles throughout my, uh, bottom half. My eyes widened for a moment, even though I knew it was an accident and that she hadn’t been reaching for my junk or anything. As she dashed through the water to hide behind Sampson, I laughed the feeling—the jump in my heartbeat—off like I did with everything else.

”Gotta get through Sampson if you’re gonna get me!” Asha hollered over at me, sending a splash my way. ”Go get ‘em, Sampson! Help!” I grinned at the younger boy, who was making his way towards me, sticking his tongue out. I returned the expression, although sticking your tongue out was hard to do when you were laughing. The wave of water Sampson sent at me hit me right in the mouth, and I got another unwanted taste of the slightly sweet, brownish liquid. I gave another loud, dramatic huff as I blinked and wiped it out of my eyes. ”Betcha I can make you s-say uncle,” he said as I swam towards him, still grinning like a lunatic. ”Come on now, go on.” My mouth let go of a pflfblblflbl sound, my eyelashes blinking away yet another splash.

”You sure about this, little man?” I asked, when the water was a bit lower than my shoulders. Straightening up, I made two fists and bent my arms toward my head, flexing my biceps so the muscles bulged. ”I think I could probably take you. Though I don't know, you're muscles aren't bad, either,” I added with a laugh, reaching over to give his arm a squeeze. But instead of letting go, I wrapped both arms around him and lifted him up in the air. He felt small in my arms, like I would break him if I squeezed too hard. ”Hold your breath!” I yelled in warning before I dropped him back in the water with a splash, laughing.

This is more fun than I've had in weeks, I thought. Bringing my fists to my chest, I pounded on it like an ape and gave a manly yell, looking at Tessa and Asha. ”WOOOOOOO! Who's next?” I called, slapping the water and sending splashes at both of them.

thinking, doing, hearing, ”saying,” other

For a moment I thought Sampson wasn’t going to play along. That he’d glare up at me with his eyes that were so like Deval’s and just walk off and leave me, leave us, leave the whole watering hole behind. I couldn’t figure out what he didn’t like about me, but I was sure it had to do with the fact Deval and I had been spending a lot more time together. I wasn’t trying to take the only brother he had left, but there was something about the long conversations I had with Deval I didn’t want to give up either. We weren’t young and innocent like Sampson, we’d felt the prickle of teenage hormones and rush of blood and adrenaline in each other’s touch. Sampson just needed to grow up. For a moment I felt angry that he was mad at me for something everyone else did.

But then he lunged forward at Emery and Deval flashed out of my mind and the ripple of Emery’s mucles as he teased Sampson right back with that booming deep voice filled up the space. How could they both create this heat inside me!