SMALL TALK & VIVID MEMORIES // Aurum

Crwydryn was 13. This was one of the years that Luna was making her go to school. She stopped going with the death of her foster father. She would be going to school on and off for the next few years before Luna would give up completely. Dryn really didn't have what people would call friends. Not speaking kind of drove people away, not to mention she was practically famous, considering her past. There wasn't one person who didn't know who she was. That hadn't really mattered before, though. She always had Jou, her cats and Luna. Now that Jou was dead, and Luna was making her go to school, she was utterly alone. Well, almost. One person had made an effort to get to know her. Thad was probably the only one she could really call her friend. Maybe he was even her best friend. Could you have a best friend if no one would even talk to you? Dryn didn't know.

The two of them didn't really hang out. Thad was quite popular and hung out with people like him. He at least made an effort to talk to and try to include her. He would go out of his way to make sure he was her partner with class projects and would always run next to her in gym. She didn't know if he partnered up with her because he was being nice or because she was one of the smartest in the class. She had actually skipped a grade. She should have still been in middle school, but she had taken the work home when Jou died, and exceled. When she went to go into 8th grade, the teachers found she already did the work and sent her into high school. In gym, she wasn't the fastest, but she could keep up with the guys, which was quite a feat. Running with her Ocelots had made her legs strong and she had more stamina then anyone.

To escape the world around her, Dryn dove into books. She found comfort in the stories that made life sound so easy, and yet still full of challenges. Her favorite story was about a boy named Harry. He was something called a wizard and did extraordinary things with a wooden stick. The books was really old. She found them hidden under a floorboard in her house. There was a total of 7 books about this Harry. Another one she found down there was about a girl named Lucy and her two brothers, Edmund and Peter, and her sister, Susan. Apparently they were normal children in their world but one day Lucy found a way into another world, where they became Kings and Queens. That was a good book as well. Dryn had to be very careful about reading them, though. If you were caught reading a book from the Dark Times, bad things happened. She hadn't told anyone about them, not even Thad. She couldn't risk it.

Today, she was reading while she walked to her last class, using her peripheral vision to keep from bumping into anyone. She was buried deep in a book from the school library. It was a sad story about someone who defied the Capitol. Her name was Katniss. She thought that two people could win the Games. Instead, the peacekeepers shot the boy she loved, and named her the winner. Later, she was placed in an asylum, because she went insane and started killing good citizens. There was a large fight where the President became the hero that took down the crazy girl and was the savior of the Districts. That's how all the books from the Capitol were. The president was the savior and the Districts served loyally, singing praises, knowing that he, and his peacekeepers, were the only ones protecting them from the horrors of the outside world.

Dryn heard Thad walking up to her. Being with her cats made her senses heightened, and she could distinguish his heavy foot steps, even if they were in the middle of a giant crowd. She didn't look up, however until his shadow fell across her book. Slowly, she pulled herself from the depths of the book, her eyes trying to get a few more sentences in before she pulled them away. Finally, she looked up at her only friend with her cool green eyes and an arched eyebrow.

"Hi Dryn, you look nice today"His voice was warm and rich, and it reminded Dryn of melted chocolate. She smiled and shook her head. The boy was always giving her complements. It was no secret to her that he had fallen for her. What did surprise her was that his friends were quite supportive of him going out with her. It had seemed that he had tried to ask her out a few times, but lost his nerve.

Thanks She signed to him. She had been teaching him some of the sign language she had learned from a young age. He wasn't very good at signing, but he didn't need to, seeing as she could hear. He still mixed up some words and she had to sign slowly so he could catch it all, but it was still nice to be able to talk to him without needing to take the time to pull out a piece of paper and find a pen. She still used paper for longer paragraphs. It made it easier for Thad. She smiled at him. He had more to say, she could tell. She waited for him to say something more.