Why Do You Cry (Brooke&Puppy)

Have you ever climbed a tree before? Well it doesn't matter because I'm going to tell you anyway. It's absolutely amazing! Finding knots in the wood and slipping my feet into their crevices. It makes me want to downright squeal. I've never looked at a tree and thought that I couldn't climb it. Even the most impossible treks aren't enough for my positivity. Of course, you can't climb a pine with optimism, but with the right motivation and my long limbs combined, well I think it might just work. My father always tells me that if possibilities are endless, then there is nothing impossible. I live by that everyday. Nothing can be impossible! Nothing! People probably thought that flying was impossible, and although I'm a long way from such times, look at us! We've got flying planes and jets. We've got teleporters and helicopters and rockets. We could go anywhere! And I'm going up this tree.

Before me stood a large oak, very rare in the particular area I'm in currently. I've never seen many but maybe other parts of Panem have loads of them. Maybe just within this district. But the one I'm focused on is this big guy right here. I named him Joey. I know, I know, It's a weird name for a tree, if any should be given at all. But this name is special. This is the name of the local bully who always teases me about my teeth. One day when I was climbing the pine near the back of my house, a frequent place for me to be, I tripped on a knot and fell crashing down. I knew that tree like the back of my hand and there's no way I could have made such a huge error. Sure enough, Joey, a huge, vulgar, meat slab of a child was looming over me. He had grabbed my ankle as I was descending and started laughing with his buddies watching from afar. I've always been the school joke. I barely passed each school year and I am horribly unfit. Climbing doesn't help that, surprisingly. I'm not large or fat but I am definitely under the category of chubby. It's really only in my stomach and thighs though. Anyways, a metallic taste had entered my mouth and when I felt around with my tongue I was quick to discover a piece of tooth missing from my right front tooth. I immediately started crying and tried to scramble away. Joey just wouldn't let me, though. He grabbed onto my sleeve and yanked me toward him.

"Oh lookie, lookie! She chipped a tooth! You see that guys? She must've realized how buck toothed she was and tried to knock 'em back in!" A chorus of laughter boomed towards me. His friends were right behind him now.

"Get away..." I tried to defend myself. A pulsating throb came from my chipped mouth. "I said get the hell away!" I pushed as hard as I could and he let go. I knew he did it willingly; I never would have been able to get away otherwise. I ran right home quick as the echo of laughter faded with every step. I'll never forget that day, that moment. But I will try. The first step was naming this tree Joey. This big and scary looking oak will be tamed. It will be conquered and only by the great and powerful Mira!

I grabbed the lowest branch I could reach and gripped it tight. I placed my foot, which has been removed from its place in my 3 year old, torn up shoes, and placed at the base of the trunk. I find it easier to grip the bark with my feet bare rather than with shoes, even if I do have to pull out a few splinters. I pushed my weight on my left foot, sitting on the side of the tree, and boosted myself up. The next branch was a bit higher but I still managed to seize it. I repeated this process with a few variations, including the fact that I almost slipped off a branch when I was too high for comfort. And that's the thing. When you get so high that something really, really bad could happen, it gives you such a rush of adrenaline that nothing else can give you. It's more suspenseful than the Games, even! At least, for me. And when I finally got to the highest branch I could without it breaking from under me, I started picking.

I've seen these things in the tree that my father said are acorns. They drop in the fall and that's currently around now but not just yet. I plucked one and tried to open it. There was a little top part where the acorn connected to the branch and I ripped it off as best I could. But the hard part was the shell. Ripping the top part off did nothing to further my advancement in cracking this thing open. I did what any sensible person would do; I started repeatedly smacking the thing against the branch. When about three minutes of nothing but a knocking noise was produced, I initiated plan B. This involved rubbing the acorn against the bark of the tree in hopes of grating the shell down. And to my surprise, it did! After about five minutes of moving my arm up and down along the trunk, I finally cracked it open. My flushed cheeks got even more red and my eyes sparkled as I looked inside. What I discovered was less than satisfying. A strange white goo was on the inside. This isn't even a nut! It must not be ready yet or something. In slight frustration at all my hard work, I threw the dissected acorn away and it landed on the ground with a soft thump. Talk about an anti-climax. At this point I became bored once more. I conquered Joey, I ripped apart an acorn... Now what? I relaxed against the cool tree and began to pluck more acorns. Instead of maiming them, I just threw them off the side. I kept doing this repeatedly until one little acorn fell with another soft thud. Only this soft thud was a bit different. It probably sounded like what happens when an acorn falls on someone's head. I looked down and sure enough a girl was standing right at the foot of my tree.


(Note: this was based off of my own experience with playing operation with an acorn.)