Canaries//D12 Train Thread

"What kind of name is Dandy? Did you shorten it or did your parents give that to you."

She looked up at Wendell. The boy certainly had a lot to say, and all of it seemed to be vulgar. His eyes seemed to scan her, taking in her white shirt and polished shoes.

"Don't you ever get dirty? You're too clean for my liking." He turned away as if his questions didn't actually need to be answered. What exactly was to this boy's "liking"? If she had shown up covered in mud would he feel less inclined to kill her in a week? Dandy never thought of herself as better than or above anyone, but the way this boy was talking it made it seem like rubbing the scuffs out of your mother's old shoes made you a prude.

His grubby hands found the neck of a liquor bottle that their mentor probably wouldn't want to share with them. "Think I'll get my hands swatted for a shot?"

He smiled at her. It was an odd sort of grin, not the kind Dandy walked around with. Not a gentle one to make someone feel better, or a reassuring one for a weak heart. It was mischievous- a boy ready to cause trouble whereas Dandy had been cleaning up messes left by such trouble her whole life.

She watched him pour a small amount of the brown liquid into a glass and swallow it all in one gulp. His features twisted as it went down.

"Want one? I promise, I'm not going to poison it."

She looked at him carefully. Seated where she was, her district partner towered over her but she knew that would be the case even if she stood up. He had dirt caked beneath his finger nails and a seemingly calm manner for just being selected to die on television.

What an odd boy.

Dandy stood, reaching her hand out for a glass.

"Yes, please. If it isn't too much trouble," she said, without having a clue what alcohol tasted like. "And it's short for something- my name- it's Dandelion."

Her chest felt heavy.

"You know, like the weed."

He looked surprised. Why should he be surprised? He offered some. Yet there he was acting like it was the strangest thing in the world for Dandy Gordon to accept a drink. She may have never drank before but she was more than likely going to be dead in a week's time and she might as a well start crossing things off her bucket list.


If Dandy wasn't sure if he was taunting her earlier, she was dead certain now. He called her "squeaky" and made a few more remarks about her cleanliness. The girl was starting to get frustrated as he wiped his hands on his pants, but was also a little thankful that her glass wasn't going to be ringed in grim from his fingers.

He pushed a glass into her hands and poured some liquor into it. Wendell also poured a glass for himself.

"There's no sippin, Miss. This is a man's drink. Think you can handle it?"

He threw his drink back and it vanished down his throat, like a magic act.

"Think you'll live long enough to get into the games? Sweet little thing like you? Plucked away from your roots like your namesake."

Her body froze, her eyes looking up in time to catch Wendell putting his glass down.

Long enough to get into the games? What was that supposed to mean? Was that a threat?

Fingers gripped her glass tighter.

"You know you aren't going to survive long unless you do something about that proper attire and those manners, yesh."

Anger and embarrassment flushed her face red and Dandy decided she something to prove to this boy.

She raised the glass to her lips, took a moment to collect herself, and then tossed the liquid into her mouth.

It burned, it burned like poison oak in her throat. She wanted to spit it out immediately be couldn't unless she wanted to hear Wendell's taunts for a whole week.

If you can't prove you're a threat to one person, you'll never do it to the rest of them.

She forced the liquid down her throat. Watery eyes looked up at her opponent before she fell into a coughing fit. The liquor hit her stomach, filling it with heavy warmth. She couldn't decide yet it she liked the feeling or not, but she certainly didn't like the taste.

"I think I'll be fine," she said, her voice hoarse from coughing. She cleared her throat and grinned like Wendell did earlier- mischievously. "Just because you don't anything to worry about- no tribute is going to want to get any where near you when you smell like that."

"I'll live then."

Dandy deflated. She had hoped her remark would be more cutting. Nothing seemed to bother Wendell while everything made Dandy fidget or blush.

"Was it the tessera that pulled you into this or was it just sheer dumb luck like me?"


"I'm the oldest, of course I took tessera," she said. She was amazed the boy hadn't taken any, after all tessera was a wealth of food and supplies for a family and he looked like he could have used it. "I have two siblings, I can't let them go hungry."

She wondered what would happen to Magnolia and Ash now. Their parents were alive, but busy. What if something happened? Dandy shoved the new fear down, she had plenty to worry about right now. There was nothing she could do for them now, anyway. She was at the mercy of the Capitol.

"You and I need to work on your attitude. Personally, I don't want to see you get killed right off the bat. No sword needs to go through your gut or a knife into your eye. Blood would stain your pretty clothes. Not sure if your family would want to see that. So, you planning on making friends or maybe you are the solo type?

If it makes you feel better, we can be friends?"

Dandy looked at the boy carefully for a moment. He was slouched against a table, arms crossed over his chest, chuckling at her. What was so funny about her? That she liked to be clean? Or that she was so small and being forced to kill to survive? Dandy couldn't place it. Dandy forced herself to sit down at the table Wendell was draped against. She had to relax, or else she'd looked like a scared bird the whole week. She took a breath, folded her hands in front of her on the table and looked up at Wendell.

"Do you like me or something?" she said, squinting at his dirt filled face. "You seem very concerned about me right now."