My Mistake {Geebs}

Bianca walked across the narrow, paved streets of District Two in her new clean white uniform. It wasn't a Peacekeeper's uniform, not yet anyway, but a trainee's clothes. Something to mark them as an up and comer, as someone who should be exhibiting greatness. Even the thin white jacket made Bianca feel important, like her life was leading somewhere other than her nineteenth birthday.

Her hair, which used to graze her shoulders had now been cut short like the boys' who had entered the academy with her. The girl was anxious about the style change but had come to love it. As she passed a shop window she simply had to admire herself in the reflection which was something Bianca Tarbuck had not done much in her life.

The only thing about the Peacekeeper Academy was that it was awfully plain. Everything was white: the floors, the walls, the sheets- everything. While Bianca wasn't a very colorful person she found the clinical feeling of the hallways too much to handle. So she took her time off to grab a bit of color for her room. Being still Reaping age, her training wouldn't start in full until after her last reaping. For now she had more freedom to venture off campus into the district. If she did well in this preliminary training she would be recommended to continue on the track to becoming a Peacekeeper. She couldn't let the white halls get her down and affect her performance. She had to be on top of her game, like in the training centers- always focused.

Bianca peered around the fabric shops for a while, but couldn't seem to find what she was looking for. In truth she didn't really know for certain, only that she'd know once she saw it. The bolts of purple and blue didn't speak to her, nor did the hand painted antiques on sale either.

She bit her bottom lip, almost ready to give up when she saw a small flower shop at the end of the street.

Flowers! What a perfect addition to a drab boarding room.

Bianca rushed over and slipped through the door. She took in a deep breath, letting the mixture of scents from the flowers take her out of District Two. The girl bent over a display, examining the flowers closely. There were orchids and violets, and flowers she didn't even know the names of. She wanted all of them, but as the couple of coins in her pocket felt awfully light at the moment she started examining price tags.

That is when she felt a hand tap her on the shoulder.

Bianca turned around to see a girl with the most interesting head of hair. It was bright and colorful and not at all natural. Like a flower had come to life in the shop and decided to grab Bianca's attention.

"So sorry! I thought you were someone else."

Bianca's mind went straight to her all white ensemble. Perhaps this colorful fairy of a girl needed help and thought Tarbuck was an actual peacekeeper. Bianca didn't want to disappoint, not when she was finally on track to do some good in the world.

"No worries. Are you in need of assistance, miss?" she said, hoping she came off as official and not childish.

The girl was beautiful. Bianca didn't want her to stop talking to her. She was asking about flowers that Bianca herself knew very little about but she didn't want to disappoint this fairy of a person.

Bianca looked down at the flowers in the girl's hands. Without really thinking about it, her own hands reached out lightly touching the other woman's fingers as she examined the flowers.

"They're gorgeous," Bianca began, her blue eyes looking up from the flowers. "But it is missing something."

Bianca turned around and examined the shop. Whenever she saw bouquets on television there were always little white flowers surrounding the center pieces of it. Filler that accentuated the star. What were they called again?


"Perhaps some baby's breath?" she grabbed a stem from a display nearby and held it against the flowers, letting the girl decide for herself it looked good.

Bianca felt odd holding such a delicate plant. She was such a large woman trained in combat, not flower arranging and yet she felt right at home helping this stranger.

How odd.

Amethyst. What a gorgeous name. Bianca looked at the hand extended to her and swallowed hard. She slipped her hand into Amethyst's, but found that her fingers swallowed the other woman's.

"Bianca Tarbuck," she said. She wanted her to remember her name. The reason was fuzzy, a cloud of uncertainty in her mind, but at that moment that's all she wanted in the world. "It's been a pleasure."

Yet that sounded like an ending. Bianca didn't want this interaction to end, not now not yet.

"Do you need any more assistance?" she asked, hoping her voice didn't soudn too desperate. "It would be a pleasure to walk you to your destination."

The tribute cemetery, a place for sadness and mourning. Bianca had only recently aged out of the Reaping, but for so long she had wanted more than anything to be a tribute. Now, the reality of there being a plot of land where all the only boys and girls who wanted glory were buried sent a shiver up her spine.

"Actually, that sounds like something I need right now," she said. Maybe, she wanted to spend more time with this stranger, or maybe she needed to pay respects to the tributes of the past, but she wanted to go. She wanted to be there, she wanted to belong either with the dead or with the living. "I'd love to escort you."