we're the same . calla

Opal stared at him, he was the same as her, when she had entered the games she had vainly tried to be someone she wasn’t. She had built up walls around herself and used her family’s image as a barrier for protection. It was easier to let the world believe she was another shining example of what a Shore could be. Emerald had been savage, blood-thirsty and desirable.

From the train ride to the crowning ceremony, Opal had been the opposite. She had stumbled her way through every interaction, masked her insecurities in the outfits Sardonyx had designed her, and released her fear in the toilet bowl at night. She couldn’t call herself a career to her family, but in front of a screaming crowd and children that wanted to kill her, she wore that label like armor. When push came to shove she didn’t swing her sword because she knew what she was doing, but simply so that she could survive.

“I wasn’t a Shore by any sense of the name. I was hardly a career, but a child with a sword. I was throwing up in the bathroom the entire train ride.” Opal squeezed his hand, leaning in closer, her gaze was hard, but her tone was gentle. “You’re as much a career as I was, and the word career was not how I’d label myself.”

Honestly, she had believed that the person she had been was a stronger image then the one the Capitol had conjured up. It seemed that she was wrong, and the design crafted and shaped by the media had left many younger children in district one believing she was something she most definitely was not.

“You and I, we’re alike, I was the outcast in my family, my sister pretty much promised me I’d die in the Justice Building before we left.” She grimaced at the memory, remembering the anger in Pyrite’s eyes, the disgust. “ If the Peacekeeper’s hadn’t been by the door I’m sure Pyrite would have just killed me herself then and there to save the family the embarrassment.” Opal shrugged, turning her gaze to the window. Pyrite was a force to be reckoned with, she was everything her parents had desired, the image that they had tried to make Opal into.

“You’re more than a name, Emmett.”

A long time ago, she thinks, she would have let this get to her, let the words he spat at her bite into her flesh and rip pieces away. But instead, she found herself staring at him, her gaze softened, sadness crept into her veins and she had to blink, stopping it from filling her eyes. There was no need to show this boy pity, he had made this choice, and judging by the anger that radiated from everything he said, he’d only find it patronizing.

Opal looked away, drawing her hands back to her lap as he clenched his fists. There was a battle within him and even though the words he said stung, she was use to it. It was an echo of what all her siblings had thought of her. A reminder of the words that had filled the news when she had married Potato -an embarrassment. The papers had been filled with horrified Capitolites, disgusted in her choices. And after the news of her pregnancy had been blasted over the tabloids it had only added to the darkness that she had let swallow her.

“You’re right, Emmett,” she said, narrowing her gaze on his trembling figure. I wasn’t stupid enough to volunteer. “I was an embarrassment, but you know what? I’m alive. Emerald was better than me in every way, but she still died. Justice had twenty other siblings who were more experienced than him and they died.” Her eyes blazed, a flame burning in them as she stared him down.

“We’re the ones who win.”

She clenched her fists, in her head she knew she was pushing this too far. Time and time again everyone chose to believe that just because you weren’t the best, you’re weren’t good enough. She was tired of it. It was a losing mentality. “And if you aren’t anything like me, and you’re like all those other careers, then maybe you’ll end up in a grave just like them.”