@mvxinelee !
She wondered if the other the younger raven-haired girl — a girl seemingly far more adept in wrangling tributes than she was — was as nervous as she was. Galea was always nervous, every time one thing was out of place. And she was always finding more things out of place. It was a shitty job to pick, an escort, for someone so obsessed with perfection. Each tribute was a diamond in the rough, something to mold and assist: something that didn’t come to her wrapped in a bow and exactly as she’d planned it. She fiddled gently with the fabric of her skirt, eyes downcast. Out in public she was bright and chipper, and with the tributes she adopted cool confidence, but privately: with those she trusted, considered her friends, she was much quieter, must softer in her demeanor, as if she had MELTED underneath a spotlight torn away rather than the brightness itself. ❛ You want some chocolate? ❜ She was shy, sheepish almost in her offer, moving nervously dancing fingers from the hem of her skirt to the ends of her hair. Uncharacteristically, anyone would have noted, but she felt like a fish out of water almost anywhere she went nowadays: she’d been demoted to the lowest district, the glitz and glamor and privilege of District One and the painstaking averageness of District Six but a faint glimmer in the distance. She didn’t feel at home anymore: she felt bad for the expensive fabrics she wore, like she was rubbing it in that they were far away from home. Instead of dwelling on it — it was Galea’s specialty to push negative feelings away until they broke her — she pushed forward the dainty white box to the young woman, praying she would accept. They were friends, they had been for a while, but she couldn’t help but ponder if things changed since she was pushed backwards: now she was lower than Maxine, farther behind. She wondered if she’d be abandoned, ostracized — it didn’t seem like her friend to do so, and if the roles were reversed in some alternate universe, Galea herself wouldn’t do it either. But then again: she never thought she would be in this position.
