WHG Prompt One
Tyde Westbrook - District 9
Tyde's mother stood on the far side of the room, his sisters flurrying about about the room around her. She held one hand on her hip and then sucked in her teeth, shaking her head as she stepped around various girls in various stages of getting dressed. "Let me," she said as she grabbed Tyde's hands and pulled them away from where he struggled with his tie.
He avoided her gaze as she weaved and tightened the knot around his neck. Eyes focused solely on the buttons at the cuffs of his sleeves. One button was loose, in need of mending before it fell off.
And Tyde considered briefly for a moment finding the time to fix it now. It would only take a few minutes to grab his mothers sewing kit from it's place beside her chair in front of the fire place and sew it on tighter. There was time. Plenty enough of it before they were all called to the center of town for the reaping. His mother always rushing him and his sisters to ensure they were all on time.
But he wanted a chance to find Castor before. To at the very least pick him out from the crowd and find a place to stand beside.
"That should do it," Tyde's mother noted with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Though it didn't quite reach the rest of her face at all. Just a tight upturn of the rest of her mouth as she gave Tyde's hand a quick squeeze.
He was the youngest of the family. The only one with a name still a contender to be reaped in the games.
"Are you nervous?"
"Hmm?" Tyde hummed finally looking up from his wrist to meet his mothers eyes. Warm and brown and shining. "No," he said, shaking his head a little and forcing a strong smile. "No, I'm alright, mama."
A lie perhaps. Or... Perhaps it wasn't. Tyde had woken this morning with a tightness in his core he hadn't been able to shake. Almost like a warning. Like a change in the air that sent birds flying towards far off havens. A stillness. Silent. Too silent.
But Tyde wouldn't call it nervousness. Or anxiety.
So in that at least. He was telling her the truth.