A Happy Picnic ((India And Harley))

Moving here so that we don't have to have are post mixed in with the others.

India felt sympathy for Harley. Loosing his parents so young. But she knew that's why he lwas so much braver and stronger today. "I'm sorry." She didn't know how he felt talking about his parents so she thought that that was the only appropriate phrase to respond with. She sighed and picked some dandelions from the ground of the meadow, twirling them between her fingers. She tried to change the subject. "These weeds. They are so beautiful yet so ignored. Not acknowledged at all. Even for the beauty it carries. Sometimes I feel like these plants. So capable of life, but so ignored."

She picked off the tiny petals of the dandelions, one by one, and threw the stems to the side.

"Don't feel bad. My parents where lunatics. And they were making me one. If I had not found you I would be running laughing like a madman down the streets of district 12 with a gun in my hand."

He laughed at the picture he had put inside his head. Then looked at her.

"You hungry?"

They had been out in the meadow for about 2 hours now. It was so relaxing it only felt like fifteen minutes.

((Rules are 150 words. Its kind of hard to reply to really short posts just thought I'd say))

India tried to hide a smile. "You would've changed by yourself. I don't think you needed me to help fix you. Nobody needs me but me.." She said, cleaning the last dandelion of its petals. She nodded at the offer of food and watched as Harley pulled out some food from the basket. She stared up at the sky and sighed happily. Breathing in the fresh, clean air.

"Isn't it just amazing out here? The fresh air, the bright blue sky. I feel like nothing can get me out here. Nothing." India genuinely felt that way. She would stay out there all day if she could've. She heard leaves rustling from a Bush nearby, and her mind jerked to attention. She was ready to attack, but all that came out was a small rabbit. "Oh.." she said, relaxing and laughing quietly to herself.

((I was planning on a bigger post. But I was distracted by the end of the Super Bowl.))

"No I needed someone. I felt like I was on a one man team. I had to survive by taking from others. Which is hugely frowned upon. Anyone that saw would point and yell for the peacekeepers to kill me. Everyone wanting me dead is hard to live with. I could not change my ways. I could not change from stealing to making a store in the seam. The peacekeepers are not so forgiving. So I was forced to steal and kill."

He was tierd of talking about himself. His recent past makes him angry. He did not want to show India his angry side. It was not pretty. So he continued on about the weather. Which was just as bad. It was fake. He reached into the basket and grabbed some bread and goat cheese which he spread on top.

" I am glad you brought me out here. It must have been hard to come out here knowing that the last time was with your old freind. I wonder how Cato is doing?"

He kept beating around the bush. He had to tell her about his dream.

" India, I know I don't seem myself today. And I am going to tell you why. It's this dream I keep having. Over and over. It's about the hunger games. You and I are both picked as the district 12 tributes. And we are forced to fight each other. I don't want it to happen. I hope that we both avoid this reaping. I have to ask. How many times is your name in the pot?"

India listened to Harley talk, and she knew he was genuinely speaking the truth. She hoped he wouldn't go back to his previous lifestyle. He needed a change. He needed a new life. And India was going to help Harley to just that. "I agree. The peacekeepers aren't very... fair people. I try really hard to stay out of their way. You know, avoid them as much as I can."

India had a hard time letting go of a lot of things. "Actually, it wasn't that hard to come out here with you. Which is surprising because I have a head time letting go of things. You know, like moving on. I've just always had trouble with it. So I try really really hard to not attach my emotions or myself to things or to people because it always leads to heartbreak and loneliness."

India listened to Harley describe his dream about the games. She tried to imagine herself in the Arena with 23 other tributes but she just couldn't see it happening. "Harley, obviously, I haven't been picked as a tribute yet. And the next reaping, I probably wont be, the odds are in my favor. I'm 15, so that has my name in there a couple of times, and I've only tooken one tesserae before I was kicked out. If I was ever picked, it would be such a surprise. But you shouldn't think like that," she explained while putting her hand over Harley's. "Only positive thoughts."

"I was just worried about you, thats all. Positive is hard for me to do. I will try though."

By know he had finished his bread and was looking for something else to talk about. He noticed that India was always talking about nature. And decided to go on a hunch.

"The world seems so beutiful and clean out here. I can't help thinking that we are in a different world. One that is not so mean and cruel. That everyday you wake up and welp.....I am not very good at making poems as you just heard. But I think that my observations tell me you are a poet. And have writen peoms about the landscape around here. It's just a hunch but I think you just might be. The way you described nature before. It was wonderful to hear."

He turned to look at India using one hand to prop his head up the other still holding her hand.

"Come on I know you have it in you. Make one up about me. Or the breeze. Or the wild animals. Go on."

India laughed at Harley's poem. "That wasn't very good."

She smiled and looked down. "I have never written a poem before, Harley. I dont even know if I'm good!" She tried to think and the first two lines popped into her head. "How about a poem of life..." She thought a bit harder and it all came into her head. "Hope can be lost, and faith can die. Friends can go away, and family can lie. All can be lost, but still, I stand strong. Nothing was okay, until you came along. You helped me, you gave me, a purpose in life. And now, sitting here, everything feels right."

India smiled and blushed, hoping her poem was at the least bit okay. "I see everything different then other people do." India explained. "I find the deeper meaning of every little thing in life, and it just helps me understand why life is so hard. It helps me understand why we are all put through so much struggle. Like death, some people are afriad to die. But to me, death is not something to fear, it's like.. an eternal break from all the struggle and hardship and misery that you have been put through during your whole life.."

"Wow that was wonderful."

He was going to clap but thought it might echo.

"That peom was beutiful. Are you sure you have not writen peotry before. That was a thousand times better than mine."

It was about two in the aftenoon. He was full from lunch. And very sleepy. He laid back down and asked India

"So the peacekeepers don't come out here. I just help getting the feeling that we are being. Watched."

He moved his head to see if he could see someone. But is seemed pretty clear. So head down the blanket and closed his. He was not sleep just relaxing.

"I am you can think that way. I got alot to prove. Right now I must likely have a ticket down to the hot place. With all things I had done. I will be honest I fear death. If the world where more like out here peaceful and quite. Instead of at the districts. Which are filled with sadness and hate. I would hate to leave this place. This is as close to paradise I am getting."

Harley slaped him self mentaly. Wow that was a very woe is me type comment.

"I am changing, and hopefully this not as close to paradise I will ever get."

Don't feel bad for your self. He thought.

"I wish we could get away from all that and just live here. There is plenty of food and water. And tons of shelter. It would be easy. But the PeaceKeepers would find it weird if two kids that where hanging around each other disapeared. This would most likely be the first place they would look."

He quickly cut of the conversation and turned something else.

"I did not get much sleep last. Did you?"

India blushed and bowed her head. "Okay. Maybe just once, but it was a while ago." It was a bit late in the afternoon, and India started to think that they should go back to the shack. She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to say goodbye to the peace and serenity just yet.

"The peacekeepers don't come out here themselves. Just the capitols worships, but they never find you if you hide in the right spot." She said. "So no worries." She spotted a young mockingjay perched on a branch of the tree behind them. She opened her mouth and sang a few notes and smiled when the mockingjay repeated it. "This is my paradise."

"It's possible, Harley. No one would look for us. We have no one except each other. Right?" She said quietly.

She stared up into the cloudless sky and said "not really. I dont ever sleep well."

"Maybe we should rest up a bit before we leave to go back to are little shack. It's so relaxing I swear I dozed of once or twice already with out me even knowing."

He dug around in the basket and pulled out some drinks.

"Here take one."

They where the old style bottles the on you needed a opener for. But Harley instead used the tip of his gun. Once the cap was removed it made satifying hiss.

"I don't know where Cato ever got the amount money to purchase all this."

He mainly talking about the soda.

"I very rarely got up enough courage to steal from the luxury item store. But when I did these where the first thing I would go for. Here you to try some."

He cracked of the top and haned it to her.

"You say that you did do poetry before. What ever made you stop. I mean you could think up one in minute. I don't think any one could do that."

He laid down and closed his eyes. Hoping to get some sleep. He hoped India would do the same.She said that she had not had a good sleep in along time. Hopefully that would change. Being tierd stinks. It slows you down. And is this world that could be life or death.

India took the soda and tasted some. They probably didn't even have it in most of the districts. It was the best thing she's ever tasted. Sweet and syrupy.

"Cato didn't have any money. Cato doesn't even live there. His house is next door. No one lived at the shack. So I took it over for my own. Which probably wasn't a very good idea. I'm not exactly a tidy person." She said with a laugh.

She thought about why she hasn't wrote poetry in a long tine, but couldn't find the reason why. "I guess, because.. I didn't have anything to inspire me. When your an artist, you always need a muse. An inspiration. I just couldn't find that. So I guess I gave up on it for a while. I never knew how much I missed writing until now. All these ideas are floating around in my head and I'm just itching to get then on paper."

He looked up at the clouds. Listening to her every word. He was listening so intently that he did not notice the rain coming down. It was just a sprinkle. But by the look of the cloud it was not going to stay that way.

"You really have a talent. And it would be ashame to let it go to waste."

This brought the thought of what his talent was. But he shoved it aside because he hated feeling bad for himself.

"I hate to do this but this weather is just going get worse. We should get back. I have something I want to give you."

He began to get up taking his last sip of soda.

"Don't worry I got more of that soda back in District 12. It's at my hiding spot. And that is where I will give you my gift."

He stuck out his hand to help her up.

India felt the drizzle of rain on her sensitive skin. She listened to the rhythm of the rain beating against the leaves. She was forced to go back now. They couldn't just stay there and get pneumonia or hypothermia or whatever that sickness was. She knew that she couldn't let her talent go to waste. Anything that was a form of Art, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, writing. She loved it all.

"Well, I'd hate to go back, too. But by the looks of it, I guess we are being forced to." She took Harley's hand and let him pull her up while she used her free hand to push on the ground and spring her up to her feet. She gathered everything that was left and shoved it into the basket. "Looks like our little picnic got rained out." She said.

India started to hurry towards the gates and finally reached them. She threw the basket over the fence, bent up the wires, and squirmed through the small opening. She turned and saw Harley close behind. "Hurry!" She called over the rain.

The rain started to pick just as they got to the fence. They got under the fence faster than before.

"Just take turn from here. We should be able to take cover there for alittle while. But you have to promise not to tell anyonne about what I am going to show you. It is at my old child hood home."

They followed his direction to find a small house. The size of a human dog house.

"I know it looks small. But it is really big."

He opened up the door to reveal a couch and a small table.

"Here is the catch."

He moved the rug on the floor to reveal a trap door. He opened it and directed her in. And turned on the light. The space was huge. Old but huge. On one side was a set of 10 rifles. On the other was ammo of every shape and size. He went to the coner and pulled out some more soda.

"Don't mind the guns there are not loaded."

He cracked open one and handed it to her.

"Just wait here. I will be back."

He left the room and came out with a wrapped box.

"It's got your name on it."

((It's a leather bound note book in the package.))

(( Forgot to go into more detail about why he has this in his basement so insert some where up there.))

Harley went on about why he had this and why.

"My father was a killer. But he got paid for his kills by some man. An old man in his ninties who lived i distrct 13. would pay him a fortune for each peacekeeper he woul turn in dead. That how afforded this. It made for good cover when the peacekeepers went looking for him. He would spend it all by buying ammo. He made all these guns. By hand. Of course some things he through secret routes from each district. He burned the map of them before he died."

He sighed he was talking about himslef again but he figured she should know.

"They are going to knock it down soon. As you saw from out side it is not the most structuley sound building. And they will find this place. I need to move some thing to your cabin. Or else they will be lost for ever."

India followed Harley to the little place and followed him through the door in the floor. "Woah.." she said. "This place is huge.." She looked around at the guns on the wall, the way the place was built. She wasn't worried about the guns at all. "So.. Your dad, worked for a guy in District 13? But.. the capitol. They destroyed District 13 long ago. They sent them into oblivion! How is that even possible?"

India kept that question in thought and took the small box from Harley. "What is it?" she asked. Half wanting to know and half wanting to find out herself. She didn't open it, and decided she would open it at the cabin.

She felt bad for Harley. This was his childhood place, and they were gonna destroy it. She thought how she would feel if her place where all her memories were held would be destroyed. "Take whatever you want back to the shack Harley. As long as it doesn't kill me."

((I think we should move the thread back pr make a new one for ourselves that's open))

((Moving back to District 12.