in a forest of legs

[she_sells_seashells]

The second time ever Bell finds to Milliways, she is better prepared. She has a bigger bag of shells with her, and she knows that she'll need to pace herself with the food to stay as long as she can.

She is still six. As far as she can tell, she is the only child in the place - everyone else is an adult or at least in their mid to late teens.

Except - oh, there is a girl her age, over there. (Only maybe not. Last time she was warned that appearances can be deceiving.) But she's certainly worth investigating.

Bell drags her shells over in that direction.

Comments

[missnicegirl]

The girl is curled up in an armchair with a book. Actually, with a stack of books, but she's only reading one of them at a time.

It is called 'Algebra', and has a weird picture on the front.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Hullo," says Bell tentatively, because she knows she doesn't love to be interrupted when she's reading but she's too curious not to try. "Um, I'm Bell. I'm from Panem. What's your name?"

[missnicegirl]

She lowers the book and smiles.

"Hi! I'm Matilda," she says. "Where's Panem? Is it a city or a country or a planet?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"It's a country," Bell says, heartened by Matilda's willingness to put the book down. "It might be the only one on Earth but some people think there could also be Atlantis. I don't know if I think that, yet."

[missnicegirl]

"In my world, Atlantis is imaginary," says Matilda. "At least I'm pretty sure it is. I'm from Lyndonville—that's a town. The country is called the United States of America."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I think my continent might have used to be called America," muses Bell. "I read ahead in geography 'cause I can read while I shuck clams if my mom turns the pages for me, but I don't remember that part for sure."

[missnicegirl]

"Your mom turns pages for you?" she says, impressed. "Some mom! Mine never did that."

[she_sells_seashells]

"She can do it while she's sewing," explains Bell. "She says just because I started working before I had to doesn't mean I should give up on school before I have to, and if the best way for me to read my assignments is while I'm doing clams she'll turn pages."

[missnicegirl]

"That's nice of her!" says Matilda. "Is she a teacher? I got adopted by a teacher and she's way better than my mom was."

[she_sells_seashells]

"She teaches some years!" Bell says. "It depends on whether the school can afford to have a class of five-year-olds right then or not, and there are always people arguing that the entire school is pointless except for the stuff about boats and fish. So they usually decide they can't afford it. The other years she mends things."

[missnicegirl]

Matilda's eyes widen. "Where you live can't afford school? That's awful!"

[she_sells_seashells]

"We can always afford it for kids my age to age thirteen," Bell says, wide-eyed. "Four is one of the richest districts. It's just the older kids and the five-year-olds who sometimes get skipped."

[missnicegirl]

"Kids go to school from five to eighteen where I'm from," she says. "I only started when I was six and a half because my parents weren't paying attention and they thought I was still four."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Your parents... thought... you were four?" Bell asks quizzically. "Weren't they there when you were born? At least your mom?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yeah, but they didn't really keep track of me after that. So I had to yell at my dad a little before he went and found a school and sent me there."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh. Well, that sucks," says Bell sympathetically. "I got to go to school when I was five. They weren't going to have the class that year but my family was doing okay around then so my mom volunteered to work cheaper for the one year, since I was five."

[missnicegirl]

"You have an awesome mom," says Matilda.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yeah! My dad is pretty cool too but he's not at home much. Salmon boats have to go out pretty far."

[missnicegirl]

"My parents were pretty useless," says Matilda. "But they did sign the adoption papers for Jenny, so that part's good."

[she_sells_seashells]

"That does sound good. Teachers where you are make enough to support a kid all by themselves? Or do you live with other people?"

[missnicegirl]

"...I think they do," says Matilda. "It's complicated. Jenny's dad was a doctor and he had lots of money, and then Jenny's parents both died and all the money went to Jenny's aunt, but it turned out she'd killed Jenny's dad and she was really nasty so I got rid of her and now Jenny has all her dad's money so I bet she could have lots of kids if she wanted. But she doesn't, she just wants me."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh," says Bell, clearly finding this explanation all much more sensible than the idea of an otherwise unfunded single parent teacher. "My dad would have made a lot of money but he messed up his knee and couldn't afford to get it fixed since he hadn't had much time to save up. So he couldn't be a Peacekeeper anymore. Now he does the salmon boat job. But that's okay because Peacekeepers aren't allowed to get married or have kids, so he would have had to wait for his contract to be up otherwise."

[missnicegirl]

"What's a Peacekeeper?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"They keep things peaceful," Bell says. "If people are poaching or getting into fights or trying to run away from District Four they're the ones who stop them. I can poach a little bit and nobody stops me because Dad made friends with them when he was one, though. And because I'm little. So I can bring home clams without officially working on a clam boat yet."

[missnicegirl]

"Like cops," she says, enlightened. "Okay."