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]

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."

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell shrugs. "Sure. Most of them come from District Two but people from other districts sometimes get into the academy if they try. I don't want to be one, though. I'm going to do clams." She sounds resigned to, rather than enthusiastic about, clams.

[missnicegirl]

"Why clams?"

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell starts ticking off fingers. "The boats don't go out too far, so I won't get eaten by a squid-mutt." (Bell is too young for anyone to be routinely saying "kraken" in her hearing.) "I can poach clams now, to practice and learn about them, so I can probably start getting bonuses faster than if I start not knowing what I'm doing on shrimp or lobsters or something. Even besides squid-mutts clam boats are some of the least dangerous kinds. I mean, I can swim, but anybody can drown in bad enough weather, especially when they're eight. And, now that I come here, I want the shells, because Bar will take shells like they're money, and that means I can buy food here."

[missnicegirl]

Something seems... off... about this, but Matilda can't figure out exactly what.

"I dunno what I'm going to do when I grow up," she says. "I bet it'll involve math somehow, though. I really like math."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Math is okay. They don't do very much of it in the regular schools in District Four. If I passed a lot of tests they might move me to someplace with better schools, like District Three where people have to know how to do electronics, but then I'd just live in the school and probably never see my parents again. I don't try very hard on the tests."

[missnicegirl]

"...I don't think I like where you live very much," says Matilda.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh, District Four isn't bad," Bell says earnestly. "I mean, at least we have Career Tributes. District Three doesn't. If I moved there I might have to go on TV."

Bell is fully unaware that this paragraph is incomprehensible.

[missnicegirl]

"Huh?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Which part?"

[missnicegirl]

"What's a Career Tribute?" is what she settles on after a moment.