These Nights Are Long {Nellie/Amelia}

[Kaplan]

Petronella Query

☆

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Is anybody out there?
Can you lead me to the light?

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When it came to training, I tried to keep it simple. I did the things that I felt would be the most important for me in the Maze, and made my best attempt not to focus on too much else. I needed to be prepared. Being from District Three, one didn't really know much in the way of survival skills. We worked with technology all day and night, meaning that that was truly our specialty over anything that would actually be deemed important to have in the Maze.

This is why I tried to hone my craft in a few particular skills. I also, however, took the time to watch what the other runners were doing, too. If I could see what their skills were, maybe I could figure out what skills I needed in order to successfully go up against them and survive when it came to actually going into the Maze. Today, I'd be observing some of the runners that were closer to my age. I had been watching one of the older girls, Rachel from District Two, quite a bit, but she clearly had prior experience with things. Therefore, I decided that I should focus on someone from a non-career District and see how they did things.


That was when I came across Amelia from District Five. She was quite beautiful, and, had I not been told otherwise, I would have thought she was one of the older tributes. Instead, however, I found out that she was only twelve years old. That meant that she and I were likely to have similar life experience and abilities, right?

Wrong.

This chick knew what she was doing. When she was in the middle of her training, my silent watching ceased and I spoke to her.


"Wow," I said to the girl. "Where'd you learn how to do that?" 

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Is anybody out there?
Tell me it'll all be alright.

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309 words

lyrics: "Carry You" by Ruelle
table by Kaplan