The Childrens Rebellion

Trauma™

"I noticed you didn't finish the movie last night," Sniff said quietly as they walked out of Advanced Subspace Geometry.

He ignored her, zooming in on a specific question for their math homework. "Do you know how to do problem forty-seven?"

Sniff gave him a wry look. "I'm not stupid," she said. "You showed me how to do that problem around minute twenty-three." Tommy frowned at her. "Stop avoiding the question."

He sighed, slumping slightly as they walked into one of the many courtyards. This one was less of a courtyard, as it faced the Golden Gate Bridge in all its gloriousness. Drista and Lani were already waiting for them, the shorter Shulker girl bearing tins of lunches. Initially, Sniff had refused the food that Karl cooked for them daily but had caved when she'd met the doe-eyed Human—especially since Sapnap had been glaring behind him, daring her to refuse.

"It's..." he said. "Complicated."

"Most things are," Sniff said, with a twist of her mouth.

"That movie reminds me of things I'd rather stay in the past," he admitted slowly.

Sniff slowed down. "Ah," she said. "I see. I suppose I share that statement. There are certain movies that I...abstain from seeing." She hesitated. "Some might say that I get flashbacks."

"Some might say that," he said with a slight shrug, biting his tongue from asking. She wasn't asking him—he had no right to return the favor. "I just think they're day-mares."

"What?"

"Nightmares, but in the day, and they're set off by current events."

"...that's just PTSD, Tommy."

"I don't have PTSD."

"The first stage of grief is denial." Now she sounded like Purpled.

"I'm not grieving!" he snarled, and Sniff laughed lightly.

"Grieving?" Lani asked, catching the tail end of their conversation. "Who's grieving? I know I sure am, after fucking Gale ." She made a face. "Fucker."

"What's wrong with Gale?" Tommy asked sincerely. "He seemed like an okay guy."

"He's a bitch," Lani said.

Tommy swallowed. "Ah. I see." He really didn't.

"You should."

"He's only a bitch in the other movies," Drista said, rolling her eyes as she handed Sniff and Tommy their tins. Tommy took his and opened it, tilting his head as he found teriyaki—Lani mouthed tofu when he raised an eyebrow at her—and rice. "He uh—well, you didn't end up watching the rest of the movie, did you?" Tommy shook his head. "Yeah, basically Katniss finds Peeta, and they put on this 'show'—" she made air quotes. "—but it's only sort of a show? Because Peeta is in love with Katniss? 'Cause the announcer guy says that two people can win if they're both from the same district, 'cept Peeta is dying in a cave—" Tommy flinched violently and played it off as a bug, slapping his neck. "—so they gotta play their part of star-crossed lovers, which they do pretty well until the airdrop sends soup. Then Katniss has to go to the Cornucopia to get actual medicine, and Rue's district partner saves her life from Clove."

"That's the knife girl," Sniff told him, stuffing rice into her own mouth as they sat below one of the trees, safe from the heat of the sun. Other students milled around—giving them looks because, well, it was them, but not near enough to hear their conversation. "She would have won had Katniss not had plot armor."

"Stop breaking the fourth wall," Drista snorted. "Anyway, Katniss gets the medicine, people die, blah blah blah. There's a whole-ass chase scene as the Capitol tries to whittle down the numbers, and eventually, it's only Katniss and Peeta left standing."