district 17 | svt

ID NUMBER 7

I was only thirteen years old when everything started.

At thirteen years old, you don't really know much about the outside world, nor do you really care about what happens beyond the life you've always known. As a thirteen year old boy, the only thing I cared about was passing all my classes.

I had always admired the older students and instructors. They were so mature and responsible— I looked up to them. Seeing the DPO guards train and observing all the mechanics fix things around District 17 was so admirable to me. I couldn't wait to grow up. I couldn't wait to see what my purpose was in the district.

That is, until I met Emi.

She was about a year older than me, but she never avoided talking to me like a lot of the older kids did. Whenever I waved at her, she'd wave back with a cheerful smile. Whenever I sat alone at lunch she'd sit with me. During breaks we'd hang out together in our favorite spot in the entire district— the River.

One time I saw her fish out her morning pill from her pocket and throw it into the water, allowing the small capsule to drown in the current.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked as she stuffed her hands in her overall pockets.

"I just don't like them," she shrugged, "It feels weird down your throat when you swallow the pills."

She made a bitter facial expression, like she had swallowed the pill with disgust, making me burst into a fit of laughter. She smiled of satisfaction, watching me attempt to calm myself down. I let out a sigh before looking back at the River.

"You're right... the gummies were better," I agreed, in which she chuckled and called me all sorts of things, like cute and adorable.

After that, I started doing the same thing with my pills. When they gave us our morning prescriptions, I pretended to swallow the pill then hide it in my pocket. During break times I met up with Emi by the River, and we'd throw our pills into the water together, watching them flow away with the strong current. I noticed that I felt a lot better once I stopped taking my pills. I wasn't as tired every day and I felt more lively and expressive.

As the months wore on, I got to know more sides of Emi that I didn't know before. I knew she was nice, but I never expected her to so intelligent too. She passed every exam, and she knew the most challenging math formulas. You name it, and she was a master at it. In my eyes, she was the coolest person in the world.

What made her even cooler was that she shared this knowledge with me. She helped me with my assignments, topics in school I struggled with, and so on. However, the things that interested me the most were the secrets she'd share with me.

Every day by the River whenever we met up, she brought a different book that talked about certain things you couldn't learn in school. We read stories about animals, found information about different types of seasons and weather, and even traveled the outside world by reading the books.

"This is called an ocean," she once told me, pointing to the picture of large blue area that surrounded a small little green island. "An ocean is a huuuge body of water."

"Bigger than the River?" I asked her, making her giggle.

"Way bigger," she beamed. "And some day, I want to see it for myself."

"How will you do that?" I asked, knowing full well how strict District 17 was about leaving.

She thought for a moment, not really sure herself what her plan was. She turned her attention towards the rushing current below, falling silent as her gaze got lost in the glistening waters.