Maizie & Bea.
Bea's question made Maizie's stomach clench, but not as painfully as it might have even a month ago. It wasn't so much that she was getting used to Dad being dead, as she was just used to people asking about him. She pressed her lips together eyes darting away from Bea's face, and nodded. "No, it's ok that you asked. I probably would too, if it had happened to anyone other than me. But yeah, that was really him."
It wasn't the time or the place for going into just how much the Capitol's post about Dad's death had gotten it wrong, and Maizie wasn't sure that Bea would want to hear about it anyway. So she just kind of shrugged sadly. Because what else could she say? She was far from the only kid who'd lost a parent in the past two years. Hers just happened to be a little more recent.
"I hope they let you go," she said instead, letting Bea send the conversation back into a safer direction. It was interesting to hear even this small amount of information about Fox Grove's council, and so Maizie focused on that instead. But she still felt stiff, more like a puppet than a person. "I really wanna know what's out there, so if you see anything noteworthy, will you tell me?"