Who: Katniss and Alyssa What: Meetings Where: Baxter’s Bakery When: Early September Rating: Low Status: Complete
Katniss was doing her usual routine. Her walk to work, followed by a Chai Tea Latte from Baxter’s followed by another short work to the actual office. It was true it was a bit mundane, having a routine, but it was just something she’d ‘fallen into’. Picking up her drink from the preparation area, she turned and almost spilled her drink on a girl stood not too far behind us. The shop was incredibly busy this morning so she couldn’t really fault the girl. “I’m really sorry! Are you ok?” she asked, checking her over to see if anything had actually spilled. Luckily no harm done.
Alyssa had tried to jump out of the way, but it wasn’t really needed. The other girl was just reacting to the traffic in the cafe. “Oh, I’m fine, thank you. Are you all right?” She’d be willing to get the girl another coffee or a biscuit or something if she was upset. But the girl seemed cheerful enough, and Alyssa smiled right back.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, thanks,” Katniss smiled at her before gesturing to the busy shop around them. “There’s just so many people here. I’m Katniss by the way,” she flashed a little smile and held out her hand to the girl in greeting.
Her blue eyes went wide, and Alyssa had to fight hard not to gawp. “Katniss Everdeen? We have a friend in common.” She reached out to shake Katniss’ hand, looking up at her a bit. The burdens of being very petite were many. Crap. Would Katniss like her? Would Peeta get angry if Katniss didn’t like her? Would Katniss be weird about Alyssa being English? Too many questions. Alyssa just decided to run with it and just try to make a new friend. “I’m Alyssa Hamilton, it’s nice to meet you.”
Katniss stared for a second, her mouth agape until she got herself under control. She shook her head as she pieced together Gale telling her about an Alyssa that Peeta was engaged to. This must have been her. “Alyssa, yeah, um...sorry,” she gave a little laugh and smiled at her. “Gale told me about you. Umm, I should probably say congratulations firstly,” she grinned at the petite girl.
Alyssa couldn’t help but giggle nervously. “Oh, thank you! I was so worried that you’d be upset - I know the dreams kind of make things... well, it makes being awake a fat lot more complicated, doesn’t it?” She noticed she was blushing brightly from her cheeks to her ears and pressed her hands to her face.
Katniss shook her head and chuckled at the girl. She was really quite adorable, and Katniss rarely said that about anyone. “No, no, I mean, yeah it makes things awkward but...no, I’m not upset about it. I’m glad Peeta’s found someone to help him through everything,” she smiled at her again. “I uh...I’m not sure I could have done that. In fact I know I couldn’t have done that before,” she looked down at the cup in her hands. “I uh...the Dreams really messed me up for a while,” she admitted shyly, glancing up at Alyssa. “Do you want to sit?” she asked, having spotted a table being vacated just behind Alyssa.
Alyssa nodded, moving to sit down at the table. She sighed, crossing her legs and setting her handbag down on the table. “Your dreams - the people from your dream world? Are absolutely the worst I’ve heard of. And in my dreams I have to kill demons. I’m glad you’re there for him in the dreams, though.”
Katniss sat back in a chair and looked at the girl deeply. "We make a pretty good team then, I'd say," she smiled at her, nodding sagely. "But yeah, our Dreams are pretty messed up, and that's being generous," she joked grimly. "So demons are your thing, huh? Tell me about it," she offered, sitting forward with her elbows on the table.
Well, this wasn’t the meeting with Katniss she’d expected. Alyssa had expected more anger about being engaged to this girl’s dream boyfriend, but instead the other girl was more interested in her. It was surprising, and Alyssa liked surprising. “I can see ghosts too, but they aren’t as destructive as Entities,” Alyssa started. “That’s what demons are called in my dreams. So I have to kill them. I use a bow as well, or a sword sometimes.”
“You use a bow and arrow too? We should go down the range together sometime. I’m always open to some advice from an outside eye,” Katniss told her with a smile. “Although, I have to ask...how do you fight ghosts with weapons?” she questioned with a grin.
“The arrows are made of heavenfire. The sword, too.” The sword was in Alyssa’s chest, and looked a bit terrifying when she pulled it out, but that was a conversation for another day.
“Ah, I see,” Katniss nodded. “I’m afraid my weapons are much more mundane than that,” she joked. It had been a long time since she remembered making jokes. At least, not ones without some grim sense of humour behind them. “Swords sound like fun though, I uh...I didn’t focus on swords in the training from my Dreams,” she admitted with a wry smile. “Would you be up for maybe teaching me something?”
“Of course. I’m still training and practicing myself. There’s always room for improvement,” Alyssa beamed. She hoped that Peeta wouldn’t be upset with her for being friends with Katniss, if only because Alyssa would continue to be friends with whoever she wanted.
“Great! Thank you!” Katniss grinned back. “Umm...here’s my number,” she fished her phone out of her pocket and accessed the phone book to show Alyssa her phone number. “Just give me a call when you want to meet up,” she shrugged, trying to seem casual, but let’s face it Katniss didn’t make friends easily or often. “I work over at Stark Industries part time but I’m thinking of finding a course in business and starting my own thing up. You uh...sound like you have some survival skills from your Dreams, might you be interested in teaching them to others?” she offered casually, keeping her eyes down as she said it. She felt a little shy asking her to be honest. She liked this girl and it sounded like she was a good partner for Peeta which was a great relief.
Alyssa added Katniss’ phone number to her mobile and then handed it over to Katniss to repeat the process. “Oh, wow, you work at Stark? That’s brilliant, I know that’ll look fantastic on a CV if you ever want to work elsewhere.” Survival skills, hmm. “I could teach courses on self-defense and things for women, actually.”
“I’m only doing admin for now, nothing special,” Katniss shrugged. It wasn’t like she’d needed any special qualifications for the role, just a basic grasp of IT essentially. “I’m hoping to develop my own business. We all have pretty...unusual skills but not necessarily the places to use them. So I figure why not create a sort of...adventure park where people can come to learn, train and teach skills which you don’t really find anywhere else. Kind of like a summer camp but for anyone of any age,” she explained, hoping the idea was made clearer by it.
“Still, they have really rigorous hiring standards.” Alyssa beamed at Katniss, pleased that the other girl was so successful. Alyssa loved when other people did well, and she wasn’t ashamed to show it. “And that’s a brilliant idea, really! I’d love to help out.”
“It was a pretty tough interview I have to admit,” Katniss chuckled. She liked this girl a lot, she was happy, up-beat and enthusiastic. It made her feel better, optimistic. “Great! Thank you!” she grinned happily, thrilled to have so much support from people for her idea. She caught sight of the clock on the wall behind the counter and realised she needed to leave for work or risk being late. “Crap, I’ve got to get to work, but stay in touch, ok? It’s been so great to meet you and I’m really happy Peeta has someone like you looking out for him,” she told Alyssa genuinely.
“Of course!” Alyssa stood up and gave the girl a quick hug. This had gone much better than she’d thought it would, and she was pleased to have made a new friend out of all this. “Have a good day at work, and I will, promise.”
Katniss was surprised by the hug, not being used to that kind of reaction. Quirking a little smile and awkwardly patting the girl on the back, she stepped back from the hug and smiled in thanks before heading off to work.