sweetheart

This girl is here to party, Fenn thought to himself, grinning. Hell yeah.

“Nice to meet you Bev,” Fenn grinned as he accepted the bottle. He plonked down on the floor beside the mixing cabinet, cross-legged, as he swigged from the bottle.”Fucking hell,” he gasped. “Whatever that is should not be allowed.” He felt the pink liquid burning down to his stomach. “I love it.”

He grabbed two glasses and two strawberries from the cabinet just above his head, put a strawberry in each and filled them with the drink. “There - it’s basically a fruit salad.” He offered a glass to Bev.

“So, Bev. I’ll hazard a guess that you’re not a mixologist by trade - what do you do?” Fenn laughed.

Aphrodite raised her eyebrow, looking down at the girl in awe of her relentless enthusiasm. Did she know where this train was headed? Everything that was going to go down as soon as they stepped off the train? It was endearing to see the girl smiling up at her with wide-eyes and her sweetheart voice.

“I love a girl that knows how to party.” She turned, looking for the whipped cream, finding a can on the counter behind them and giving it a shake.

She had never actually made this cocktail before, but had seen it done enough times to have a vague recollection of the process. But the whipped cream was being difficult, refusing to come out of the can no matter how much she tried.

“Fuck,” Aphrodite said, her gaze turning away from the tribute and down to the can, inspecting it to see if she was doing anything wrong. “Give me a second. I’m determined to get this to work.”

Her fingers fiddled with the top of the can, trying to figure out if there was anything blocking the cream from coming out or if there was some unknown stopper she hadn’t released.

“I’m Aphrodite,” she murmured, looking up and grinning at the girls comment, “And you’re Beverly?”

“how’d you know!” she clapped her hands together as if knowing her name was a magic trick she’d yet to see performed. there were twenty-four people on the train, and she hadn’t introduced herself to everyone yet. it was nice to be known. “i love that name. so classy—totally makes you sound like you’re from the capital.” it held every twist of mystery and intrigue that a bev did not. 

“you’re really going all out for this!” she watched aphrodite shake the whip cream can, though the struggle was apparent. she had no idea what could be causing the problem, her own abilities in life were minimal at best, revolving around keeping small talk going. “i promise i’m going to love it all the same, even if it’s missing the whipped cream.” 

Fenn walked into the room, smiling at the blonde. He strode leisurely up towards the mixing cabinet and picked up a strawberry from the fruit tray.

“Strawberry sounds delicious,” he grinned, popping the berry into his mouth. “I’m useless at this though.” He looked around at the array of bottles, a few of which he recognised from his parents’ liquor cabinet, but most of which were alien to him.

“Maybe this one? It’s pink and if we drink enough of it maybe it’ll start to taste like strawberry.” He laughed at his companion and handed her the bottle.

“Fenn, by the way. And you are?”

Aphrodite stopped dead in the doorway upon seeing the blondie waving her in. Another new face. District Six, if she remembered correctly, with a volunteer as a District Partner.

“Let me help you out there,” she said, making her way over to the bar and smiling down at the girl. She seemed sweet. Innocent.

Ducking behind the bar, Aphrodite looked for some ingredients that might be useful. Back in District Five there were a few cocktails she could recall that included strawberries, but for this girl in particular she was looking for something incredibly sweet.

She settled on a strawberry and cream cocktail she had been rather fond of, getting started on chopping up the strawberries and measuring out the Cachaça. 

“Do you like your drinks strong?” Her voice was soft as she began shaking the mixer.

she stepped aside immediately in favor of lettering the other tribute take over. “strong! sure i do—is there any other way to get a night started?” she laughed, a charmed little giggle at the work that was being done. whatever was happening, was already far beyond what her expectations had been. “thank you for rescuing me. i just know i would have made a mess!” she was never one to provide for herself. luckily people had a way of stepping in and helping her. this stranger was in exception. “what your name, my knight in shining armor?”

Calix had been attempted to find an empty car, but it seemed he’d failed. Not only was the stranger far too upbeat for where they were, but he didn’t know the first thing about mixing drinks. He considered turning on his heels and exiting immediately, but that wouldn’t help his reputation. So, instead, he forced himself forward, taking a seat at the bar and looking over at her attempt at a drink. “Y-You might be asking the worst person on the train about this,” he said. He didn’t know much about this tribute. Frankly, he’d been too in his head to remember names and faces. “But I can, uh…shake it, I guess?”

“don’t be so hard on yourself!” she chided, pushing the shaker she’d been pouring everything into in his direction. she figured even if it didn’t end up tasting like a strawberry ( really it was going to taste like alcohol no matter what she tried ), at least she’d spent the time with someone new. someone with a kind face and willing to talk. “well go on, shake it!” she’d offered, and who was she to deny one the small joys in life. “unless you think its missing something. anything to make it more pink!”