#larkpara

The Reaping was supposed to be a day of celebration but all Lark could think about was her dead best friend's younger sister, Julian. Julian's fresh little face, her deeply tanned skin... Julian was already tan to begin with but the work in the ranch meant that her face grew more weather beaten every year. Julian had been forced to grow up after her brother, Clark, died in the games last year. Lark's heart was heavy from thinking about her best friend's death and she was already certain that her face was weather beaten. Not exactly a champion material, but at least she had good looks going for her.

Which is what she needed when the little scroll was unrolled and her name was called out by Effie Trinket. "Lark Williams! Lark, come on up," she said in her high pitched voice that irritated Lark. At least she wouldn't have to worry about living with a dead best friend for much longer - she would have died in the same game that he died in. She sighed as she moved up to the stage, her blue eyes drinking in the scene in front of her. District ten was rather large, and she wondered how the hell she was supposed to bring honor to the Distract.

An abortion clinic was seen as dirty and disgusting and proof that she had made an awful mistake when it came to having sex with someone she barely knew. Too young to have sex, too young to understand the consequences - and that was what the protesters outside were telling her as well. That she was a dirty slut who didn't have any brains in her head. But Lark didn't like to think that she had made a mistake because the guy she had been with was one of the sweetest she had been with in a long while. Lark didn't feel like it was a mistake to care about a guy and let him into her life. Who knew that one forgotten condom would lead to a pregnancy and an STD screening? Lark didn't realize the full mistake of her actions, but she knew that she'd do it all over again with a condom if she could.

She wondered if the guy would even care about the fact she was aborting "their" child. She didn't like to think of it as a child since she was going to get rid of a child. Lark was only sixteen - she wasn't prepared for a child and she refused to grow up just for a child she didn't even know she'd like. So Lark finally got the guts to go get rid of the fetus and not have to think about growing up. So that was what caused her to make her choice when it came down to it. Lark was happy to think of the decision to abort the fetus, to no longer be pregnant.

In fact, the anxiety wasn't from the idea of getting an abortion, it was from all the judging eyes. She had already admitted to making a mistake... must they go on as if she hadn't made a mistake already? Chiding her for something she already knew? She was annoyed with them, rather annoyed that she had no say in where to go. "Could you like... not," Lark asked them as she heading into the clinic, where she was already running a tight schedule.

Any later and she might not be able to get the abortion she so desperately wanted and would be forced to carry a pregnancy she did not wish to carry. Lark smiled when she exited the clinic four hours later, almost elated to not be pregnant anymore. She could hear the screams from the protesters, who looked very angry with her. She didn't know why they were so angry - it's not like she forced them to watch her get an abortion. It's not she forced them to be there.