The best people possess a feeling for beauty,

the courage to take risks,

the discipline to tell the truth,

the capacity for sacrifice.

Ironically,

their virtues make them vulnerable;

They are often wounded,

Sometimes destroyed.

-Ernest Hemingway

The repairs to the gear took longer than I thought.

It took three days.

"Charles really," I said, shaving off a piece of wood to make a new hoop for the running course. "It's fine. I can finish this on my own."

Quickly after starting our cleaning, I found out how hopeless Charles was at repairs and polishing. He kept knocking things over, apologizing profusely and then backing up to knock down another thing. Which would then lead to another string of apologies.

Even me- known for my patience- was being worn thin.

I finally had enough of him getting in my way.

"Charles," I said as sweetly as I could, "You are better being somewhere else. I'm pretty sure the other omegas are having a hard time without you."

Charles smiled at that.

"You should really go and help them," I added, just to drive home what I wanted.

Charles agreed with me, knocking down a few arrows in the midst of his vigorous nodding.

At the doorway though he paused and looked down at me.

"Uuuumm...Fayette?"

I looked up, wiping away sweat from my eyes.

"I'm going to bring you some food. And water." He smiled at me, leaving me with a silly grin on my face.

I was glad that Charles would think of that. I knew he would get food, but it touched my heart to know that he remembered and thought of me.

My stomach rumbled in that instance and I laughed out loud. I hadn't eaten in two days. I had only slept for about six hours, before getting up, making breakfast and then heading back to fix the gear.

I hid all this from Alpha Bruno of course.

I knew he was kind and wanted us to be okay. But the amount of work us omega's had to do left us with little time to eat or sleep.

My head perked up at the sound of footsteps approaching and then coming down the stairs.

Charles is fast when it concerns somethings, I grumbled in my mind.

But it wasn't Charles.

It was Anna-lee and her twin Estela.

I put it down to my natural instinct, the wolf part of me that made me stronger and faster, and let me sense when something was wrong.

And every time those girls approached me, I felt something wrong.

Anna-lee had red hair and was the youngest twin, while Estela had raven black hair. Besides their color they looked the same.

"Bruno told us you would be here," Anna-lee purred.

I bristled at the casual use of Alpha Bruno's name on the inside.

My outside appearance was anything but hostile though.

I smiled at the two girls, wanting to show them that I was friendly.

"Why are you always smiling?" Estela asked. She had a horrible voice that sounded nasally all the time. It hurt my ears to listen to her talk.

Before I could reply Anna-lee spoke saying, "She's obviously smiling because she's dumb."

"I see," Estela said, coming closer to me.

It was then that I realized, in the presence of these two groomed girls, how dirty I was. Grease covered me from head to toe and tools laid scattered around me. In the middle of my repairing, I had taken off my shirt, leaving only my sports bra on. I had used my shirt to wipe my hands.

Estela wrinkled her nose at me and confirmed my thoughts. "You smell so bad, Fayette. Like something died on you."

Anna-lee started to laugh. Estela smiled at her sister and turned to me, continuing her goading in hopes of getting more approval from Anna-lee.

"Look at your stomach! New fashion says to be skinny Fayette, but let's not be stick and bones here! You might be the dying source for the smell!"

Both sisters crackled up.

Wow, I sarcastically thought, that hurt so much.

I couldn't help but give a small chuckle at Estela's laughing. She sounded like she was the one who was dying.

Both sister immediately sobered up.

"Are you laughing?" Anna-lee asked quietly.

"No- I- I wasn't really - I um.." my voice died with their approaching figures.

Faster than I could see or register Estela quickly picked up one of my tools- a screwdriver- and slashed my cheek with the pointed end. Not satisfied enough she hit my head with the blunt part. Hard.

I went down, seeing spots in my vision and hearing a ringing noise.

"Estela!" I heard Anna-lee gasp.

"You heard her!" She hissed at her sister. "She was laughing at my voice! At the way I laugh! I know she was!" Estela motioned like she was going to hit me again, but was stopped by Anna-lee.

At least one of them has brains, I sluggishly thought.

"Estela you can't hit her though!" Anna-lee turned to me and her lip curled. "Even though she is an omega, she's not good enough for you to waste your time on her."

Estela ran out of the room, throwing the screwdriver at my hunched over back.

I heard the sound of the closing door and gave a sigh of relief. My relief was short lived though when Anna-lee's voice startled me back to reality.

"I'm sorry she did that" she whispered down at me.

I couldn't believe my ears.

I struggled but forced my head to look up at her.

She seemed to have regret in her eyes. "Maybe this will remind you of what you are."

And with that, she walked out.

Don't cry Don't cry Don't cry Don't cry I kept repeating in my head.

The door opened again and I cringed and curled up in a ball.

No, I whispered in my head. Don't come back. Please.

But a different voice filled my ears.

"Fayette!" I heard Charles shout and rush over to me.

His hands gently lifted me up.

I felt a breeze on my face as we left the gear building.

Charles was frantically carrying me, but I lost focus of the world before I knew where to, and my vision of grey, turned into nothing but black.

Peace - V

(The v is like the peace sign....like your holding your fingers up making the v? no? anyone?)