Hey guys! Le meh is BACK in the THG fandom! Wooooo!
My stories here will be more occasional than in the PJO fandom, but they will exist. YES! The spot that THG has is my heart and mind survives!
This story is loosely based on one of my originals. It's on paper and is not published anywhere, but I thought you guys deserved to know. For further explanations, read the A/N at the beginning of my other one-shot, 'Rebirth'.
So... Without further ado, on to the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games, or any of the characters. All rights go to the AMAZING Suzanne Collins.
ENJOY!
Needless to say, Katniss Everdeen hated music.
Music was the bane of her existence. Music would be the death of her, quite literally. Nothing good ever happened to her in the presence of a melody or a song.
It was to the sound of music she first got publicly ridiculed. She was singing in music class back when she was eight years old, when she stumbled over the words of a fairly easy song. The previously awed students snapped out of their stupor and laughed at her, poiting their tiny little fingers towards her. The teacher had to reprimand them several times before they stopped.
Only one student didn't laugh at her. The baker's son with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was too in love with her voice and acknowledged it as an honest mistake. He even approached her and befriended her after that.
Nevertheless, she never sang in public again.
It was to the sound of music she found out her father died. The man who loved her, cared for her, and taught her to sing for eleven years got blown up to bits in a horrible mine accident. She was at a school assembly, with the choir singing in front when she got called to the principal's office. A live feed of the assembly was playing in the background when the principal told her about the accident, and the death of her father.
The girl who was known as the singing mockingjay to her friends never sang another note after that.
It was to the sound of music she found out her mother shut down completely, and had to singlehandedly raise her little sister, Prim. The radio was turned on to her father's favorite station, and her mother was sitting next to it, eyes empty and wearing an expressionless mask. Despite her sister's pleas for her to snap out of it, despite her pleas for her to wake up and act like a mother, she stayed there, motionless, staring blankly at the wall across from her.
Katniss stopped loving her mother that day, and she never turned the radio to that station again.
It was to the sound of music that she starved. If it hadn't been for her friend, Peeta, the baker's son, she would've died right in front of the apple tree in his yard. She was scouring the district for something to eat, after months of inactivity from her mother, and months of her fending for herself and her sister. Stubborn as she is, she refused the help of her two merchant friends, Peeta and Madge, the mayor's daughter. She didn't need their help, she told herself. She was strong. She will survive. They could go live in their luxuries and drown in their money, the lot of them. She had taken to checking the garbage cans, for she was extremely desperate. She began regretting refusing their help. But now she knew it was more than likely they would stay away from her, after she snapped at them the day before.
She checked the baker's bin, only to find it empty, like all the other bins in the district. The baker's wife came out and chased her away, leaving her to die at the base of their apple tree. From behind the woman, Katniss could see her friend Peeta, looking at her with determined eyes. From inside the house, soft music was playing.
Then, the music stopped. The sound of screaming began. Peeta came out of the house, a red welt on his face. In his hands, were two loaves of burnt bread.
"Feed them to the pigs, you ungrateful brat!" his mother screamed.
Instead, he threw them at her.
Although that just reinforced the idea of music bringing her bad luck. Her savior came only once the melody stopped.
It was to the sound of music her sister died. She still remembered it. She, now sixteen, and her sister, who recently turned thirteen, were walking down the run-down paths of District Twelve.
One of the richer citizens, the jeweler, if she remembered correctly, was taking a drive around the district in his newly acquired car. The radio in the car was turned on, and the song playing over it blasting in her ears. She still remembered Prim, her dear sister Prim, not getting away in time, and the black car hit her, swerved, and drove into a nearby tree. The radio was surprisingly intact, and the song playing it swirled out and reached her ears, mocking her.
"Oh, look at that," it seemed to have told her. "Your sister died, and I'm still alive. Shame, really."
She never turned on a radio, ever again.
And it was the week before her birthday, too.
It was to the sound of music she caught her boyfriend cheating on her.
Her friends, Madge, Peeta, and Gale, a boy from the Seam, surprised her with concert tickets to see her favorite band, the only source of music she hasn't eliminated from her life other than instruments. Of course, it was mostly courtesy of Madge and Peeta, but she was grateful. More than grateful. This would help her take her mind off of her sister's death for a while, right?
Of course it did... for the wrong reasons entirely.
Of course, she had to spot her boyfriend for three months, Avery, a row in front of her sucking face with a blonde merchant bimbo.
Of course, it had to be in this concert, in the middle of their song.
Of course, she had to recoil, get hurt, and run our of the hall, crying.
And of course, he had to hear her, spot her, and run after her.
"Katniss?" he said once they were outside.
"What do you want? And don't say it wasn't what it looked like, cause it definitely semmed like you two were trying to eat each other's face off," she snapped.
"Let me explain," he tried.
"Wasn't I good enought for you? What? Is it because I live in the poor part of town? Oh, wait, let me clarify. Is it becaus I live in the poor part of town where you live in as well?" she hissed.
"Katniss I—"
"How long?" she interrupted.
"How long, what?"
"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, Avery Hayes," she growled.
He sighed and massaged his temples. "Two months," he answered.
Her eyes widened. "Wasn't that when..."
"Yeah, when you refused to kiss me for the first time," he finished for her.
Her vision turned red.
"So you're saying, you took another girl behind my back just because I wouldn't kiss you? Because I didn't give you what you wanted in a relationship?" she seethed, voice shaking in absolute fury.
"Well—"
"Didn't I tell you I wanted to take it slow?! Didn't I trust you with my mother's condition and told you I didn't want that to happen to myself?! But no, you just had to be fucking selfish and think about what you want! Sometimes, I think you're not even from around here. This is District Twelve, Hayes! Not the fucking Capitol!" she yelled.
"What happened to your mom has nothing to do with you!" he retorted.
"And so what if I told you that I wanted it to be special! I am a girl, Avery, as much as it is to believe that! I, like every other sensible ones, want my first kiss to be special!" she admitted slightly more sheepishly.
"Whatever. We're done!" he snapped and strutted back inside, whizzing by the baker's son.
All that time, Peeta grew worried for Katniss, and the sight of her most likely ex-boyfriend zipping past him angrily just made him worry more. Silently, which was a feat for him, he walked out of the concert hall to look for his friend.
He found her at the base of a small tree, in a position much like the one she was in back before he threw her the bread. He walked over to her, making sure he made as little noise as possible.
"You're still loud, you know," she quipped after hearing the loud stomps of his footsteps.
"Oh, come on! I tried, okay?" he said exasperatedly.
She smirked despite her condition. "I know."
Peeta walked over to his friend and sat down next to her. They lapsed into silence for a moment.
"What's wrong?" he finally asked.
"Nothing. Nothing's wrong," she lied.
"Katniss, you know you're as bad a liar as I am a hunter. Spit it out," he pointed out bluntly.
"I'm not lying!" she exclaims a little too defensively. He raised a brow at her in disbelief.
Finally, she sighed, hugged her knees close, and buried her face in them.
"I honestly don't know why this is affecting me so much. I always told myself to never get so attached, and I didn't. But why is this affecting me so much?" she asked herself angrily.
"Maybe it's the fact that you've been decieved by someone you thought you could trust," her friend suggested.
"No. It's not that, it's..." she trailed off.
"It's..." the blond prompted.
She thought for a while, then came to a conclusion.
"It's music," she stated firmly.
"Music?" he asked her, surprised.
She nodded slowly.
"It's music, I'm sure of it. Bad things happen to me to the sound of music. Getting publicly humiliated, my father dying, my mother being as good as dead, almost starving to death, Prim dying, and now, this," she confessed. "It's like music ho,ds a grudge against me for no reason. I always imagine it mocking me as soon as another misfortune worms itself into my life," she laughs bitterly. "It's the music."
Peeta thought it was the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard in his life. Of course, he'd never voice it out, for fear of getting beat up by the feisty girl, or worse. But what if he could find a way to steer her away from the belief?
"Take me away from here," she demanded.
The boy shook his head, "No."
"Peeta, please. Please, take me away from here," she pleaded desperately, struggling to get up. which was new, because Katniss Everdeen never pleads.
"I won't," he answered firmly, holding her down by her shoulders. "Music isn't bad, Katniss. Everything just happens at the wrong time, at the wrong place. Trust me, music isn't bad."
Unconciously, the two were gravitating closer to the each other with every word. They were now only mere centimeters apart.
Katniss could feel her friend's warm breath on her cheek. She knew she had to pull back, but she found herself not wanting to do so.
And suddenly, his lips were on her's, and she was fervently kissing back, all to the sound of music.
After that, she still didn't sing.
She still never turned on the radio.
She still didn't go to concerts.
But she was starting to think that maybe music wasn't so bad after all.
Ta-Da! What did you guys think? Good return to the fandom?
Please, leave your thoughts in a review! They make my day!
Yes, there will be a sequel to this. It will be called, "Sing, my Sweet". Keep an eye out!
Review, fav, don't follow coz it's a one-shot, I don't know what else.
Sorry for being away for so long. Love you guys!
~XxYesterdayTodayTomorrowxX (Better known as 'storyfrikk' to the THG fandom)