Rose POV
I slip my head phones into my ear and turn on Coldplay. I hum along to 'Paradise' as we speed around the roundabout.
I hear a muffled voice calling my name and I take my headphones out.
"Rose," my mother calls. "I just wanted to say you really have to behave on this trip, okay?"
"I will." I drone.
I have been dreading this for months now, and my parents know if I don't want to do something then I definitely won't do it with a smile on my face. We are going to District 4 for my parent's college reunion. All my parents friends will be there. And I quote "All your friends will be there, Rose. You will have a great time." My 'friends' being my parent's friends children. I have never met them before and I'm not a social type like my brother. Luke would make friends the second he walks through the door. He's only thirteen and has about 400 friends on facebook. I don't even have a facebook account. We will be staying in Annie and Finnick's house for two weeks. I groan inwardly. I hope I'll make it out alive.
We turn a corner and I can now see a strip of blue. The open window lets in the scent of salty sea air. I breath it in. How long was it since I've been to the sea? I think I was five. I'm fiftteen now. My sixteenth is coming up soon and I would rather forget about it. I hate being the center of attention and Jen, my best friend, will force me to have a huge party with everyone in the school. 'It's just against the law to stay in with your parents when you're sixteen'.
I love Jen but she can get a little bit bossy. That's why I don't really spend time out, I like to stay at home and play the piano. That's all I do lately. I've been playing the piano for as long as I can remember. I love the cool feeling of the keys against my fingers and the buzz that runs down them when I press down. The sweet melody that tickles your ears.
I look over at my parents. My mother places her hand over my father's on the gear stick. I see him smile. This is what I love about my parents. They completely and utterly love eachother to bits. Nothing can tear them apart.
I'm broken from my trance when I hear Luke snoring. I turn to look at him. His mouth is open and he's drooling. His blond hair falls over his closed eyes. He look's ridiculous. I smirk. The amount of times I've made fun of him for his sleeping habits. He does about everything. Snoring, drooling, kicking, sleeptalking, sleepwalking and the list goes on.
We turn another corner and we drive down a road. There are rows of trees on either side, bending over, creating a roof to guard us. Light trickles through the leaves, painting speckles on the road. We twist around bends until the trees desperse, leaving a magnificent sight of the sea. A brick wall seperates up from the water but over it you can see a beach. White sand. Shells scattered over the surface. Waves lapping over eachother, trying to reach the shore but giving up and sinking back to safety. It's beautiful.
"We'll be there in 5 minutes." Father says. I decide it's time to wake up Luke. So I lean towards him putting my face inches from his.
"Lukey." I say in a singsong voice. I pull a face at the last second. He flutters open his gray eyes. The look of shock registers on his face before he jumps back and shrieks.
"Jesus Christ, Rose." He says as he pulls himself together. I'm still finding it hard to breath from laughing. "What's your problem?" he tries to keep a stern face but smirks a little. He punches me lightly on the arm. "Good one." That's what I love about Luke. He's not a sore loser, always forgiving. And he always admits defeat to my harmless jokes. Well sometimes harmless. Only one time when we were little I said that there was a monster under his bed, he screamed and ran into the door. I start to chuckle.
"What's so funny?" he asks.
"I'm just remembering the monster under the bed incident." He doesn't laugh this time.
"That was not funny, I had a black eye for a week," this only makes me laugh harder. "At least I didn't walk into a door five times."
My laughing sibsides as I remember when we visited Aunt Prim and Uncle Rory. They had gotten a new house and had fitted this glass door. I wasn't the brightest of children at the time and I would get confused and whack into it. I was only four. Luke obviously doesn't remember but heard the story from Mother and Father. He has never let it go.
Luke erupts in laughter at my scowl.
"Shut up." I say as I cross my arms.
"Okay, okay." He puts his hands in the air. "Truce?"
"Truce."
We pull into a driveway. The house is huge. It's painted cream and has a huge door at the front.
"Wow." Luke says. We park the car next three others. People have arrived already. I groan aloud this time.
I hop out of the car and slam the door. Dad looks at me raising his eyebrow. A silent warning.
I grab my bag out of the boot, it's not heavy because I don't really need much to last a couple of weeks. Luke on the other has three bags. He needs a change of clothes every day. I laugh to myself remembering his protests to mum. 'What if it snows?' Luke always comes prepared.
I walk behind my parents, suddenly feeling quite nervous. I feel like I've shrunk with this huge house towering over me. Dad knocks on the door and in less then two seconds it flings open, revealing a small woman. She has flowing, brown hair and freckles scattered over her nose. Her eyes are a dark green. She is wearing a flowery dress falling just below her knees and is bare footed. She smiles a huge smile and brings Mother and Father into a hug.
I look around the hallway, there are coats hanging messily in a row and shoes underneath. There is sand scattered about the floor. Infront of us is a huge mirror. I look at our reflection. Mum and Dad are glued together, Dad's arm around Mum's shoulder. Luke is smiling, he can smile his brightest smile for anyone, showing off his perfect white teeth. I stand in the middle. I have my wavy hair falling just below my shoulders, my bright blue eyes shine. The t-shirt I am wearing hangs loosely over my slender figure. Mother and Father call me beautiful but I don't believe it. I've never been beautiful, I just blend in the crowd. Average looks, average height and just an average person.
"It's so great to see you." She gushes after she realease Mum and Dad. She turns to us. "You two have grown so much!" she exclaims. "I remember when you were just a toddler." She smiles at me fondly and brings me into a hug. "You are so beautiful, Rose." She whispers into my ear. I feel my cheeks heating up. Those words again. I don't care about being beautiful, I like being forgettable. She hugs Luke as well.
"Finn! Finnick! The Mellarks are here." She shouts over her shoulder.
I hear them before I see them. I hear a deep voice laughing and another voice saying "Shut up, Dad." His voice is higher but not by much. When they come in I can barely tell them apart. One is taller, which I assume is Finnick. The other one is a head shorter. He has sandy, blonde hair which hints of brown in it. He has perfectly tanned skin. His eyes are bright green, brighter then Annie's and Finnick's put together. His nose is straight, and a little long but it fits perfectly with his features. He wears navy shorts just above his knee and a cream t-shirt. He has a strong build, and is very tall. I have to admit, he's incredibly handsome. I quickly avert my gaze when he look's me in the eye. I turn away, focusing on Finnick and Annie. I can see him glancing at me in the corner of his eye and I feel lighter somehow.
"This is Finn." Annie says pointing to him. I smile shyly and he looks at me and Luke. "Finn, this is Rose," she says gesturing to me then Luke "and this is Luke."
"Hi." He says his voice is slightly raspy and he clears his throat. I smile with lips closed, We look at eachother briefly but I look away, afraid I'll say something stupid.
I look over to the parents and they are all smirking at eachother.
"And you know Finnick." Annie says nodding her head toward him, he now has his arm around her waist. I nod and smile.
"Yeah." Luke says. He smiles with all his teeth.
"You look exactly like your father." Finnick says indisbelief shaking his head. "Not a bad thing I might add." He winks at Father and I let out a laugh. He turns to me and grins. "Well, you look like a perfect mix between the two. Very pretty, isn't that right Finn?" I look at Finn and he has turned bright red. I feel the sides of my mouth turn up slightly.
"Come in and we'll introduce you to the gang, you can drop your bags here." Annie points towards a pile of bags. She smiles and leads us towards another room.
This room has wooden flooring and white, panelled walls. There are about four windows that let in bright sunlight and huge T.V on the wall beside a fireplace. There are matching cream sofa's and chairs around the big room. They are all full of people. I brace myself for the long list of names I will have to remember. I look at Luke, he is staring at something. I follow his gaze and find that he's looking at this girl.
She has short blonde hair and hazel doe eyes. She has olive skin and a slender figure. This little girl is pretty She looks innocently around the room. She's about Luke's age. I glance at Luke and smile knowingly. I nudge him with my elbow.
"You're drooling." I whisper in his ear. A blush creeps up his pale cheeks. I feel sorry for him because I have just found something to tease him about for the next two weeks. I am relentless when it comes to teasing Luke. Especially about girls.
"Everybody, Peeta and Katniss are here. And this is Rose and Luke!" Annie says. Everyone obviously knows my parents. I feel everyone's eyes on me and I hate it. I just look at the ground while Luke light's up the room with his bright smile.
"Catnip!" I hear a man say. I look to where the voice came from and I see a big, muscular man with gray eyes like Mother and shaggy, dark hair. Who's Catnip? I think. I see him embrace Mother. Mother is Catnip? I look at Luke and I see he has a confused look that probably mirrors mine.
"Gale," Mother says after he releases her. "How long has it been?" He just shakes his head and hugs her again. I look to Father and I can tell he's a little jealous. Why?
Gale pulls away from Mother and nods his head to Father.
"Peeta, nice seeing you." But he's not genuine. I can feel the coldness from their exchange from the other side of the room.
"Gale." Father smiles his smile but it's not the way it usually is. It doesn't warm my heart. Why are Gale and Father so cold toward eachother? I can't shake the feeling it has something to do with Mother.
Finnick clears his throat awkwardly and introduces us to everyone.
"This is Gale," he points to the man. I not sure about this Gale yet. "And this is his wife Johanna." She has a hard look to her face which plaugues her beauty, she has tanned skin like Gale and a strong figure. "And this is their Lydia." He points to the pretty girl that Luke was staring at. I nudge Luke with my elbow again and I don't bother to look at his red face. The family smiles kindly at us. Lydia looks straight at Luke and I see her smile confidently. I laugh to myself quietly. Luke is never going to shut up about her.
"This is Thresh." Thresh has dark skin and looks intimidating. He is huge and looks terrifying. He smiles at me and Luke and the fear melts away. "And Rue." Rue has dark skin like Thresh and is small and looks a couple of years younger, Aunt Prim's age. She has open features and kind brown eyes. I immediately like her. "And their son Will." Will has a kind face. He looks about my age. His shade of skin is lighter then Rue's and Thresh. He has short black hair. He didn't look like either of his parents. His eyes are an almost magical golden colour. His nose is small and has full lips. He has a cheeky look to him. He smiles with all his teeth. His bottom row are slightly crooked, but that makes him look slightly wild. He's so stiking and well… beautiful. Luke nudges me with his elbow.
"Don't drool, Rose." I turn to him and scowl. If looks could kill he would be dead.
"And last but not least," Finnick continues "Madge," Madge has long blonde hair that falls to her waist and has soft blue eyes. Her eyelashes are coated in a thick layer of mascara. She looks like a doll "and Kate." Kate has the same soft blue eyes as Madge but that's where the similarities end. She has straight jet, black hair and freckles scattered around her face. She looks mysterious, with a smirk plastered on her face. I'd say she's about a year older then me. She looks at me and smiles softly, I decide that I like her. I can't help notice that there is no man in the family. No husband or father.
I scan the room and look at all the people I will be spending the next two weeks with. Luke, Finn, Will, Kate and Lydia. This will be interesting.