~A/N~ This is my first fan-fic, and I am more than willing to hear critique, in fact I love it, but if you're going to review and do nothing but hate, don't review :) I will be uploading the next 5 chapters, they are already written ASAP
Wind blows over the grass and flowers. Birdsong fills the air. I don't listen close enough to know what kind. I don't want to know. I sit in the meadow, breathing in the late-spring air. I try to keep my mind clear, the memories out. Focusing my gaze, I study every minute detail of a clover flower. I fill my mind with the little details of the simple flower because if I allow my mind to wander, the big details, the ugly details, the details that I wish didn't belong to my life, will fill my mind instead.
I watch as a tiny ant crawls out of one of the hollow, pink clover petals. With a deep sigh, I get up. I've been out here since dawn and it's now nearly noon. It's time to go back home. Walking with my hands in my jacket pockets, I make my way back to where the town used to be. I always expect to see the loose area in the fence that I would crawl through. It's no longer there. Instead, there is a gate in the chain-link fence. A gate that although always fastened, is never locked.
As I walk into where the town was, I avoid thinking about how it looked right after the bombing. There had been a thick blanket of ash covering the ground, with bones and bodies scattered everywhere. Now, the ash is gone, thanks to reconstruction crews and the elements. Where once stood the ruins of District 12, skeletal frames for new houses and shops now stand. It has been busy in 12. The new government decided to help rebuild it, allowing those who had survived the bombing a chance to live in their original home once it's complete. Not only that, but the government decided that since coal was not a real necessity, what with the multitude of alternate energy sources, District 12 will now be the nation's producer of medicine instead. Where once stood the coal-processing plant, there is now the makings of a large pharmacuetical lab. Yes, District 12 has changed tremendously since it was bombed two years ago.
I'm now entering the Victor's Village. It's the only place in 12 where the original buildings were unscathed. I walk past Peeta's, then Haymitch's house. Greasy Sae is waiting for me on my porch. "Ready to eat, Hon?" She asks as I walk up the steps. I give a slight smile and nod. Now that I think about it, I realize I haven't eaten yet today. I don't know why. Normally I bring something with me on my daily dawn walk. "Food's in the pot. Finished cooking a few minutes ago," says Sae. I walk in, hang up my father's leather hunting jacket and pull off my boots. I walk towards the back of the house, into the kitchen. I stop. I see a sight that's quite normal, but I'm nevertheless surprised. Peeta is sitting at my kitchen table, waiting for me. We often eat lunch together, but I had seen smoke coming from his chimney and smelled baking bread when I had come into the Village. I had assumed he was busy baking and that we wouldn't be eating together.
"Why didn't Sae tell me you were in here?" I ask as Peeta gets up and walks over to me. We're both smiling, and I know I smile even more as he hugs me. "I asked her not to tell. I wanted to surprise you. Not very easy when you and I make up half of the residents of this place. That's why I even rigged my house to make you think I was over there. I'll tell why after lunch."
I let go and walk over to the pot over the fire. Inside is stew. It's venison though, not lamb. Lamb is not common game in the woods of 12. Deer, now those I can hunt any day. I ladle out stew into two bowls, then we sit down across from each other. When we've finished eating, I look at Peeta with raised eyebrows.
"Well, I'm surprised. Now, why did you want to surprise me?" Peeta swallows the last of his stew, then gives me a melancholy smile. "Don't you think you deserve something special today? Katniss, it's May eighth." I stare at him, blankly. What does this have to do with me? What's so special about May eighth? Then it suddenly dawns on me. I give a sharp intake of breath, and close my eyes. Peeta has reminded me what today is, but I also realize that its meaning had completely changed. It's my nineteenth birthday.
First I'm in disbelief that I'd forgotten. Today is the the first time I have have a birthday without the Hunger Games a part of my life. No tessarae to take out. No increase of unlucky odds. No games next month. No Capitol, no threats, no Snow. It should no longer be tainted with anxiety. Then I remember why I don't really care to remember my birthday anymore. It's because those I would share it with are gone now.
Father is long dead. Gale is in District 2 helping their district's government branch. Mother is in District 4, working as a nurse in their hospital. Prim. Oh, how my heart aches the most as I realize that for the first time since she was born when I was three years old, I will have my birthday without her there with me. I won't ever have her there with me again. Prim is dead.