AN: Hey, guys! I'm new to writting, but I had an idea for this story. So what better place to put this than fanfiction? I doubt I'm the best writter out there, considering this is my first time, so if anyone would like to use my idea, and rewrite it, I'll be happy to check out your stories, and see if I like your style. Until then, here is my story.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games trilogy, any of Suzanne Collins' characters, or the song "Sophia" by Laura Marling.
CHAPTER 1
Today is a bad day. Something big will happen- I can feel it. My mother always said that I can feel bad omens coming a mile away. My 4 year old brother, Lawrence always gets upset watching the games, so I decided to take him to the meadow. So, here we are, picking flowers for the tributes' families.
"Delly, what do you think about these flowers?" His little hand has made a fist around some dandelions. I don't tell him that he has picked a handful of weeds; I just smile like always and tell them how pretty they are. It's a warm spring day, clear skies, and a light breeze. It's perfect. Too perfect- like the Capital has somehow changed the weather to render us unsuspicious. I'm not the only one to notice, either. Many of the people in town have closed up their shops for the day, and people we passed in the Seam have their windows closed tightly.
I look at my brother to see him frowning, like he's trying to figure out some complicated equation. "What's wrong, Laurie?" He takes a long time to respond. His lip trembles, and his eyes tear up as he answers. "When is Peeta coming home? He told me that we would play trucks together. He's not coming back, is he?" A rush of sadness comes over me as he asks me the dreaded question. Of course Peeta isn't coming back. He would go to the ends of the earth and back to protect Katniss, and he will try to make sure she wins. If either of them even make it that far. It's the second day, and already more than half of the tributes are dead- and these are all victors! I have no hope, but that doesn't mean I have to crush Laurie's.
"Why wouldn't he Laurie? He made a promise to you! Has Peeta ever broken a promise before?" Laurie's eyes light up, and a grin spreads across his face. "Nope! I can't wait to show him my new truck Papa just made for me!" He laughs, and skips ahead of me. I don't know how I'll be able to tell him later on that Peeta's not coming home. It's a deed I'm defiantly not looking forward to doing.
"Come on Delly! We're gonna be late for dinner! You know how Mommy hates when we stay out too long!" Laurie stops and waits until I catch up. All contemplations of sorrow leave my mind as I look at my brothers smiling face. Melancholy can wait for another day. "Hey Laurie, wanna sing a song?"
This is a game we play. I'll start to sing a song, and Laurie has to guess what it is, and start singing along with me. It helps take his mind of things when he's sad or throwing a tantrum.
When the bell toll when the bell gon' chime
You better call for your woman on high
And when the bell tolls for your last day
You'll be gettin' down on your knees to pray
I'm a good woman and I never did say whatever it was that you did that day
I'm not a woman that's gonna place blame but you said that you was comin' on judgement day
Lawrence starts singing loudly when he finally realizes what song I'm singing. It's a song that we learned in school a couple of years ago, and I taught it to Laurie as soon as I perfected it. We'll never win any awards for our voices, but it's a cheerful, happy, sound. Everyone knows that the Cartwrights are around when there's singing.
Now Sophia
I'm wounded by dust
When the bell toll when the bell gon' chime
You better call for your woman on high
And when the bell tolls on your last day
You'll be getting' down on your knees to pray
I'm a good woman and I never did say whatever it was that you did that day
I'm not a woman that's gonna place blame, but you said that you was comin' on judgement day
Now-
I abruptly stop singing, even as my brother continues on. Something is off. There's no sound in this part of the Seam that we're walking through. It's usually bustling with children and pets, and neighbors chatting on the road. No one's around. That means someone had died from our district, and considering the part of District 12 we're in, it's most likely Katniss. Tears spring to my eyes, and I try to force them back for my brother's sake. She and I had never been friends, necessarily, but she was an amazing person, and someone I knew. I'll probably never see her again.
With that realization a hundred thoughts run through my head. How did she die? Who killed her? Is Peeta okay? What happens now? I'm ripped from my thoughts by my brother. "Delly- look! It's a giant bird in the sky! Do you see it?" I squint my eyes against the sun to see what he's talking about, and I see it. Only it's not a bird. It's a fleet of hovercrafts coming this way. My eyes widen as I grasp what's happening. We're about to be under attack.