Fledglings
Written as Willow Mellark, Katniss and Peeta's daughter.
'Rye! Run faster, we're late,' I call out to my brother. We rush through the golden-yellow dandelion fields, rippling in waves with the warm summer breeze. It is beautiful but I know there is something wrong. District Twelve is too empty; it's as if a new town was built over the remains of something else.
They do teach about the Hunger Games in school. But the minor details aren't enough; I need to know more- my questions are always left hanging in the air, the teachers almost scared to answer them. No matter what time of day it is, these thoughts swirl in my mind…
We reach the school building, more of a house really, and find Posy outside, talking to her friends. Rory and Vick graduated years ago, and moved away to District Two. They work with Gale now. I know that my mother and Gale were close, that there was something between them. Yet she chooses to block him out. I don't know what happened but she doesn't forgive him for it.
Rye and I run up the stairs. I walk him to his second grade classroom. He doesn't know yet, about the Hunger Games, the Capitol, or even about Gale. And it's better if it stays that way.
I dash upstairs, to my class. We have a field trip today, to some other district. They told us it's a surprise. My class and I walk out, single file, towards the Meadow. A hovercraft has appeared. We scramble in, everyone rushing to get the window seats. As usual I sit alone. It doesn't bother me too much though; I prefer the company of my own thoughts. The hovercraft cuts through the air, as fast as lightning, it takes only a half hour to get to wherever it is that we're going. The teacher has been lecturing us throughout the journey but suddenly something catches my attention. 'We will be meeting a real rebel, a rebel from District Twelve,' she says. I catch my breath, there's only one person this can be. I've seen pictures of him in the book that my parents keep, as a memory of all the friends they lost. Tall and dark haired, with grey eyes, just like my mother.
I walk out of the hovercraft in a daze. He's waiting right outside and I don't have to look up to know who it is. 'Class, meet Gale Hawthorne, a rebel from our own District Twelve,' says the teacher. I fix my eyes on Gale. And suddenly he rushes forward and envelopes me in a bear hug, lifting me up. 'You're her daughter!' he exclaims, as the other kids gawk at us. 'This is exactly how she looked, when I met her in the woods for the first time!' He sets me down again. 'But you have your father's eyes…' he murmurs. By now my cheeks are a bright red, my face on fire. My class and teachers observe the scene from a few yards away, unsure what to make of it. I'm not sure myself.