A/N: Disclaimer- I do not own the Hunger Games or any of its characters! I think Suzanne Collins is a wonderful woman who created something that no one else could ever have dreamed of, and I look up to her as a role model for writing.

Enjoy my story, and it's set after Mockingjay! Katniss and Peeta are married with two children, Maysilee (Maysi) and Willard (Will). I hope y'all like it and please review! Constructive criticism is appreciated, as is compliments!

Jabberjay

Chapter 1

"I always knew this would happen," my mother says quietly as we all sit in front of the television screen, watching as President Paylor announces that there will be a reaping at midnight.

"What's a reaping?" my little brother, Will, asks her. He struggles to pronounce the words through his four-year-old tongue that makes everything sound like gibberish.

My mother, who is seated next to him on the couch, picks him up onto her lap and tickles the underneath of his chin. "I'll tell you when you're older, Silly Willy." She kisses his nose and smiles at him. "I promise."

They've already told me. When I turned ten years old, there were murmurs at night. Things like, "Should we tell her?" "Will she be scared?" "Is she old enough?"

I guess eventually they decided that I was, in fact, old enough, because about a week later I was seated in the big fluffy-cushioned chair across from the couch, where my parents were seated, my father holding my mother's hand tightly as she visibly stressed over the matter of telling me.

"Maysi, we need to tell you something about our life. Please don't be scared, I just thought you should know since you asked," my father started for her, glancing over and seeing she was sweating bullets.

"I'll take it from here," my mother told him. "Maysi, when I was eleven, my father died and…" she trails off into silence, cut off by silent tears.

"Katniss, we don't have to do this," my father says quietly, looking her in the eyes. I was about this close to ripping my hair out at their ridiculous romance stuff when he says, "Maysi, this is more important to us than you could ever imagine. It's not just about us. It's about you, and the country, and our family. I know it doesn't sound interesting, but you need to know. You'll be introduced to your class soon as the daughter or the Mockingjay, and you need to know what that means."

I sat up straighter as curiosity crept into me. He smiled slightly, and looked at my mother. She nodded, and allowed my father to start over from where she left off. "Her father died in a mine explosion. Her mother went into a depression after her husband's death, leaving your aunt Prim and your mother to fend for themselves. They were all three starving to death, and it was only a week until your mother could take some tesserae, which is a year's supply of grain and oil in exchange for putting your name in the reaping one time for each tessera you bought."

He continued on and slowly my mother began to brighten up, cutting in to tell her version of the Games, and telling what went on while my father was being held prisoner by the Capital. Finally, their stories were over and I finally knew the reason for the screaming at night, the cries of fear, and the secrets they were so obviously keeping.

Afterwards, I remember having nightmares with them for at least a week before I finally listened to my mother's comforting words, whispering to me that I'd never have to be in the Hunger Games, and that I'd never have to go through what she did.

But that wasn't all that I was scared about. I was scared for her.

Now, there's a strong chance that her words could have been an unintentional lie. Though she knew nothing about the seventy-sixth Hunger Games back then, five years ago, she knows now. And there's nothing she can tell me to calm my mind down.

So I walk back up to my room and go to sleep early, hoping to miss the reaping on the television tonight. And I do fall asleep, but end up waking up when the television gets cranked up high, and a strange male voice I've never heard booms in my eardrums, "Maysilee Mellark."

I look at the clock. It's 1:00 a.m. Perfect timing for the last district's reaping. I about jump out of the bed in surprise when my mother shrieks not five seconds after my name is called, and is cut off by something, probably my father shushing her as he attempts not to wake me and Will. But it's too late. I already know I'm going in.

They rigged the reaping. Rigged it so that the daughter of two of the biggest rebels in Panem could get what they deserve. The Capital can kill me, but they know that it would kill my parents in a much more terrifying way, no matter how agonizingly painful my death is.

Somehow, I end up falling asleep again, and wake to the fragrance of cheese buns wafting upstairs into my room. I walk downstairs after dressing myself in a pair of cotton shorts that I wear in gym class and a plain white T-shirt. "Ooh, Game day food. Yum!" I say sarcastically as I sit down on a bar stool.

My mother, who has just walked in the room, drops her mug of hot chocolate on the hard tile of the kitchen floor. She sucks in a sharp gasp of air before speed walking out of the room. "Katniss!" my father calls after her, but she keeps going and doesn't stop, I suppose, since I hear footsteps continuing on and out the door.

My death hasn't even occurred yet and it's already happening. The complete and utter emptiness is already in her eyes, gray and hollow. Her body will continue to get skinnier and skinnier as she doesn't eat. I can already imagine her, sitting in front of the television screen, staring, though not seeing anything. Through her eyes, I am already dead. The Mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion, is done singing. She is silent. Just like the ones in her Games before the hovercraft appeared. The girl on fire has been extinguished.

A/N: OK, a bit of a cliff hanger there, but I hope y'all liked it! Reviews are appreciated! Constructive criticism is always welcome, so don't hesitate before pressing the send button! PM me, too! I love getting compliments and CC, so please review and message me if you like it! Watches and favorites are cool, too! Chapter two will be up soon, since it's summer break and I don't have anything else much to do, but if I for some reason don't post for a while at any time, please know that it's not intentional, just that I don't have the time to! :D Remember: "May the odds be ever in your favor!"