Prologue
Everdeen & Hawthorne Hunting & Gathering Co-Operative Est. 74 ADD
Founded in 74 ADD, by Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne. The company started out as a local business, obtaining food sources from the local woods outlying the District 12 border. Today, it's a multi-million dollar business, shipping loads all the way out to District 1 and all in-between. Recently, they signed an agreement to work alongside Mellark Bakery, and they've been doing fine ever since.
Gale taps his pen on his oak desk while sitting in the back office of the Hob. The room is cluttered with filing cabinets, chairs, boxes, and memos. He stares at a stack of papers, reading the top sheet and trying to make sense of it.
It's busy on the inside of the Hob, outside of his quiet office. The day is growing late, and most of the employees at Everdeen and Hawthorne Hunting Coop are preparing to leave for the night.
He tosses the papers back on his desk and pockets his pen. He gets up and opens the door to the warehouse, immediately hit by the wave of noise coming from the hustle and bustle. His secretary, Madge, walks by holding a manila file.
"Madge, where's Katniss?" Gale asks, stepping outside. He almost has to shout over the sound of the semi-truck's engines currently being loaded for shipments.
Madge's blonde hair is put up in a bun on her head, with a pencil going through it. Her white blouse and khaki pants are wrinkled from a long day of work.
She looks up from the file, "She's on her way back from her business trip to District 11, why?"
"I need that ticket for Genoco, and I got a call from District 3 for a return on their shipment of squirrels, can you call them back?" Gale asks.
Madge nods and quickly walks off towards the main office. A fork-truck zooms by with a large palette with boxes labeled 'groosling'. Gale speed-walks out towards the lobby, running into Greasy Sae as she's coming out of the kitchen. She's wearing her chef's outfit, stained with bits of food.
"Did you get that memo?" she asks him.
Gale thinks hard back to the stack of papers cluttered on his desk, "The one about the rabbits? Look, you have to talk to Ripper, she'll know about it.'
Greasy takes off her apron and tosses it in the clothing hamper outside the laundry room. It's been a long Monday working. Just about everybody is ready to clock-out for the day, but Gale still needs that Genoco ticket. Only Katniss would know where it is, but she's nowhere to be seen.
Darius, walking around with his security uniform on, waves Gale over, "Hey! Are you looking for Katniss?" his red-hair is sweaty and he wipes his brow.
"Yeah, did you see her come in?" Gale asks hopefully. Darius points up towards Gale's office.
Really? Gale rolls his eyes and waves goodbye. He jogs past the aisle lined with stacks of boxes ready to be loaded onto trucks for the next morning. Tuesday will be a busy day, and he's ready to call it a night. It's already an hour past his shift.
He yanks open his door to see Katniss sitting in his black-leather chair, smoking a cigar with her feet up on his desk. She's wearing her hunting attire, with brown-leather boots, light-olive pants, and jacket. She blows smoke up towards the ceiling and grins at him.
"There's the man with the plan!" she slides a glass of scotch across the desk towards him.
He just stands in the doorway with his mouth open. But eventually he smiles and gives in.
"Yeah, man with a plan that nobody seems to follow," he laughs, taking the glass and downing it in one gulp. He coughs, "What was in that?"
"Who knows, Greasy Sae made it," she replies. "What's with Genoco? And why is it that we're returning our shipment to District 3?"
Gale picks up Katniss' feet and pushes them off his desk. He shuffles through a stack of papers and locates the one stamped with 'return' from District 3. The receipt says they weren't satisfied with the size of the squirrels. He hands it over to Katniss and lets her read it.
"I was hoping you knew what happened with Geneco...now I'll have to call Corporate and get them to fax me a new ticket!" Gale rubs his eyes and sighs loudly.
There's a knock on the door and Gale turns around to see Peeta walk in.
"What's going on?" he looks at his watch, "Work time is over, it's poker night!" His baker clothing has been replaced with a clean, grey shirt and dusty jeans. He flips a pair of sunglasses up onto his blonde hair, and points at Gale, "I believe you still owe me from last game!"
Gale slaps him a high-five and they laugh, but not for long as Katniss clears her throat. The both look at her confused, and she raises a brow.
"I believe Prim is performing in the school play tonight…" she says matter-of-factually.
Gale and Peeta exchange worried glances.
A/N: The picture is not mine! I found it on Google...
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- Legkicker