You can't feel the heat,

Until you hold your hand over the flame.

You have to cross the line,

Just to remember where it lays.

~Satellite, Rise Against

XxX

"Hey Armeen," Ella says, waving her spoon in greeting."The usual?"

"Yeah," I say. I watch as she ladles lamb stew into a tin foil container. She disappears into the back kitchen for a moment before reappearing with a small bag of dried plums. I take a few crumpled bills out of my pocket and put them on the counter as Ella puts everything carefully into a plastic bag.

"Will you still be able to look after Andrew tomorrow?" Ella asks, referring to her son.

"I'll be there at seven," I tell her with a smile, taking the plastic bag from her hands.

"Tell your mom I said hi." I don't have a chance to reply because the next customer is already at the register, asking Ella about the daily special.

Ella helps run her grandmother's restaurant, her grandmother being an old friend of my mom's named Greasy Sae. The lamb stew has always been my mother's favorite with extra dried plums. Even before the war, my mother told me once, when it didn't hurt as much to talk about her life prior to the 74th Hunger Games.

Of course, being seventeen and in the 11th grade at school, I know as much as my teachers and textbooks have to tell me about the not-too-long-ago Civil War. Being the daughter of the face of the rebellion, people think that I know leagues more about the rebellion and have some sort of deeper insight, when in reality, my parents are extra careful about disclosing any information about the war. A few years ago, when we first started learning about the Hunger Games, we did research projects on key figures in the rebellion, and naturally, I got Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. I made the mistake of asking about the last moments of the war, and what lead my mother to shoot Coin instead of Snow.

"I know it's part of your project, honey, but I think your mother would rather not talk about it," Dad told me gently. Being the stupid barely-teenager I was, I insisted, and my mother gave me the most haunted look I'd ever seen on a person, and I never asked anything about the war again.

"Is that you Armeen?" I hear my mother's voice from upstairs.

"Yeah," I call. I look down to take off my shoes, and when I look up, my mother is right in front of me. "Mom!" I say. I will never get used to the way she can slink silently around the house and sneak up on you at any time.

"Did you bring the stew?" she asks. I straighten up. I can easily look over my mother's head. My dad tells me my aunt was tall, too, but my mother never had the proper nourishment to grow as much.

"It's in the kitchen," I say. I avoid my mother's eyes. They hold a special kind of sadness these days, the week of my dead aunt's birthday.

I would've loved her, my father tells me. I have her eyes. He also tells me about his brothers, the uncles I never knew, and his parents, the grandparents I never had, although he avoids mentioning his mother. My other grandmother is still alive, but she lives in District 2. She always comes for visits but never in this month.

"Where's Gabriel?"

"I think he's still at school. He had some research project."

My brother is three years younger than me, and these days it is his turn to learn about the Hunger Games. His research topic is also our parents, but I told him not to bother asking our parents. I sent him to the school library with my project and a few textbooks.

I walk into the kitchen after my mother. "Did Dad make anything?"

"Cheese buns," she says with a smile, pointing at a pan on the table. I flop down into a chair and start on my first one. It's quiet for a few minutes as my mother does the dishes. "Will you be looking after Andrew tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'll be back by ten I think."

"I think I'll head out to the woods with Gabriel tomorrow afternoon. It'll be you and your dad at home for most of the day."

I never really picked up on hunting like Gabriel did, instead leaning more towards the artistic side like my dad. We have a lot of days like these, Gabriel and my mom in the woods and me and my dad at home.

"We'll have a picnic one of these days when your school ends," she adds, jotting something down on the notepad she keeps on the fridge.

"That sounds good, as long as it's not on Saturday. I'm going out to town with Raina then."

My dad wanders into the kitchen a few moments later, paint on his nose, and my mother sighs even though she's smiling, and looks for a sponge to wipe the red off with.

I put my school bag down on my desk.

"What's with all of the whispering today?" I ask Raina, one of my best friends since I was five. All of the girls seem particularly chatty today. Raina looks up at me, pausing her copying of someone's homework.

"They're all talking about some guy from District 2. His name's Basher, I think. Black hair, gray eyes. That's all I caught," she says. She finishes off her homework and passes the notebook she was looking at back. "Everyone's saying he's pretty hot."

"Basher?" I ask. Raina grins, shrugging. The five minute warning bell rings and Layla, my other best friend, walks in. I wave her over. "Is he coming to our school?"

"Nope, just visiting," Raina says.

"Have you guys heard about that Asher guy?" Layla asks, blonde hair falling in front of her eyes. I shoot a look at Raina upon hearing his real name and she gives me a look that says oh. Both Raina and I nod in response to Layla's question. Layla rolls her eyes. "I don't get why everyone's so obsessed with him. He's not that special."

I laugh. Layla's always seemed to have an aversion to boys, no matter what they look like.

"I don't trust your eyes," Raina says just as our teacher walks in. He's carrying a thick stack of papers and there's a collective groan from the class.

"Looks like he's graded the exams," Layla whispers.

XxX

(A/N)

Hi guys! This is my first fanfic, so please don't hesitate to criticize. I know this chapter's short and boring, but I had to get done with some background stuff and all that, the chapter length will get longer.

This fanfic is inspired by the fanfic called "Another Fire" by Lyselle. I've messaged her and asked for permission to use some of her ideas, so some parts of my story will seem a bit familiar to anyone who's read that.

Thanks for reading :)