This is my second Hunger Games fanfic, I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, those rights are Suzanne Collins'
CHAPTER ONE: COMING HOME
The door glares back at me fiercely, as if it already knows of my dislike towards the house. As if it is sniggering back and saying I know you'll hate this. For the umpteenth time I question why I am here. And I go through the previous events of the last months in my head.
Going to see Prim and Gale for the summer all the way in State 12.
Johanna keenly organizing a share house for our final year of college, taking advantage of my absence.
Johanna going straight to Haymitch behind my back to snag a house.
Johanna forcing me into this by releasing our old college dorm.
Me being helpless, stuck in State 12.
Haymitch assuring me the house was nothing special.
Well fuck him, I think as I stare at the porch. The house is clearly something, bigger than anything my family had ever owned. The rich hue of the wooded porch is striking even from the street as is the contrast of the green door with its brass knockers. I did have to admit, it was smaller than any property he owned across the country however it was still far too extravagant. I also realized right then that the rent he is charging us is probably a third of what he could actually get. Bastard.
I'm still too much of a coward to knock on the door, or simply walk in as it is now officially my house. I was afraid of what was waiting inside for me, or what would come out of this. In hindsight I had a right to be.
Johanna had told me little about our new roommate, Finnick's friend from State 5. Partly because I had only returned today and partly because I refused to listen. However I did know this; his name was Peeta, he was 21 like the rest of us, and he was very sporty. He was blonde and apparently good looking however I couldn't care less about that. He'd been living in the house for one month with the others already and would be studying business at the university.
Oh, and his last name was Mellark. That simple fact made his father practically a millionaire when you came across the string of Mellark bakeries and various other companies that sat across the country. Much like Haymitch and his houses. This immediately spelled trouble to me and I was now definitely not inclined to meet the new rich boy staying with us for the year.
Very slowly, I lift my hand and wrap it around the brass knob, turning it, and letting the door swing in. I stand on the porch and take in the scene. The house is mainly wooden floorboards which I have to admit I like. It reminds me of the woods back home. A long hall stands in front of me and I can see the kitchen at the back of the house. Flurries of voices float from it.
You'd think I was headed for my death the way my boots thumped morosely against the floorboards. When I'm a few feet from the kitchen archway I see Johanna's short cropped hair pop into sight.
"Hey! You made it!" She says loudly, as usual.
Johanna Mason, my college roommate for the last 3 years, attacks me in a vice like hug. It was definitely a love hate relationship between us a large amount of the time. I'd met her just as I started first year, as we were both becoming lost on the huge campus. She'd all but forced me to dorm with her and that was that. And here we are now 3 years later sharing a house with our friend, the "insatiable" Finnick Odair and some punk named Mellark.
"I told you I'd be here." I tell her grumpily looking over at the boys. Finnick was wearing his usual million dollar smile and Peeta was doing much the same. But where Finnick simply gave me a wave, Peeta felt the need to leave the table and shake my hand, introducing himself.
I shake his hand tensely wondering if he's just as stuck up as I picture in my head.
"So you must be Katniss. How was your trip?" He asks very politely.
I freeze for just a moment and Johanna looks concerned. Memories of my last three months flood back filled with confliction, anger and stress. Instead of relaying my fucked up life story to him I simply say, "It was good."
I can tell Jo and Finn know I am lying but they don't pressure me just yet. Honestly right now I couldn't physically explain the fights with Gale, the mental Institution residing my mother and Prim's ever-present positivity.
"How have you guys been? Good summer?" I ask dully, rummaging through the fridge for some food. I was starved after work.
Finn jumps into the conversation enthusiastically. "Yeah Kat, you missed some good fun. I showed Peet here around and now he's a star player of the beach volleyball team." He says it proudly as if he's showing me a specimen of his. I shake my head at him.
"Beach volleyball, huh?"
"Yeah, you should come sometime and watch with me." Johanna says with a smile. "And there is beer."
I roll my eyes thinking that was the last thing I would want to do.
"So Peeta, what do you do other than run around on the beach? Where do you work?" I ask maybe a little rudely, thinking of the little time I have to spare working at the law firm.
He fidgets for a moment and I smile figuring out if he is just as lucky as all those other rich ones. How common they are over here in State 4.
"I'm not actually working at the moment."
Huh. "How do you pay tuition?" I ask more abrasively.
"Uh, my dad pays for my education actually."
That's when I realize he really isn't better than the others. And somehow Finnick and Johanna have missed this. I don't know whether my emotions are spent from the long trip in State 12 or I'm just too tired from my day at work, but I snap. "So you mean, while the rest of us lose sleep working our asses off you get to play volleyball and get drunk at parties all week because your darling father just hands you money?" I actually laugh while Finnick and Johanna attempt to protest. "Well Peeta, you are going to be fucked once you enter the real world! It's no fun anymore, you know?"
I turn and storm out abandoning the food I had laid out on the bench. I feel a twinge of guilt as the hurt look on Peeta's face registers in my mind however I'm gone before anyone can stop me. I storm upstairs having no idea which bedroom is mine and simply barging in until I recognize my things.
I'm in too much of a rage to even notice how Johanna has neatly laid out my bedspread and hung my remaining clothes in the closet or even how my books are stacked neatly on the shelves.
I simply throw myself under the covers wishing for an escape from the world for just a few hours. Just a few hours to breathe and to escape responsibility.
000
Naturally, I wake in a cold sweat, heart thumping, resurfacing to the world in the worst way possible. I look at my clock which reads 5:30am. Fuck.
I groan and get up knowing out of experience sleep will not come back to me. I trudge down the stairs in only a small singlet and pajama shorts, planning to make a coffee. I nearly have a heart attack when I enter the room and find Finn in a chair, munching on a bowl of cereal.
"Why are you up so early?" I demand my voice still thick with sleep.
Finn's head turns around and he gives me a grin. "Wow Kat, did you forget everything in those three months?" He then speaks the next sentence slowly as if speaking to someone mentally unstable. "I'm a lifeguard, remember?"
"Shut up Finn!" I say, pouring coffee from the pot he has made. Of course I knew he worked as a lifeguard while we weren't studying. If only my sleep infected brain could have realized that sooner.
I sit at the table with him watching him eat. "So I see you drew the short straw for your shift today."
His eyes glance up at me. "I've done the morning shifts for the past two weeks."
I frown wondering why in the world he would want to get up at 5am. "Why is that?" I demand.
He shrugs. "Got more time for everything else."
"Like getting wasted and partying?"
"Exactly." He grins. "Okay, so we've established why I'm up, but why aren't you getting your beauty sleep?"
"Bad dream." I mutter.
His eyes become sympathetic. "Your dad?"
I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks kindly.
I shake my head with a tight smile. "I'll get over it before the rest of this house comes to life."
He eyes me carefully before dropping it. "So I see angry Katniss hasn't reared her head today." He says jokingly although his eyes are serious.
I know immediately he is talking about Peeta. "Finn…"
"He's not a bad guy Katniss. You should cut him some slack. You could've been like him you know."
I know exactly what he means. "I'll never take money from Haymitch no matter how many times he offers. It's bad enough he pays Prim's tuition." I say through gritted teeth.
"Though you live in his house…"
"That's not exactly my fault Finn!"
He suddenly laughs. "Okay, okay. I'm just warning you not to judge anyone. Especially Peeta, he's been through-"
"Oh I'm sure he's suffering-"
"You don't know anything about him Katniss. Remember that." He cuts me off. With that he stands from the table, pats my shoulder and goes to get his bag for the day.
"I'll see you at four Kat!" He says cheerily before jogging out the door.
I sit there stunned for a moment rarely having seen Finn that serious. I grab my coffee and make my way upstairs to try and become re-accustomed to working at the firm. In about twenty minutes I realize I have nothing to do considering I was being given my cases today. Instead I carefully open one of the boxes that was still taped up. It reveals three photo frames and a few blankets for the winter. I pick them up gingerly, the room swelling with silence. Running my hands against the wood.
The first is of Prim and myself taken only a year ago, however I can still see the changes in her that have happened in just a year. Her hair is as blonde as ever stark against mine and her blue eyes sparkle with the light that no amount of sadness had ever put out. I carefully place the picture on the bedside table, facing the bed.
The next is one of Gale Hawthorne however this one is a few years old. He's up a tree like he always used to be smiling down cheekily at the camera. I wonder when he changed from that boy to the confident and self-sufficient man I was faced with on the trip.
My fingers shake as I reach for the third because I know it's of my father. He wears his hunting jacket and boots which are now safely in my closet. I leave that one resting on the blankets unable to face him at the moment.
For the next hour I open more and more boxes trying to accustom myself to living here and trying to figure out what to tell Johanna about my time in State 12. I was nervous. I knew that much. I wasn't sure how much I was willing, or able, to divulge.
Promptly at 7:30am Johanna sticks her head in the door. "Hey, brainless."
"Oh, how I missed your insults." I say sarcastically not bothering to look up.
"You look haggard."
"I saw Finn off this morning."
She laughs. "So are you going to fill me in?" I knew she wouldn't wait long to escape the pleasantries. Or insults, in Johanna's world.
I play dumb. I don't even know why. "About what?"
"Uh, like your whereabouts these past three months?" I know she's becoming impatient.
"I talked to Haymitch about how you scored the house behind my back." I say evasively, giving her a dark look, still resentful for moving us out of our old college dorm.
She sighs loudly in exasperation. "Oh get over it Katniss. You know what? After the last few years we've needed some cheering up. Have some fun. Ever heard that? We need to do this." Floods of bad memories fill my mind.
"I don't need to do anything!" I yell at her.
There's a brief silence after my outburst where she simply stares at me. "What happened over there Katniss?" She asks softly, her eyes tight with worry.
I shake my head. "Same old. I argued with Haymitch, I went to that damn Institution and I saw Prim and Gale."
A wicked smile takes over her face. "And let me guess. You spent some very memorable moments locked in the Hawthorne Industries office?"
I roll my eyes and throw her a dirty look remembering the very hot sex we'd had in between our arguments.
"Look I'll fill you in later. I have to get ready for work." I tell her walking towards the bathroom.
Thankfully she gives in and begins her own morning routine.
I was unbelievably grateful that she hadn't brought up my mother.
000
I settle into my work routine with ease. Everyone welcomes me back happily and Annie even has my favorite coffee waiting for me.
"Thanks." I smile as we walk together to our cubicles.
"So how was 12?" She asks curiously. Annie is a little older than me and a soft spoken person which is why I get on so well with her. She unlike me, works full time as a paralegal, while I work part time in between studying law at the University. We began working at the same time, she through the normal interviews and channels and me because Haymitch talked my way into the firm knowing a lawyer here. When dealing with Haymitch there was always a profound sense of guilt attached to any exchange.
"It was good. I got to spend a lot of time with Prim." I tell her.
"And Gale?"
Why was that always the secondary question? "That too."
"You two sound like you're getting serious." She comments, sitting on the edge of my desk, not ready to work yet.
"It's really not like that Annie." I frown.
Unlike Jo, Annie sensing my discomfort, knows when to drop a subject. "So I heard someone outside say there's a big case coming up. They're trying to decide who to put on it."
"Yeah?" I ask intrigued. "What kind of case?"
She looks around the room. "Not sure, I just heard there's a lot of cash going into it." This seems standard for our firm however if she is excited it must be good.
"I guess we'll hear about it in a few days."
She stands and heads to her desk, "Let's hope one of us gets it." She winks and then she's gone.
As I log onto my computer and start with my emails my phone buzzes with a text; Miss you already and so does Gale I think. Remember not to go all 'angry Katniss' on your housemates ;)
Oh Prim. How I could kill her sometimes. I text back a short message already missing the little blonde thing I practically raised into adolescence. If only she would come live down here. But I knew she wouldn't. She wouldn't move away from the Institute or from Gale's brother Rory.
I sigh and open my emails noting one marked 'important' explaining a compulsory meeting next week. Was this the case? Shamefully I hoped so, because I could finally put my name on something that goes large and public. I close the email noting the date and watching the interns and lawyers walk throughout the building. I imagined sitting in the briefing next week being set to the case. Maybe Johanna was right and this year could be better. But then I thought of what was waiting for me back at the house. So I crossed my fingers and hoped, unaware how futile it really was.
Thanks for reading, please leave a review :) Chapter 2 will be uploaded soon.