What Mrs. Mellark left behind was a cemetery full of dead children. A cemetery full of dead children that no one ever talked about; least of all Mrs. Mellark. People thought she was vindictive, hateful, and filled with spite that she took out on her 3 boys and docile husband. She was, but it wasn't because she wanted to be; she was broken, burying a little more of herself every time a shovel full of dirt landed on one of the graves that had been dug to accommodate the body of another child that she loved.
The first child had been only hours old when he left the world. She had been six years old, eagerly anticipating the birth of her first sibling. Back then she hadn't been Mrs. Mellark, or Peeta's mother, she had simply been Vivian. Her mother had been screaming for hours in the back room of her family's little house on the edge of the town square. Her father had sent her outside to play when the apothecary's wife showed up with her bag full of birthing tools and medicinal herbs. She had spent the afternoon playing with the woman's daughter Ruth and the Donner twins, along with little Violet Stone, whose mother owned the only restaurant in town. She was younger and the four six year olds loved "babysitting" her. The girls had spent the afternoon practicing holding and diapering baby dolls in anticipation of Vivian getting to hold her new brother or sister. But now it was night time and her mother was still screaming and groaning in the back of the house. Vivian didn't know what was happening in there but whatever it was it scared her that her mother was screaming so much.
"What's happening to Mama in there?" she asked her father who was pacing nervously back and forth in front of the fireplace that warmed the living room.
"Nothing you need to know about right now, giving birth is woman's business, you'll find out soon enough." Vivian found the answer to be completely unsatisfactory but her father had given her a look that indicated that the subject was not up for discussion. Soon the screaming stopped but instead of hearing a baby's first cry Vivian and her father heard grief stricken wailing coming from the birthing room. Vivian's father ran to the little bedroom and threw open the door. "What's happened?" he asked. Vivian could hear the fear in his voice.
"The baby didn't make it, I'm so sorry Adams," the apothecary's wife said, sadly handing him a little bundle wrapped in a white blanket. "It was a boy." The woman sighed and stood up, stretching her back and leaving the grieving parents to mourn alone for a few minutes. Vivian stood in the doorway, watching her father sadly pull the blanket away from the baby's face and run his finger over the its tiny, white cheek.
"Daddy, can I see him?" Vivian whispered from the doorway.
"Sure princess," he said, sitting down on the bed with her mother and holding her hand. Vivian's mother just sobbed quietly, into the pillows piled behind her. Vivian slowly walked over to her parents and looked down at the tiny, still face of her little brother. She never got the chance to hold him.
He was buried the next day in the District 12 cemetery. Vivian could see that her parents were devastated; her mother had done nothing but cry since yesterday. She didn't even get out of bed to come to the cemetery; her father said she was still too weak. Vivian stood beside the grave holding her father's hand and felt something inside of her break, just a little, a tiny crack opening up in her heart. Babies might die in poverty stricken District 12 every day but Vivian had never known or loved any of them. It would be the first of many cracks to come.
Eventually Vivian would have a little brother, who was born the year she turned eight. His name was Danny and he was pure joy in Vivian's eyes. She would hold him and rock him at night, reluctant to hand him over to her mother or father when it was time for her to go to bed. As he grew from a baby into a little boy Vivian loved nothing more than to play with him when she came home from school and teach him silly games and songs. No one every spoke about the baby that had died two years ago, sometimes Vivian saw her parents staring out of a window at nothing or looking sadly at Danny and she knew they were thinking of him, but they never said a word, and Vivian's heart grew a little colder.
Vivian grew into a pretty young woman who loved to gossip and laugh with her friends and look at boys in the school cafeteria. She still had the same friends that she had when she was little, Ruth Barton, Maysilee and Mary Grace Donner, and Violet Stone who adored the older girls. They spent hours discussing which boys they would grow up and marry, what their futures would be like, how many children they would have. Ruth had lots of boys who liked her but her most ardent would be boyfriend was by far Garret Mellark. He bought her gifts, little trinkets that he found in the Hob, District 12's black-market. His family owned the bakery in the town square and sometimes Garret would bring all four girls cupcakes just so he could talk to Ruth. He never got up the nerve to ask her on a date, he just doted on her and hoped one day she would notice him.
Ruth wasn't interested though, she was in love with Jonah Everdeen, a boy from the Seam, a boy who was therefore, forbidden. Girls from town did not date boys from the Seam. Marrying someone from the Seam would mean being disowned by your friends and family because everyone knew that people in the Seam were poor trash. With their tan skin and black hair they didn't even look like people from the Merchant section of town. They were different, poor, needy, dirty, and woe to the girl who dared to date a Seam boy. Endless ridicule and social isolation waited for any girl who decided to go down that road. Ruth didn't care though, Jonah Everdeen brought an element of danger with him and more than once Vivian and the Donner twins had helped Ruth by covering up her secret "dates" with Jonah. It wasn't really much of a date since Jonah had no money and they couldn't be seen in public but they loved each other's company so an evening spent talking in the meadow was fine with them.
Vivian was secretly a little in love with Jonah herself. She would never say so, she was too shy for that, but he was a nice boy who charmed everyone he came into contact with. He could sing too, and Vivian envied Ruth who said he made up love songs and sang them to her. Some nights all four girls would sneak out of their houses and meet up with Jonah and his friends in the meadow. He regularly brought Haymitch Abernathy, another Seam boy with him and Garret, who followed Jonah around mostly so he could be near Ruth. They called themselves the Night Owls, it was almost like their own little secret club. Haymitch was loud, witty, and handsome. He had no fear of anything and he and Jonah were known to regularly crawl underneath the fence that surrounded District 12 so they could hunt in the woods. Haymitch also liked that it was a way to thumb his nose at the Peace Keepers that patrolled the District and therefore the Capitol itself. All of the girls were a little in love with Haymitch. Garret was quieter, sweeter, and not nearly as daring as his friends. He would never dream of crawling under the fence that formed the boundary of the District, nor would he take dares to throw eggs at peace keepers, release a jar full of crickets in the science lab, or any of the other things that Haymitch and Jonah were notorious for. This made him boring in the eyes of Vivian and her friends, but he was nice enough, in a brotherly, friend sort of way.
Everything changed the year Vivian turned 16. It was the year of the Quarter Quell, and this year the Capitol had decreed that 4 tributes from each District would be sent into the Games instead of the usual two. Vivian was late getting to the Reaping that year and was still pushing her way into the pen of 16 year olds when Maysilee's name was called. Mary Grace screamed and Ruth went deathly pale, her hands shaking from shock. Vivian pushed through the crowd towards her friends and squeezed Maysilee's hand as she exited the pen and made her way to the stage. The three girls huddled together, crying quietly, Mary Grace kept on her feet by Ruth and Vivian. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as the escort drew the second girl's name from the Reaping ball. "Violet Stone!" the blue haired woman said, just a little too cheerfully. "Could it get any worse?" Vivian whispered to Ruth. Ruth didn't answer; she just looked at the stage in mute horror. It did get worse. The first male tribute chosen was Haymitch. The second was a boy named Keyser that Vivian knew of, but didn't know personally.
The next few weeks were some of the worst weeks of Vivian's life. She, Mary Grace, and Ruth skipped school almost every day to hide in Jonah's house and watch the Games. Sometimes there wasn't school because viewing was mandatory and they would all gather in the square and watch the games on the big screen that had been erected there. Keyser died in the bloodbath and Violet died on her second day in the arena. Violet's mother and Keyser's sister went a little insane after that and Keyser's mother died within the year. Haymitch and Maysilee became allies and Mary Grace collapsed when Maysilee was skewered by pink birds with razor sharp beaks. She didn't see her sister die in Hay itch's arms. Maysilee and Haymitch had just broken off their alliance so they wouldn't have to kill each other and Mary Grace never forgave Haymitch for letting her sister walk away from him to her death.
Things changed after that-Maysilee came home in a box and was buried in the tribute cemetery, the number 50 engraved on her headstone. Ruth ran off one night with Jonah and got married. Her parents were horrified and Vivian was forbidden from speaking to her. Mary Grace developed debilitating headaches and went into an unending depression. She spent a good bit of time in bed or staring into space, her feelings numbed by morphling. By the time Haymitch came home a Victor only Vivian and Garret remained of his group of friends. He tried to apologize to Mary Grace, but she stared right through him. Then his family died in a fire and Haymitch lost himself in a bottle. Vivian's heart broke five times that summer: first when Violet died, again when Maysilee followed her into the grave, a third time when she lost Ruth and Jonah, a fourth when Mary Grace turned into a withdrawn morphling addict, and a fifth time when Haymitch stopped coming out of his house because he was too drunk. There were no more Night Owls. All that was left of her friends was Garret. Thrown together by death and destruction they spent most of their free time together. Vivian didn't love him, not in a romantic way; she loved him deeply as a friend and when he proposed she was shocked but thought, "Why not? I could do worse."
By then her heart had so many cracks in it that she wasn't sure she would ever be able to fall in love anyway. At least with Garret she would be safe and well cared for. She would have enough to eat and he made her laugh, maybe that was enough. For a while it was, but in the back of her mind she always wondered if she was just a substitute for Ruth in Garret's heart and what it would be like to live with the love of your life in the Seam, starving but happy. Jealousy had taken root in those cracks in her heart and over the years it would grow and destroy the heart that held it.