Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games in any way, shape, form, or fashion. This is just my shot at an AU story.
The incessant beeping of the alarm clock that lies next to Katniss's face is enough to rouse her from her restless slumber. Her breathing is shallow, and her body is dripping with sweat. She had been knee-deep in yet another nightmare. Her father had died almost eleven years ago, but there are nights where she still wakes up screaming for him to run. Her father had been in one of the towers on September 11, 2001. It is true that she had been only five when her father died, but she can remember the day like it was yesterday.
FLASHBACK:
It started like any other day. Her father had waked her by gently singing as he opened the door to her room. The second that she heard his beautiful voice, her eyes shot wide open and with a huge smile on her face, ran to her father and gave him a tight hug. Katniss had always been a daddy's girl, and this was quite clear to everyone. He whispered quietly in her ear, "Your mother woke up early and made breakfast, so why don't you get ready for school, and then come and join us. Okay?"
The thought of breakfast already being made excited her, so Katniss extracted herself from her father's grasp, and ran to the bathroom. Brushing her teeth quickly upon arrival, Katniss rushed back to her room, and put on the clothes that her mother had laid out for her the night before. She took one look at herself in the mirror, and smiled before she walked down the stairs.
All of her family was already around the table. Katniss's mother was holding Prim, Katniss's new-born sister, who was gently nursing off of the bottle that lie in her mother's other hand. Her father was setting the table. Katniss allowed her eyes to trail off, and that's when she noticed the food. Her mouth practically drops off of her body, she had never seen so much at one time. There were warm pancakes, steaming sausage, fresh biscuits, and a large assortment of different jellies lying on the table. Katniss feels her mouth physically start to water, but somewhere in the back of her mind there is a voice telling her that all of this is too good to be true. Her family didn't have enough money to afford all of this. They were one overdue bill away from being placed on welfare.
Her father seems to have taken note of her reaction, and answers softly, "We wanted to splurge a little, since today is such a special day." He adds a wink near the end of the phrase, and she cannot help but raise an eyebrow. "What's so special about today?" Katniss adds clueless of the meaning behind his words. "Why Katniss Everdeen, I thought that you would remember. Today is your first day of school." Mr. Everdeen adds chuckling slightly.
Katniss feels like the breath had been knocked right out of her, and her voice starts to quit on her as she answers, "I have school… t-today?" The color all at once leaves her face and her legs begin to turn to jelly under her. All of the appetite that she had previously possessed vanished in that instant of realization. She somehow manages to make it to her seat though and plops down in defeat. Placing her head on the table in a feeble attempt to hide the tears that were building in her eyes from her parents, she allows her salty tears to stain the white table-cloth.
Her father, never one to miss a beat when it came to his daughter, rushed instantly to her side and held her in his strong arms. He lightly kisses the top of her head and whispers against her skin that everything will be okay. When she still does not calm down, he plays his trump card, the only thing that has been able to calm both Katniss and Prim since their birth. He slowly begins to sing.
Deep in the meadow, under the willow
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes
And when again they open, the sun will rise.
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray,
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away.
Here it is safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
Once he begins, Katniss slowly begins to relax until finally, when he hits the last note, she cannot remember what she was upset about in the first place. She does not let her father go, though. She forces him to sit in her chair with her. Katniss is not normally this cling, but there is just something off about today. There is a chill in the air today, and it has her on edge. Something is telling her that today is not going to be a good day.
She fills her plate with some of all the food that her mother was kind enough to prepare. The pancakes taste as good as they look, especially with the syrup that her father had picked up last night. The sausage tastes wonderful especially with the warm, buttery, fluffiness of the biscuits to compliment it. She had never had jelly before, but after tasting it she knew that once would not be enough. It was sweet, and sugary, but not overly so.
Just as she is finishing her food, the alarm on her father's watch goes off. Katniss had been so taken with the food that she had not noticed what time it was. Her eyes travel over to the clock that hangs on the wall and sees that it clearly reads 7:00. Mr. Everdeen always left for work at exactly 7:00, but Katniss feels like there is something ominous surrounding the entire situation today, and tries to prevent her dad from leaving. At first she attempts feigning illness, but her father thinks that this is only her trying to get out of going to school again, and brushes it off. Next she tries to convince her mother to get her father to stay, but she is too caught up in rocking Prim to even take notice of her. Katniss is failing miserably, and before she can think of another way to win over her father, he is walking out the door. She tries running to catch him, but the door clicks shut just as she gets there.
Katniss's hands fumble with the door knob, but by the time that she finally gets it open his car has taken off down the street. She was too late. Katniss was on the verge of tears and she sank down on the steps outside of her house defeated. Her mother, who had in the meantime laid Prim back down in her crib noticed that the door was open and walked outside, only to see her daughter. It was then that she noticed the tears and moved to sit down beside Katniss. She wrapped her loving arms around her daughter and held her for a moment whispering that everything was going to be alright. Of course she had no idea of the real reason that Katniss was upset. She just thought that her daughter was nervous because of school.
Mrs. Everdeen somehow got Katniss up and back inside of the house. She guided her into the room that she and Mr. Everdeen shared and set her in front of the mirror. Mrs. Everdeen slowly began to brush her hair, untangling it from the disheveled state that it was now in. After getting Katniss's hair the way she wanted it. Mrs. Everdeen began to braid her hair, but instead of the typical one braid look that Katniss traditionally sported, Katniss begged her mother for two. Katniss liked the feeling of her mother's clever fingers in her hair and did not want her to stop after only one braid today. She was trying to keep her mind off of the fact that there was a chill in the air.
Before Katniss knew it though, it was time to go to school. As it turns out, the school that she would be attending was only a block away, but since today was her first day, Mrs. Everdeen determined to walk her there. Katniss was not one to argue today though; she wanted all the comfort that she could get. Her mother went and got the stroller from the hall closet, and Prim from the bedroom. Katniss was actually glad that Prim was coming today. She loved her sister dearly. People tell Katniss that Prim was going to look just like her, but with that blond hair that was popping up, Katniss was not so sure. She personally thought that Prim was going to look like their mother. Katniss looks like their father though; she has his olive skin, his dark hair, and his deep grey eyes.
Once her mother finished wrestling Prim into the stroller, they set off. Katniss turned back and took one last look at the spot where her father's car had previously been parked, and shakes her head as if to clear her thoughts. She needed to stop worrying about her dad for the time being and focus on her own problems, like how she was going to survive the first day of school.
Katniss and her mother have only been walking for a few minutes when suddenly in the distance she sees a bright yellow building with a sign reading: Williamsbridge Elementary School. She suddenly tenses up and clings tightly to the small backpack that she had carried. Her mother seems to take notice of this reaction and reaches down gently to pet her daughter's hair. Katniss is somewhat shocked by her mother's touch, as she is never this understanding with her. She only helps when father isn't around, and it always seems like she does not have a clue about how to help her daughter, but this, this gesture, it seems so natural and comforting that Katniss cannot help but bask in her mother's touch.
Katniss feels her mother slowly stop stroking her hair but does not want her to. She places her hand on top of her mother's as if to say "Stay with me." Her mother leans down and kisses her daughter's hand before pulling her own away. "Katniss, you have to go to school now. Come on. It will be fun. I promise," tell her mother as she let's go of Katniss's hand. "Okay," is all that Katniss is able to manage before her teacher picks her up and drags her away from her mother.
Tears begin to pour down Katniss's cheeks as the day just feels so wrong to her. She does not want to imagine a day away from her mother or her father for that matter. She does not want to have to make friends, but she knows that she must. Her eyes glance around the room, and she takes note of an unnaturally tall, and strangely muscular boy named Cato, an incredibly beautiful blond named Glimmer, a small soft-spoken girl named Clove, a tall and lanky brunette named Marvel, and a red-head who is silently stealing cookies from a jar. All of these kids seem to be caught up in their own business, so she just leaves them be. A few minutes pass and then a muscular boy with darker skin walks in, but he appears to be soft-spoken, and last of all coming in ten minutes late is someone who catches Katniss's eye for a moment. A blond-headed boy with some of the most sensual blue eyes imaginable walks in with a huge smile on his face, as if saying that he would not rather be anywhere else in the world.
Katniss looks up at the clock on the wall of the preschool room, and sees that it reads 8:40. "Good," she mutters to herself, "maybe today will go by quickly." She turns around and notices the blond boy is looking at her. She turns her head and looks back at him curiously for a moment before he waves. She laughs and waves back at him without hesitating. This causes the boy to grin from ear to ear before he makes his way over to her.
The boy stops right in front of her, still wearing that grin that he had worn only a moment ago. Now that he is so close, Katniss can see that there is a small gap between his two front teeth and laughs. The boy had just recently lost a tooth. He spoke with a huge smile, and seemed to be oozing confidence, "Hi! I'm Peeta. Peeta Mellark!" Katniss could not help but laugh as the boy introduced himself. She followed soon after though, "I'm Katniss Everdeen"
The boy was just about to say something when suddenly a loud shriek comes from the teacher. All of the kids in the room immediately stopped what they were doing and looked right at the teacher curiously. One teacher stood by her desk on the phone, looking like she was about to cry, and the other up against the window looking at a black cloud of smoke rising in the distance. Katniss could tell that she was struggling to keep up composure, but her suspicions were not confirmed until the teacher said that all the students were going to get to go home early today. Katniss might have only been five, but she knew that this was not a good thing.
A couple of minutes after the teacher screamed, Katniss's mother arrived panting hard, and covered with sweat. She looks as though she had just run a marathon. The teacher instantly handed Katniss over to her mother, who rushed her home. Mrs. Everdeen asked, well about demanded, Katniss to go upstairs and go to Prim's room and play with her. Her mom turned on the television to some news station and more or less stared at it muttering, "Please be okay."
Katniss did not like the fact that her mother was behaving weirdly, but did not push the issue. She was not sure why her mother was upset, and she really did not want to know why. If it was enough to upset the generally stoic Mrs. Everdeen, then it was definitely enough to upset emotional hot-headed Katniss. Katniss could not help but worry about her father do. The chill in the air was more present now than ever.
Her suspicions were not confirmed until that night though, when she ran downstairs and asked her mother when her father would be home. Mrs. Everdeen, who was obviously holding back tears, just said, "Daddy got called on a business trip, and might not be home for a few days." After this, her mother walked over to her, and hugged her tightly finally allowing the tears that had built to escape. Katniss might only be five, but she could not buy into her mother's words. No matter how hard she tried to believe her mom, something inside of her was saying, "He's not coming back." Unfortunately for her that little voice was right. Her father was dead. He was not coming back home. The last memory she has of her father is him singing to her, and she was going to hold on to that for as long as she could. It was all she had left of the man that she admired most in the world.
END OF FLASHBACK
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, her gaze shifts down to the clock, and Katniss sees that is already 7:30. "Shoot! I am going to be late," Katniss yelled as she practically threw herself out of bed. Next month would be eleven years since his death, but no matter how hard she tried she cannot put it behind her. That was the last happy day in her life, and the saddest one as well. It was the day that her family had been apart forever.