This is what I thought Collins should have done after Mockingjay. It's completely original.

One

"Dad, are you okay?"

The kitchen light illuminates half of the house as I step off the last stair into the hall. His hand is clutching the back of a kitchen chair, the other on his forehead, and I can see the grimace of pain on his face. Pain and anger.

He doesn't answer until his fingers have relaxed and he sinks down into the chair with a sigh. "I'm fine. Just these headaches. Why are you awake?"

"Lane talks in his sleep. I thought I could make breakfast." I step slowly into the kitchen and take out a loaf of bread from the crisper. Bread my dad insists on making instead of buying from the Hob.

"That sounds good to me. You know a hungry mom is a cranky one."

I smile at this because it's completely true, though she'd never admit it.

"Want some cocoa?" I make four cups anyway, knowing everyone will want some soon enough.

As the bread warms, I busy myself with jam and cheese. I can feel my dad watching me, but I pretend not to notice.

"You know, Mrs. Mahoan called me last night." He says from the table.

"Mhm," I try to sound polite.

"Yeah, she says 'although her attendance has improved, she hasn't turned in any work in two weeks." His tone takes on that fatherly sternness that he could never quite keep up with me.

I turn and frown, crossing my arms over my chest. "She gives me pointless assignments." I protest. "And when I don't do it exactly how she wants it, she doesn't accept my work. So what's the point of turning it in?"

"Aster, you're fifteen. You've got to start taking on some responsibility." I can see he won't press it.

"You're right, I'll try harder, I promise." I say in my sweetest voice.

He sighs, but smiles and stands up to help me. "You better, or I'll hire Haymitch as your teacher."

I make a face. Haymitch is the last person I want to answer to.

When everything is made and looks good enough to dad, we go upstairs to wake up my mother. Gently, never urgently he always says.

She jerks awake anyway, then smiles. "Good morning."

"Come downstairs." They share a kiss and I take my leave, going to wake up Lane.

He's three years younger than me and the polar opposite. His blond hair and grey eyes have always made him stand out in Twelve, along with our father.

"What?" He groans when I shake his shoulder.

"Breakfast." I pull his blanket cocoon open and drag him off the bed, onto the floor.

He just rolls back up and goes still again.

"Fine, two cups of cocoa for me."

And before I reach the door, he's running down the hall and jumps over the railing on the second floor landing.

This gets a sharp scold from our mother who is constantly trying to keep it from looking like he's abused due to self-inflicted bruises.

I take the stairs like a normal person and sit down quietly. The sun is stretching out its' pink rays over the sky, as if it's not quite ready to wake up. Lane, as usual, talks on and on, leaving no room for silence. Dad joins in and with them together, telling jokes and making faces, it's hard to have a bad morning.

The phone rings and my dad rushes to answer it before Lane can.

"Hello?" He asks, holding Lane in a headlock. Then he smiles. "Hey, long time." There's a long silence. "Noon sounds perfect. Alright, see you then."

"Who was that?" My mother asks him suspiciously.

"Just someone. I'll be back before lunch. Gotta help the new manager down at the bakery." He kisses her then and runs out the door.

"He's never that excited about work." She says, looking at the closed door.

"Maybe they're getting a new shipment of frosting." I offer.

She laughs at this and looks at me and I see her eyes are lit up. But just as quickly as it happens, they fade and she looks away, now feigning happiness.

"I'm going to shower, then you and I are going to buy you a new shawl since yours is destroyed. Again."

"Um, actually." I stand and push my hair behind my ear. "Ozzy and Stine want me to meet them at the diner in the square."

"That's where you're going to meet them, but where are you going?"

She's always been able to see through me.

"Just around." I say.

"Aster, you're looking for trouble."

"Please." I laugh, hoping she won't make me stay in. "I am the trouble."

She just sighs and nods towards the door.

I dress quickly and pull on my mom's old leather boots that somehow fit me almost perfectly. Then I roll my hair into a bun, forming an 'O' on the top of my head. It's messy, but even if I cared, I didn't want to waste time fixing it. I throw a sweater into my bag at the last second.

When I get to the diner, Tee greats me from over the counter. Her mother and mine where acquainted when she was my age, or, that's what I've heard.

I jump up onto the empty bar and watch her wipe down tables. She's tall, much taller than I am. With wired muscles that are still somehow feminine. And her curly black hair is pulled into a tight ponytail. Her skin is tan from the summer sun.

"Meeting the boys, huh?" She asks.

"Yeah, but they're always late." I swing my feet and watch her work.

"Boys." She scoffs and rolls her soft brown eyes. Probably because I'm the one that's always late.

"Tell me about it." I laugh. Tee has always been easy to talk to, even if she's ten years older than I am. She's sweet and friendly to everyone. I've seen her slip extra meat into the skinnier kids stew that live around the Seam. She also has the attention of every single, or not, man for miles.

"Tell you about what?" Ozzy asks and launches a dirty miners hat at my head. I catch it from the air. Stine is right behind him, fidgeting over some contraption.

"Nothing, let's go." I hop down and toss him the hat. "See ya, Tee."

We walk out of the square, east, towards the old abandoned mines. Workers were layed off a couple of years ago when it was deemed unsafe. The machines were so old and broken down, they caused explosions almost daily. Now they're turned off and there's a new mine down past the Hob. It opened up twice as many jobs, which cut workers hours in half with just as much pay.

Only when we're sure no one can see us do we slip inside and down into its dark belly.

"Guys, I can't get dirty. My mom will have a cow if she even assumes I've been down here, so let's find this sign and go."

"Wow," Ozzy smirks. "Someone's extra prude today." Stine rolls his eyes at his brother.

I sigh, but go first into the left shaft. It slopes down almost immediately, so we have to walk along the mines wall engraved staircase. We land in one of the biggest man made caverns in District 12, which actually, isn't that big at all. I pull out my camera and take a few pictures for my bedroom wall, making sure the flash is on. Of an old pickaxe, hung up jackets, a cart filled to the brim with coal. Something shimmers in the light of the flash. A dog tag. It's covered in coal dust, but I shove it in my pocket.

"So where'd you see this thing anyway?" I ask, looking around the deserted mine.

"Just over here." Stine goes through what looks to have been a doorway of some sort, even though there's nothing rectangular about it.

We follow him into a greatly smaller room that's almost pitch black. There's some metallic clanking and shuffling.

"Here." He says and drags something out into the light.

It's a large yellow sign that reads 'Flammable'

"That's it?" Ozzy asks, obviously disappointed.

"I need the bolts on it." Stine explains. He lets it smash into the ground and returns to the room to retrieve something. He comes back with two pairs of pliers and hands one to his brother. "Be useful for once, would you?"

They get to work on pulling out the bolts and I snap a picture of the sign.

"You're going to blind us here." Stine blinks hard.

"Sorry," I say and move to examine a sign-in board bound to a wall by hooks. "It's like this place is haunted." I say more to myself then anyone.

"Well with any luck, you scared the dead away with that stupid camera." Ozzy stands and hands Stine the beloved bolts. "Can we go now?"

"Yeah, I'm starving anyway." He starts up the stairs and Ozzy follows. I'm just on the steps when I hear a whistle. A slow, quiet, four note whistle from the back room. I freeze, then shake my head. We were just in there. This place is getting to me.

But I hurry to catch up to Ozzy, not wanting to be last down there. When we finally get into the open, we brush each other off enough to make it look like regular old dirt.

"So what are you making, anyway?" I take the wad of metal from Stine.

"It's a sort of portable microwave. Only, not for food." He gives me a menacing smile.

I squint at him, not understanding. "Oookay."

He winks then takes the metal and shoves it into his bag.

"Don't look now, but here comes your boyfriend." Ozzy says loudly enough for anyone close enough to hear.

We all look. "What a jerk." I say.

A tall, brooding Seam kid, Simon Teller is stalking towards us from the square. He puckers his lips at me and I roll my eyes. "He's probably just looking for a fight." I smile and push my friends in the other direction.

We dive into the crowded streets across from the Hob shopping market and into the open stores. There's two doors to each bathroom, connecting both sides of the markets. We race through the mens and leave through the backside. When we reach my dad's bakery, they wave and take off in the opposite direction of the village. I make my way home, quickly stopping on the porch to take off my boots because they're covered in black soot. I wipe them off the best I can on the doormat before placing them in the box by the front door. When I ease inside, I hear my mom screaming from the living room. I sit on the bottom of the steps to listen.

"Haymitch, I'm not doing it!" She's saying.

"I'm no happier than you are about this, sweetheart, but they need you. And me and Peeta." He's oddly much calmer than she is, and he sounds one hundred percent sober.

"No. Peeta and I are done with ALL of it. We're just getting our lives back to normal. I have kids now! You tell Plutarch that I'm flattered, but my flame is extinguished."

There's a brief pause. "You'll get to tell him yourself. He's on a plane here now."

There's a sound of glass shattering and I jump. Then two pairs of feet coming towards the kitchen. I sprint silently onto the landing and wait for Haymitch to leave. He's shaking his head and muttering profanity to himself.

"Mom?" I call down the stairs.

"Yeah." She sounds drained. "I'm here."

I find her in the kitchen with her face buried into her folded hands. Her hair is down and I wonder if she even took a shower or just took a nap.

"What were you and Haymitch fighting about?" I lean against the door frame.

"They want me and your father," She looks up, but not at me. "To do an interview on our lives after the revolution."

"That's not so bad." I try.

She continues, "We'll be staying in the Capitol a while. They need our opinion on the new government format."

"You're leaving?

"We. We're leaving."

There's a knot in my stomach. I've never been out of District Twelve, ever. Haymitch always watched Lane and I when we were small and my parents were frequently away in One and Two to help with reconstruction. I never thought that I'd go.

"When?" I steady my voice.

"Tonight." She sighs.