My eyes flip open as I hear knocking on my bedroom door. My eyes focus onto the door, and it speaks. "Wake up, Katniss!" I can hear a beam of joy come from the door. Surely it' my little sister, Prim. She's always the happy, beaming one, and I'm the complete opposite. "Wake up! It's the first day of school." She beams once more, and I flip off the covers, shuddering in the cold. I click the broken doorknob and half-heartedly open the door. You know why? The staggering pain of seeing this bony girl in front of me, smiling at me. Her blue eyes are to match mother's, not to mention her light hair. She usually wakes up before me, like today.
"Morning," She greets me, a smile mustered on her face. This is like a ritual every morning, for her to show happiness to plaster all her worries. She's only 10 years old, and her limbs are skinnier than any child I've seen. Though, her smile is hiding her pain.
"Morning, to you," I greet in the same manner. She just smiles and heads over to the bed, picking out some clothing from our drawer.
"Mm, blue shirt or green shirt?" She hastily looks at the clothes in hand. She looks up at me, looking for an answer.
"Blue. With what?" I ask her.
"Oh, you know long pants." She shrugs.
"Well, blue would look good." She smiles then nods. "Okay then, blue it is."
I move into the dining area, a small breakfast waiting for me. Sure enough, it's ration grain bread and a bit of game, but sometimes there's an exception. Like today.
The bread spread out on the table is finer than usual, not matching our regular offer.
I finish off my breakfast and head off for the room. It's a school day, but it's dark and gloomy outside, because the sun hasn't made its appearance, in the Seam yet. But uptown, you could see glistening heads of blond wafting up and down the streets, opening up their shops and preparing their children for school.
A few minutes in and we're both ready, ready for school. Prim's torn backpack is patched up with a patch of felt, replacing the ugly cut in her bag. My bag is a sling, which is small but it fits quite a sum of things. My hair is all set, in its daily do, the infamous braid. Prim's hair is in a ponytail, a white ribbon adorning her hair.
"All set, little duck?" I joke her, tucking the remaining excess of her shirt that stuck out into her pants spot.
"All set." She replies, the happiness in her tone.
She gladly accepts the kiss from mother, while I depart with a "bye".
We walk down the trailing dirt road of the Seam; some kids are walking out the door too. Their dark hair is in no way competing with the darkness in this side of the district, while Prim's sticks out ever so lightly. Their grey eyes are hollow, their skinny hands tucked into their pockets. The grim expression on their faces show that they haven't eaten breakfast, normally people here don't.
The dirt road finishes and we're greeted by the merchant side of the district, children in clothes we Seam children can't afford, their hair sticking out to the now rising sun. The smiles on their faces look fake and the gleam in their blue eyes look like they've won a free pass to not be reaped. Some of them hug, and even greet each other. The road onto the school is through the merchant class of town, where most of the popular kids at school live in.
We pop into the school campus, knowing that I'll have to let go of Prim now, since she's 4 years lower than me.
"Goodbye, little duck, have a nice day," I smile at her, one of the rare smiles that I muster for her and her only.
"Goodbye Katniss, see you later!" She smiles at me. I wave her goodbye, and wonder why Gale hasn't joined us. Of course, he's probably walking Vick and Rory to school.
I walk into the class room, and sling my bag onto the chair. I see Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter, who I managed to talk to. She's been my partner in everything, seeing that both of us can't stand being with anyone else. It's our homeroom class, which makes us not sure about which classes will we join with each other. Blond heads are sticking out of everywhere, and I can count how much Seam children are in here. Madge smiles my way, then waves. I wave back, seeing as this is just being polite. She turns away, causing her blond waves move around.
The teacher steps in, her shoes clanking on the floor.
"Hello, I am Ms Dean, your homeroom teacher. Today we will-. " She gets cut off when the anthem starts playing. We are all supposed to sing to it, as opposed to me just deciding to jump out the window. The anthem carries along, and then we take our seats when it strains off.
"As I was saying, I am your homeroom teacher. Now let's do some attendance." She states. You could see she's an obvious merchant girl; her blond hair falls down in cascading curls, her blue eyes dazzling.
She calls out some random names, in alphabetical order, and then mine comes up.
"Katniss, Katniss Everdeen?" She questions, looking around the room. She quickly locks eyes with me.
"Present." I blandly say. She nods, and then flicks the pen to signal I'm here. She looks at me again.
"Pretty girl," She swats her hair back. "I was one of your mother's friends, when we were kids." She smiles my way. "Too bad, you don't look like your mom." She comments, a smile still plastered on her face. I feel a puff of aggravation come out of me, almost like this comment is an insult for me.
"Yes, too bad." I mutter under my breath. She doesn't comment back, she just looks around and calls out more names.
She reads out the name, "Peeta Mellark," And then this merchant class boy puts up his hand and speaks. "Here," He beams, his blue eyes countering the sunlight.
"Yes, good morning, Peeta. Glad to see you." She smiles his way. He smiles at her back.
After him, she calls out the remaining names, probably Madge was one of the last ones. Once she finishes, she gives a quick skim through us all, greeting us good morning and stuff. I politely reply back, with a "morning."
After all the greetings and introductions, she sends us away with papers in hand. These are our schedules, the classes we're bound to for the rest of the year. We make our way out with bags in hand, wafting through the hallway. This year, we receive lockers, so I pack my sweater into it. Just when I thought I had peace, Madge comes up to me.
"Hi, Katniss, What's your schedule?" She asks me, her eyes trained on her schedule.
I eye her schedule, and it seems like we're very lucky this year.
"What a coincidence, we have everything together." I try to sound happy. She beams a smile at me. I smile back.
"We're in luck, aren't we?" She smiles. I nod, and the bell goes off.
"We have history first." I sound nonchalant. She nods and collects a small sling from her bag, slinging it over her shoulder.
"Let's go." We march down the hall, to be greeted by a full house of merchant kids. It seems like I'm the only dark haired kid in here, but in reality, I am.
I try to find a seat next to Madge, but we're separated since the only two seats are 3 rows apart. She waves goodbye and mouths out a 'see you next subject.' I wink and sit down. It seems like my chair is right beside Peeta, the boy from homeroom. He smiles at me, but I just try not to notice. He faces away, looking towards the window, a faint blush on his cheeks. I roll my eyes as the teacher walks in.
She tries to go easy on us, telling us the simple things we need to know in this year's table. It seems like I'm paying attention, but really I'm staring out the window. It seems like I want to break out or something.
The subject stops when I'm jolted awake by the ringing bell. I head out the door, with a slip from the teacher. It has the basic stuff we need to go over. I shove it in to my locker once I get there. Then in the hallway, a tap on the shoulder from Gale makes me jolt. He's some grades higher than me, so seeing him here would make history. He just keeps on a steady face, but his eyes are forming a smile. I eye smile back and he leaves, while whispers from jealous girls are heard across the hallway.
I leave the hallway when I find Madge tagging along. "Next comes um, I think break!" She sounds relieved, because she should be. History was a bit boring.
For break, every after grade comes out, which means Gale's out with us, but he's clearly somewhere else in the yard. I sit under and oak tree parked in the yard, it seems pretty lonely, but I'll manage. I quietly skim through my schedule until a patch of blond hair greets my eyes. It's not Madge, it's Prim.
"Prim, why are you out here?" I quiz her, who's panting and puffing. "I thought you were supposed to stay inside!" I say to her. But she doesn't reply, because when more and more blond heads greet me, her friends. They squeal and giggle, pounce on each other and the like. They're all merchant's kids, but nevertheless, Prim looks exactly like them, so why bother play with the Seam kids.
"Long story, the teacher told us we could go out, since she says she likes us." She doesn't even bother looking up from the skipping rope she's tying up.
"Well go ahead and play, little duck." I tell her, nudging her to go and play.
And she does, she jumps and does tricks, the tricks they probably worked on last year, when they were just in 3rd grade. She has this amazing piece in her that lets her have hoards of friends, and I only have one, and plenty enough.
She gets winded, then I offer her a bottle of water I realised I dragged out of my locker.
She gulps it down, the water I struggled to get from the drinking fountains, for it only has so much to offer.
The bell rings off, and Prim departs with the rope in hand, singing the rhymes they skip to, hopping up the steps to take off to their classes.
I step in, to find that Madge has been in our homeroom teacher's room, the teacher talking to her. When she spots me, she stands up and bids farewell to Ms Dean.
We both walk down the crowded hallway, towards the rest of the classes. Gym, the teacher introduces us to sports. Science, we learn some facts about genetics that we're going to focus on, and more. I just can't wait until the bell signals that lunch is here, to welcome me into a new break time.
The bell rings, and I pull out the lunch from my bag. It's just a bit of bread and some water, and maybe a bit of meat, that's all. The lunch room is jam packed with blonds, meeting up, hugging, and crying over how their not in the same classes, or they're just happy to see their friends. Peeta, homeroom boy, stands there with his posse of merchant kids. All blond, all from uptown. The Seam kids seem to round up on one table, seeing as if they're with their same kind, their good.
I sit in the table back there, with no one else to join me other than Madge. This is her ritual on special days, like the first day of school, or whether she feels like it, to join me in my lunch table.
It's relatively loud, since it's the first day of school, greetings from kids, his and hellos from everyone in the town kids, talking loudly with each other. I just have some quiet talk with Madge. Her lunch looks relatively good, some good bread sandwiched and some strawberries. She likes these, like her dad. Her hair is drawn back with a ribbon, a fishtail braid adorning her hair.
Lunch ends, and we go back to classes, where we're separated. Math flies by fast, and some literature. We finish the day before we even know it.
I head out the door when the bell rings, and Prim is with a posse of boys and girls.
She heads up to me.
"Hey Katniss, meet my friends!" She beams and stretches her hand out to show the array of gleaming pale and blond heads.
I wave at them, and they smile.
"Here's Amber, see," She points out to a girl who has her hair in two pigtails. I just say hi to her.
"Here's Cada," She points at a petit girl who's about as bony as Prim, but not nearly.
"Here's Bree," She points at a girl who probably has a very light shade of blond, that it's white.
"Here's Evan," She points to a freckled boy.
"Here's Keon," She points to a boy who looks a lot like Rory, but has blond hair.
"And finally me." She smiles. All the other kids move away, going to their brothers and sisters for a walk home.
"How was school?" I ask Prim quizzically. "It was fun!" She beams her gleaming smile upon her face. "How about you?" It's her turn to quiz me. "Pretty good," I say, not looking up from my hair that I'm fixing.
We continue walking up until we reach the gates. We walk away, and Prim has a final glance of the many beaming merchant kids waving goodbye to her. She waves back, adding comments like, "I loved your hair!" or "Today was great, wait until tomorrow."
We walk down the street, and Prim suddenly is out of my sight.
"Prim?" I ask, jolting around, eyeing the streets for my little sister. Then I see her, looking at the cake display. Her eyes are fully lit up, enchanted by the scene.
She gawks at them in awe, eyeing them all carefully.
"Look Katniss," She tells me, not keeping her eyes off the display. To make her happy, I just walk over to her side. "What?" I ask her, but then I notice she's pointing at a delicious looking cupcake.
"We can't afford that." I say blankly. Then she gives me her best begging face.
"We don't have enough coins, okay? Maybe next time," I start down the road, but then she stays intact there.
Then the owner of the bakery steps in, and goes beside Prim, who can't keep her eyes off the display.
"Suppose you have enough?" He looks down at Prim, who you could clearly see is glowing with joy.
"Oh, thank you, don't worry, I don't really have enough." I try to hurry on with Prim, but she stops in her track.
"Oh, don't be like that to your sister," He says, as Prim's face lights up in agreement.
"Here, I'll give it for you for nothing," He winks at her, and she nods in excitement. He hands her the small treat, but takes it back. She goes glum.
"On one condition," he says to Prim, "don't let her be so hard on you." He winks, he's not like that on a daily basis, he doesn't talk often, but he enjoys Prim, and he has a full house of boys, so I guess he likes her.
She smiles when she gets it back in her hand, her frail fingers wrapping around it. She hurries on.
"Say thank you!" I warn her, and then she stops. She goes over to him and thanks him. He just smiles.
"Thank you," I say. He just nods us away, and slips right back into the bakery.
"What did you do?" I ask Prim, as if she did a crime.
"I did nothing wrong," she smiles, keeping her eyes on the small cake.
"Besides, he gave it to me," She winks, and I give off a small laugh.
We reach the Seam, and Prim is busy taking tiny bites of the treat. When we reach home, be sink down to the dining table, not expecting anything.
Today was to be admitted, good.
Wait until tomorrow.