First fanfic! AAAHHH! Please R&R, I will update as often as I can, but no promises on a consistent schedule! :)
Nine-year-old Johanna Mason sighed and wiped the sticky sweat out of her eyes, letting her axe drop to the ground. It was summer in District 7. Johanna's family lived inside the upper class part of the district, her father being a well-to-do businessman. And like most of the wealthy in their district, he exported lumber. He wasn't the most sensitive man in the world, and instead of letting his family living a cushy, comfortable lifestyle, he sent his children to work in the forests, the same as the lower class of District 7. "Buck up. Working hard builds character. And there's no better way to do it than chopping logs," he would say. And while he was her father, he wasn't very fatherly, as he was away doing business most of the time.
Johanna took a long drink from her soiled canteen. The water was slightly lukewarm from sitting in the sun for hours. She had split so many logs in the past five hours that her hands were starting to numb. Looking to her left, about 100 feet away, she saw her older brother, Roran, chopping diligently away at some of the bigger logs. Her twin sister was in town with her mother, helping with the shopping. Johanna was glad Alyse was usually the one to go along on trips to the shops with her mother; she would choose swinging an axe over that any day.
Taking another swig from her canteen, Johanna resumed her task. Ten minutes later however, she heard the Mayor's gong ring five times. Roran called out, "Come on, Johanna, it's five o'clock! Time to head in for the day."
Johanna toweled off her sweaty axe handle, carefully wiping off the bits and pieces of lumber that still clung to the blade. Brushing her damp bangs out of her eyes, she followed her brother into their large house.
She placed her axe in the storage room with Roran's, she walked upstairs, her hands lightly brushing the handrail of the staircase. Alyse and her mother would be home soon. She would have to hurry and wash up for dinner. Her mother was not a fan of sweat-covered children at the dinner table.
Quickly undressing and scrubbing the dirt from her skin and the grime from her hair in the hot bathwater, Johanna hopped out of the bath as soon as the last of the soap was rinsed off. Drying and combing her dark hair as best she could, she slipped into an embroidered linen tunic, pulling on her leggings. Her hair refused to cooperate and hung like the tangled mess it was. After attempting to comb through it again, she succeeded, and pulled her shoulder-length tresses back into a short braid. Johanna bounded into her room, which she shared with her twin. She found on her bed, reading their most prized possession: a thick book full of fairy tales. The twins had read the book so many times they practically knew the stories by heart, but they couldn't get enough of the old, leather-bound book.
"Mother picked out some fabric for dresses for us." Alyse said not taking her eyes off the rapturing story. "She wants us to have new dresses for the Mayor's banquet in two days."
Johanna sighed. "I don't want to go to this stupid banquet. There's no one there our age, and we have to be quiet and stay still the entire night."
"Hey, if I had a choice, I'd stay here, but we have to go."
Johanna scowled, and plopped herself on the bed next to Alyse. "Which one are you reading?"
"Snow White."
After a few minutes of silent reading, an idea popped into Johanna's head. "Do you wanna act it out?"
Alyse nodded enthusiastically. "You be the evil queen, though. You're better at acting evil."
They proceeded to act out the entire tale, and were halfway through when Roran came upstairs to call them to dinner. "Come on, girls. Time to eat."
The twins skipped across the room, and Alyse asked, "What did Mom make?"
"Venison, corn, and potatoes."
Johanna cackled as they walked down the hall, still personifying the evil queen. "Death to potatoes! I will mash them into oblivion!"
Alyse giggled and played along. "The potatoes cannot stand against the utensils of the evil Johanna!"
Fifteen-year-old Roran rolled his eyes. His sisters could really let their imaginations run away with them. He hoped it would last past their first Reaping. In their innocence, they knew of the Hunger Games, but not of the horrors within them. The thoughts stayed with him through the rest of the night, and into the next morning.
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"Mother, this dress is too girly."
"You only have to wear it for one night, Johanna, one night!"
"Mother, it's pink."
"Honey, just stand still so I can pin it. I don't want to poke you."
Johanna sighed in exasperation. She fidgeted as she felt her mother pin the slightly scratchy material closer to her body. She avoided wearing dresses as often as she could, and this dress wouldn't have been a problem, since it was for a formal dinner party. But it was light pink. Pink. Johanna hated pink. Mother said it brought out her deep brown eyes, but she would've taken any other color of the rainbow. Alyse got to wear a light green dress, since her eyes were a deep green. It was all about image and style, her mother had told them. That's how you got higher up in the social ladder.
Johanna could've cared less about her social life, but she tried her best to please her mother, because she understood her perfectly. Mother understood that during rainstorms, it was fun to splash in the backyard puddles, and that Johanna wouldn't be able to concentrate until she had jumped into every single one. She understood that sometimes Johanna needed a getaway from life, so she helped Roran make her a treehouse. Mother was the reason she would put up with pretty much anything.
Her mind coming back to the dress, Johanna decided that one night wouldn't be so bad. Alyse loved wearing dresses, and was happy about getting a new dress. She had finished her fitting an hour ago, and was probably trying to coax Roran into acting out a story with her. He made a very convincing dragon when the twins managed to convince him to play.
Later that night, Johanna's family played a game that her father called 'Monopoly'. It was very old, an antique, from era before The Dark Days. It was composed of small houses, little metal pieces shapes like different objects, yellow and orange cards, cards that were called 'property cards', and a large square playing board. Johanna wondered sometimes if something like this was allowed-the Capitol was very strict when it came to objects from before The Dark Days. Her worries were always eased when her father let out his hearty bellowed, reminding her that he had played this game with the Head Peacekeeper and the Mayor, who were both very loyal to President Snow. Alyse and Johanna were setting up the pieces to the game carefully, while her mother sewed and Roran and their father were discussing politics. When the twins had finished, they called the family over, and the game of Monopoly began. Johanna was always the piece shaped like a cannon. As the family laughed and joked while playing and strategizing, it seemed they were the perfect family of five. But their parents were hiding something. Something that might destroy this happy picture.