AUTHOR'S NOTE:
SO THANK YOU IF YOU HAVE READ THIS VERY WEIRD AND USELESS STORY. MUCHAS GRACIAS, AMIGO.
THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. IT BELONGS TO SUZANNE COLLINS.
ENJOY!
Dandelions
Chapter 1
Madge
"This looks pretty, Madge." Rosie was picking at my blue dress hung at the back of my closet, but I shook my head and looked more into the mirror as I tied my hair with a white ribbon.
"Well, with the weather and all this month, I don't think that's very much appropriate." I finally finished the ribbon, puffing it up to stand out.
"But it would be good use, you know. Look at the pretty ribbons at front! Anyways, you're still able to use this, for the Victory, right?
"If I were Katniss," I told her as I finally faced her. "But I'm not. And I won't wear something like that with all the snow. Besides, the Tour wouldn't last that long."
"Well, that makes some point," Rosie said with her tongue slithering with her accent. "Well, I still have the dishes to do, so you go enjoy yourself off."
"Yes."
I smiled as I looked at Rosie approaching my door, and my eyes went back to the dress. My mother's very own. It wasn't much, but I was planning to wear it somehow. And I didn't plan to wear it for the next reaping year.
I sighed, and went back to my desk to grab a couple of books for school. It wasn't a heavy load on me, but it was still school, and I had obligations to do. An image to maintain. Being the mayor's daughter, there was nothing in my power I could do anyway.
As I went down the stairs I glanced at my mother's bedroom, in which her door was slightly open, revealing her body in the normal position of her bed and her face as red as a tomato. A bottle of morphine was on her side again. We couldn't take her only key to salvation from her. It would be too much.
I sighed and ran out before Rosie could pick me out again. I kept quiet most of the way, as if there was anyone to talk to, but I missed the presence of someone by my side. Like Katniss. The Hunger Games truly had changed her life somehow. She was much more busy handling other things.
By the time I got to school I attended my regular classes, my eyes dropping by the second. I had stayed late the night my mother was screaming her soul out with the pain, and I just couldn't leave her. My father wasn't home to attend to us, so it was only me and Rosie. Still, it took us two hours before my mother started to relax. Before we all could start to relax.
I had taken my time by school, neglecting everything around me. I had never been the type to let things out, let alone talk about it. It was just the regular day of my life, which wasn't much of a thing I need to worry about.
I just needed to hope things wouldn't get out of hand.
I walked down the stairs at the front of the school building, planning a way to the Justice Building first. I had to consult my father first about a few things, especially my mother's sake, before things get worse. It wasn't much of a far walk. As I walked my eyes glanced at a few dandelions in the distance, growing beside the walls of the school and the bushes round it. I smiled. I was about to pick out one, approaching the bush, when a voice stopped me.
"What'd you use that for?"
I looked back to see Gale, his gray eyes gleaming with the light, for the first time in my life, actually talking to me alone.
"It's pretty."
"You wouldn't need a dandelion. You can get something better than that."
My emotions piled up again. For everything I do he had to pick on. "Money can't buy everything. We don't even have enough of those things."
Gale's eyes flickered as the clouds covered the sun. "But you can still afford something better than that dull dandelion."
I gave up. What was the point anyway? I was still defined as the Mayor's daughter. That girl who had everything. The girl who never took the hard path. The girl who had it easy at times.
And Gale…of all people, had to add the emphasis on that. Whether my dress or a simple flower he had to pick it up on me.
I didn't approach the dandelion anymore, and instead stepped away from the bush. I walked away, and Gale didn't say anymore words. He had left me to peace.
Gale
I still had made sure that in cases where I still had to feed my family, I had shot twice the amount of game than any of the other times. But this case, when Katniss got home alive and well, everyone got what they needed—food, in order to battle down starvation. No one needed fresh game anymore, since Katniss had her house hefty with food, and no one would get hungry.
That only meant no one would need me anymore.
But as time comes, the more I try to go away from the past—Katniss. The Games weren't her disaster. It was her dream. She'd finally met someone…better than me. Better than any of the rest of us. Peeta.
I'd kept myself busy by finally working in the mines, with Thom and Bristel as my everyday company. It wasn't as much fun as catching fresh game, but it had been quite enough to keep my mind off to some tricky memories. I made sure that at least, I earn something, even if my family doesn't need it much—with all the gifts and parcels Katniss takes in with her, my family gets a part. I feel ashamed of myself.
"Gale! We've still got a sack to go! Stop standing around there!" Thom was shouting over the machine whirring, but I could hear him perfectly well.
I grabbed down the last sack at my side, lifted it up with my shoulder, and went straight through the tunnel. It was a busy mine, coal dust from all sides, and men with sweat dripping down their foreheads. A place of moneymaking.
"Here," I said as Thom looked back at me, his helmet crooked. "That's the last one."
"Good. After this we can go home early."
Thom and I went home as soon as we made sure we were presentable at public. Bristel was still busy working on crushing rocks, so we bade him our greeting. We had walked the usual way towards the Hob, where I was still hoping I could get a coin or two for the wild boar I shot. I still hunted, even if Katniss gives my family much better food than game. In secrecy, though. I had to think that not everything in life was given to us. Especially by Katniss.
Thom went away as soon as he knew I was going to the Hob, since he had other things to do. I approached the old geaser, Greasy Sae, if she had finally decided what to trade in for me.
"I'll give you five coins, the boar was good." Greasy Sae fished her pockets and produced five gold coins. Enough for the week.
"Thanks," I said quietly as I went away. I only traded with Greasy Sae, not much on the other people in the Hob, nor in the outsides of it, except the baker. He had always taken in the squirrels, but not as much pay as he had with Katniss, who always hit them right in the eye. I always punctured the meat when I shot those animals. For the rest of the people, they were either picky or didn't have enough to trade for what I had taken.
I remembered to go down to my mother's house, and I started walking. I passed by the Justice Building, the same building where Katniss' and mine's memories were locked. The valor. All those things. But as I looked further I saw the mayor going out of the building, looking around. Then he caught my eye, with a gesture telling me I should go forward. I did.
"Do you still sell strawberries?" He asked with a grin.
Strawberries. The Mayor's favorite delicacy. "No, sir, we don't anymore."
"Aw. Where'd you get strawberries in these parts of the town?" He suddenly asked. He looked hungry.
"I don't know, sir, but if I have the time tomorrow, I can pick up a bunch for you."
"Good, good, uh…"
"Gale, sir."
The Mayor nodded. "Gale. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
The Mayor went away as soon as we sealed an arrangement, and I made my way towards home. I had already thought of the conversation as irony, because I'd been selling the Mayor food for as long as I can remember, especially at times with Katniss. But not a single speck of my name up in the dust he breathes had appeared in his sight.
As soon as I got there I met my mother outside, in the back of our little house, scrubbing dirt of a shirt I didn't know who'd it belong to.
"Oh, Gale, you're here," my mother's voice was the same no matter what the emotion. No intonation or whatsoever.
"I need you to pick up Posy in school," she said as she scrubbed her hands down with a wool cloth. "Rory's home, and so is Vick, and Posy…well, you know. She can't go home by herself."
"Vick didn't take her in?"
"He was busy with Rory. Now, go. Your sister might be waiting."
I nodded and made a beeline for the school.
I got to the school, the place where I'd left long ago before I started working in the mines. It was still the same, the rusty old building that was still maintained. Some money goes in this little institution. The Capitol wanting to let the kids study in school is a joke to me. They just kill them off with a laugh anyway.
I had known where Posy always waits—the back of the school, where the swing set was located. It was her place when Vick or Rory were too busy with themselves that they already forgot their little sister. I had walked toward that direction when I saw a face, a girl with white curly hair and blue eyes, staring at the bushes at the sides of the school.
She made her way towards those, and looked at the dandelions sprawled all over it. She smiled, and her hand reached out to pick one.
"What'd you use that for?" I asked her.
She stopped suddenly, and looked around to see my face. Her emotion was still the same. "It's pretty."
"You wouldn't need a dandelion. You can get something better than that." You're the Mayor's daughter, I wanted to say, but I stopped myself.
"Money can't buy everything. We don't even have enough of those things."
I wanted to laugh. "But you can still afford something better than that dull dandelion."
I was already waiting for her next reaction to be much crazier than what happened, all her emotions thrown at me. But it didn't. Instead, she walked away from the bush and stepped out, and left. Just like that.
And I had wanted to think, was that too much?
At that moment, Posy spotted me like a dot out of Zebra's fur, and we got home without single contemplation after.
