Chapter 2 Missing You
"Katniss honey, time to wake up" I hear a sweet voice say, my eyes pop open and I quickly shut then again due to a piercing bright light, I hear a shuffle sound and slowly open my eyes, noticing that the airplane window to my left now had its shade drawn shut, I must have stared straight into the sunlight. I turn my head to the right and see someone I haven't seen in years, my aunt in-law, Ethel standing over me with an obscenely large smile on her face. I notice that Prim is gone and we have landed but before I can even ask where my little sister ran off to I'm being whisked away by my strange aunt... in-law. I quickly go and try to grab my carry-on but notice that Prim's not the only thing missing, she must have taken it to Ethel's car. Speaking of Ethel, I take a minute to really look at her, I mean as well as I can while she is tugging me through the heavily crowded airport. Her hair went from it's boring dull blonde to a vibrant bubblegum pink, her eyes, which have more wrinkles around them then I remember are surrounded by a bright turquoise type makeup that really makes her natural blue eyes pop even more. Her yellow lipstick throws me off a little bit and her heels make her almost two heads taller than me. She is wearing a skin tight neon blue pencil skirt with a white blouse that has ducks plastered all over it. Overall my aunt looks like a crazy person. If I gave a damn about what people thought I might have been embarrassed, but they can all kiss my broke ass.
I'm sure most people would call her eccentric but- actually now that I look around, a lot of people are dressed like Ethel, obviously not the exact same but similar ridiculous outfits. I notice a small asian girl run by with her family they are all dressed in bright neon's with crazy hair, makeup and skin tints. But it's not everyone, maybe 2 in every 5 people are dressed really wildly but some are dressed like me, plain blue jeans, plain grey sweater, plain brown hair in a plain braid. Wow I look boring. "Well? is that alright Katniss?" I was a little busy analyzing the random people in the airport to really be listening but I did hear her say that Prim was with my uncle and he was driving her to his house- our house, which was fine but how are Ethel and I supposed to get home? "Yeah, aunt Ethel that-" "MMMMPH" my aunt cut me off with a horrendously, fingernails on a chalkboard like wail. She suddenly looked embarrassed, " Excuse me Katniss, but I changed my name to Effie, several years ago so please just call me Effie" she looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown if I didn't comply so I responded "Sorry aunt-" "No Aunt, just Effie, you don't see me calling you niece Katniss, now do you?" When I didnt respond to that Au- Effie just kept walking this time releasing her tight hold on my wrist. Her long legs make it a little hard to keep up, 'how is she practically running in those 8 inch heels'
When I catch up to Effie we are already outside and I instantly feel the extreme heat of California and quickly discard my sweater and wrap it around my waist. Effie stands close to the curb waving at an incoming black car, it looks extremely sleek and new, and expensive, that can't be uncle Haymitch If he left to drop off Prim, unless he lives right beside the airport, which would really suck. When the shiny black car stops beside us the driver, dressed in a suit jogs to the other side and opens the door for Effie and I, it would have been faster and more efficient if we did it ourselves but whatever, I guess that's his job. Effie gets into the car first and I quickly follow and I see another person sitting in the car, in the passenger seat. A women with a completely neutral face is seated there, also in a black suit but without a tie, she wears dark glasses so I can't see her eyes, her blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail so tight it looks like it hurts, maybe that's why her face is so expressionless, she's hiding the pain of that awful looking ponytail. I wonder what her job is, I mean she didn't come out of the car to open the doors so she's not a driver, I thought it would be rude to ask so I kept my mouth shut. My assumption of Uncle Haymitch living close to the airport was luckily completely untrue as it took us almost two hours to finally reach his home, or the more accurate word would be mansion. As we drive up I notice that he has a gate, a freaking gate! I mean, I knew he was rich but not gate with a voice box rich. After the driver announces who we are the gates smoothly swing open, I notice a camera that moves as the car moves, It should really keep its lens on the gate, someone could just sneak in… or out, I should remember that.
When the car stops I quickly open the door before the driver does, I should really learn his name, it be rude if one day I was like 'Oi Driver, what's up?'. When I get out of the car Effie gives me a scolding look which I ignore and the driver gives me a peeved look, like I stole his job, saved him 15 seconds of work. 'your welcome' I turn and take in the full grandeur of this house, my home, it's beautiful, the house is an inviting light grey/beige color and has a cobble stone round about driveway and in the center there is a beautiful fountain with little cupid statues hugging, and surround the fountain lay thousands of… wait a minute . "Effie, are those Primroses and Katniss plants?" I ask astounded, I didn't need to ask I knew what they were but I find it amazing that they planted them for us.
"That's incredibly sweet Effie Thank you" I say and usually there would be an underlying tone of sarcasm but I truly mean it and I hope she knows that. She smiles warmly and puts her hand on my shoulder, " We would do anything to make you two happy here, we are both so excited to have you" I smile at her once more and we walk in together. The inside of the house is no less impressive than the front. Everything is very white, White tiled floors, white walls, even the stairs have white carpeting running down the middle, the sides of the stairs have the wood exposed, which really makes this room a little more cosy and homy, less stifling and proper. A wooden chandelier hangs in between the two sets of stairs on either sides of the wall as they converge in the middle. Running up those stairs would be a great workout.
I hear talking coming from the right side of the house where I see a very open kitchen with Prim laughing at something Uncle Haymitch said, she's sitting on the countertop and almost on instinct I say "Prim, you shouldn't be sitting there" She jumps apparently not hearing us come in, and hops off when she hears my voice. "Kat, finally you're here we've been here for hours, right Haymitch?" she jokes, to Haymitch, 'guess nobody likes formal titles around here'. Haymitch plays along, but I'm don't really pay too much attention, " Hi, Haymitch" I say politely, while trying to start up a conversation about my missing carry-on. "Hey there … sweetheart" He says while slurring his words, 'Is he drunk?'. "Its Katniss" I say coldly. I dont like the idea of Prim hanging out with people when they're drunk, she's twelve. "So I'm still pretty tired" I lie, "Could you show Prim and I are room? and Prim, you have my suitcase right?" I look down at her, she's changed out of her sweater and leggings and put on a white sun dress, 'wait I didn't buy this for her'. "Yeah Katniss, I put it in your room, just your room, I have my own, this place is huge, you should see their backyard, I bet I can do 50 cartwheels in a row without reaching the end, they even have a maze of flowers and plants and stuff, speaking of plants did you see the front they have our flowers in the front isn-" I clamp my hand over her mouth to try to get her to stop talking but the little bugger licks my hand. " PRIM, ew" I quickly wipe my hand against my thigh and frown. " Can you just show me to my room" I look up from my now damp thigh to see that Haymitch and Effie are gone, probably left while Prim was talking about, I dont even remember, when Prim gets started everything around me just turns into one big blur of noise.
Prim quickly ushers me to my room and rushes off to hers, the room is obviously huge but very plain, When I have time I'll decorate but right now I should start an hour later I'm almost finished but everything is still pretty plain. I hear a beep and check my phone but no new calls or text messages. All of a sudden Prim's voice enters my room, its coming from a small black box attached to my wall nearest back of my room, 'how did i not notice this before?' "hello? Katniss, heeelllllooooo?" I jog over and press the tiny red button "Hi Prim" I say "Isnt this cool, we have intercoms, I'm never leaving my room again. I laugh at my little duck and we talk for a bit, but then I hear a second beep and this time it's my laptop. I say bye to Prim and open my dell laptop and see a skype request from Madge. Before she can even open her mouth I start talking.
"Madge, you'll be fine, you have lots of other friends" I say while unpacking my underwear drawer. She gasps over dramatically "I can't believe you, how can you say that?" She asks , like a offended her by calling her popular. I slide my fully stocked panty drawer and turn to face my laptop monitor which shows Madge's disgruntled blue eyed face. "Well, from a young age I learned to speak English, just like you" I say sarcastically, then I look at her as if she was being weird. Oh here comes this funny thing Madge does with her face, when I make her laugh but she doesn't want to laugh she'll try to hide a smile, then she'll frown really hard , it goes on for a bit but she always cracks and bursts into laughter even if it wasn't all that funny.
Just as Madge is about to burst I hear the sound of the intercom coming to life and my aunt's voice rushes through my room like water going down a waterfall. "Oh, honey I completely forgot I'm having a quick get together and ordered some little pastries for the bakery down the street, would you be a dear and go get them for me, you can take Prim with you" She sounded so sugary sweet, now I wanted to go check out some pastries.
When Madge starts calming down from her laughing high I quickly say I have to go and we say goodbye.I shut my laptop closed and exit my room and go across the hall to Prims, I knock and enter at the same time and see Prim balancing on her dresser on one foot while trying to stick some poster on her wall, she looks a little wobbly as I approach and before I reach her she starts to fall, I quickly rush to catch her but only end up as her landing pad. I groan and Prim rolls off me. I slowly get up and check if she's okay, no broken bones, no cuts, maybe a light bruise on her arm but she'll live, she apologizes a lot, but I tell her it's okay and she should be careful next time, you know big sister stuff. I tell Prim about the bakery and her response is "Only if you buy me a cupcake." she smiles mischievously as if she won a sort of battle I turn and start to exit while I say "You know I can go by myself, right" I don't need to see her to know that her smug smile was wiped right off her face. "I'll come anyway" she says. Once Prim and I get downstairs Effie's furiously cleaning a spot on her dark wooden dining table, while we pass her I can hear her muttering to herself " Stupid mahogany...knife….firewood" I step towards her and without looking she hands me a slip of paper from within her bra, and shoes Prim and I outside into the heat l, the sleek black car is still in the front and as we walk down the steps I see that the driver is still in the car. I open the door again and obviously catch him by surprise as it seems we was enjoying a smoke that was obviously not tobacco in a car that was obviously not his. Thankfully Prim stopped to literally smell the roses,or more precisely the primroses. I look to the shaking driver and smirk, I can have fun with this. "listen, I won't tell anyone about this," he smiled, relieved but I wasn't done yet. "but you're going to put your number in my phone and whenever I need a ride, you'll be there as soon as possible, you got that"
He looked at me confusingly but accepted my cell phone anyway and started typing. I guess my request ( threat ) doesn't make too much sense considering that driving people places whenever they want is actually his job he shouldn't mind, but what the driver and I both don't know is what kind of 'parents' Effie and Haymitch are, and I might need to sneak out of the house on occasion, if i'm able to find kids my age who are as crazy as Madge and I used to be, I guess I'll find out soon. I quickly open the piece of paper Effie gave me and say "Now why don't you hid that joint from my approaching twelve year old sister and drive me to Mellark and Sons Bakery on Weller and Fifth Street" I relax in my seat and roll down the windows, praying Prim won't smell the smoke, that kids to smart for her own good.
OK, so this is not the story that I am devoting all my time to but I couldn't stop writing but now its almost 1 am so Im tired, ending is kind of weird I wanted to continue to the bakery scene but I'm too tired so enjoy good night :)
