Chapter two of my second Hunger Games fic, YAY! Thanks for the reviews so far :)
Katniss looked up as the woman called her name, ushering her into a small room with mahogany desk that screamed upper-class. The woman herself looked like a clown, her face painted with too much make up and green hair up in a neat bun. She smiled at Katniss as she sat down and the girl sat sloppily in the sofa across the desk from her.
"Hello Miss..." the woman paused a minute reading over some notes before looking back up at her and finishing in a cheerful voice, "Katniss Hammer."
"Katniss Everdeen." She corrected in a monotone, earning a curious look from this lady with no sense of fashion at all.
"It clears says here that your last name is Hammer." She tells her.
"Well," Katniss sighs, " I'm changing it back as soon as I'm old enough, so it's Everdeen."
The woman only nods, completely confused, "OK then, I'm Effie Trinket, head of the CBTT."
"CBTT... whats that?" Katniss questions, tugging nervously on the sleeves of her dark blue sweater. The middle of winter had been so cold in Michigan that it still is sweater weather in late spring, but Katniss is not complaining because a baggy sweater is the most comfortable thing to exist.
"CBFTT, or the Capitol Board for Troubled Teens. Sweetie I'm so sorry you had to travel miles to get here but you'll see, this will turn your whole life around." Effie chirped, clasping her hands together before continuing, "You no longer have to shoot poor, cute animals to vent out your anger!"
Katniss followed the lady's line of vision to the many rabbit feet hanging around her neck, almost six. The teenager held in a laugh, if only this Effie could she her dozens that wait at home. "Their just animals." Katniss protests, reaching up to hold a fluffy white paw in her left hand.
"Oh no!" Effie says shocked, "You should not be killing little bunnies anymore! The forest reserve ban hunting a lot time ago, which is why you're here and in trouble."
Katniss shrugs, "What do they want, me to pick up trash or something?"
"No, no. You'll be helping out one of our many partners, they'll help you build good manners and habits." Effie explains, pulling out a folder and flipping through sheets before placing her finger on one, "How about raising geese?"
"No." Katniss replied, crossing her arms, raising any type of animal was out of the question.
The woman looked annoyed but continues through the book and holds it's up for Katniss to see, "We have a wide variety of programs, animal care, hair styling, writing, even fishing!" Effie tells her, "Maybe you'd like to try one of our newer ones?"
"Surprise me." Katniss says but quickly adds, "As long as it doesn't involve animals."
~BMT~
Katniss looked up at the sign, in simple, plain red read Mellark Bakery.
She could have done something much more to her liking if only she hadn't told the woman to pick for her, the same woman that was walking through the doors underneath the sign Katniss is staring at.
"Mr. Mellark!" Effie greets, hugging the man in a friendly way as he greets her back and they discuss little things like family and weather for a minute before Effie turns to Katniss, who now had joined her inside the warm bakery. "This here is Katniss Hammer- I mean- Everdeen."
"Nice to meet you Katniss, I'm James." He introduces himself and Katniss can't get her mind of how much he looks like Cray and refuses to shake his hand when he extents his toward her. She instantly is defensive even though this man wears a smile and smells like fresh bread instead of beer.
The man's hand falls to his side and his smile disappearing before the sound of footsteps alerts them that somebody else has entered the room.
The boy who had came through the front seems shy as he stops in mid-step to look over the group, he moves again this time heading toward the back door.
"Peeta!" Mr. Mellark calls him over before he dash off to somewhere else, " Come meet Katniss, she'll be staying with us through the summer."
The boy named Peeta nods, his blonde hair falling in his blue eyes as he does. "Hello." he greets quietly, "I'm Peeta."
Katniss stays silent because this is probably the first time a boy her age has talked to her in a polite way, and Mr. Mellark is still standing next to her and her nerves have yet to calm down. Effie nudges her side before raising a drawn-on eyebrow suggestively, Katniss blushes and for then on stares at her boots.
~BMT~
"If that's everything then I'll leave you to get settled in." Mr. Mellark says before leaving the guest bedroom. Katniss sits on the oversized bed that also has her two suitcases on it. The oldest Mellark had been surprised by her lack of luggage, but she had explained she isn't exactly a girly-girl. Which he said is a good thing.
Because all summer she is stuck in a house with only men.
Mr. Mellark seems nice enough, he told her about how he always wanted a daughter, which is why the room she's sitting in now is completely pink. His wife died before they could have one though, so the emptiness is now a guest room for the kid's who end up like her. And it turns out she's the first guest from CBTT here.
She would have spent the day in that room, but the smell of dinner caused the teenager to cautiously tip-toe downstairs to the first floor kitchen. The family lived behind and above the bakery, the back held the living room and kitchen while all the bathrooms were upstairs with the four bedrooms. The completely white kitchen had three people, one that Katniss knew was Mr. Mellark and another his shy son Peeta, but the other had darker hair and seemed older than Peeta.
The wooden floorboard creaked under her weight, the boys turned in surprise and the older son recovered from the shock of seeing a stranger in their home and offered Katniss a small smile.
She waved awkwardly, not trusting her voice. Katniss didn't like change, and moving in with complete strangers is a big change. Mr. Mellark told her that dinner would be ready soon and for her to go wait in the living room.
Katniss sat stiffly on the tan leather couch before reaching down to the coffee table to grab the remote. She flipped through the stations before stopping on a competitive hunting event, the man on the screen was holding up a big buck when somebody spoke behind her.
"Did the buttons get stuck?" Peeta asked, walking closer and sitting next to her.
"No." Katniss showed him the remote, "I just like these shows."
"Oh, it's just that none of the girls at my school like hunting and fishing... You're different." He added the last partly barely above a whisper. Katniss wouldn't have heard it without all her time spent tracking game. Her chest felt heavy as she stood up, walking to the stairs and up into her room without a word.
Nothing changed.
~BMT~
Mr. Mellark had brought her dinner up, asking Katniss why she hadn't stayed downstairs, but she simply lied and blamed being home-sick and he left her alone. All event Katniss daydreamed of the woods, the calming breeze and tall trees. In some ways she is home-sick, she misses the forest. Sleep came easy that night, with a full stomach and relaxing memories of shooting rabbits.
She was running, running until her legs hurt as she looked around for a tree to climb. He was close behind, following her like she followed her game. Katniss held her breath as she grabbed the lowest branch, pulling herself up. Before reaching to climb higher a hand wrapped around her ankle and pulled her down to the forest floor.
His breathe was unsettling as he exhaled into her ear, arm wrapped around her waist and holding her close. The drunken man's other hand roamed around as she fought to stop him, but just as his hand reached the zipper of her father's hunting jacket everything stopped and she was surrounded by darkness. Cray was gone and she could breath again.
But then she was twelve again, sitting in a class room as Clove whispered with Glimmer and the others talked with their friends. Everyone stopped when the teacher came in, smiling and telling them good morning.
Clove shuffled to the front of the room, handing the teacher a note before sitting down again. The teacher walked over to Katniss and kneeled down, "Katniss, you need to go to the principal's office now."
Katniss looked at her in disbelieve before looking at the note the teacher was holding, in bold ink it said she had punched Glimmer in the gut before class. Katniss looked over to Glimmer as she held her stomach in fake pain and Clove held in laughter. Katniss walked away without arguing.
Cray picked her up, screaming about how he had to take a vacation day to get her. His eyes met her's in the review mirror as they pulled in the driveway, his full of anger as her's met his with fear and hurt. He didn't care, no matter how much she protested as they walked inside. Cray didn't even lead her upstairs before slamming her head against the wall, pulling at her jeans as blood dripped down her forehead.
Katniss woke up screaming, her eyes watery. She felt arms shaking her awake gently, but as the concerned face of Mr. Mellark came into view it only made her fight his hands off. He let go, backing up where Peeta and the older boy stood in pajamas. Her wide eyes flickered between them all, suddenly very aware that all she had on was a plain white bra and sweatpants. Katniss pulled the sheets to cover her chest and Mr. Mellark spoke up.
" I heard screaming and came to check on you." he told her, "Once I got to your door Peeta and Rye were already standing there."
Katniss' grip on the sheet loosened at his words, nobody had ever woke her up from nightmares before. Her mother didn't care after falling into depression not long after re-marrying, Cray couldn't care less, and Prim was too young.
"Are you ok?" Peeta asked, his hair sloppy and eyes half closed but he looked worried.
She wanted to say yes, to lay back down and stay awake until morning like always. But Katniss shook her head, hot tears running down her face and just like that all the boys were at her side.
"What happened?" the one Katniss had figured out is named Rye asked, he certainly had no idea what to do. None of the them did, they all looked like lost puppies as Katniss sobbed into her blanket.
Katniss couldn't believe it, she'd never cry in front of people. This was reserved for the middle of the night in darkness, no witnesses. But here she was, crying like a baby. No matter how hard she tried to stop them the damn emotions still came through.
"I don't know." Mr. Mellark answered his son as his hand reached up to wipe away some tears off her face. Katniss tensed, memories of Cray doing the same thing flooding her mind and she found herself scrambling out of bed and onto the floor. Knees up to her chest she calmed her crying, finally stopping the tears.
"I'm sorry." Mr. Mellark apologized and told them he was going to get her some hot chocolate, which helped both his sons when they were little.
Peeta looked more terrified then her when he sat besides her, careful not to sit to close in fear of sending her into a panic attack. "What's wrong?" he asked in the kindest voice Katniss had heard in a long time.
"N-Nothing." Her voice cracked, "I'm perfectly fine."
"Sure doesn't look like it." Rye commented from his place sitting on her bed, Peeta glared at him. The boys fought back and forth until Mr. Mellark came back and told them to shut up. The four sat on the bedroom floor, sipping hot chocolate as Rye and Peeta told Katniss stories for their childhood.
And for the first time in years, Katniss Everdeen felt safe.
Look at that, that ending is just so cute. Now before people start telling me that Katniss is OOC, I'll explain.
Katniss Everdeen has had a hard life. The reason she has nightmares in the books is because of the games. But there are no games in my fanfic, so I had to think of something equally as bad. After Cray stopped touching her, Katniss created a shell, a shell so nobody could ever get close to her again. She learned to defend herself. The ending which you just read is only the first part of the complex egg that is Katniss starting to crack.
Reviewers are very, very kind people.
I didn't check this chapter really so sorry for mistakes!
