Chapter 2

That same day, a little bit earlier…

Rose's POV (new character)

I walked into the main office. Today was my first day of school here in District 12. My older brother started a month ago, but I just came here. The people at the main office told me the directions to my first class and left me to it on my own.

It's a fairly large building, so of course I got lost. But it's homeroom, so I have time to get to my first class. I heard the bell ring and teenagers come streaming out. Uh oh. I got lost in the wrong place. These people are about half a foot taller than me. Like my brother's height. They're a year older than me.

"Hey, never saw you here before. You new?" a fairly fat kid and a few others came towards me. I instantly hated this kid. If he was this fat, then his family had enough to eat, meaning he got through life the easy way. I was one of the poor. We were always hungry. I know so many others in District 12 are, too.

"Well, yeah," I grumbled.

"Well, no duh, you're lost," he scoffed. I frowned.

He pushed me against some lockers. Hard. He went towards me. I put my hands in front of my face. He grabbed both my wrists and flung me towards the other side of the hallway. I flew across the hallway and crashed against a wall. (a/n: Ouch.) I fell to the ground. A nice big audience was forming around us. Everyone laughed at my pain.

"Bet you don't have much to eat, you skinny girl," he said roughly.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You look like you haven't eaten in days. Are you starving?" he snickered. I don't take child hunger as something funny.

"No, I'm not starving. In fact, I had a nice breakfast today. How about you, you filthy pig-,"

He punched me in the stomach causing me to cough up some blood. "I'm not a pig! I just have plenty to eat, unlike you and all the other poor people. I bet your daddy has to hunt animals to get food, instead of simply just buying it at a store. Like those idiots from the rebellion. What's their names, oh yeah, Katniss and Gale," he teased.

My eyes flashed with anger. "You idiot! You bastard! You filthy son of a-,"

"That's enough, Bruce (a/n: I have absolutely no idea where I got that name from)," Finnick said. Oh my god. Thank god he's here. "You, too, Rose. You shouldn't be cursing like that," he said turning to me. I never cursed in front of my brother. Whoops.

"Rose? That's your name?" Bruce asked. He doubled over with laughter. "You know this girl, Finnick?" he asked in between breaths.

"No, no I don't," he answered. Oh, so now it's a crime to know me. God, I'm his little sister. Can someone tell him that?

"Then how do you know her name?" Bruce asked curiously.

"I'm the class president. I take it upon my responsibilities to at least find out the new girl's name," Finnick answered. Oh, he's so going to get it at home.

"Come on Rose, let me show you to your class," my brother said. He grabbed me by the arm. Once we were away from the juniors, I slapped him across the face. He slapped me back, hesitated, and slapped me again.

"What the-," I started.

"Don't you dare curse ever again," he interrupted.

"Oh, so now, you be brotherly," I rolled me eyes and crossed my arms. He smirked.

"Yup," he said happily. "Anyway, you ok? What were you doing? Getting in fights like that?" He stopped walking and turned to face me.

"He started it."

"And why didn't you end it?"

"He was insulting my pride," I answered.

"The first time I see you in a month and you're getting yourself beat up."

"Hey, you ok?" someone asked from behind us. He had black hair and beautiful grey eyes. This is how most people in district 12 looks, but he looks different, somehow. He looked cute. I smiled to myself. I saw my brother roll his eyes.

"Nuh uh, you're not going there, little sis," he said.

"You don't control me," I shot at him. I turned to the other boy. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You a sophomore?" my brother asked him. The boy nodded his head. "Show her to her class, will you?" he nodded his head once more and my brother left.

"Who is that?" he asked me.

"The class president, apparently, that's all."

"Well, actually that's for his grade. And you're such a liar. He called you your little sister."

"He sure acted like I was back there," I said.

He laughed. "Yeah. I was watching. You sure stood up for yourself. By the way, are you sure you're ok? You were coughing up blood back there."

"Yeah, I'm fine,"

"If you say so. So, what's your name?"

I hesitated, "Rose. And you?"

He smiled, "Ethan Mellark."

I gaped at him. "Omigosh! I can't believe I didn't recognize you, that's so cool!"

"Well…"

"What?"

"Nothing. Do you have your schedule?" he asked.

I nodded and gave him my schedule. He told me we had all the same classes except math. We had two different teachers for that class. He walked me to my first class.


After a whole morning full of insults and rude comments directed at me, I was really down. There were a lot of bullies here and I hadn't made any friends except maybe for Ethan. But he didn't talk to me in my classes, so…

I walked into the cafeteria and sat at the back where no one was. I watched as Ethan made his way to an especially crowded table. He was really popular. I kept watching him.

"Don't stare, skinny, it'll make it obvious. Not that he'd ever like you," a voice snickered. Bruce. Why is he in my lunch period?

"What do you want, pig?" I asked gruffly. Great, what a great relationship we have, we already gave each other nicknames.

He ignored my comment and grabbed my lunch. "What do you have for lunch, skinny?" he asked. He looked inside my bag and licked his lips. He got up. "Thanks, skinny!" And with that he walked away. Damn, now I don't have lunch.

So I just sat there watching everyone else in the cafeteria eat. A brunette with olive green eyes, who was sitting alone at a table stood up and started to walk towards me.

She gave a warm smile, "I feel bad for you. You got stuck in a lunch period with mostly juniors. You're a sophomore right?"

"Mmhmm," I said. She dropped a bag and left. I opened the bag. It had food in it. "Hey, aren't you hungry?" I asked. She turned her head and shook it and made her way back to her table. "Thanks!" I said to her.


The rest of the day went by pretty okay, but when I got home everything went wrong. Finnick got home really late, so I went for a walk to look for a job. We didn't have much money and our food comes from my brother's hunting.

Apparently, when I went to the square, no one was offering any jobs and I walked away disappointed. I decided to kill time by walking by the Victor's Village. I watched as a little girl about 5 or 6 years old run outside one of the houses. Her blonde hair looked almost golden as she ran. A man about in his mid-thirties came out the door.

"Lila, come back here!" he screamed angrily.

"No daddy! I wanna play outside!" she giggled.

"Not right now! We have to get ready for the party!" he said. She kept running. She started climbing a tree that was near the house.

"Come and get me!" she said playfully.

"Come down right now! We don't have time for this," he said. He took a deep breath. "Please Lila? The mayor's holding a party and we don't want to be late," he said sweetly. She was really high in the tree now.

She thought for a moment, "Okay, daddy. I'll be there in a moment," she said cutely. By now, I had walked past her house and was getting closer to the tree she was in and the road was heading back to the square. I watched her as she tried to climb down from the tree. She looked panicked because she had dress shoes on. She lost her balanced and fell- about 50 ft. from the ground. She landed violently on the dirt floor. I ran towards her, panic stricken. She was holding on to her ankle and crying uncontrollably. I picked her up and walked back to her father, who was running towards us. I handed her to him.

"Do you need help healing her? I kinda have experience in healing," I informed.

"Well, I was going to give her to her mother, but seeing as her mom's in the shower and I know next to nothing in healing injuries, I guess you can try to help," he said. I smiled at him and he led me inside.

I had Lila lying down on a table and went to the cuts and bruises on her arms and legs. She had a lot! And she had a pretty bad bruise on her elbow and knee. I cleaned out the blood in all the cuts, which took awhile since there were so many, and put some ointment which her father had given me. Then I wet to the bruises on her knee. Her dad gave me a box full of first-aid equipment and I used it to heal the bruises. As soon as I finished that, I checked her ankle.

"… Her ankle's broken," I stated. I hated to break it to him, but I had to. "I don't know what to do about broken ankles," I stated.

"Neither does my wife," he said. "I'll have to take her to a hospital."

"Wait, lemme see what I can do about it," I said to him. I began to concentrate hard on fixing up her ankle. In the end, I managed to ease the pain and bandage her foot. It was the best I could do and at least she could walk on it.

"Wow, you're like a natural healer," a woman said at the door.

"Whoa, how long were you watching?" I asked her.

"I was here for a pretty long time. I'm surprised you didn't notice me," she laughed. Lila's dad walked over to the woman, put his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek.

"I don't think we could go to the party," he stated.

"I know. I already called the mayor," she informed. She walked over to me and shook my hand. "My name's Katniss and he's Peeta," she said gesturing to Lila's father. I gawked at her. It was them!

Right then Ethan walked into the room. "Hey, aren't we going to- Hey, you're that girl from school today," he said noticing me.

"I have a name, you know," I said smiling.

"Oh right, what was it again?" he asked.

"Rose," I said.

"Oh, yeah," he said obviously remembering.

"Hey, Rose, I run an apothecary here. Do you want to help? You're actually pretty good," Katniss said.

"Well… I'm not that good," I said sheepishly. "But I was looking for a job…"

"Yeah, I'll pay you," she said.

"Well… okay," I said.

And so that's how I got a job from Katniss Mellark.


When I got home, Finn was already waiting for me.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"I got a job at an apothecary shop. Where were you all this time?" I asked.

"Hunting," he said. "Let's call dad," he said. Our dad's in District 2. He told us to come and live here and that he'll come later on, but we don't believe him.

"Hi dad," Finn says when he picks up.

"Hi," he says in a monotone voice. Finn has put it on speaker so I could listen.

I plop down on the sofa next to Finn, "When are you coming to District 12, dad?" I ask in a teasing voice since I know he's never going to come. He was born here, but he didn't come for a little less than 20 years.

"Next month," he said his voice dead calm. He didn't hesitate or say it unsurely. He's serious, so I know that he will come next month. Uh oh. This is not going to turn out okay. I look at Finnick and it shows clear on his face that this is not a good idea.