Disclaimer: Still don't own the characters. Sigh.
That night, it takes me forever to fall asleep. The sheets are scratchy and the mattress is as hard as a rock. Outside I can hear a car pull up and a door slam. I toss and turn all night, only sleeping a little every now and then.
When light finally streams through the window, I throw the covers off of me and eagerly go to the kitchen until I realize that I have no food. Maybe a little money, which means to the store I go. I grumble. I want to stat inside as much as possible. I can't make friends, or it'll be harder to leave in the end.
I quickly travel back to my bedroom and throw on a t-shirt and some jeans. I try to multi-task by tying my shoes and putting my money in my pocket, but it doesn't work out to great. My shoelaces end up tangled to no end and my money somehow ends up on the floor.
Finally, when I manage to get out of my apartment, I grab the bike in the garage downstairs and quickly hop on it. Coralie gave me a small map of the basic part of the district and a list of places that need employers. Before even applying for a job, I decide to hurry into the grocery store and find some cheap milk and cereal that I can survive on until I get more money. It takes me forever to navigate the district and I get lost several times, ending up in an alley or a line of houses.
Once I finally find the store I hurry inside and I quickly find that it's going to be harder than I thought to find some cereal. I get lost in the store just trying to find stuff to eat. I'm able to find the milk and just grab the first one I see before continuing my search for cereal.
I end up having to ask an employee and he chuckles a little before guiding me in the right way.
"You new here?"
I nod. "Moved here yesterday."
"You looked a little lost." I follow him to the complete opposite side of the store that I was looking on.
"Here you go. Cereal aisle." He gestures down the aisle and I thank him. "If you ever need anything else, I'll be here. Name's Kenton."
"Madge." He holds out a hand and I shake it. I feel myself blush a little. No one's really actually wanted to talk to me that much.
"Kenton, get back to work!" Someone calls and he sighs before grinning at me.
"Nice to meet you, Madge." He winks one of his green eyes at me before jogging back to the manager I'm assuming. I try to control my gaping mouth and blush, but it's nearly impossible. A cute guy just said hello to me. I can't stop blushing.
I walk to the checkout and the woman there stares at me as I dig around in my pocket for my money. I know that the people behind me are probably groaning because I'm going so slow, but they can deal with it. When I'm finally able to check out, another problem arises. I don't know how I'm going to get home with my stuff. I run back in and buy a basket that could hook onto the end of the bike, and I go with that. I think it has some sort of kid thing on it, but I don't mind. It'll do for now.
My stomach starts growling as loud as it possibly can, so I jump onto the bike and quickly pedal to where I think my apartment is. Turns out that I was wrong and I have to back track and start over. By the time I get to the street that I'm positive I live on, my stomach is about to die and I'm irritated beyond belief. This district is too big. I liked District 12 better. Maybe I'll get transferred there eventually.
As I get close to my house, the idiot across the street decides that it's a great idea to pull out of his driveway right as I'm riding by on the bike. The guy nearly hits me and I scream as I crash into his mailbox.
I'm in a daze for a moment as the guy starts yelling at me. Or, I think it's a guy, I'm not sure. My head's a little banged up.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" The person yells as the climb out of their car. "Did you not see the car coming out?" The person's blurry head appears above my head and I blink a few times. They continue yelling for a few more seconds and then they suddenly stop and stare at me.
"Oh my god," the person starts and I try to sit up but my head hurts. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are." I force out and the guy (I'm pretty positive it's a guy, I think) groans.
"Get yourself together, Undersee." I swallow and my vision still hasn't come into focus. But the name does bring something to my head as I try to think. There's only like three people who've ever called me by my surname. One of them would be the attendant who tells me where I'm moving. The other would be Gale Hawthorne. But I doubt that that's who it is. It's not like he's here.
Then I'm proved wrong.
The man waves his hand in front of my face and I blink a couple times before I can finally focus on his face. Thick eyebrows, straight dark hair, tan skin. Yup. This is Gale Hawthorne.
"Gale?" I finally say and he rolls his eyes.
"Looks like you finally got there." I swallow and he stares at me.
"What're you doing here?"
"I think I should be asking you that question." I continue to stare and he rolls his eyes again. "Undersee. I'm not patient."
"Neither am I." I know that I probably shouldn't be messing with him right now, as I nearly crashed into him, and actually did hit his mailbox. I try to stand up but have all of the blood in my body rush to my head and I nearly fall over again. I use his mailbox as a thing to keep me upright.
"So? Why're you here?"
"I got transferred here."
"Transferred?"
"Moved here. Was that word too big for your brain capacity to handle?" He glares and his eyes are cold as ice.
He quickly takes a breath and continues to stare at me. "Why'd you get moved here?"
"Because I'm on the list to get moved a lot." I reply, as if it's obvious. I don't exactly like to talk about why I move a lot.
"Why?"
"I don't have a family, so therefore they put me wherever they have space." His eyes soften for a moment and he swallows.
"I'm sorry. About your family, I mean." I shrug. It's not like I could get them out. My mom died in the first wave of the fire. She didn't last a second. I blink the tears out of my eyes quickly and swallow. Her screaming still bounces around my head at night. It's hard to think about. My dad died in the second wave of fire. We were thirty feet from our house when the fire somehow reached us. He was burned and I saw it with my own eyes. I didn't even have time to say or do anything. Nothing to save him, at least.
"It's not like I could've stopped it. The fire got to them both."
"You were in the fire?" I nod and he stares for a second.
"Me and someone else were sent to get the mayor and his family but we didn't find anyone. Only fire. Where were you?"
I swallow and push the tears back. It's so hard to get through a normal conversation these days. "My mom was already dead. My dad and I got out back when he was burned and killed. I stumbled into the woods and walked for hours. The next thing I remember is waking up. I was in a hospital in 6. They told me that I had some pretty bad burns and that the Capitol and the districts were in a full scale war."
"Where was the war at this point?" He asks again as I adjust myself on his mailbox.
"I don't know. We didn't get electricity in the hospital. I don't know what went on during the war." He seems to relax a little and he sighs.
"It wasn't pretty."
"Oh." I respond quietly as the conversation dies down. A few moments later I stand on my own. "Well I should probably go. Don't want to bother you any more than I already have."
I pick up the bike and my groceries as Gale calls me back.
"Hey, Undersee?"
I turn and stare. "Yeah?"
"Have you been back to 12? You said that they put you anywhere. Have you been home?"
"No. I'm betting that that's the one place they won't put me." He scowls and disappears into his car before pulling out of the driveway. He acts as if that whole exchange never happened. And in his mind, I bet it didn't. He wouldn't want any contact with the privileged mayor's daughter who wears those pretty dresses. Oh if only he could see what my life is really like now.
Back in my apartment, I pull a bowl out of the cabinet and pour some cereal quickly to quench my hunger. While I'm eating I can't stop thinking about my interaction with Gale. I think the odds of both of us showing up somehow in 2 on the same street is a force to be reckoned with. I'm kinda wondering if they did that on purpose. Just to give me a glimpse of my old life and how much I hated it. How much other people hated it.
Truth is, I didn't like being the mayor's daughter. People were forced to be friends with me because of who my parents were. Everyone talked about me. Not in the good way, but the bad way. How I got everything I wanted. To be honest, I didn't want any of what I got. I thought that the money should go to places that actually need it, not use it on me when I already have everything. Then again, I didn't want it to seem like I was using other things as a charity case.
Sure, I used to pay Katniss and Gale money for bringing me strawberries, but that was business. I have to pay them a decent amount of money anyways, even if I overpaid them a few times. Gale actually called me out on it the day of the reaping that threw the whole country into chaos. He told me that he didn't want my money and that they were doing fine on their own. I remember that I had sighed and just taken the money back.
My thoughts float back to the time that Katniss was in the Games the first time, and how Gale and I had something that sort of resembled a friendship. I mostly think that it was because he didn't have anyone else, and neither did I. Katniss was what brought us together, and she was also what tore us apart.
I remember the day that Katniss came home. It was before the train arrived and I knew that something was off with Gale. Usually he would attempt to give me a half-hearted smile, but that day it was just a scowl. I remember what he said to me. He said that whatever the two of us had, it had to stop because of Katniss, or something. That whatever we had done to keep her alive with the donation box in the Seam, it didn't matter anymore.
But that couldn't stop me from bringing to morphling when he got whipped. No, I traveled through a snowstorm in the dead of night to bring that to him and I bet he doesn't even know. Honestly, now that I think back to why I brought it, I don't really know. I guess it's because I had thought of him as a friend, and since I had (or still have, I guess) no friends, I didn't want to lose him. I guess it's because I was already losing Katniss and Peeta, that I didn't want to lose anyone else.
As I wash my dish in the sink, I sigh and stare out at Gale's house. I wonder if he's thinking about what just happened. I know I'll be thinking about it.
A/N: Phew. It's been a while, guys! I know this took a long time, but I finally know where I'm taking this, and I'm getting back to it! Keep an eye on Kenton. He'll be important later. Thoughts on the chapter? Predictions? Anything? I hope y'all are still reading?