Lost Part 2
My name is Sophie, I'm 13 years old and my sister died in the first Death Match. I live in district twelve. My older sister Maysilee and her friend Jason were in the arena together, and she killed herself to save him. I want Jason to come home. I want to thank him for trying to bring her home, even if he failed.
A few days after I start hoping Jason will come home, the train pulls into our rundown station, and he steps off the train and immediately goes into his family's arms. They hug him and kiss him, and then he breaks off and comes and whispers something I just barely pick up in my ear.
"I'm sorry," he says and walks off with his family.
I run after him.
"It's okay. There's nothing you could've done, Jason. She had made up her mind to save you," I say.
"I wanted to save her though," he says.
"Jason, it wasn't your fault," I say.
"Thanks Sophie, but it was," he says and walks into his house.
I walk into my house and I run upstairs. I have tried to be strong for Eli and dad, but I can't. I'm crying so hard that when my dad comes in, he has to wait until I'm done crying to talk to me.
"Maysilee was very special to you. That's why you're so sad. She did what she did because she wanted to help someone else. You should be nothing but proud of her," my father says.
"THE REASON SHE WAS IN THAT ARENA WAS BECAUSE SHE WAS LOST IN THOSE STUPID WOODS YOU SHOWED HER!" I scream at him.
I run outside and hide in my old clubhouse that's way too small for me. I hear my dad calling me back inside, but I can sleep here tonight. I don't want to be anywhere near him. This is all his fault.
I wake up with my neck twisted up because there is so little room in this old clubhouse. Then I straighten up and crawl outside. It's about eight in the morning, and I go inside to feed Eli. Dad has beaten me to it though.
"Morning," he says in a nice voice.
"Morning..." I say, wondering where that dad that doesn't pay half a mind to me has gone.
"You okay?" I ask.
"Better than ever Sophie. Better than ever..." he says. He looks at me a long time and finally I drop my stare. I sense he's sad inside, just trying not to show it.
"I'm...gonna go see Jason...," I say and walk across the street.
I knock on the door and Jason answers.
"Sorry...about yesterday..." I mumble.
"It's okay Sophie," he says. "Do anything fun while I was gone?" he asks with a hint of sarcasm.
"During the games, we had a little meat in the cabinet that I brought over here. We had it the first night. Then we had the vegetables from our gardens till the games were over. Your mom had the good idea of sharing everything, so we wouldn't run out. Did they say anything to you about what happened while you were gone?" I ask him.
"Well, they say they were fine, but I think they were scared," he says. I know he's right about that. The whole time Jason was at the games his mom and brothers and sister were scared to death.
"Yeah, they were. Do you want to walk to town with me? I'm going to pick up some milk," I ask him.
"Sure," he says and puts his arm around me the way he used to when we were little and he would tickle me and lift me into the air and play airplane, while Maysilee held Eli up and bounced him as he laughed...I move away because the feeling of his arm is alien with no Maysilee next to me.
"What's wrong?" he asks. There's no question he was thinking the same thing.
"You know." I say and the look on his face says he does. We walk to the town center in silence.
There are a few people being talked to by some guards who are over by the shops, so Jason and I hang out at the jewelry tables near the shops, not that Jason likes it over there. It's mostly because I want to look at the necklaces.
"You like that?" He asks as I lift a light blue necklace with a gorgeous silver flower hanging on it.
"It's pretty," I say and place it back down, "but I think it's around..." I pick the price-tag up. "1 million dollars..." I tease. "I could never afford that." I put it down and we walk over to the woman who sells goat milk.
I buy a small bottle from her because that's the only one I can afford. A guard walks up to Jason.
"You Jason? Victor of the games?" He asks looking over a piece of paper.
"Yeah...why?" he asks.
"Here," he hands him a slip of paper and walks away.
Jason reads what it says aloud. "As victor you have received a new home in our just built Victor Village and a well deserved reward check. Happy Deathmatch of the Districts! Good job winning!" He reads and looks as if he's about to faint.
"How much money?!" I squeal.
"Oh my...Gosh," he says as he looks at the check.
"How much!?"
"1 million dollars," he says not believing it himself.
"Wow," Is all I can think of to say.
"Sophie! Come on! Let's go buy that necklace!" he says spur of the moment.
We run over to the necklace stand and see a woman paying for the necklace I wanted.
Jason cashes in his check and takes all the money into his pocket.
"I'll give you one-hundred dollars for that necklace," he tells her holding up the hundred dollar bill.
She rips the necklace off and grabs the money and runs down the road shrieking.
I laugh and put on the necklace.
"Thank you so much Jason. It's beautiful!" I say.
"No problem Sophie. Here," he says handing me a handful of money.
"Really?!" I ask in astonishment.
"Maysilee would've done the same for my family," he says, and we walk home feeling happy, but there's still a sadness inside of me that I feel I will never truly escape.
Late one day, Jason asked my family and me to come and have dinner with them at their new house, which hadn't been finished until now, almost eight months after the games. We've been sitting around for a long while, just trying to forget, but it's to no avail.
We accepted the invitation, a while ago, but tonight both families walk together to the Victor's Village. It's lonely there. No children playing outside, no...nothing, just twelve fine houses. We enter the one assigned to Jason, and it's amazing!
There's a big, shiny, black TV. There's a hanging chandelier, a kitchen with beautiful stoves, and even one of those dishwasher things you can buy in town.
"Oh my gosh," Jason says as he walks around.
"This is all for us?" Jason's mother asks amazed.
"We get to live here?!" Jason's little brothers ask.
"Yeah, we do," Jason says lifting his youngest brother into the air.
"YAY!" Jason's brothers shout and run up the stairs to explore.
His little sister hangs on tight to her mother's leg and doesn't seem like she wants to go and play, and Eli is so little that my dad just holds him and lets him play with his plastic teething rings.
"Don't you wanna play with your brothers, Sarah?" I ask her.
"Momma!" she says and holds onto her mother's leg even tighter.
I go and sit down on the big, leather couch, and Sarah cautiously lets go of her mother to come and sit on this thing she doesn't have a name for.
"What's this thing for?" she asks.
"This is called a couch. We don't have any in our houses because they are very expensive, but now you have money," I attempt to explain this as best I can to a three year old.
"Oh," she says and sits on it bouncing until she realizes she doesn't have to sit when she bounces. She jumps on it like the trampoline from the school yard that got taken out because a bigger kid jumped on it too hard and broke it. I was annoyed when the school trampoline broke because that was the only thing to do during recess, but now things like that sound so stupid compared to everything else that's happened.
"Sarah!" her mother notices her bouncing.
"Mom, it's okay. Let her have some fun, at least today," Jason says and catches his mother's arm before she can come over and tell Sarah to stop jumping.
"All right," she says and stays in the kitchen with Jason and my dad.
"He he te he ha he he!" I turn back to Sarah to watch her jumping happily.
I smile at her, and then I hear the boys yelling from upstairs.
"MOM! JASON! ERIC TOOK MY AIRPLANE!" I hear Henry call down.
"NUH UH! THAT WAS MY AIRPLANE!" Eric yells in his defense.
"WAS NOT!"
"WAS TOO!"
"WAS NOT, LIAR!"
"WAS TO, THIEF!" They yell as they push each other down the stairs to see who can get to the bottom first.
"Now boys, what's the problem?" their mom asks them.
"Henry took my airplane!" Eric yells.
"Eric thinks that my airplane is his!" Henry yells.
"Where did you get an airplane?" their mother asks.
"Upstairs! I saw it first!" Eric yells.
"I saw it first and it's mine," Henry says holding the airplane over his brother's head. Eric is six and Henry is eight. I try hard not to laugh at their "airplane fight."
"I wonder why there was a toy airplane upstairs," Jason says, clearly trying to think.
"Let's find out," his mother says and takes each boy by the hand and takes them upstairs as we all follow.
"Right there!" Henry yells pointing to the floor in front of a big wooden chest.
"I bet it came from inside this," Jason says lifting the lid.
"What's in there?!" the little boys ask as Jason lifts the lid slowly, making it even more fun for the kids. Even little Sarah is leaning in closer as the lid opens up.
"I'm gonna say that this should be your room boys," Jason says backing away from the chest and allowing the excited children to look.
"TOYS!" they all shout loudly. They each pull a toy out and begin playing with it at once.
Eric grabs an airplane that's twice as big as the one he had fought over with Henry. Henry grabs a truck and drives it around the carpet.
With wide eyes, little Sarah carefully lifts a pink and blue baby doll out of the chest. She's never had anything like this before. She always had homemade wooden toys and little paper dolls that got cracked or would rip. She holds it and hugs it and runs off to show her mom.
I hope they're happy for now, because someday in the future there will be another reaping for ages 11-18. I read a poster in the town square a couple days ago, and it said that they changed the rules so that they wouldn't end up choosing little kids for the Deathmatch. Luckily, there weren't any little kids that ended up in the first one.
Who knows? One of them may become a tribute, maybe one of them will enter the arena along with their sibling...or with me.
As the little boys play, my dad comes over to the boys with Eli, and Eli crawls over and finds an orange dinosaur toy. I think it's a T-rex. I learned about it in school when I was younger...Anyway, Eli and my dad hang out with the little boys while Sophie and her mom play with the doll, and I can't find Jason.
I walk to the kitchen and find him sitting on one of the tall bar stools.
"Hey," I say, sitting on the seat next to him.
"Will you and your family come and live here? Now that I see the house, it's way to big for just us." he asks me nervously.
I think for a second, then answer.
"Yes." I say. "Well, I'll have to ask my dad."
He looks over at me and smiles, then walks up the stairs to rejoin his brothers and sister in ransacking the toy chest.
I guess living here would be nice, especially so Eli won't have to grow up in our dump of a home. I smile satisfied with what's come of my life. Then I think back to the things I watched on TV during the games, and I freeze. I think back to all those innocent kids, all the families at home, the Capitol cheering for the games to go on... I walk outside and start crying.
We have dinner and although the food's amazing, along with the shiny orange drink Jason calls orange juice, I go out the door once again after the meal, looking for some way to calm myself.
Every time I see Jason, I think of her. I think of Maysilee. So how am I supposed to live with him in the same house? How am I supposed to live in the same town? I can't, but I don't have a choice.
My dad comes out for a while, and we have a small conversation over a long amount of time, only speaking every few minutes like we used to do before the games when he didn't talk all that much.
He tells me it's all right with him if we move in here, and I thank him, then he goes back inside.
Jason comes out a bit later and asks me what's wrong, but I have way too many answers to that question. Even though he calls to me and follows me, after a while he gives up, I run to the town square, wander into a random store and sit in the corner. Why did I come here? What happened? Why am I so upset? These are questions I already have the answers to, though I wish I didn't.
I cry myself dry, get up, and walk to the front of the store, only to be stopped by the owner.
"What have you been doing in the back of my store, little lady?" He asks with a hint of annoyance.
"I...uh...I was looking at the..." What store is this? I look behind myself and on the shelves I find explosives. "Explosives?" I say, knowing he won't buy it.
"Sure...and I'm here to be a princess in a sugar plum castle in wonderland with my magical monkey butler!" he says sarcastically.
"Fine, I ran in here when I was upset and sat in the corner for a few hours," I tell him.
He looks at me and tries to put something together with me.
"What?" I ask him as he looks me up and down.
"You're her," he says pointing to a poster.
The poster is a picture of me next to Jason, his mother, and my father with the words, "Our Leaders will Destroy the Capitol!" written on the top.
"What's this about?" I ask.
"But we thought... everyone thinks you started all this," he says.
"That's good, because actually, I know nothing about any of it," I tell him, grabbing the poster, wondering about it myself.
"You'd better burn that when you're done with it!" he says seriously, handing me a lighter. "If a guard sees it we're busted,"
"What...?-" I begin.
"Why don't you come take a seat?" he says pointing to a chair next to his counter.
I have to admit, I'm curious, so I sit down and listen.
"When this so called 'Dark Day' thing started going on people thought some sorta war was beginning, which I personally think is a terrible idea, since we, the districts, are unarmed and scared. I have no say in it though..." the store owner begins. "Anyway, the Capitol is better fed, well-equipped with weapons and completely capable of getting rid of the districts whenever they want to," he takes a breath.
This is an awful lot to take in from a complete stranger.
"So, what's all that got to do with me?" I ask, confused.
"You're the one everyone's counting on! While your sister, Maysilee was in the arena, everyone thought she'd be coming out, so we planned for HER to be the leader, but, of course, she let her boyfriend out instead," he wipes his face with a cloth. " Anyway cupcake, you're all we've got."
"All you've got? For what!?" I ask, even more confused.
"The symbol of the war!" he yells at me.
"There's no WAR!" I yell back.
"That's what everyone is SUPPOSED to think!" he yells again.
"Of course, YOU were supposed to KNOW!" he keeps yelling.
"How would I?!" I'm so mad at him that I yell too.
"I thought he was gonna tell you," he says pointing to Jason who has materialized behind me. I guess he has a light tread after all those years of hunting.
"Sophie, I didn't want to...bring you into this," he begins.
"Well, I'll say this once, ONCE! I'm okay with a war against the Capitol! But I want to KNOW when it's happening, not be left in the dark!" I wish he would've just told me!
"Okay, okay, you'll know about everything," he says.
"Should we ask her to come, Freddy?" Jason asks the guy behind the counter.
"You know him?" I ask, standing up.
"Ya...we kinda started the poster stuff up, so people in town could find out, but everyone we give one to has promised to burn it after they show it around a bit. We can't risk the Capitol finding out about the posters," Jason explains.
"I don't know, Jason. She just found out. I'm not sure she really wants to come to..." Freddy begins.
"Come where?" I ask.
"You remember that girl, the one in the arena? Anyway, her name was Nikki. Her family was from district two and didn't want to have anything to do with her since some kinda family fight was going on. Anyway, the "Rebels" or whatever, the ones trying to take on the Capitol found out that Nikki wanted to be on their side before she left for the arena. When she died, they wanted her to get a funeral."
"Why? Why would the Rebels want to... Was she some sort of rebel person?" I ask, confused once again.
"I don't know, she helped sneak food into eleven on the trains, so she was... Some sort of rebel-helper?" Jason says.
"So wait...you want me to come to a funeral for that girl?" I say, unsure.
"If you really want to..." Jason says as we walk out with Freddy following him to a car waiting outside, and we all get in.
"So do our parents know about... any of this?" I ask Jason.
"No, maybe your dad does... I think Hagger told him. My mom has a feeling something's wrong. I haven't told them anything though," he says. "If you don't want to come, you don't have to," he adds sympathetically.
"Yes I do," I tell him. He lets the conversation end and the driver starts the car's motor.
We drive for a while, then the driver turns the motor off and we're getting out of the car.
We arrive at a big building that looks pretty old, but pretty in that rustic kind of way.
There is a huge group of people outside in dark clothes, and I notice a lot of the men have guns sticking out of their belts.
"You do know your rebel friends are all armed, don't you?" I whisper to Jason.
"Ya, they have trust issues..." he replies. "And the Capitol is currently hunting every single one of them. They're all sneaking onto the trains to district thirteen tonight to start up a base of operations there," he finishes.
"Wow," I say.
After being introduced to many rebels and other people, Freddy, the man from the explosives store, tells me about who each person is and how important they are to the cause. He talks so fast there are a lot of things I don't catch.
A large black van pulls up to the building as people are gathering around the mound of dug up earth.
Jason and I hang in the back of the crowd, watching from a distance.
Five men in black sweatshirts and pants exit the vehicle and start shooting randomly into the crowd of rebels. Jason grabs my arm and pulls me behind a table that some men tipped over to hide behind.
"Who are they?" I ask, freaking out.
"Capitol guards." Jason replies, just as terrified as I am.
The guards come around the table we're crouched behind.
A large one with an ugly scar on his face approaches me while another grabs Jason and another man next to him.
He grabs me and wraps a cloth around my head and puts the wet part in my mouth. I immediately fall asleep.
I wake up in a cold, dark cement room. I see a metal ladder on one wall, but there's a gate over the top, which, of course, means I'm stuck here. Then I see a small window thing in the wall with metal bars on it. I look through it and see Jason in a similar cell and whisper to him to try and wake him up.
"Jason! Jason! Jason!" I yell to him in a hushed voice.
He opens his eyes and immediately gets up and looks through the hole from where I'm whispering.
"Where...are we?" he asks, still half asleep.
"How am I supposed to know?" I say looking around.
"Those guys...the cloth...it made me tired and I...," he lies back down. I guess he had more sleeping crap on his because the next thing I know, Jason's snoring.
"Good night, Jason," I whisper and slide down onto my cell floor. My dad and Jason's mom are probably worried. I never even told them I was going to the funeral. I should have. Why'd I listen to Jason anyway? I ask myself, annoyed at my bad judgment.
I sit here wondering why I don't hear anyone above me, even though I know there's someone guarding the metal bars that lay above me, trapping me, encasing me, terrifying me.
I sit a while more and finally Jason awakes.
"SOPHIE! WHERE ARE YOU!? SOPHIE!" he yells.
"Jason! Shhhh!" I whisper to him.
"Sophie what happened?!" he asks me.
"All I know is that some guys took us, trapped us, and we're stuck here until further notice," I tell him.
I realize how crazy and strange our predicament is as soon as the words come out of my mouth.
"This is the weirdest thing I've ever woken up to," he says.
"Yep," I say in frustration.
Jason climbs up the metal ladder on his side and tries to force open the bars, but he's only answered by the guards above us putting a boot on his fingers and making him fall back to the bottom of his cage.
Then, a few hours later, I begin to hear rocks being lifted, and there's a burst of sunlight that comes in from Jason's side. Freddy's looking through the hole in the wall at me.
I hear Jason curse at something, and I become confused as the sunlight temporarily blinds me. Then I peer through the bars only to see Jason holding onto his head, red, shiny blood running through his hair.
Freddy comes down and uses a saw thing to open up the bars.
I squeeze through the opening onto Jason's side of the cell. I see a big crane-seat thing lifting Jason into the air and out of this ditch in the ground that is now filling with water and rocks.
"Let's go," Freddy and I ride up on the crane arm together and land on the ground just in time to see Jason getting helped into a car where a few people are trying to put a bandage on his head.
"Is he okay?" I ask as they're closing the doors.
"Just get in a car please, sweetie. Let us take care of this," a woman says and closes the door.
"Come on, let's go home Sophie," Freddy says getting in another identical car, and I climb in with him.
"He'll be fine," Freddy assures me. Then he begins watching the terrain change as we drive by old buildings, eventually we're entering district 12.
We get home and the first person to see us is Hagger who's over by the goat pens in town and looks at me from across the square and motions for me to keep walking.
I keep walking home with Freddy while Hagger follows a few yards behind us, and I wonder why he doesn't just come and walk with us.
"Hagger, what's going on?" I whisper.
"I'll explain when we get back to Jason's house. He already got dropped off. His mother is watching him," Hagger says and keeps walking.
"He's okay, right?" I ask.
When we get to Jason's house, Hagger says, "the Capitol isn't happy that we escaped, so we're leaving at twelve tonight. Make sure you bring some food and bring him and his family and your family. Then meet me and Freddy in Jason's backyard. We're gonna use my old helicopter," Hagger says.
Helicopter?! Wha...? I don't understand any of this. Where are we going that's safe from the Capitol? Nowhere is safe.
Hagger and Freddy walk down the road to Hagger's house, and they tightly close the door. Then I see the windows close and I watch them put the blinds over them.
I shrug and walk inside Jason's house and find Sarah, Eric, and Henry sitting on the couch while Jason sits up and talks to them. Eric and Henry immediately inform me that my father, Eli, and their mother are upstairs talking as if it's their secret mission that has to be completed no matter what. Then Jason continues with his story-telling, though I stay near the door, feeling unwelcome during their "family story-telling time."
"Soon the big rocks started falling and BANG! One of the stupid rocks fell on my head! Isn't that rude of the rock?! He didn't even ask for permission. He just came right down and hit me!" He tells them the story, and they all burst out laughing while I stand by the door clapping.
"Hey Sophie," he says, standing up.
I go over to him and push him back down on the couch with the kids.
"Your head looks..." I try to find a word that won't scare Sarah. "Not all that great," I say.
"Really? I hadn't noticed," he teases.
He laughs and goes upstairs to lie down.
"So how are you guys?" I ask the little ones.
"Good! There was a big guy!" Sarah says.
"He was black and he looked like spider man, but not red, and he didn't have those web things coming out of his hands to climbs buildings!" Eric tells me.
"Then he talked to Mommy! Except Jason had to sleep! Mommy told us not to tell Jason! So don't tell him!" Henry talks so fast I almost don't understand what he's saying, but I understand enough.
"Uh...Henry? I can hear you," Jason says from his room.
"Uh oh," Henry runs upstairs and Sarah follows him, carrying the same doll she got the day they moved in.
"It's okay Jason, all he wanted was where Freddy, Sophie, and Hagger were. Except when mommy said she didn't know, he yelled real real loud and scared Sarah cause we were upstairs playing dinosaur tickle fight. Then Sarah came downstairs and told mommy she was scared, and mommy told Sarah to please go and play and everything was okay. So don't worry, everything is fine cause that's what mommy said," Eric finally takes a breath and then runs after his siblings.
"What are they talking about?" Jason says, standing up and running upstairs to his mom's room.
I follow behind him, yelling at him to go sit down since Hagger told him to not move around a lot until at least tomorrow since his head is still bleeding.
He pushes open his mom's door, and she's in her bathroom washing the mirrors.
"What did that man want with Freddy, Sophie, Hagger, and I?" he immediately asks her.
"The kids?" She asks, immediately knowing that the kids blabbed.
"Who else?" Jason says with a hint of a smile.
"They just wanted to know if Hagger and Freddy were around, and after they had searched our house, Hagger's, and Freddy's they left and drove their black car away," she explains.
"What did the big guy look like?" I ask her.
"Um...he had a big scar that went from his forehead to his chin, and he had a big black jacket on," she says.
Bingo. That's how they knew where I was.
"That same guy came to the funeral where Jason and I were. I bet Freddy or Hagger left an invitation to it lying by the door or something," I tell Jason.
"Last time I was at Freddy's he DID have his invitation laying by the door," Jason says and puts his hand on his forehead, face palming at Freddy's stupidity.
"So we're leaving tonight, right?" she says quickly.
"Yup. Midnight," Jason answers, and I back out of the room to tell my dad about this.
My dad and Eli moved in while I was captured. My dad shows me their room and the room I would have.
I walk into the room now designated to be where my dad lives with Eli, which is right next to the door to my room. Eli and my Dad moved in the day of the funeral when Jason and I were captured.
"Dad?" I say and he excitedly turns from his window to me.
"Oh, Sophie? You're okay?" he says.
"Ya, I'm fine," I say.
"Sophieee!" Eli yells from his little bed, where I assume he's supposed to be taking a nap.
"Hey Eli!" I walk over to his bed and he gives me a big hug.
I put his cheeks in between my hands, and he looks up at me with wide eyes, watching me.
"Sophie gonna stay here now daddy?" Eli asks, not really understanding where I've been for the past few days.
"I'm staying here, that's right. I promise," I say to Eli, giving him another quick hug.
My dad smiles, then lets his face harden.
"So we're leaving at midnight?" my dad asks.
I didn't think he knew anything about this.
"Who told you?" I ask.
"Fred and Hagger have been coming over the past few weeks talking about it," he explains to me.
"Ah, I'm gonna go get a few things ready," I say and walk to my room.
I go immediately to my top dresser drawer and pull out my older sister's mockingjay pin. I clip it to my shirt and tell myself that this is what Maysilee would've wanted. She wouldn't have been scared. She'd have been the first to sign up for this war, but I'm certain that I'd have been the last.
I sit down on my bed and look out the window, over the barbed wire fence that leads to the woods, and think. I think about so much that my mind starts spinning, and I just sit down and start putting clothes in my backpack, along with a scrapbook Maysilee made for me out of leather and tree bark cut really thin like paper.
I only filled in the first two pages before the Deathmatch came up, and she left and didn't come back. Ever since then I haven't had any happy things to put in it, so I have a pretty much empty book.
The only things in it are the first picture, that's of my dad and mom from a long time ago, and the other one is of my sister and me sitting by our old garden, that since then has become overgrown and not usable.
I sit around awhile and keep putting stuff in my backpack when Sarah comes in my room and sits down on my bed with me.
"Is everything really gonna be okay?" she asks.
"Sarah..." I almost start crying, not wanting to tell myself the answer to that question, much less her. I try not to lie and not to scare her at the same time. "No, not everything," I say.
"I didn't think so," she says.
"When we leave tonight, you've gotta understand that there isn't a very good chance that we'll ever come back," I tell her.
"Am I allowed to bring Peachy?" she asks me.
"What's Peachy?" l ask.
"Her!" she holds up her doll proudly.
"Oh, I remember her from when you guys first moved here," I say.
"Ya, and I want her to come and make me not scared," she tells me.
"That's a good idea," I say, remembering when I was just like her. I believed that fairies flew in the sky, that magic existed, that golden roses grew in gardens.
She smiles, "I'm gonna ask mommy where we're going," she says and walks out.
If only her mother knew.
I finish putting things in my backpack and finish it off by putting the scrapbook in. Then I pull it out and really look at it. It looks...different. Not like a different book, but definitely...changed? I open it and look at the pictures and then flip through the empty pages. I turn to the very last page and find a thick piece of bark taped to the back of the last page. I let it loose and there's something written on it.
Sophie,
I love you and I'm sorry I didn't come back.
I did it for Jason, not to hurt you.
You're reading this because I didn't get home.
I miss you and I know you miss me.
When the DeathMatch started
Jason and I promised each other to watch over
the other's family if we didn't make it out.
I hope he kept his promise.
I love you Sophie,
Maysilee
I'm in tears by the end of the note. She left this for me to find just like this. She knew I'd be safe; she was always making sure I'd be okay. When she was the one going to her death, she was thinking about how it'd affect me and where I'd end up.
That means that I have to make her proud. I promise you Maysilee, we'll win this war.
I decide to sleep until 11:45 since I don't think there will be much chance of sleep once we're on the helicopter. I climb into bed, and then the next thing I know Jason is shaking me awake.
"Sophie! Come on! The helicopter is ready! We have to go now!" he shouts at me.
"What's the big rush?" I ask as he pulls me and my backpack down the stairs to the backyard.
"They're here! They're gonna try and stop us! We've got less than a minute!" he keeps pushing at me to hurry.
We get to the backyard where my dad and Eli are in the helicopter with Hagger and Freddy in the front seats, manning the controls.
Jason's mom is loading her kids on, and she has Eric and Henry on when I climb in. Gun shots begin to blow off in the house. She boosts Sarah up, who is holding on to her doll. I lift her up, and then Jason and his mother come up after us, and just as the doors are closing and we're taking off, the guards appear from the house roof, and the windows, and from the back door.
They shoot at us and hit a couple windows, and the window glass shatters into us. I try and shield the kids from the flying shards.
Sarah is just hanging onto her doll and mother with both her hands, and she's hiding her face in her mother's shirt, crying.
"Sarah it's okay!" I shout to try and make her feel better, but there are still guns shooting at us.
"They've got one!" Hagger yells to Freddy.
"One what?!" Jason shouts.
"They brought a missile launcher," Freddy says.
We start flying away and the gun fire stops, but then the missile comes right up and follows us. It gains on us every second.
"Hagger, Freddy do something!" I shriek.
"Give us a second, cupcake!" Freddy yells back.
I hate that name.
The missile is right behind us, about to hit us, when...BOOM!
"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Hagger yells as he slaps Freddy's hand.
"Ya!" Freddy yells.
"What was that?!" Jason shouts.
"We let the missile hit the back of the chopper and it sensed metal, so it blew up without hitting us and the engine," Hagger says.
"So it did hit us? Did it damage the helicopter?" I ask.
"Ya, but we can get to thirteen before the damage stops us," Hagger says.
"Thirteen? You mean that district that the Capitol just made on the outskirts of the old mines?" I ask.
"Yup! They're starting a nuclear war facility or shelter underground," he starts to explains, "but, of course, they've barely started it yet, so we'll be above ground for a while," he finishes.
"How long will we have to fly to get there?" I ask.
"Oh, maybe like...an hour?" Freddy says.
"Cool," Eric says.
"As long as it's safe," Jason's mother says.
"Hey mommy! Look! My doll DID not let me be scared." Sarah says, obviously believing it herself.
I smile, remembering when a doll could make me "not scared."
"That's great Sarah. You're also very brave," her mother says.
"No, my dolly is the one who's brave," Sarah says.
"Sarah..." her mother begins.
"That's great Sarah!" Jason interrupts, eyeing his mother. He knows that sometimes being completely truthful with someone as young as Sarah only confuses them.
"Ya, it's great," his mother says.
"Set the monitor to point 6D," Hagger says to Freddy.
"Set. Now add a blank pistol to 4E," Freddy replies.
I don't understand anything they're saying, so I just sit back and look out the window and catch a last glimpse of my old home as it disappears behind the trees.
I guess I drifted off, because when I wake up I hear Hagger saying, "Thirteen is a half an hour away. Can you take this part alone?"
Then Freddy replies, "Ya, sleep when you have the chance."
Hagger climbs into the back and opens a door leading to a small room that looks like it's where you're supposed to put luggage if you're traveling in a helicopter. Who travels in a helicopter?
I follow Hagger and find him lying on a sleeping bag in a squished position since he has to have his knees up to his chest to be able to lay down in here.
"What's gonna happen when we get to 13?" I ask.
"Oh, hello to you to," he says and he sits up.
"Answer me, Hagger," I say.
"Look, it's a small group of people that are plotting against the Capitol, okay?" he says.
"I know that, but what do we have to do with it?" I ask.
"You... you're the one that... You're the one who gets put on posters, and you're the one who everyone knows the name of," he says.
"What...?" I say, confused.
"You have to be the one they look up to. You have to impress the adults in charge. You have to be the rebel face. You have to be brave," he says.
"I don't know how to be brave," I say, sitting down.
"Yes, you do. You've been brave ever since Maysilee left for the games," he says.
"Really? So crying in my room for two weeks straight is considered brave?" I say.
"The fact that you came out of the room is considered brave," he says.
I stay silent.
"You're the one they need. Don't you forget it," he says and walks out.
"I am not," I say dismissively.
Maysilee should've been here, not me. I don't even know how to throw a knife. How am I supposed to be a war leader?
I sit there a while and eventually stand up and walk out to join everyone else in looking out the window at 13 as we approach it.