I was going to make you all wait until Friday for this, but here- have an early present!
This chapter is sort of uneventful, but it's important for the next chapter to make any sense. And if there is anything that is a bit confusing, I promise you it'll make sense later. Honest!
I hope you enjoy it :)
Once upon a while ago...
"You're going to crush that thing if you keep holding it like that."
In the brief second it took Annie to look up at the speaker, her beloved tabby cat had kicked her in the stomach and bounded out of her lap. Landing a few feet away, it turned to narrow its green eyes at her mockingly before scampering off.
"Julien!" She scolded the eighteen year old boy as he flopped down onto the porch step beside her. "You have no idea how long it took me to catch him!"
Julien snorted in response. Annie had learnt long ago that this was his way of laughing; he never giggled or made a show of the fact that he found something amusing, he just snorted silently to himself and continued on his way. That was just the way he was.
"Somehow, I don't think he was enjoying that wrestling match as much as you were." He teased.
Annie folded her arms crossly. "It wasn't a wrestling match; it was a cuddle. And besides, how would you know what my cat is thinking?"
Julien shrugged, replying modestly, "It's a talent."
Annie elbowed him in the ribs. He cried out in pain and nudged her with his shoulder in response.
"I'm not letting you in the house until you bring Paws back to me." She informed him casually, standing up and opening the door to the building behind them.
Julien swivelled round, still sitting down, and stared up at the twelve year old girl, aghast. "But it's getting dark!"
Annie shrugged nonchalantly. "You should've though about that before you scared her away."
She suspected the he had a great deal to argue against her point, but before he had chance to voice any of it she was inside the house. Slamming the door shut behind her, she twisted the key in the lock and headed down the hall, ignoring the frantic knocking against the panel of frosted glass behind her.
He'd be fine, and Annie knew that. This wasn't the first time she'd locked her brother out.
There was a slight spring to her step that particularly hot spring morning. Worn school satchel slung over her shoulder, Annie stopped a little way before the wrought iron gates to the building, swivelling around upon hearing her name being called.
"Annie, wait up!"
The voice was a familiar one. It was that of her best friend Marisol, who wasted no time in enveloping Annie in a crushing hug. Impromptu, inescapably tight cuddles were Marisol's speciality.
"It feels like I haven't seen you in years!" The golden haired girl gushed.
Annie rolled her eyes as they continued walking through the gate. "It's been two days, Mari." She replied in a monotone. "I haven't seen you since Friday."
"Still," Her best friend insisted. "It feels like it's been a lot longer." There was a pause that lasted all of two seconds. "Have you done the maths homework?"
"Of course," Annie replied, in a voice that suggests that her answer ought to have been obvious. "Why? Haven't you?"
"No…" Marisol admitted bashfully. "I couldn't make sense of it. I could've sworn half the terms on that sheet are just made up."
Since this happened most every Monday morning, Annie wasn't too surprised. In fact, she would probably have been more surprised if her friend had done her maths over the weekend.
"You can copy mine up at break." She assured Marisol, "But only if you promise to help me in cookery class when Mr Dardles isn't looking."
"Deal!" The blonde accepted, holding out a hand for the brunette to shake.
It proved difficult to whilst they were walking, so they stopped at the doorway and shook hands there, cementing their promise. Again, such an occurrence happened most every Monday, for if Marisol was hopeless at maths, then Annie was truly awful when it came to cookery class. Their flaws balanced each-other out.
Julien was late home. Perhaps if she'd had something to be doing, Annie wouldn't have felt the need to go and meet him. But she was bored, and he should've finished at the training centre a while ago.
As the daughter of the jeweller, Annie lived in the Town that housed the slightly better off side of District 4. Of course, the richest people were the victors up in Victor's Village on the hill. The people residing in District 4's Town provided things that people needed- food, clothing and the like. They ran the shops. And those down in the Strand, they were the ones who had to fish for their living. They were the souls who went out at sunrise and came in at sunset, wasting their lives providing even more food for a Capitol population that probably didn't even need it.
Really, Annie was quite fortunate, safe in the knowledge that her father was tucked up at the family shop all day and not potentially drowning, that Julien would inherit the business one day, that he'd never need risk his life in a storm far from land.
The training centre was located at the immediate centre of Town. Despite being equipped with more weaponry and training facilities than one could shake a spear at, the outside was just that of any fairly well-to-do house in the Town. It made it easier for the Peacekeepers to turn a blind eye to it, to pretend they had no idea of the activities that took place within. After all, training tributes up for the Hunger Games was illegal.
The sign outside it said it was a 'gymnasium', and on all the official documents that's what it was called. Although no-one ever spoke of it as anything more, they all knew exactly what it was for truly. It was an unspoken truth, something they all knew but wouldn't dare say aloud for fear of who might hear them.
Pushing the green painted door to the building, Annie poked her head inside. It was fairly quiet, since most people preferred to wait until the end of the week before concentrating on conditioning themselves into killing machines.
"Julien?" Annie called out, taking a tentative step inside.
If she strained her ears, the twelve year old girl could hear the grunts of heavy practicing. Assuming that her brother must be so focused on his training that he'd not heard her, Annie pressed further into the building, down the hall.
At each room, she'd knock on the door before opening it and poking her head around. Every room she came across was empty, but methodically she continued on. By the time she'd reached the second to last door in the corridor, she was starting to worry. Noticing that the thwacks of someone attacking a training dummy seemed to be louder here, she hoped it meant her brother was inside.
Knocking thrice, she didn't bother to wait for an answer before forcing the door open and poking her head through.
The boy who turned to look at her was most certainly not her big brother. In fact, Annie didn't think he could be much older than her. The worn, patched clothes he wore indicated that he was from a poorer background, which seemed odd. Rarely was anyone from the Strand caught within the confines of the training complex willingly. They were usually all so focused on feeding their families, on surviving, to have the time to be.
This boy was staring at her as though she had grown an extra head, and suddenly Annie felt extremely self conscious.
"I was looking for my brother." She explained hurriedly. "Have you seen him?"
For the first time since she'd accidentally walked in on him, the stranger smiled. "Sorry, I haven't." He apologised.
She felt her heart sink. "Oh, okay. Thanks anyway." She turned to leave, praying that he'd be behind the final door.
He wasn't.
When she arrived home, tear tracks still staining her cheeks, to find Julien lounging casually across the sofa, Annie hurled herself at him. A raging mass of flying fists and kicking feet, she scolded him over and over for making her worry so much.
"Woah, calm down," Her brother tried to soothe her, enveloping her in a hug that pinned her arms down by her sides and prevented her from attacking him further. "What's gotten into you?"
"I went to meet you at the gymnasium and you weren't there." Annie replied, her voice muffled due to the fact that the grip he held her in forced her face against his shirt. "I thought something might've happened."
"What could've possibly happened?" Julien asked.
Annie refrained from relating any one of the colourful scenarios that had run themselves through the forefront of her mind as she'd walked home.
When she didn't answer, her brother sighed and hugged her tighter.
"I'm sorry, Annie." He apologised. "I was at a- a friend's house."
The slight stutter in his voice made Annie wonder, and as his sister she wouldn't have been doing her duty if she didn't take the opportunity to tease him.
"A girl, by chance?" She teased, wriggling out of the cuddle and grinning.
Julien flushed an interesting shade of crimson, but he didn't deny it, as Annie had thought he would. Perhaps she didn't know him as well as she thought she did.
Can anyone guess who the boy in the training centre was? ;)
Clue: He'll be back next chapter. And he's very important to the story.