CHAPTER 2

I stare at Rory, a feeling of guilt rushing through me. If I had picked up the phone and told Gale I was okay with him coming back, he would have. Posy would have grown up with Gale, Rory and Vick would still have the father figure in their lives that Gale became after their real one died, and Hazelle wouldn't have had to continue raising her kids alone. She could've had helped. And it was my fault she didn't.

I have to take a deep breath to reassure myself. No, it's not my fault. I shouldn't have to forgive him. He killed Prim. Rory and the rest of them are getting a piece of how I feel.

I stop myself mid-way through my thoughts. This is wrong. All of it. The fact that such a thing crossed my mind makes me feel ill. Why would I want Hazelle to have to raise her children alone without Gale's help? I never wanted tat for my mother, and I certainly don't want that for Hazelle, who was like a second mother to me. And why would I want this life for the kids? At least they know Gale's alive, instead of being like me and knowing Prim's dead . . . But then again, do they really know that? Gale hasn't contacted anyone, so they have no real way of knowing how he's doing.

My racing mind is interrupted when Rory holds the back door of the house open for me and motions for me to enter. When I walk in, I'm greeted by warm, yellow light in the kitchen and three faces staring at me confusedly. When Rory enters behind me, they all give him the same questioning look.

"Um," Rory shifts awkwardly under the stares of his family. "You all remember Katniss."

At the mention of my name, Hazelle is the first to snap out of her confusion and stand to greet me. She wraps me into a warm hug, and I hug back. I had forgotten how comforting her hugs are.

The next person to acknowledge me is Vick. He grabs Posy's hand and squeezes it. "You remember Katniss, right?"

It takes her a while to fish through her mind for childhood memories of me. I must've been in a lot of them; this place was my second home. The amount of time it takes for her to place me is telling of the fact that my name must have been banned from this household. Or at the very least, forgotten for lack of things to say about me. Peeta sees Posy fairly regularly because she sells eggs to people in the district, but I always stay inside when she comes by to make deliveries. Now I know it wouldn't have mattered whether I did or not, because she wouldn't have recognized me anyway.

Finally, she responds, "Yeah. I remember her." I can't tell whether she's happy to see me or not though, so I take the first step towards her. She seems hesitant, but once my arms around her, she returns the hug.

Vick taps impatiently on Posy's shoulder in a joking manner and waits his turn. When Posy releases me, Vick goes straight in. "It's been too long, sis," he says.

The sound of my old nickname brings a smile to my face. When Vick was little, I was constantly at the Hawthorne house with Gale. Vick started to think that I was actually his sister. When he got older, Hazelle had to explain to him that I wasn't, but Vick continued to call me "sis" even after the fact.

He squeezes me one last time, then pulls away from the hug and holds my shoulders at arm's length, looking me up and down. "You haven't changed much," he observes.

Hazelle interrupts our reunion. "Katniss, why don't you sit down and have dinner with us tonight?"

I look over to Rory, who has grabbed my game bag and a knife and is starting to head outside. "Oh, no thanks. I just stopped by because Rory said he could clean up the meat for me. I was going to head home after he's done," I explain.

"Why don't you eat that tomorrow night? Stay with us," she insists.

"Really, I can't. I have to get home to the kids. Peeta's probably wondering where I am."

I feel a sudden burst of tension in the room at the mention of Peeta.

Hazelle, however, acts oblivious to the mood change. "You can call him and tell him to bring the whole family. I've never formally introduced myself to him and I'd love to meet the kids. Please, Katniss, I insist."

After a moment's hesitation, I oblige. "Okay," I say. "Where's your phone?"


Half an hour later, Peeta arrives with a curious Willard in his arms and Maysilee walking confidently alongside him. Hazelle throws open the door the moment she spies them coming up the sidewalk from her view at the window over the sink.

"Hi, welcome," she greets them with a warm smile. "Please come in."

Peeta steps in and puts Will in my arms so as to free up his hand to shake Hazelle's outstretched one.

"I'm Hazelle Hawthorne," she introduces herself. Before Peeta can even open his mouth to respond, Hazelle puts a hand up to stop him. "And I know who you are. I've heard so much about you."

Peeta smiles. "Yes, it's so nice to finally meet you."

I put Willard down and he stands next to me, holding my hand. Will is normally not very shy, but he is now half-hidden behind my legs, peeking out from time to time to check if Hazelle is still there. Hazelle crouches down to meet Will's eye level and smiles at him. I feel him squeeze my hand a little tighter.

"Hi, there. What's your name?" she asks him.

He shifts so that he's completely hidden behind my legs. Hazelle looks up at me, her eyes silently asking if she did something wrong. I give her a reassuring smile and pick him up. He sits on my hip and hides his face in my hair.

"Willy, this is Miss Hazelle. She's me and your grandmother's friend," I tell him.

He looks between Hazelle and me hesitantly, as if he's wondering whether to trust her or not. Finally, he gathers the courage to speak to her.

"My name's Will," he says. His young voice sounds more put-together than some adults when he speaks.

"How old are you, Will?" Hazelle asks.

"Mommy says I'm two, but I think I'm almost three." He holds up two fingers, then three, to represent his age. Then, he gets sidetracked and stares at his fingers with the utmost concentration, as if they're a puzzle to be solved.

"He's two and a half. Turning three in a few weeks," I explain.

Hazelle nods. "Where did you get his name from?"

"His full name is Willard, after my older brother," Peeta interjects.

"Oh, how sweet," Hazelle says. She takes another glance at Will, then gives Peeta a warm smile. "He definitely takes after you."

"Thank you. I think he looks more like his uncle," Peeta replies, watching our son play with Vick on the floor. I see the slightest sparkle of dampness in his eyes at the mention of his deceased brother.

Then, Hazelle notices the other child in the room. She looks at Maysilee and asks for her name. When Maysilee responds, Hazelle gasps and looks at me in confusion. "Maysilee. As in—"

I nod. "Maysilee Donner. She was the original owner of my mockingjay pin, and she was a close friend of my mother's."

"It was the least we could do, to name our daughter after her," Peeta adds. "There would be no District Twelve left if it weren't for that pin. We thought it was important to honor her."

"That's such a kind thing to do." Hazelle watches Maysilee, who seems to have already introduced herself to Posy. "She favors you, Katniss. She's almost an exact replica of you as a child. Even the things like her voice, the way she walks, that confidence . . . you used to be just like her."

I allow myself a moment to wonder how Hazelle can compare Maysilee and myself so closely. She only met me when I was a starving twelve-year-old girl from the Seam, living without a father, and hunting with her also fatherless son to put food on the table every night. But here she is, talking like she's known me my entire life.

I shake my head. Maybe she has me confused with Prim.

Prim.

Her name brings a wave of emotions to the forefront of my mind.

Prim.

For the past few hours, I've been allowing myself to enjoy catching up with my old friends. But in the process, I seem to have forgotten the reason why I've been avoiding them for all these years. It's because of her.

Peeta notices my sudden silence and must somehow be able to see what I'm thinking, to see the all too familiar look of pain in my eyes, because he leans in and whispers in my ear, "She would want this."

As if by some chance, Maysilee suddenly catches my eye. I see her sitting in a circle with Vick, Rory, Posy, and Will playing Duck Duck Goose. I was never fond of the game, but Prim used to love it when she was little. It's what prompted me to begin calling her by her nickname, Little Duck. Of course, her untucked shirttails never helped her case.

While I watch my children and Gale's siblings play Prim's favorite game, I understand what Peeta meant. Of course Prim would want this. She had always been good friends with Rory. And I was told that she used to babysit Posy while I was away in the Games. Gale was in the mines, Hazelle was making her laundry rounds, and the boys were either hunting or at school, so she was left to care for the then three-year-old Posy.

If Prim had any idea that I'd avoided this family for thirteen years, she would be heartbroken.

So I look at Peeta and nod. "You're right," I agree.

He rubs my shoulder with one hand, then goes over to the kids and takes a seat beside Will. I watch as he enthusiastically plays with them, the smile on his face transforming him into a young boy again.

"They're good kids," Hazelle says. I look to my left and see her standing beside me now. I didn't notice her before.

"Thanks," I say.

"They remind me a lot of her."

I try to think of a response, but nothing seems fitting, so I just nod.

"Watch the way Maysilee shows affection towards everyone, even though she just met us. And Willard is doing the same thing, only his eyes are even kinder. It's like she influences them without even being here."

A lump forms in my throat at the thought of my sister's sweet and perfect heart being passed down to my children. Why did it take me this long to see how similar in spirit they are children are to her?

Everyone has always told me I'm an open book, that my feelings are made known to those around me before I even know them myself. I guess this is just an example of that, because Hazelle face softens when she sees my expression. She puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes it gently. "It's okay to be sad," she says. "Come outside with me."

I take one last look at my husband and the kids before following her out the back door. Hazelle leads me to the concrete area several feet away. I gasp when I realize that the place we're now standing was the foundation for their original house, the one that got blown to bits in the bombing of District 12.

"Everything okay?" she asks.

I nod and take a deep breath to compose myself.

Hazelle sits on the concrete and pats the place next to her. I sit.

"Did Gale ever tell you how hard it was when he lost his father?"

I shake my head. We were always careful to stay clear of that topic.

Hazelle releases a breath before speaking. "Him and his father were very close. Gale was the oldest in the house, but also the most like his father. They looked a lot alike, but that's not even the last of it. They liked the same kind of food, they made the same distorted look when they yawned, they took the same long strides when they walked, and his father's beat-up boots were always passed down to him, no matter how many sizes too big they were. Gale learned to hunt from his father. Timon used to take Gale hunting from the time he turned five until the day Timon died. They would go every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday; the days he didn't work morning shifts. It was their special time, and it was never once interrupted in the nine years they spent hunting together. When Timon died, a little piece of Gale died, too. He didn't eat for days. Then one day, it was almost like he woke up from a dream and realized we were starving. I couldn't work with Posy on the way, and the boys were too young to help. So Gale signed up for tesserae, even though I begged him not to. But he knew that that wasn't enough to keep all five of us alive, so he started going in the woods every morning to hunt. It wasn't long before he met you." Hazelle smiles. "Do you remember the first time he brought you here?"

I nod. A tiny smile peeks out from the corners of my lips.

"Gale didn't trust you for several months after he met you," Hazelle says. "But I think seeing the way you interacted with the kids reminded him that the two of you were in the same boat. You both were struggling to survive, with families to feed. From that day forward, he never went hunting without you. He valued the time he spent with you every morning. Hunting with you reminded him of those times with his father, and I think it reminded you of the same thing."

She continues. "When you were gone, your mother and Prim became his top priority. And that was fine by me; I was proud of him for keeping the commitment he made to you. When he watched you and Peeta in the arena, something changed. He hated the Capitol more than he ever had before. The Games changed everyone – or maybe everyone changed and no one noticed until lives were on the line."

A cold shiver runs down my back. Whether because of the cold evening breeze or the mention of the Games, I'm not sure.

Hazelle doesn't seem to notice. "My point in all this is, the Games is what changed you. It's what changed all of us. I think if you could try to forgive Gale, maybe you'll find it easier to seek closure with Prim."

I stare at her, dumbfounded. Does she not know that Gale is Prim's murderer? Surely she must know, or she wouldn't be suggesting reconciliation with him. But if she's aware, how could she think it'd be so simple to forgive him?

I open my mouth to speak, but I can't seem to find words. Hazelle sees this and puts both of her hands on top of mine.

"I spoke to her the day she died."

My mouth falls open. "How—"

She stops me. "Katniss, she knew."

My eyebrows furrow in confusion.

Hazelle looks me dead in the eyes. That's how I know she's telling the truth when she says, "Prim knew she was going to die."


A/N: Hopefully that cliffhanger will leave you wanting more! I encourage you all to continue reviewing, as it's great motivation for me and I love receiving your constructive criticism and ideas! Thank you so much to everyone who is reading this, I truly appreciate it :) In the next few chapters, we're going to get into some of the first level conflicts, so be ready!