There were fireworks. Fireworks everywhere. After all, there was a lot of celebrating to do. The rebellion succeeded, and the districts rose up against the Capitol, destroying it and its tyranny. Now, all the districts came together in one gala to rejoice in their freedom and union. Since the Capitol no longer stole most of the districts' food, there were plenty of grains from 9, seafood from 4, livestock from 10, and crops from 11. But not only did other districts provide food, 5 and 6 worked together to transport everyone who attended to the location of the event. The festival was held on a wide plain that stretched on and on for as long as anyone could see, and the ground was sprinkled with rubble and forgotten brick, but no one seemed to care. Everyone laughed and had a great time, the majority of the guests positioned around a demolished building that looked very official and vaguely familiar. Jerome was there, along with Delly and Peeta, who were hand-in-hand. Also, there were all Jerome's friends from school, and even the Hawthorne's, and Katniss Everdeen. Posy, Gale's little sister, even went up to Jerome and asked him to dance with her, which of course he did. Finally, it was time for the grand finale of fireworks in one magnificent display, created in part by the miners of 12 and the engineers of 3. All eyes looked up in awe as the first rocket shot up, followed by several others. The anticipation of the first bang hung in the air like heavy drapes, but only silence followed. Giggles and laughter from the party quickly turned into screaming when, instead of bursting with colored light like they should, the fireworks crested and began to fall back down towards the earth. "Oh, god," Jerome heard Gale Hawthorne beside him whisper. "They're bombs."

Jerome sat up in his bed, breathing heavily from the horrendous nightmare. He wiped his hand across his forehead and when he drew it back, it was drenched in sweat. He lay back down again, hoping to shake off the foreboding images, but when he closed his eyes, all he heard were more blood-curdling shrieks and screams of hopeless people trying to escape the explosions around them.

Finally, when Jerome couldn't take the sounds anymore, he got up. Through the dim, bluish light coming in from the far window, Jerome could just make out outlines of objects in the room. Since he lived in a merchant house, there were two bedrooms instead of one, but he and Delly still had to share. He glanced over at his sleeping sister, who twitched and jerked her limbs every few seconds. Bad dream? Jerome thought. You're not the only one. He thought about waking her up, but then decided against it. Delly hadn't been sleeping at all in the past few days because of the Games, so he figured a fitful rest was better than no rest at all. Using the blue light as a guide, Jerome made his way across the hall and down the stairs. After settling down in the sitting room with a glass of water, Jerome glanced over at the blank television screen.

In the chaos, someone was shouting over the painfully loud explosions."…rome! Where are you?! Jerome!" It was Delly. About fifty yards away, but with a panicking throng of citizens in between, were Delly and Gale.

"Delly!" Jerome struggled to push through the crowd in their direction. Before he even made it two feet, another wave of bombs hit the ground. Boom! One bomb landed not too far from Jerome, knocking him into the hysterical young woman next to him. An ear-splitting scream rose up from his left, snapping Jerome's head toward the noise. Don't let it be Dell, Jerome worried. Instead, he saw a tiny, dark-skinned girl that looked as breakable as a twig, kneeling over her larger, but equally fragile-looking sister. Boom! The larger girl was still, staring into nothing, and Jerome could see why. She had been hit by one of the bombs, which had completely blown off her legs. Although it was obvious the older girl was dead, the little girl, with bloody chunks of flesh on her face, remained there, squealing at her. Boom!

A high-pitched bird call pulled Jerome out of the dream. He hadn't even realized he had dozed off again. As his heart rate settled down to a more normal pace, Jerome looked at the blank television screen again. Not able to take another round of disturbing nightmares, Jerome subconsciously pressed buttons on the remote to distract him. To his surprise, the screen came to life. A middle-aged reporter in a hazmat suit appeared, saying something about the conditions of District 13 being very unstable. The woman, with too much red lipstick and not enough hairline, turned around and gestured at the demolished building gin the background. Jerome couldn't help but sense something familiar about the landscape behind the reporter, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Because of the lack of power in District 12, his family never watched television except for mandatory viewings, so it wasn't like he'd seen a similar report before. He turned up the volume just enough to hear what she was saying.

"As you can see, the radiation from decades ago is still present in the area, with evidence of various toxins in the atmosphere. If you look closely, you will see distinct indications of erosion on District Thirteen's Justice Building. Look at the-"

The woman's report was cut off by the television abruptly shutting off. The Justice Building, Jerome thought, perplexed. The building from my dream. When have I seen District 13?

0O0O0O0

"Jerome?" When, he opened his eyes, Jerome saw his mother standing over him. "Why are you on the sofa?"

Jerome stood up and smoothed his wrinkled pajamas. "Oh sorry, I, uh, I couldn't sleep late night."

"Well, get dressed. You have your field trip today, remember?" Jerome let out a long groan. Every year, his class has to go on the same stupid field trip to the same stupid mine where they learn the same stupid facts about the history, procedure, et cetera, et cetera of mining. The only thing the trip managed to do was make Jerome feel guilty about himself. Mining was a pretty perilous profession, and while so many people had to work in those death traps all the time, Jerome had a set future in the shoe shop.

In previous years, every single student from the school went down in the mine on the same day. This was Mayor Undersee's idea. Because his daughter Madge hated the trip just as much as every other kid, he had decided to get the dreaded field trip over with as quickly as possible. However, when the Head Peacekeeper Cray was fired, the new Head, Romulus Thread showed up in his place and changed a great deal of things in District 12. Thread was really strict on rules, adding lots of "security benefits." He also said that the one-day field trip was a violation of some section something, subsection something something rule. As a result, the field trip to the mines was spread out, one grade going each week. However, when the Games rolled around the trips were suspended. Now, even though it was summer and school was out, the field trips had to resume. Today, it was the fourteen-year-old students' turn, Jerome included.

Jerome silently got dressed, putting on a plain gray shirt and holey black trousers. His hair was tousled from sleeping on the couch, but that didn't bother him. Looking at the clock, Jerome realized there was little to no time for breakfast. He knew most kids in District 12 skipped because of their lack of food, but his mother yelled at him once for doing that, saying, "There is food in this house and you will not take it for granted." Thus, Jerome sat down at the breakfast table and allowed Delly to give him his some raisin and nut bread from the Mellark's. His mother was in the kitchen up to her elbows in flour. She was attempting to make tarts for Mr. Cartwright's birthday, the ones with the cheese filling he loved, just as she did every year. Delly gave Jerome a knowing look. They both knew their mother's cooking was below average, and they would have to go to the Mellark's to swap for better tarts. Still, as Mrs. Cartwright said, "It's the thought that counts," and that's why she always tried.

Jerome looked over to his father, who sat quietly, fiddling with a piece of leather. Mr. Cartwright had never really been a man of many words, and that was alright with Jerome. His dad was silent yet steady, and he always came through for his children. His and Delly's mother was the more parental one, directing and chiding, while their father taught deeper lessons. How to be thankful for the fat on their bones. How to find goodness in everyone.

Now, don't confuse Mrs. Cartwright with Mrs. Mellark. Jerome's mother was a loving mother with a no-nonsense, can-do attitude, while Peeta's mother just had a short temper at times. Still, the two ladies got along well with one another, leaving their quiet husbands to bond as well.

Jerome's mother glanced at her watch. Antique. Given by her mother, who got it from her mother and so one. Delly loves that watch, Jerome thought absently.

"Jerome, what are you still doing here? You have to go. Now! Your class was supposed to meet up at the mine's main entrance five minutes ago. Go!" His mother shoved the rest of his bread into his bag and shooed him out the back door.

As he shot out the door, Jerome yelled back, "Save some of those tarts for when I get back!"

He hurried through backyards of neighbors, then, after the house that belonged to the potter, he popped out next to the Justice Building. Jerome looked down the road at the Square, seeing rising townspeople pass by. He kept going, turned the corner, and saw a crowd of fourteen-years-olds on Footprint Path. Standing by the entrance was his schoolteacher, Mrs. Rowan, next to a line of armed Peacekeepers. That's new, he thought.

He slipped into the crowd and stood next to his friend Aero. "What's with the suits?" Jerome hissed.

"Thread's decision. To make sure we are all attending." Aero responded with the same disdain as Jerome. Both boys openly loathed the Peacekeepers of District 12, and never understood how some Seam people got along so well with some. People like Katniss Everdeen, Jerome thought as his mind wandered.

"Aven Darnell?" Mrs. Rowan's nervous voice carried over a loudspeaker. A girl's slender arm shot up in the air and Mrs. Rowan looked back down at her list. "Sophia Douglass?"

Jerome looked back at Aero. "Did they call me already?" he asked in a low voice.

Aero nodded slowly, responding with, "Yeah. They even sent some Peacekeepers to find you when they didn't see you here." Uh-oh.

"Bryce Evans?"

Jerome pushed his way forward through the crowd with mutters of 'scuse me here and there. He finally reached the front. "Kyra Fairmount?"

Just as she marked down Kyra as present, Jerome tapped her wrist. "Mrs. Rowan, I'm here!" he panted.

Her pale blue eyes looked up from the paper and fell on him. "Oh, Jerome. There you are." She looked over at the Peacekeepers next to her. "We were worried… about you." Her voice was naturally timid, but Jerome could hear another layer of uncomfortableness on top of her mousy personality. She turned to the closest Peacekeeper and Jerome heard undertones passed back and forth, her short, curly black hair bobbing. Finally, the Peacekeeper craned his neck and spoke, with a deep voice, into the radio on his shoulder.

"Yes, Soldiers 243 and 244, this is your squad captain speaking. We have Jerome Cartwright present at the entrance now. You may come back to your original stations. Can I get a reply for comprehension confirmation?" The radio crackled and responded back to the squad captain.

Jerome breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have to be punished. More importantly, his family wouldn't have to be punished. He shuffled back through the crowd to his familiar group of friends along with Aero.

"Alright class, now we are going to split you up alphabetically to go on a tour of our district's mines. The first group is from Accardi to Fairmount, the second is Farabee to Kenyon…." Jerome tuned out Mrs. Rowan and turned back to his friend. Aero was another merchant boy, and originally Jerome had thought he was a bit of a jerk. However, Aero's last name being Cardwell put him next to Jerome in nearly every class for nine years, so over the years the two boys became best friends. When he first met him, Aero had something like a force field that shut everyone out, but once Jerome got past that, he met the real Aero, a really nice guy, who he couldn't help but love.

Everyone in the class jumbled around into their assigned groups. Jerome looked around the cluster of students he was put into and saw many familiar faces. He glanced over at the miner who was their guide, an older, gray-haired man with a gaunt face that spoke loud and clear to Jerome. This man was as tortured by having to do this as the students were, and probably was only doing it to get a bit of extra money to feed his starving family. The knot of guilt in Jerome's stomach twisted further at the thought of this man's children. The same sorrowful expression coated their small faces, only to be lit up by one measly loaf of bread bought with the money made today. Jerome then remembered the half-eaten raisin and nut bread in his bag, and the knot twisted even more.

Jerome shook off the thought to listen to Mrs. Rowan again. "…Now remember to always, always stay with your designated miner. They are your one and only guide. Finally, if at any time there is an emergency, follow the marks on the ceiling to find your way to an exit. Stay close, stay safe. Alright, let's go."

And with that, Jerome and his class were going down into the mines.