Author's note:

I do not own the Hunger Games universe or characters. In fact, in a way, they own me.

Mayor Undersee's first name, Henry, comes from Medea Smyke because she is awesome.


Title: The Past is Prologue

Summary: Three, united. Two, divided. One, alone. The girls who came before Madge Undersee and Katniss Everdeen had their whole lives ahead of them... until the day Maysilee Donner was Reaped.


CHAPTER FOUR

In which the library suddenly becomes a more interesting place

Maysilee liked math. Doing math was like solving a mystery; it gave her a deep sense of satisfaction to find the right formula and watch the variables fall into place.

But her favorite thing about math was that it was largely immune to the influence of the Capitol. History class was obviously a farce. English class was hardly an improvement: the heroes in all the books – even the romances – were Capitol citizens, and the villains were always rebels from the districts. And while one might think that science class would escape the Capitol's propaganda machine, Maysilee still hadn't gotten over biology class where she was taught that people from the Capitol were genetically superior to everyone else.

The only thing she didn't like about math was how, once it became clear that she was good at it, her teachers started having expectations. Other students could pass exams by the skin of their teeth, or even fail, and not hear a single word about it. But heaven forbid that Maysilee Donner ever get less than an A, even when she started taking advanced classes.

So there she was, slaving over double problem sets in the library, instead of working at her family's shop like she normally did on Monday afternoons. Thank goodness Margaerisse, a saint if there ever was one, had agreed to cover for her. Plus, Maysilee had some cake pops left over from Lukas Mellark's latest attempt at winning Willow's heart.

Speaking of which...

She glanced around surreptitiously as she stuck her hand into her backpack. Food wasn't allowed in the library, though she had always managed to sneak in chocolate or mints in the past.

Certain that nobody was looking, she hurriedly took a cake pop disguised as an orange – she'd polished off all the strawberry ones at lunch – and ate it. She closed her eyes and sighed as she bit down.

The damn boy was a genius. Willow better not break his heart, because there's no way I'm giving these up.

"Ahem."

Maysilee's eyes flew open. Henry Undersee, the librarian's assistant, stood not three feet away from her with a cart of books. The bespectacled boy looked pointedly at the cake pop stick in her hand.

Maysilee did the only thing she could think of. She flashed him a big, goofy grin and hoped there weren't too many crumbs stuck between her teeth.

He chuckled to himself as he moved on, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She knew Henry's father was the mayor's secretary, so it probably wasn't a good idea to break the rules when he was around. But then again, he didn't seem like he was going to kick her out for eating in the library.

As she was taking a break anyway, Maysilee allowed her mind to wander as she watched him walk away, pushing the book cart in front of him.

Henry was tall and lanky, with red hair that was straight but always messy, like he'd just gotten out of bed. Maysilee found his hair fascinating. Town kids' hair were often various shades of blonde, and Seam kids almost always had black or dark brown hair, so anything other than that was an anomaly. She supposed his hair could pass for strawberry blonde, but still... Had his family always been from Twelve?

Maysilee mentally shrugged off the thought and turned back to her homework, only to realize that the next page in her statistics textbook had been ripped out. Well, at least I'm already in the library, she thought. There was probably another copy on the shelves somewhere.

A few minutes later, Maysilee stood in between bookcases with her lips pursed and her hands on her hips. There were, in fact, several copies with the distinctive orange cover – all the way up on the top shelf. And while Maysilee wasn't short, it was definitely out of her reach.

She stuck her head out into the aisle and spied a kickstool a few rows down. Perfect.

"Need any help?" Henry asked as she flew past him.

"I'm good, thanks," she replied.

The kickstool was the right height, and once she climbed up on it, the wheels retracted and she was perfectly stable. Unfortunately, the books were wedged in tight. Maysilee pulled and pulled, but none of them would budge. "Ugh!" she muttered. She clenched her teeth and gave it another hard yank.

And one of the books finally, finally came loose, but she lost her balance and started toppling backward –

"Whoa!" Henry said, catching her under the arms before she could hit the floor. "I've got you."

"Thanks," she gasped, leaning back against his chest to pull herself upright.

"You all right?" he asked. "I heard grunting and..."

"Yeah. I was just trying to get this," she said, holding up the book responsible for her current state of dishevelment. "It was stuck."

"Ah," he smiled. "Mr. Turner, I presume?"

She nodded, suddenly self-conscious. Henry was actually pretty cute when he smiled.

"You smell nice," she blurted out before she could stop herself. "Like books. Which is weird because the library doesn't – it smells like damp laundry."

Henry looked amused. "Thanks, uh – "

"Maysilee."

"Maysilee. Thanks, Maysilee. I'm Henry. You smell nice, too," he grinned. "Like prohibited snacks."

She blushed furiously. "Sorry. Er. Have you been working here long?"

"Part-time since junior year, then full-time since I graduated last spring."

"You're seventeen?"

"Eighteen. Turning nineteen next year, so no more Reapings for me."

"Wow, congratulations." She bit her lip. "The odds were in your favor."

He grinned. "You must really like your statistics," he said, gesturing at her textbook.

"I keep waiting for Mr. Turner to assign homework about the Reapings," Maysilee said. "You know, like trying to calculate the actual odds of getting Reaped if you have X amount of tesserae or something."

"Mr. Turner? I doubt it."

"I guess. Besides, you would have to know how much tesserae everyone else signed up for." She hesitated. "Hey, your dad is the mayor's secretary, right? Does he get access to that kind of information?"

He paused. "I'm not sure," he said carefully. "They're usually pretty secretive about that kind of stuff."

"Oh," she said, disappointed. "I guess it's just as well. I'm not sure if I really want to know anyway."

"Yeah. Hey, you know what?" Henry looked around quickly, then leaned in towards her. "Wouldn't it be a good idea if everyone took out exactly the same amount of tesserae? Everyone, rich or poor, town or Seam, no exceptions. That would even things out, wouldn't it? Poor kids could get more grain, but the odds would be exactly the same as if they didn't."

Maysilee's jaw dropped. "That's brilliant!" she cried, then clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Yep. Then all the kids who don't need tesserae much can sell, trade, or donate whatever they can spare."

She looked at the older boy in amazement. "That is the single most wonderful, perfect idea I have ever heard. Have you told your dad?"

"Yeah. He said it would be hard to convince rich kids, and even then, how do you enforce it so no one cheats?" He shrugged. "Still, it's worth a shot, right?"

"Yes! I have never been so sure of anything else in my life." Maysilee's mind was racing. "You should be mayor or something."

Henry chuckled wryly. "You sound like my dad. He wants me to try for civil service college in the Capitol, follow in his footsteps."

"You're not interested?"

"I'm interested in solving problems. I look at my dad, and it doesn't seem like he gets to do that much. Also... I don't think I would enjoy myself in the Capitol." He looked at her. "I like it here."

Behind the glasses, his eyes were pale blue, almost gray. The best of town and Seam combined. Maysilee had never been close enough to notice before.

Henry glanced at his neglected book cart. "I have to go back to work, but it was really nice talking to you, Maysilee."

She smiled shyly. "Likewise."

"I'm off at five, so if you're done by then I can walk you home," he said earnestly. "I mean, I would like to."

Maysilee could hear her heart pounding in her ears. "I'd like that, too."

It was at that moment that Maysilee Donner, hugging a statistics textbook to her chest and smiling so widely that her cheeks hurt, knew that she would follow Henry Undersee to the ends of the earth.


Author's postscript:

I hope you liked it! I made Mayor Undersee ginger for a reason. ^_^ It'll take a while to explain, but all will be revealed eventually.

This might be my last update for 2012. Happy new year to everyone!

Up next: chapter five, in which persistence and puppy dog eyes pay off…

Please review!