so guys :) hey! so I know i have spend a really long time on the train - I didn't plan on it honest! but rest assured we will be in the capitol soon enough :) anyway really hope you like this chapter thankyou to sunsetorange12 for following this story and i hope other people do too :) as always please review - you want people to review your stories, right? so why don't you review other peoples :) thankyou for all the nice reviews and PM's so farr
PS. Please check out my other fanfic 'born to die' it's SYOT and theres still a few space that need filled so please check it out :) and without further-a-due here's chapter 9!
"Eh, are you alright Mrs Mellark?" the young man says.
"Yes, sorry" I say realising I have been staring blankly at him for the past few minutes.
"So...what is it you need?"
"What? oh yes, right, ehh I was just wondering if, you happened to have any toys on board for him" I nod a Hunter " I forgot to bring his own, do you have anything?" I eventually ask.
"well, I'm not sure, these trains were only recently converted, they actually used to be the trains that..." he stops, remembering who I am "well, I'm sure you know" he laughs awkwardly "anyway, I'll have to check - but if you want you can take him into the television room and let him watch the Children's channel while I find out"
"Children's channel?" I say confused
"yes, I think they usually only get it in the capitol but It runs on the trains as far as I know; it's channel 9 on the television, feel free to take him in and watch it - or, of course, you can watch it in your room"
"I think I'll will take him to watch it in the television room; but I just need to go back and check on something first" I say
"Of course Mrs Mellark" the young man says "good afternoon"
I walk back to the room and Notice Peeta is still painting the 'death painting' "you better finish that and cover it up before Iris comes back" I say
"I don't think I'll be finished by then" he says, not even looking round to acknowledge me or Hunter
I sigh "well, I'll be in the TV room with Hunter - the attendant I was talking to doesn't know if they have any toddler-appropriate toys; but he said there is a children's channel on the television - we get the channel in here too; but I thought I would take him there instead. The TV room is quite dark and I'm hoping it will make him fall asleep before lunch - I'm trying to get him to nap as much as possible, since, there probably won't be much time for it in the capitol. Plus, you can get on with your... painting in peace. If Iris comes in and you're still not finished, just cover it up quickly and send her to find me in the TV room. Then you can finish it "I say
"Okay" Peeta says - still not looking round "I'll be finished it by the time you come back from lunch"
I sigh, and grab Basil - hoping it might help Hunter go to sleep in the television room.
When we get there, the man is already gone. I let myself into the room and sit myself and hunter down on the couch me and Peeta sat on when we were watching the reapings. I prop Hunter up with the pillows and put Bazil beside him. "what channel was it again?" I say to myself as I press multiple numbers on the control. I eventually click on 9, in time to see a small yellow teddy bear cross the screen, he starts singing a song "ABC, 123 - It's easy to learn when you learn with me!" I can't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all "hello boys and girls!" I see Hunter wave back - not understanding that the teddy can't actually see him "I'm Mr stuffs and this is learning hour on Kidz TV! Today we're going to learn the colours of the rainbow!" Hunter's eyes glint when 'Mr stuffs' mentions the word colour. The blonde bear goes into another singing number about the rainbow "there's red then there's orange then there's yellow and green - the worlds full of colour ready to be seen. Blue like the river or Violet like the flower. It's time to learn your colours on learning hour!" he keeps repeating the song, Hunter picks it up quite fast and starts to sing along on the second or third repeat - I think it repeats around five times. Next the little bear goes outside his house; he points at things in the garden. Mr stuffs points at things "what colour is the grass?"
"Green!" hunter shouts at the telly
The word green comes up at the bottom of the screen "It's green!" says stuffs "did you get it right?" he says, meaning the viewers at home
next he points to the sky "what colour is the sky?"
"Blue!" says Hunter
the word blue comes up and the little bear says "It's blue! did you get it right?"
now he points towards the sky again "what colour are the clouds?"
"White!" Hunter squeals!
white comes up at the bottom of the screen "They're White! did you get it right?"
the same thing goes on repetitively for about another 10minutes "what colours the mailbox?" "red!" "what colours the flower?" "purple!" "what colours the sun?" "yellow!" finally the music in the background fades and the little bear say "well done boys and girls! you all know your colours really well! Now let's do something a little bit trickier - My friend Dexter the dog over here is trying to paint a picture, but he's ran out of green paint and he can't finish the grass! do you know how we can make Dexter some more green paint?" he pauses waiting for his viewers to answer
"mix!" Hunter shouts
"we have to mix some paints! Now boys and girls; to make colours, we need to mix other colours, First of all we need our three primary colours" the colours of paint appear at the bottom of the screen "The primary colours are the colours that we mix to make others, along with our friends white & black we can make any colour in the rainbow! But what colours do we need to make green?" he pauses again, Hunter doesn't say anything
"Hunter, you know that. what colours make green?" I say
He shrugs "yellow and blue?" he asks me
"we need to mix yellow and blue paint to make green!" says the teddy. answering for me.
"see Hunter, you got it right!" I say in the annoying tone parent's use with their children
"but how do we make other colours boys and girls?" The music starts up again and the teddy starts another tedious musical number.
"red and yellow makes orange! to make purple mix red and blue! we make grey by mixing white and black and to make green we use blue and yellow too. we make blue darker by adding black we make green lighter by adding white to make pink we mix white and red - all by using red,blue,yellow, black and white! sing along boys and girls!" again this song continues for about 5 verses
the show goes on for another half an hour, the teddy bear tells us about light & dark and shades, We "help" him help Dexter finish his painting - telling him what colours everything should be he sings a few more songs and finishes on the little theme tune "ABC, 123 - It's easy to learn when you learn with me!" then he says goodbye.
I check the clock on the wall above the TV - It's 3.30 and lunch is only served until 4.00 "I better go back to the room and get Peeta and Iris so we can go for lunch" I say to myself I told Iris to be back no later than 3 O'clock, Peeta must have already finished his drawing before she came back, Or else he would have sent her to find me. I go to pick Hunter up - He's sleeping he must have just crashed out when the show had finished. I pick him up carefully and put him over my shoulder as he sleeps soundly. I Decide He can miss lunch and I will keep him some food for later, he will probably be asleep for a good 2 hours anyway. I get to the room and fumble around for my key while balancing Hunter over my shoulder, I go in and notice the painting is gone, Peeta must have hid it from Iris. Peeta though, is sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up against his chest - his head rests on the wall and his eyes are closed tight - he's having an episode.
"Peeta?!" I say attempting to bring him out of his state
"Peeta, it's okay, it's not real. Whatever you see isn't real" I say to him
"katniss! run, he wants Iris and Hunter, go!" he says
"who wants them? Peeta it's okay - president snow is dead - he can't take them, Iris and Hunter are safe" I say
"No there not, he's already got them" He says
"peeta, Hunter is here - He's with me, I have him - he's safe" I say to him
there's a pause "what about Iris?" he says
I contemplate whether I should worry him or lie to him - I decide the latter is better "eehhh, she's here too yup, she's behind me - come on Peeta, its okay" I say
slowly but surely his eyes begin to open "Hunter" he says relieved
I put my finger to my lip "shhhh he's sleeping" I whisper
he smiles "but where's Iris?" he says
"she's just coming" I say, just not to worry him. but as if on cue Iris bursts through the door behind me
"this train is soooo big!, there already serving lunch when are we going to..." Iris starts a little too loudly
"Iris! shhhhhh" I say putting my finger on my lips again and pointing to hunter
"oh, sorry mama" she says and puts a finger to her own lips
"it's okay sweetie. But speaking of lunch, why don't we go just now?" I say
"but what about hunter?" Peeta asks
"I will ask one of the attendants for a pram to lay him in beside us while we eat" I say
"okay" says Peeta as he gets up from where he sat against the wall "lets go!"
He goes over to Iris and picks her up and spins her round "you can tell us all about your adventures on the train during lunch" he says
with a smirk. "okay daddy" she says in a whisper trying her best not to wake her brother.
when we get to the food car all the food has already been laid out on the table - It's a red soup five bowls have been laid out - Only three of which are likely to be eaten "excuse me?" I say to the attendant who just entered the room she looks up at me, but says nothing - indicating to me that she is an Avox "could we please have a pram for him to sleep in while we eat?" she smiles at me and nods her head before leaving the room, I assume to get the pram for Hunter.
"mama, what kind of soup is that?" Iris asks still whispering
"Iris you don't have to whisper - I can barely hear you!" I say laughing
"oh, sorry mama, what kind of soup is it?" she says raising her voice slightly
"ummmmm" I start
"I think it's tomato" Peeta finishes for me.
"okay!" says Iris and she runs to the second smallest of the five bowls.
"do you think Haymitch will turn up?" I ask Peeta leaning so not to let hunter fall from my ever-tiring shoulder
"probably not" he says
the woman comes in with a blue pram, which matches the colour of the walls in Hunters room on the train. she unfolds it and sets it up beside the table. she smiles, nods again and leaves the room.
"come on Hunter" I say as I put him in the pram, his eyes stay shut and his head falls to one side of his shoulders.
I take the seat beside the pram and Peeta sits down across from me, I glance at Iris, who has almost finished the soup already. The main soon comes - lamb stew - I glance up at Peeta and snort "president Paylor is really trying to get me on her side" I say and start eating. soon we've all finished. they don't serve dessert at lunch so we head back to the room. Hunter wakes up just as we enter the room.
Hunter asks for the children's channel to be put back on and I agree, planning to have a shower and get ready for dinner while they watch it in the room and , funnily enough the TV version of the "little mocking jay" book is on TV. They both happily watch it for another hour - I wonder if this is how capitol children spend their days - watching talking teddy bears and birds run around a TV screen. After the programmes over and Peeta & I are ready ,we split up to get the kids ready, Peeta takes them and puts them in a bath and I lay out there clothes from the drawers in their room - A blue dress with ruffled sleeves and blue sandals for Iris and a blue shirt and quarter lengths and blue shoes for Hunter.
Haymitch actually showed up for dinner, though he didn't actually eat anything but he made up for that with the amount he drank. He got so drunk I ended up taking the kids back to the room short of dessert - much to the protest of Iris. I check the clock and It's already 9.30pm so we split up to put the kids to bed.
I decide to take Iris and help her pick a frilly pink nightdress to wear she climbs into the bed and I climb in beside her and read her the little mocking jay, just as I would every other night - It feels like it's a normal night (apart from the fact that we're on the way to the capitol instead of home in 12) but one thing makes this night totally different, - one sentence that will haunt me. because as I'm tucking Iris up, she says something I expected her to say at some point - but not today, not yet. as I finish reading Iris the little mocking jay and turn off the light in her room, I walk towards the door but just as I get there Iris says the words I have dreaded since she was born
"Mama, what's the Hunger Games?"
so... what'd you guys think :) love it? hate it? tell me! as always review, favourite , follow. Hope you guys like the kinda-cliffhanger and I can't wait to put up the next chapter! :)