Note: this is a few days later, Erica has read all the thirteen letters so far, so there will be some referring back to those but not in particular. And yes, Abe is Delly's brother, somehow I really liked the name Abe, it was either Draco or Abe but I decided on Abe. But enjoy my lovely readers. :) I'm sorry it took so long, please do enjoy!
I was chewing my lip as I entered the school. It was quite hot even if it was only 8.30 AM. Lucio and Ophelia were walking next to me and we were just talking about this school year. I was very excited but I wanted to go home as soon as possible and read the rest of the letters.
It was funny the letters mentioned Finn. Finn was like my big brother, he had been there ever since I was born and we visited him and Auntie Annie, I called her Auntie Annie because Mother told me I had to and she was like an aunt for me, she had been there my whole life with Finn, she was really sweet but just like Mother and Father she had odd attacks, hers involved screaming her husband's name Finnick and covering her ears. We barely went to Grandmother though, once a year only, it was fine by me, since Grandmother didn't really like to see me. I reminded her too much of Auntie Prim according to her, Mother got mad many time at her, saying it was a stupid excuse and even if she hadn't have a Mother to take care of her, her children did need a Grandmother.
"What are you thinking about, E?" Ophelia asked as she ticked her pen on the table.
"Nothing," I replied back and flashed her a smile.
"You sure you're not thinking about the letters?" Ophelia continued.
"It's the letter but I will tell you more later!"
"Girls in the back, is there something you want to share in the class?" the teacher sneered as she pointed to us with her stick.
I turned beet red and shook my head. "No, professor, but thank you for your concern, we will end our conversation now," Ophelia replied with a smirk.
"Watch your mouth Miss Ludwig, we wouldn't want detention on the first day, would we?"
"No, but thanks for offering," she replied with a grin on her face.
"Ophelia, what are you doing! We need to get to my house so we can read the letters, not have detention!" I hissed, trying to stop my best friend.
"Did you say something Miss Mellark?" the professor sneered, looking at us with her brown eyes, full of hatred.
"No, no, I'm sorry Professor!" I replied back, hoping my face wasn't beet red.
"She said she didn't want to get me into detention, Professor," Ophelia continued with the same innocent smirk on her face.
"Maybe you should listen to your friend Miss Ludwig," she replied. She looked like she was going to strangle Ophelia at any moment. Sometimes she could be so stubborn.
"Don't worry about my friend, I can take care of myself!" Ophelia replied as she squeezed my arm.
"That's enough! Detention at the end of the school day till half past four!" she screamed. "And now, stop interrupting the lesson or it will be a week!"
"But Professor you started asking me and Erica of we wanted to share our stories, I'm just being polite," Ophelia continued. God, her friend really was pushing it.
"One week, now get out!" she yelled at Ophelia. I sighed and watched my best friend leave. Sometimes she could be so stupid, but she always managed to get out of detention anyways, so I shouldn't have to worry about it.
I waited for Ophelia till three o' clock when she hadn't managed to get away yet I left, I didn't feel like waiting on her on my first day at school and Mother must be worrying where I was.
"Erica Rue Mellark, what is wrong with you! Your brother has waited for more than an hour at school for you. I told you me and your father were going to be busy today and you had to pick him up. How could you forget that? You promised to pick your brother up. You can call yourself lucky, what if it was rainy? What if it had been snowing?" Mother screamed at me as I entered the house.
I gave myself a mental slap. I forgot to pick up Pax. How could I have forgotten him!
"I am so sorry, I was waiting for Ophelia to get out of detention and forgot all about Pax!"
"Ophelia got into detention again? Sweetheart, do you think it's a good idea to be such friends with her? She has quite an effect on you, I mean you forgot all about your little brother, he's your priority number one!" she said as she held Pax in her arms, even if he was seven, Mother still held him like a two years old.
"We've had this conversation over and over mom, she doesn't have a bad effect on me. I didn't get into detention, did I? And you just said a few days ago she was a nice and polite person!" I replied mad. I hated when she had to start about it, everything was wrong about Ophelia, Father liked her but Mother I think still held grudges on Capitol people and Ophelia was one of them.
"Yes, Erica, your friend is a sweet girl, it's just that she is influencing you in a bad way, I don't want your grades to go down and Ophelia has detention on her first day!" Mother replied, trying to keep her voice steady.
"You're just saying this because she's from the Capitol. Get over the fact that the Games have stopped many years ago! Ophelia isn't related to Snow, nor will she ever be, not everyone from the Capitol is crazy and stupid. Stop holding grudges. Ophelia is my friend! I don't give a damn about what you think. If it were to be Lucio you wouldn't have said anything would you? THE GAMES ARE OVER. OPHELIA HAS LIVED HERE HER WHOLE LIFE. GET OVER IT!" I screamed at her and ran up the stairs.
"You stay there Erica Rue Mellark! How dare you talking to me like that. I have not raised you to become like that!" I heard her scream after me before I had locked myself up in my room and hot tears ran down my face.
I quickly grabbed two letters and let myself fall on my bed. It wasn't my intention to fall out like that to Mother or even confront her about the Games, it was a soft spot but I hated when she bashed on Ophelia, we had been friends for many years and she had always made a problem of it.
Peeta and Katniss,
Thank you for writing back, I'm sorry for putting more pressure on you for writing letters, don't write back if you don't want to! You're not forced, this is all voluntary. You could also just write one letter to me and Gale, we'll be doing the same since Gale has no time writing anymore, he's such a hard working business man nowadays (well, that is what he claims but all I see him doing at work is reading the paper and zipping from his coffee).
We went to the beach a few days ago, it was wonderful! The weather was nice and Gale taught Vick to swim, I still can't believe he can't swim, it was very funny to see him, Vick, in the water like that. We also saw your Mother, we didn't visit her but there was an accident on the beach and your Mother was there to help. She recognized Gale immediately and after she was done helping the people (there was an waterski accident and the guy hit a bridge, horrible, luckily we didn't see it happen, it would've traumatized me!) we went out of dinner with her, your Mother told me she hadn't seen you in years, such a pity, but I understand, Katniss.
After that we all went to a hotel and slept there, we were all very tired from the day at sea and after that we left home. Did you know there's a statue of Finnick Odair on the plaza in District Four, it really is beautiful. I never knew it was there and I had been told the citizens made it by their selves because they wanted to honor him, Annie and his son Finn, they wanted to show Finn how brave his Father was, well it really had an effect on me, I was tearing up when I saw it and I don't even know him, it must've had a big impact on you…
I am so sorry, I realized all the topics I choose are quite sad and harmful, please forgive me! How is your bakery doing? Its great Peeta decided to keep the name, keep it Mellarks Bakery, Peeta, if your father were to be here he would've been so proud of you. Not to mention how proud I am of you. You're a great man!
Well that's it then, write us back, we miss you!
With love, Gale and Delly.
I put the letter down and smiled. I had seen Finnick's statue many times. I made a drawing of it that hung on the wall now, Father was very proud of me for making it, he said I had a heart for art, like him.
I sighed and opened the other letter, this was a short one and by the handwriting I saw it was from Gale, which was quite obvious really since the letter was way shorter than the letter that Delly had written.
Catnip (& Peeta),
How are you two? Are you guys having a great summer? At District Two its very hot right now, I guess Twelve is also hot, not very because Twelve barely get really hot summers, but I guess it's just an average summer weather in Twelve.
Me and Delly are doing well. Delly just opened the shoe store it's called 'Dellydorable Shoes', when she told me the name I literally cracked up, I thought she was joking but she was serious, so she got mad at me and after hours of arguing I gave up, sometimes Delly's so stubborn! I thought she'd want the same name as the shoe store in Twelve but she told me she didn't really wanted to be reminded so I was okay with the whole 'Dellydorable Shoes' concept.
We added some photos with the letter so you can see what the result is. The store was already built before we were there, so we bought it and we arranged the whole thing in a month which actually is done very quick, but it looks fine. Delly is doing the final touches at the moment, like making the sign pink instead of blue, she suddenly wanted it in pink, don't ask me why!
Well, she really wants to hear your opinion, so write back!
With love, Gale and Delly.
Gale was always so awkward. Telling random stuff in his letters, it was quite funny actually.
The pictures of Delly's store was quite nice, the sign was still blue but it really did look nice. It must've changed a lot since this was many years ago but it looked now and I wondered how it looked like now.