A/N - Hello All! Chapter 11 is here, yay! This chapter is a 'set up' type intro to the drama that will be following in Chapter 12, as well as the following ones. BIG surprises coming up! You might be slightly shocked at the end of this chapter xD! I have a plan behind it though:D. Anyway, I don't name my chapters officially but I decided to unofficially name this chapter 'Broken'. I hope you guys like it, it's got a short conversation between Katniss and her mother. I didn't want to add angry drama there, I wanted to write more of a serious scene between the two of them rather then yelling at each other. Peeta will either be in the next Chapter(12) OR Chapter 13. Sorry! Also, I didn't and don't have much time to check grammar/spelling on this chapter so PLEASE forgive any mistakes.

Anywho, I only got one (THANK YOU, Firework7!) review for chapter 10 so I hope everyone's doing okay, and if your in/near the storms in Oklahoma(and the other states).. stay safe please! The thunder storm in this chapter gave me inspiration from those storms moving across that state, and the rain I'm currently getting where I live. ;)

Well, I think that will do it! Chapter 12 WILL be up Wednesday afternoon my time(U.S. EST). It MIGHT be up be up tomorrow(Tuesday) but I highly doubt it. But for now... Chapter 11 Ladies and Gentlemen... (Love to all - Macayla)

(NO Chapter 12 Preview)

The week goes by awfully quick. Prim settles right in, making the home her own… which it is. My extreme drowsiness doesn't let up any. The first day back teaching was good, it was a Monday so I had the little kids, actually my favorite class. They came in, eager to learn the song more. But they didn't start without giving me pictures they colored and a few had 'Best Teacher Ever' written across the top. I pinned most of them up through out the room, but I took a few back home to show Gale. He laughed and suggested we hang them up in the living room. Now work and home is filled with my students art work, but I like it. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday come and go before I'm even aware. The only good thing is I get to see Rory, Vick and Prim. Gale takes over a shift for a man who has an ill wife, so I barley see Gale. He still leaves home at five in the morning, but he doesn't come home until after ten and Prim and I are already in bed by then.

It's Friday morning before I know it. Now I'm nervous… this is the age group that kept making mean comments to me. The good thing though is Principle Maddox told me she banished them from my class, making them have extra math class instead. I smile at that thought while I change my night clothes for black dress pants and a pick blouse. I run downstairs, knowing I'm running late, and grab the lunch Gale still has time to make me, stuffing it into my game bag. While I walk (more like run) to the school, I twist the solid gold ring on my wedding finger. It's been a month and one week since Gale and I have been married and he still hasn't told me how he could afford to get me something like this. I know Madge helped him out, but she won't tell me either.

Gale.

I would do anything to see him. I have not seen him more then a minute or two this whole week. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, the weekend again. They seem to come so fast lately.

I make my way into the school and to my music room. There's not much to set up, the already know the song pretty well. Two hours later they come in, taking their same seats. I notice Principle Maddox was right, those three idiots are no where to be seen. I also notice Peeta Mellark staring at me, I do my best to ignore it (which I find a little hard). After a bit we break for lunch and then return. Working on a measure of the song they keep singing an octave to high on. Just as their getting it, and sounding pretty good, the bell rings. They leave, a few of them smiling at me and continue to their next class. I had almost completely forgotten until now of the idea I have for the music here. Since I know I can't tell Gale until tomorrow, I decide to go ahead and run it by Principle Maddox. I sling my game bag over my shoulder, locking the music room door behind me as I make my way to her office on the far side of the school. I get there to see the door to her office cracked open a bit. Something tells me not to knock but just to invite myself in. I open the door just a little and peak my head in to see her shifting through mounds of papers on her desk frantically, mumbling words to herself. I knock lightly on the door to get her attention. I nearly scare her half to death when I do, she quickly moves the papers to one side of her desk.

"Come in! What can I do for you?" She asks while taking off her glasses. I walk in a bit further.

"I wanted to run an idea by you." I reply. She leans back in her chair.

"Go ahead." She says.

"I was thinking of maybe having the children perform at the Harvest Festival next month. If that's ok with you?" I ask, moving my eyes from hers to the carpeted floor.

She agrees it's a wonderful idea and says she will set it up with Mayor Undersee who is over it. The Harvest Festival is a yearly… festival we have once a year around the end of November. We were taught in school that it use to be called Thanksgiving and it was spent with just family and friends, but now Panem has made it a festive celebration rather then a holiday. I like the Harvest Festival though, here in twelve we have musicians who know how to play the old folk music come and play while people dance, other people get on the make shift stage in the middle of the square and sing, dance or even tell old stories. There's also a few vendors set up with their items they sell and trade. But it's mostly a gathering time to see old and new faces. The idea with having the children sing came to me out of no where while I was teaching last week.

As I start walking out of her office, I can't help but have an odd, uncomfortable feeling about her. A feeling I've never gotten from her before. I shrug it off as I leave her office and make my way out of the school, passing the littlest children in the hallway. They all say 'Hi' to me and greet me with hugs. Once all the children hug me (every one of them) I continue making my way out the two large front doors and into the school yard. But for some reason, as soon as I descend the front steps, my lunch decides to make a reappearance. I hate vomiting… but who doesn't? One of those damn little kids must have had a cold last week. They always come in sneezing, snot hanging out of their nose and their thumbs in their mouth. I finish hurling up my lunch and slowly make my way to the Seam. I felt pretty good afterwards, but now as the Seam is approaching I start to feel dizzy and nauseous again. I manage to hold it in until I'm walking up the front steps of the house. I have just enough time to lean over the porch railing as what little bit of lunch was left makes an appearance too. I know I need to get medicine. We take any type of colds here in twelve seriously, especially in the Seam. With our malnourished bodies, it doesn't take much to kill us. People die all the time from just simple chest colds or head congestions. There's even been several that has died from the stomach flu. I make my way into the house, clutching my aching stomach and shift through the few types of medicine we have. We have a few different types, but nothing to calm a stomach. I decide to pop a few of the pain killers my mother makes from the herbs, just to see. I don't even bother changing my clothes, I just cuddle on the couch, willing for Gale or even Prim to be home. But Gale doesn't come home until tonight and Prim still has three more hours of school. It's only around one in the afternoon. I close my eyes, but I barley make it up the stairs and into the bathroom before I hurl yet again. It's definitely the stomach flu, I've seen patients come to my mother with these same symptoms for that. There's absolutely nothing left in my empty stomach, only bile makes an appearance this time. I decide I can't take it any longer and choose to make a visit to the only person who I know can help me get this out of my system. She is the least person I want to see right now,

My mother.

I've barley talked to her since Gale and I married. Only the occasional small talk and the conversation about Prim's new living arrangement. I'm more mad at her then ever now, leaving Prim again when I wasn't directly there. Prim, who checks on her daily, said she is doing good and not spending time in her bedroom like she usually does when she slips back into the oblivious. I pull on my winter jacket and walk with my head down to my mothers house, the home I grew up in. After the short walk I contemplate knocking, but I decide not to and let myself in. The house is abandoned except for the small fire still burning in the fireplace.

"Mom?" I call out, almost choking at the word.

"In here dear!" She answers from what sounds like her bedroom.

I walk past the kitchen and to the small door off of it. I see her sitting on her bed, rummaging through an old metal box. I clearer my throat to get her attention. She looks up from the metal box and at me.

"Are you sick dear?" She asks while getting up from the bed and walking towards me. I nod my head.

"It's my stomach." I say. Immediately she turns from being a mother to a healer based on her facial expressions. I start to feel nauseous again but manage to hold it in for now.

She see's this though and takes me by the hand, leading me into the kitchen. I take a seat at the table as she sorts through mounds of different herbs, pills and different liquids. It seems like forever before she pulls out a single bottle from the mess. She huffs when she looks at it. She fills a glass with water and makes her way to me.

"This should help it, honey. This usually works for upset stomachs." She says, pouring some of the white powder from the bottle into the glass of water.

She hangs me the glass and I smell it before I bring it to my lips. The clear liquid has changed a powdery white and it smells a bit sweet. She gives me a reassuring smile as I finally bring it to my lips. It taste bitter though, but I'll do anything to stop this cold before it gets worse. I know I need to drink all of it, so we both sit there in silence as I slowly sip on the powered liquid. My mother never takes her eyes off of me and it's annoying. She finally breaks the silence-

"I'm sorry." She says, barley audible.

I look into her cold stone eyes I try to desperately to avoid to see tears. Probably tears for herself. When I don't reply she continues.

"I'm sorry I'm not perfect, Katniss. I-"

"No one asked for you to be perfect. I just wanted you to be a mother to Prim again." I say, realizing what I said after they came out. I usually remain silent when my mother goes on her 'sorry rants'.

"I know, I know. It was just… after you fathers death I felt like I couldn't go on. That there was no life after him. Katniss.." She says, taking my free hand in hers. I want to pull away but I don't. "… think about the love you have for Gale, how much your in love with him. Imagine he just gets taken away from you, out of no where and so suddenly. It would hurt, wouldn't it?" She asks, titling her head down.

I nod my head in reply. She's right, it would hurt me, but I would never abandoned Prim no matter what. She continues again-

"It hurt me. It broke me. I'm still broken from it. Katniss, I love you and your sister more then anything in this whole, entire world! The two of you are everything to me. And without you, the three of us wouldn't be here. I am so proud of you sweetheart. More proud then you ever know. I'm so sorry Katniss. I'm sorry for a lot of things. Please just forgive me. I love you so much!" She says, smiling as she places her hand on my cheek.

How am I supposed to respond to words like that? Can I forgive her? Do I forgive her? I do stop and imagine again what it would be like if Gale died the horrific death like our fathers, leaving me behind as a widow. It crosses my mind all the time, and I agree with her… it would hurt, it would break me too. But I can't forgive her. The place she had put me in at the ripe age of eleven was nothing but painful for me. I wasn't even a teenager yet and I was practically raising a kid while mourning the death of one of my own parents, it's more like both. My mother died just as much as my father and she still has… in a way. Yes, she's better, but she's broken still. I've tried forgiving her in the past, for the sake of my father but I couldn't. I can't. I finish the medicine when I muster the words I haven't said to her in five years, and I mean them-

"I love you, too."

Just as she opens her mouth to speak I feel another wave of nausea hit me. I make it just in time to the bathroom off of the living room before more bile comes up, and the medicine. I groan when I see it all. My mother of course comes in, holding my hair back. She frowns when she sees the medicine didn't stay down. After another wave of vomiting it finally starts to reside some. She leads me back to the table in the kitchen, taking my same seat.

"I think this cold is going to be a little bugger." She says, rummaging through the mounds of medicine again.

After a few minutes she stops and lets out a sigh of frustration. She looks at me and back to the medicine's, then back at me again.

"Well, I don't really have anything else to sooth in hon. Your just going to have to try and keep it down next time." Says my mother with a reassuring smile.

She begins to pack a container with some of the powder to take home. She tells me no more then two spoonfuls into a glass of water. I nod my head in reply but she still writes in on a scrap piece of paper, placing it into the container.

We talk for a little bit longer, she asks me how I like teaching and what I do exactly, noting me on how proud father would be, she asks about Gale and I. I ask her about her patients and ask if she needs any specific herbs. It's nice, we talk calmly. And again, for the first time in five years, I enjoy it. But I'm still not ready to forgive. The clap of thunder reminds me I need to get home. Prim will be back from school any minute. Since I haven't felt sick in the past hour and a half, and more medicine has stayed down, my mother agrees. We both stand-

"Do you want me to walk you home?" She asks, handing me the medicine she packed for me.

"No, I'll be fine." I reply, whipping the fall snot with my sleeve.

She walks me to the door but I end up gripping the kitchen counter as another nauseated wave hits me. I put my hand over my mouth as I do my best to get it in.

"Just take a few deep breaths." She tells me as she rubs circles on my back.

After my mothers words I hear another loud clap of thunder, followed by the sound of a heavy rain hitting the roof. Great, if only I left a few minutes ago, I think to myself. Mother curses under her breath, which would get a laugh out of me if I wasn't trying to keep my vomit down, when she hears the pouring down rain. It's not common for our part of Panem to get thunder storms like this during this time of the year, I find it odd.

After a few seconds the nausea begins to subside and I manage a sigh. My mother asks me if I have had any other symptoms and I tell her nothing unless you count the bit of doziness. She lets out another sigh of frustration. She opens her mouth as to speak but hesitates with her words, as though she's second guessing. But she talks anyways, lowering her voice to a much calmer, soothing voice before she says her next words-

"Katniss, honey, are you sure your not pr-"

The sound of beating fists interrupt her words. Their the knock is frantic so we both take the few remaining steps to the door. My mother opens it and a breathless, wide eyed Prim stands there. She's gasping for air, obviously from running. She's so breathless she don't even speak but only makes points to something up the road a bit.

"What's wrong, Prim?" Asks my mother.

Prim doesn't say anything but only grabs the both of us by the hand, dragging us down the porch and the Seam road. She lets go of our hands and breaks out into a full out run. It's pouring down rain and the wind pushes me and mother back. Prim disappears into the storm. It's almost completely blinding between the heavy (extremely heavy) rain and the atrocious wind. Just then the emergency alarms that they have placed every so yards starts to ring. I remember from school that three bells mean's a Tornado warning… and there's three.

"Come on!" She shouts.

It doesn't sound like a fun 'come on', it sounds frantic. I follow after her, running too, which doesn't help my stomach. I can't see three feet ahead of me, but I follow Prim's voice. I hear my mother's foot steps a few paces behind me. I smack into Prim just as we round the corner to meet the boys, Posy and Hazel, standing under a person's porch, it's not their's, it's their neighbors. We come up on them, joining them on the porch. I'm completely drenched, soaking wet from the rain water. I look over to them and I realize their faces are a mixture between shock and tears. I follow their gaze to a few yards in front of us and that's when I see it through the blinding rain,

Their home is engulfed in flames. . . . . .