SHOUT OUTS:

Thanks to sparklegem108, BaileyRene, shieldmaiden19, and The Ice Within for reviewing!

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DISCLAIMER:

There are several concepts, characters, and real life things that I use and/or mention in this chapter that I don't own. These include but are not limited to the Hunger Games and Finnick Odair.

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A/N: Oh my gosh, this is the last chapter O_O And then there's an epilogue, but it's only just over a hundred words, so this is the last chapter.

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IN THIS CHAPTER: Moderate adult language

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CHAPTER 16

8 January

I'm going home.

And I'm scared as hell.

Doing STORM and all that it entailed was one thing. Going back to District Four and dealing with the inevitable fallout is another. I'm somewhat curious to see what was said about Nikhila. She came on strong during the victor special, and that was on mandatory viewing.

Lallie comes in and sits in front of me.

"Anxious?"

"Yes. Not just because of dealing with people or whatever, but also because I won't have anything to do until the Tour which is in three months. Nothing to do means a lot of time with my thoughts, and that's not a good thing. If I can stay busy I can stop thinking."

"But do you want to stop thinking? I mean, do you really truly want to live your life without feeling? When you give up the pain you give up the love and joy too."

"To be honest, I don't want to deal with any of it, but since that's not an option I don't know. It honestly might take me my three months of nothing just to process what I've done here and really decide what I'm going to do with my life. All I really know right now is that President Snow is always watching, the Capitol drives me crazy, and I'm too sexy for my own good."

"President Snow? Did you get something from him?"

"Yeah, there was a note on the drink I got New Year's Eve. Something about how he wishes he could have seen me, et cetera, et cetera. And it freaked me out more than a little bit, especially since they were able to find me in a ballroom of six hundred drunk teenagers in about 0.2 seconds."

She nods. "I'm sure they have some kind of video tracking system so they know where everyone is. I think that's the hardest part about Jayde's job, having to make all of these executive decisions knowing that she has that looming over her shoulder. That's why she's so uptight when she does projects with you. She's uptight anyway, but when you have the pressure of working with a victor it's a whole new thing. I'm generally not making important decisions, so it doesn't matter to me as much. And even with STORM where I was, technically Jayde's name was on it, so if something happened it would be her that'd get screwed over, not me."

"I talked to her about that a little bit. She said that you've always been very do or die and doing what you want, and she's just a little more careful."

She nods. "Yep. And that causes both our biggest fights and our biggest collaborations. You saw that with STORM. That model thing caused a huge shit storm, but after that it was great for design because we had her slightly more conservative view point, and then my more extreme one."

I nod and try to stifle a yawn. "I'm so tired."

"Didn't sleep last night?"

I shake my head. "Too anxious."

Lallie nods. "Sorry. I'd say get some rest, but you're losing time because of the time zone change, and then you won't sleep tonight."

"Oh, crap, I didn't even think about that. I really hate time zones. Why do they exist?"

"If not, then theoretically in some part of the world it would be dark during daytime hours and light all night. We have time zones so that no matter where in the world you are it's light outside during the daylight hours."

I turn to her and giver her an 'Are you serious?' look.

"You asked why we have time zones! That's why."

"Okay, Lallie."

"Lallie, can you come here?" Jayde calls from somewhere.

"I am needed. Don't fall asleep, you'll regret it tonight."

"Okay."

I'm asleep within ten minutes.

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Later

"Mom!"

I envelope my mother in a hug. I'm extraordinarily close to my mom because she is the only thing in my life that's been there since the start, and will always be there.

I pull away and bite my lip, trying to think of how to put this.

"We need to talk."

She nods. "Good you think so too, that saves me time."

Here goes nothing.

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A/N: Ugh, I'm really not sure about this chapter. I like it, but at the same time…

Go read the epilogue, it's already up! And then you can review and tell me how you felt about the story as a whole.

-cindella204