It'll only be a day before they come back now. My brother and his girlfriend. Finnick and Annie. But I have other things on my mind. I have my training. The time between now and the next Reaping is getting ever shorter and I know I need to be at my best when that time comes.
Training used to be fun, I used to enjoy the competitive nature of it all but I just don't have time for that now. I need to concentrate on the task at hand, my life is at stake here. I use a trident, like my brother, as my main weapon of choice. My second is an axe, a light-weight one, preferably. I prefer having the control than the weight of impact. Swimming is obviously another strong skill of mine but it seems unlikely I'll need that, since water played a big part in the last games. Not impossible, but unlikely.
We have a scores sheet put up every week after assessments in different areas. I'm not meaning to boast, but these past few months I've been top in everything. I was normally near the top, but this time I mean I've actually been number one in every assessment. I'm ready for this. As much as you can be, anyway. I don't think you can ever be completely prepared.
I get to my locker at the end of another long day and take out my jacket. Underneath it is a folder. I know that wasn't there when I shut my locker. It's not even mine. I'm the only one with a key to this locker, I keep it on a strap around my wrist. I glance down to check it's still there. It is. I stare back at the folder before checking no one's paying full attention to me, before I stuff it inside my jacket and make for the door. I wait until I have to chance to cut off the path and into the trees before I finally take it out of my jacket. I sit down on the grass, lean against a tree trunk and open it.
I can't even fathom what I'm holding. Tia, whoever she is, has been on Tour with Annie and my brother. What she's written isn't… normal. This kind of thing does not happen. She's special. I read the article from cover to cover and I'm tempted to read it through again just to make sure it's real. But it is. She means what she's saying. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Clearly if it's something that had to be put into my locker in secret, it's something not many people have. It's not been publicly distributed. And who even put it in my locker? Who else has a key? Someone must have a master key at the training centre but I can't imagine any of them being willing to get involved in something as anti-Hunger Games as this. It's practically anti-Capitol propaganda! I run my hand desperately through my hair and try to think of what to do with this. I could just go home, hide it and keep it, never looking at it again. I could destroy it, burn it? But I feel like something as rare as this shouldn't be destroyed, after all, I don't know how many other copies there are. No, something like this needs to be seen. Finally someone is printing the truth and they shouldn't be drowned out for it.
I'll take it back with me and hide it until I figure out what to do with it. I stuff it back into my jacket and continue the walk home. Mom's cooking dinner when I get home, she barely looks up when I come in.
'Wipe your feet.' She tells me. I do as she says and kick my boots off in the doorway for good measure. 'Don't just leave those there!' She scolds me. I roll my eyes and pick up the boots, carrying them off into my bedroom with me. I drop them inside my room and take the folder back out, lifting up my mattress and hiding it there for the time being. I sit down on my bed and sigh. What am I meant to do with it? Maybe I should find who put it in my locker and ask them what I'm supposed to do with it. No, there's a reason they didn't give it to me in person. I'm not meant to know who gave it to me. Looks like it's just down to me, then. There's only one other person I could tell… maybe. I go the my window and look out across the courtyard our neighbourhood shares. There are four streets that all share the same courtyard space and Lukas lives on the one next to mine. His bike's in the yard so he must be home. He used to train with me but recently he's had to leave to help out in his father's shop. He's a butcher and business hasn't exactly been good recently. There's a chance he'll know what to do with it.
He's always been a good friend to me, ever since we were kids. He's loyal and protective, which is part of the reason he had to leave training. His family means everything to him. There's him, his parents and his little sister Gwen. I make the executive decision to go and find him after dinner.
I endure dinner in near silence. I can see the looks my mom gives me. She's seeing me following my brother, exactly what she doesn't want. She pushed him away and I know she'll do the same to me. But I've lost interest in caring about that. We could have had a better life if she'd have moved into his Victor's house when he came back, but no, she wanted to stay here. And then she heard about his 'reputation'. That's one reason I'm glad of having read that article. It gives me hope that not everyone sees my brother the way my mom does. He won't talk about it and I know he's not allowed to. But I also know him and I know he's not the kind of guy who'll go around making a bad name for himself like that. There's something sinister about the whole thing.
'I'm going out.' I tell my mom as soon as I've finished dinner.
'Where?'
'To see Lukas.' I answer. There's no reason she shouldn't know that. She narrows her eyes disapprovingly but I just shake my head in disbelief.
'Don't do anything stupid.'
'I'll do whatever I want.' I mutter darkly, going back into the hallway to grab my bag, where I've already put the article. I don't say another word to her as I leave the house, slamming the door behind me. I'll never forgive her for cutting out Finnick like she did. He's her son and she just stopped caring like he was no one. In doing that she pushed me away, too.
I knock on the door to Lukas' house and he answers the door. He beams at me when he sees me and I can't help but grin back. He shouts something back into the house to let his folks know he's going out, before he shuts the door and walks with me towards the beach. He asks me questions about training and I ask questions about his work in return. Just conversation that it's nice to have with Lukas. It's been strange with Lukas recently. I don't know, it just feels like since we've got older there's something different, something that says it's not okay for us to be just friends anymore. But it doesn't matter to me right now. There are other things I need to give my full attention to. If I make it back, who knows, maybe something would happen. But I need to make it home first.
'Look,' I start as we sit down on the beach, confident that we're not going to be overheard now. 'I need to show you something.' Lukas evidently catches the nervous tones in my voice and I can see his eyes widen slightly. I take the article out of my backpack and push it into his hands. 'Don't say a word to anyone about this.' I warn him. He nods and opens the article.
I watch his expression as he reads it, going from surprise to shock to horror. He almost drops it when he's done. He hands it back to me, his hands shaking slightly.
'How did you get this?' He asks me. I just shrug.
'It was in my locker today. No idea how it got there.' I tell him. He sighs and leans back on the sand. 'What am I supposed to do with it, Lukas?'
He shakes his head, defeated. 'I don't know.' He stares at the sky for a while and doesn't look back when he eventually speaks. 'People need to see it, you know that don't you?'
I think on some level I did know that. There's too much truth in that for people not to know about it. We all know the truth of the Games in the Districts but it's something else to know that it was a Capitol journalist who wrote this. But we could get into a whole lot of trouble if they catch us spreading this.
'How do we show people?' I ask in what's nearly a whisper. Lukas glances back at me then sits up to whisper back a response.
'We pass it around, like whispers.' He tells me. 'We'll take it to the market, start with the traders we know deal illegally, because they can't report us. And then they'll pass it on to other traders who trust them and so forth. Once it's started no one will be able to trace it's origin.'
I stare at him for a while, trying to work out what he's saying. Give it away. It's the only way to safely spread it and make sure people believe it. I have the actual article, other people need to see it, too.
'Okay.' I reply slowly. 'When?'
'Tomorrow.' He answers. 'We'll go down and give it to Harper. I know she makes illegal trades with Peacekeepers so they overlook her taking her boat of the District boundary. My father trades with her sometimes because she has the best fish. I'll take her a trade up tomorrow so we don't look suspicious.'
And we do just that. Lukas takes a ham from his father's shop on the instruction to make a trade with Harper. So we head to the market and I slip the folder into the bag the meat is kept in. No one looks at us strangely. The Peacekeepers nod like normal, a few smile because they know who I am. We find Harper at the back of the warehouse that serves as our market. We have an open air goods market, too, but the fish market is always in this warehouse to keep everything cool. It smells awful when you first walk in but if you come here often enough it doesn't affect you quite as much.
Harper's leaning against the wall, rocking back on a wooden stool. Her dark hair's pulled back into a pony tail and there's a new cut on her lip. No one asks how Harper gets her injuries, but she's normally sporting some kind of bruise or cut. We can only presume it's when a Peacekeeper doesn't like the trade she's made and decides the make up the different with a good beating.
Lukas pushes the bag towards her across the table. She gives him a smile and takes a look inside. She says nothing about the folder, only gives us a curious look.
'This is good.' She says with a nod. She takes a few different fish off the ice at the other side of the table and bags them up, passing them to Lukas. 'Good trade, boy.' She tells him, her beady eyes constantly shifting back to me. 'There's a little extra in here, you'll earn more for that.'
'It's for everyone.' Lukas tells her cryptically. 'Pass it around once you've seen it.'
Harper takes a discreet glance over at the Peacekeepers to check that none of them are in earshot, before she nods again, taking the bag off the counter and putting it into storage underneath.
'You're good kids.' She tells us fondly. 'And no one will know that extra piece came from you.' She sighs and leans back again, looking casual as ever. 'Now, get gone. Give my best to your father.' She tells Lukas. 'And your brother and his girl.' She tells me before she moves her attention away from us. We leave quickly and head back home.
'Well, that went well, I think.' Lukas tells me quietly as we get back to our neighbourhood. I just nod. There's a nervous feeling in my stomach that just won't leave me. Something that says that we've done the wrong thing. No matter how many times I tell myself that we haven't, it won't go away.
But I have to shake those thoughts away from me as I see movement near the Victor's Village. The path to the Village is right by our neighbourhood. Finnick and Annie are coming home.
'I'll see you later, Lukas.' I tell him distractedly. He'll understand. He knows Finnick is the most important person in my life. I jog up towards the Village in time to see Finnick and Annie approaching her house. I call out and they turn around. I throw my arms around my brother the second I'm within reach and hug him tight. I move away and pull Annie into a more delicate hug. She never brought up the whole box of cakes thing again. About how I told her that her house was bugged. She never asked how I knew. It's probably best that she doesn't know, actually. Equally best that Finnick doesn't, too. Johanna told me. From the Capitol you can make phone calls to any District, where as you can only make calls to the District you're in while you're out here. She was in the Capitol that day, apparently she'd had to see Snow and she'd overheard him referring to the listening device in Annie's house. There's a public telephone box in the courtyard that no one ever uses, so when I heard it ring I just had to answer it. I've never actually met Johanna, but I like her. She's somewhat of an inspiration. She fights back and I like that about her.
