Today began the Hunger Games, and the majority of District 12 was gathered in the main square to watch the opening events. The usual somber mood was muted with an unusual buzz as people chatted amongst themselves. This was the first year that this district had hope, and watching it spark stirred something in me. Most of the district knew on some degree of Katniss's abilities from trading with her, and everyone certainly saw her volunteer for Prim and how the Opening Ceremonies unfolded. This was the first year that one of our tributes had a fighting chance.
I scanned the crowds from where I stood, the speakers loud as Caesar Flickerman's voice boomed with excitement in some pre-show chatter. I caught sight of a familiar face across the square, alone as he leaned against a brick wall. It had been a few days since Gale had walked me home, and I was debating if I should go stand with him. I knew the kind of anxiety I was feeling, my stomach twisting in knots, and I could only imagine that it was tenfold for him.
I made my way through the throngs of people, weaving between the clusters amongst the low chatter until I reached him. I said nothing, leaning against the wall beside him with my eyes trained on the screens ahead of us. Neither of us said anything for a few minutes as the five-minute countdown clock began.
"She's going to survive this, right?" he finally spoke up, his voice soft and unsure. I looked up to meet his eyes and tried to manage a small reassuring smile.
"She's going to make it out of there," I said, somewhat convincing even myself with the confidence in my voice. I wanted to believe that. As we watched the clock, I saw some of the Seam resident around us giving Gale sad glances, but he seemed not to take notice. His face was unreadable; his grey eyes fixed on the screen and his mouth in a hard line.
As the countdown clock reached the last 3 minutes Gale pushed off of the wall suddenly, shaking his head. "I can't do this. I can't watch this," he muttered, striding off away from the crowds of people. I hesitated for a moment before following him, my eyes cast down to avoid everyone who turned around to look at me. I already stuck out and I hated the feeling of being watched.
"Gale!" I hissed when we were out of earshot of those on the outer edge of the square, my shorter legs fighting to catch up with him. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"
"I'm not going to watch this," he shook his head again, his hands balled into fists as he headed toward the tree line in the direction of the Seam. I huffed as I tried to keep up, glancing behind us to see if anyone else had followed.
Once we had passed a long row of run-down shacks, he stopped and turned to me. "Go back, Madge."
"No," I said defiantly, my blue eyes meeting his steel-like ones. "I'm not leaving you alone. You don't have to be alone right now." It was easy to see that his destination was the woods. It's where he feels safest, I thought to myself.
He scowled and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking off for a moment before his eyes turned back to me. "I wouldn't want you to get lost," his half-assed response elicited an eye roll from me.
"I wouldn't think you could get lost out there," I taunted him playfully, trying to lighten his mood. His brief smirk and shake of his head told me that I had succeeded, even if just for a second.
"I don't get lost," he retorted, and I crossed my arms.
"Then I'll be fine," I resolved, raising an eyebrow. "I mean it, you don't have to be alone right now."
He studied me for a moment before shrugging, turning back toward the dirt path. "Fine, but keep up, Undersee."
The further we walked into the trees, the fainter the sounds of the Games playing over the speakers in the Square became. I admired how deftly he moved among the roots and brush; the only audible footsteps were my own. When we reached the fence, he held up a loose section of it for me to duck under and as I did, my heart raced. I had never dared to go past the meadow before, let alone outside of the district. But as I watched Gale move with ease among the trees, I realized that he was the one I felt the safest with here. Well, he and Katniss, I remembered sadly.
We reached a small stream and he stepped over the rocks without hesitation, stopping to turn to me with his hand out. I accepted it with a small, grateful smile and followed his same footsteps on the small step stones he had just crossed.
We started walking again in silence, and I took the quiet moments to take in our peaceful surroundings. The way the birds flitting in the branches above us, singing their own songs, made me wish I, too, could be a bird. Free. Gale stopped, kneeling beside a hollow log and reaching inside. He pulled out a bow and arrow, easily slinging it over his shoulder.
"Just in case," he said, his voice soft with a sad smile.
"How much farther are we going?" I asked as we worked our way up a hill. Gale had started talking now, pointing out some types of plants as herbs as we passed. I mostly kept quiet, allowing him to let me into his space the best that I could. His face and shoulders were much more relaxed now than they had been earlier, like he had come to life out here.
"Just up here a little farther," he nodded up to the top of the hill, adjusting the bow sliding down his shoulder. The sun was moving lower in the sky, and I would guess it to be late afternoon.
As we reached the top of the hill, I let out an audible gasp at the view. The rolling hills, much like the one we had just climbed, seemed to go on as far as I could see. Vibrant green from the trees covered them like a carpet and the bright sun was the only thing in the sky that was the perfect shade of blue. Where we stood was a small clearing of a sort, the tall grasses waving gently in the breeze. I looked over to Gale, who gave me a nod and a small, understanding smile.
"It's breathtaking, I know," he admitted, and I agreed wordlessly. "I like to come up here sometimes."
"Even the most beautiful thing in Twelve doesn't compare to this. This feels so..." I trailed off, unable to fully place the word I needed.
"Free?" he finished, tossing the bow and arrow on the ground before sitting down beside them.
I followed him, wrapping my arms around my slender legs pulled to my chest. "Yeah," I all but whispered, the tempting nature of the word sitting in the air. Just like the birds, free, my mind echoed the thoughts of the birds earlier and my thoughts wandered to Katniss. I felt guilty that I hadn't thought of her more in the last hour. I wondered where she was, if she was even still alive...
We sat quietly for a moment; Gale playing with a piece of grass between his fingers as I watched a bee fly from flower to flower a few feet away. "Tell me about your family," I asked, unsure of where my confidence came from.
His eyes met mine, studying my face. Deciding whether to trust the Mayor's daughter, I assumed. "I have three younger siblings; two brothers and a baby sister. My mother works like hell to provide for our family. She does laundry for people around the district. With what I'm able to bring home for food, it gets us by just enough. My father died in a mining accident, the same one that killed Katniss's father," he explained.
"I remember that," I admit quietly, the memory of standing behind my father while he gave Medals of Valor to the children of the men killed in the mine those few years ago. My heart ached at the thought the same way it had then, and I had been haunted by the look of despair on the faces of the mothers and eldest children who were facing a reality they didn't deserve. "Is that how you met?"
He shrugged, looking off toward the distance before shifting his eyes back to the ground. "We ran into each other in the woods a few weeks after that, and we've been hunting partners ever since."
"So she's as skilled as I thought she was?" He chuckled and nodded, gesturing to the bow lying beside him.
"Even better. She never misses. She taught me everything I know with them." I saw the glint of pride in his eye when he spoke of her, and a pang of jealous caught me off-guard. I couldn't think of anyone who would speak of me with the same affection.
"She has a real chance, you know," I told him, "She's okay. She's smart, she made it out. I know she did." He sighed, the corners of his lips flicking up briefly into a smile.
"You tell me about your family now, Undersee," he returned the question, his elbows resting on his knees.
I snorted out a small laugh and ran a hand through my hair. "You already know my father. He's busy most days. He's kind and he does his best, but I don't seem him often. My mother...my mother is around even less. She stays in bed most days. My aunt was in the Second Quarter Quell, Maysilee Donner. She was killed, and since then my mother hasn't been the same. Or so I've been told. This is the mother I've always known. She loves me, I think. She has just given up. I have no siblings, so it has just been me for as long as I can remember."
"What does the future look like for you? What does the daughter of a Mayor choose to do?" he asked, and for the first time the allusion to my status as the Mayor's daughter didn't feel like an insult.
"I don't know, honestly. Marry a merchant is probably my father's preferred route, I suppose. I want nothing to do with politics. Maybe train to be a teacher," I mused. "What about you?" I looked to him and noticed the wryful chuckle as he shrugged.
"The mines have been the only place for someone like me," he told me and I internally kicked myself for not realizing this sooner. 'Someone like him'. There was only one career path available for those in the Seam. They grew up knowing that they were destined for the coal mines. "I actually start there in a few weeks after I turn 19. But on the bright side, I'll never go through a Reaping again," he laughed bitterly, but I didn't smile.
"How do you go down there for so long?" I wondered, thinking back to the field trips we took in school to the mines. My father always made me go, he said it was good for me to see. I always felt like I was being suffocated the entire time.
"I don't have a choice," his voice was clipped, and all I could do was frown. He was right.
"They do this on purpose- the Capitol," I say, my voice still quiet as if I was paranoid that someone else was listening. I didn't know if anyone could be listening out here. "They separate people using wealth to create divisions. If we're too busy hating each other, we don't have the energy to think about what they're doing. My father... being the Mayor of a district is nothing more than a placeholder. We both know that the Peacekeepers hold all of the authority. Our 'status' means nothing, we're expendable the same way everyone else in the districts are."
Gale's eyes never left my face as I voiced thoughts that I had been mulling over for years now, and it was hard to pin down how it felt to get them off of my chest. He didn't say anything for a few moments after I finished. "You're smarter than I thought," he admits, his lips curling into a small smile. "You're not so bad, I guess, Undersee."
I roll my eyes, my cheeks turning a slight pink at the compliment. "You too, Hawthorne."
-.-.-
We stayed on the hill talking until the sun reached the top of the horizon, the sky morphing from the deep sky blue to a faint baby blue streaked with orange and pink. "I don't think I want to go back," I say softly, glancing back at Gale waiting at the tree line for me.
"I never do either, but it's always waiting when I come back," he reassures me, and I took note of the way the setting sun reflected in his grey eyes and dark hair.
"Thanks for letting me come with you today," I look up at him through my lashes and he nods slightly in response, hesitating for a moment before he starts off back down the same path we followed here a few hours ago.
We don't say anything the entire way back until we reach the meadow, where I'll take a different path back to my house. Gale stops, turning to me. "Madge..." he starts, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Thank you."
I give him a small smile and nod in response before turning back, but I can feel his eyes following me until I'm out of view.