Ten days after her arrival in District Four, Katniss makes a new friend.
It's a surprise to Johanna when she finds out about the invitation later that night, although Annie is unsurprised. Nick, as usual, just plays with his toys and grins at everyone.
Maya, while optimistic and practical at the same time, isn't as brightly enthusiastic about everything as her sister, Mahi. In fact, Katniss realizes that she's similar to Madge, while Mahi is like Delly Cartwright.
It hurts to think about Madge. Katniss doesn't know how Delly Cartwright is now, or if she's even alive - she'd never asked Peeta about anyone. But she's sure that Madge is dead. When the bombings happened, Madge was apparently on the way home from picking something up at the station. And while it previously seemed nice that the Mayor's house was at the border between Seam and Town, its proximity to the Seam ultimately led to her friend's death. While they weren't very close, Madge had known more about Katniss' hardships than anyone else, even Gale. Gale had understood the burden of being the breadwinner, but Madge knew the extent of Lily Everdeen's struggles with depression. Mrs. Undersee had been friends with Lily back in the day, after all, and Katniss eventually found out that the pair actually used to meet up every few months. That is, until Katniss' dad died. Then Madge's mother hadn't tried meeting Lily, thinking that she needed some space, and realized too late that she hadn't seen her old friend months after the whole mess.
Madge had watched on quietly as her frail mother entered their rickety house, taken one look at Lily and the Everdeen girls' conditions, then apologized profusely. She'd pushed a basket of goods into their arms, then placed loaves of bread on the table. But by then, Katniss had already gotten the burned bread from Peeta. They weren't as desperate for food as they used to be, although they certainly needed it. She would have returned it, too, but she'd taken one look at Prim and her hopeful eyes, then found herself sorting through the various goods and leaving only enough on the table. Mrs. Undersee had protested but looked resigned even while she was doing so, and Madge just looked knowing. It was a bit after that when she started sitting with Katniss at lunch, when she'd initially been sitting with the other Merchant kids.
Katniss stares at the condensation on her glass absently, regretting that she didn't talk to Madge more, or thank her, when Maya slides back into the booth. Her new friend - acquaintance? - smiles before opening her hand to show a pile of darts. "Got it from Avisa, up at the bar. There's only one board in the area, and not a lot in the whole District, so it's one of the only forms of entertainment." Katniss blinks at her blankly, and the girl rolls her eyes, still smiling. "That means she doesn't let just anyone use it. Hell, she doesn't usually let me use it, but she saw us come in together and thought you might need it." She waves at a wrinkled woman who just nods at them.
"I'm okay with not using it," Katniss says. Maya just looks at her for a few seconds before shaking her head and standing up again, pulling Katniss with her.
"You might be okay with not playing, but I'm not. Avisa's sure to take the darts away if I'm the only one who plays," the girl explains as they weave through the small crowd. A few townspeople crane their heads to look at Katniss as she passes, and she flushes from the unwanted attention. Maya levels a look at the ones who stare too long, and they quickly go back to what they were doing.
They get to the back of the bar, where a sad-looking dartboard is hanging in a less crowded corner. The occupants of that area move out of the way, and Maya hands Katniss a few of the darts. "They all know that when someone comes here to play, they have to give enough space. Otherwise, Avisa will find a way to blacklist them for good."
Katniss smiles a bit at the bar owner's unexpected, but unsurprising, harshness. "Isn't that too much?"
Maya shrugs. "Most people follow the spoken and unspoken rules around here. Avisa is kind of everywhere. Even more so than Gil, who everyone kind of sees as the head of every little thing. Avisa's more like the big boss." Katniss watches as Maya throws a dart with practiced precision, although it doesn't land anywhere close to the center. She smirks at Katniss' look of surprise. "Yes, I play this more than most people, but I'm really bad at it. And back to what I was saying, Avisa is in charge of distributing alcohol around here, too." She nods at Katniss' realization. "Yeah. You know how people are about drinking."
Maya throws the rest of the darts before collecting them and handing them to Katniss. "Here, it's your turn. Do you want to get another drink?" She shakes her head when Katniss moves to return to the booth. "Someone's probably cleared the glasses by now. Another whiskey for you?"
Katniss' eyes widen in horror, and Maya laughs. "Yeah, you looked disgusted earlier. Water?"
She feels embarrassed that this stranger read her so easily, but nods. "I'll have water. I was just trying the whiskey out, since someone I know drinks it a lot."
Maya has a knowing expression on her face but thankfully stays quiet, slipping away to get their drinks. Thankfully, nobody approaches or stares at Katniss until Maya comes back, and a glass of water is thrust into her hands. "Thank you," she says quietly, and Maya smiles.
When Maya finally succeeds in pushing her to play, she can feel a lot of eyes on her. It makes her nervous, but Maya just tells her to ignore everyone and go for it.
Not that it's a surprise to anyone, but all the darts land in the middle of the board.
The rest of the night goes that way, with Katniss and Maya taking turns throwing the darts. Oddly enough, the more Maya drinks, the better she is at playing. By the end of the night, she's told several jokes and thrown three darts right in the center of the board. It's a prouder and slightly drunker version of Maya that stumbles to the counter to return the darts to Avisa, and Katniss quickly pulls out some money to pay for their drinks.
The weathered woman stares down at Katniss' coins before waving it away, sweeping the darts into a plate, and going to another customer, ignoring Katniss' outstretched hands. Maya hoists herself up on the stool and clumsily guides Katniss to put her hand and her coins in her pocket. "Avisa won't let you pay here. Nobody will," Maya says. Katniss must have a weird expression on her face because she explains further. "Everyone's thankful to you because you led the rebellion." It's the girl's first mention of the war. "Nobody here is going to be willing to take your money, especially this close to the end of the war. Maybe in a few years you can start paying for things, but right now, nobody in the district will accept your money."
"Doesn't Annie pay you for taking care of Nick?" Katniss asks, a bit because she's curious, but mostly as a challenge. She can't stomach the idea of just accepting things for free; the war may be over, and people may be happier, but that's something that still hasn't changed. She suspects it's something that never will.
The girl across from her grins sheepishly. "She insisted, so Mahi and I give it to this group of people that helps orphans." Maya grows more somber. "I'm pretty sure this is true everywhere, but the war left a lot of orphans here. Mahi and I take care of groups at a time to help out, and we have a three siblings staying with us now. Other people also tried to take in orphans, but in the end, there were just too many. And most don't have the money to feed more mouths. So some of the richer people - well, the nicer ones, anyway - grouped up and started taking care of all the orphans. They're not very rich too, though, so they take donations."
They leave the bar and start walking to the intersection where the two of them are going to separate and go their respective ways, with Maya humming and Katniss staying silent and thinking. When they get there, she pulls out the coins from earlier and pushes them into Maya's hands. "For the orphans," she mutters before turning and hurrying away, halfheartedly raising a hand in acknowledgment when she hears a faint "thank you".
The house is dark when she gets home, and she tries her best to stay quiet as she pads to the guest room. Even though she and Maya ended up talking about a serious topic at the end of the night, she still feels lighter than she's felt in a long time. As she takes off her clothes and changes into her nightclothes, she wonders if Peeta feels lighter nowadays, too. He used to feel more relaxed around her than he ever felt around anyone else, she remembers. He told her himself. But it was so long ago, and so many things have changed. The war. Their families. His parents. His brothers. Prim. Sage. The two of them have changed, too. She always felt relaxed around him whenever they spent time together, even after everything happened, but maybe he didn't. She hopes he feels lighter now because he deserves it.
For the first time in weeks, ever since she met Sage then came all the way to District Four, she falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow, without needing to stare at the ceiling or find a million different sleeping positions or close her eyes for no reason. She doesn't have any nightmares, either, because she feels surprisingly refreshed when she wakes up.
Johanna takes one look at her when she enters the kitchen and smirks. "Looks like you had fun last night, Brainless."
She goes to the counter to pour herself a cup of coffee, gently ruffling Nick's hair as she passes by and smiling at Annie. "I had fun," she says after thinking carefully. It was fun. She suspects it's because Maya didn't really expect anything from her, other than that she throw darts and laugh at any jokes. "Maya's nice," she adds, although it feels like it doesn't adequately describe the girl she spent time with the day before.
Johanna snickers. "We all knew that already."
"Ignore Johanna." Annie says, quietly but intensely, as she slides into the chair beside Nick. "You look happier," she tells Katniss, looking and sounding sincere.
Katniss smiles, but already she's starting to feel the effects of the night with Maya disappearing, and a familiar weight is settling onto her shoulders. Thoughts about Prim and Peeta and Haymitch and Madge and her mother start to enter her head once more, and she shakes it, partly in hopes that those thoughts get dislodged and disappear.
They don't. Johanna shoots her a concerned look, while Annie squeezes her hand. By the end of breakfast, she feels tense and stressed once again.