March 3, 2020
Author's notes: see bottom
i.
A slip of paper is chosen, impossibly.
"Primrose Everdeen."
The name that changed history: it is said with faked emotion and lacks all but forced eccentrics.
ii.
"Prim! Primrose!"
She hears a scuffle, a murmur through the crowd. Her ears are ringing and her heart is sinking.
"I volunteer!" Shoving, screaming, a dark haired girl rebels. "I volunteer as tribute!"
The statement that changed history.
"No! No!" Shoving, screaming, but this time, it's Primrose beating on a large back, and it's Primrose tearing her throat raw. She feels a strong trembling from where her stomach meets Gale's shoulder. He's not as solid as he seems.
iii.
"Prim-" There is a startled pause, "Primrose Everdeen." Attendance shouldn't be hard, but every morning, the teacher failed in reciting her name with a stutter. Every time, a title wave of whispers falls over her shoulder.
It's horrible really, how they gossip, question if she's stable, if her sister will return. Only Rory Hawthorne sits with her. She will always remember that of him, even if it was his brother that made him.
It's been a week, and the games are about to start. Primrose will keep her grades up for when her sister returns. When, and Prim completely believes that it's "when".
Her teachers always regarded Primrose as intelligent, (and too kind, too naïve) so Prim will make her sister proud.
Gale tells her so, "Katniss will come home." His hand tightens on hers as he drags her through the crowd of children on the way home. He doesn't sound sure but he's trying to.
The next day, the games begin, and Ms. Minselle stuttered harder than any day before.
iv.
When Prim was small, well smaller, her father used to sing. The songs varied, never stopped. They were beautiful, her sister and her father.
As Prim watches Katniss, singing the melody their father had sung to them, to the small, beautiful girl from 11. She feels tears form, fall down her cheeks. Gale is right behind her, and echoes her sorrows. He was always more tactical than anyone she'd ever known, and she knows he's thinking horrible thoughts, and she knows he feels guilty about them.
"Thank God. She killed Marvel and now... she won't have to kill Rue."
Primrose understands his thoughts. She knows Katniss would never have been able to do it. She's playing into the Capitol's games, but she doesn't care. She wants her sister to come home.
"Deep in the meadow." Her father lifts her up, and Katniss lies Rue down. "Under the willow."
"Come on, Prim, sing it with me!" One bed of green grass is filled with giggles and life. The other a soft pillow, where a little girl will take her final sleep. The slumber that changed history.
"Come on, Primrose. Sing with us!" And she flies.
v.
"Primrose." Her name is said strong. She is older now, lives in a new home. A grey-haired women with the same grey eyes makes her way towards her.
Primrose was always an intelligent girl, but she held the naïvety of a child. She is now a women, and she doesn't see the world beautifully anymore.
She will always see they beauty in the earth, but will no longer be blinded by it.
So when Alma Coin approaches her, says her name because she actually knows it, unlike the masses. Usually she is referred to as the "catalyst". Coin tells her that, because she'd been exceeding in her class, she had been requested to work as a field medic, for experience.
Primrose knows something is up.
She was naturally gifted, but natural gifts didn't make you top of the class when everyone was half a decade ahead of you. There were four or five residents better suited than her.
"Do you accept this opportunity." Always professional. She may not be top of her class, but she can save someone.
"Yes, ma'am." The statement that changed Katniss' life, and ended her own.
.
.
i.
"Prim! Pri-" She sees it all, so very fast. Children, Capitol children, lie dead around her, like a twisted irony. Her sister's braid has come loose, as has her gaze. It's frantic and flurrying and Prim stands to meet her and it's all moving so fast and—bang—it's over.
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Ayy! Hello, thanks for reading and check out my other THG fic if you'd like.