Hey I'm trying to break my habit of authors notes but if you guys could review that would be super helpful... thanks!
I was alone in a very well furnished room, even better furnished than our house in the Victor's Village. My fingers obsessively ran over the furniture as I paced throughout the room. Ash, Johnny, and Allie were all in different rooms from me. After about 15 minutes, Mum and Dad and Baby Blue walked in. Mom's eyes were pink, and her cheeks were pink like she'd rubbed at them trying to scrub away tears. Dad had tear streaks down his face, and he didn't attempt to hide them.
Mom and Dad sat down on the couch, and I sat between them.
"We've already seen Ash," Mom said quietly. Her voice was a little hoarse.
"Don't worry," I said with a little smile. I hugged her. "He'll make it home." I sat back and hugged Dad, too. My words were enough to make Mom start crying again.
"I don't want to lose either of you," she said through silent tears streaking down her face.
"I know, Mom," I said. "Trust me. It'll be OK."
"No it won't," she said, looking at me tearfully. "They won't let us mentor you. They say since there aren't any Graveyard Games victors, then they will have capitol appointed mentors for the first year. They said they won't have any Hunger Games victors mentor because... because there aren't enough of us left."
I looked at her blankly for a moment, taking a minute to comprehend that this is the last time I was going to see my mother. Or my father. Or my little sister.
"Sissy," Baby Blue said, wrapping her arms around me. "Sissy going on vacashun?"
"Yes, Blue," I said, hiding my face in her hair.
"When you come home?" she asked, sitting back crosslegged on my lap, hands on my shoulders, looking me in the eyes.
"I won't be coming home, Blue," I said quietly. In that moment, I was certain. There was no chance I'd come home. Ash would come home, and only one of us could win. I would get him home or I would die trying. She put her hands on my cheeks and said sternly,
"Don't fall asleep." I nodded, hugging her tightly. The Peacekeepers stormed in then, heading for Mom and Blue first. Dad grabbed my shoulder and turned me to look at him.
"Rosa, you know very well you're allowed to take a symbol," Dad said, and I looked at him. He handed me a carved piece of wood, with a Primrose painted on it and a mocking-jay across the top. It was tied to a piece of ribbon, and he tied the ribbon around my neck. I remembered he had been painting yesterday, and realized he had known all along too.
"Thankyou, Dad," I whispered.
"Time's up," they said, shouldering Mom and Dad out of the room. Baby Blue watched me over Mum's shoulder, and then the double doors slammed behind them. I spent a moment there on my own, staring at the doors that covered where Blue's face had been. Soon, the men in blue returned, and led me back to the station. Cameras were everywhere, the whirring sounds filling the air as they followed my footsteps. There was only one door open on the entire length of the train, so I went through that one with as much dignity as I could muster. Ash, Johnny, and Allie were all already there. Aside from them, the room was empty.
The three of them sat around an obscenely large table, none of them next to each other. I sat down just as the train started rolling down the tracks, and we were silent for a long time. The woman from the reaping came in, and I saw her face for the first time. Instantly I hated that face... glassy eyes, hollowed cheeks, caked with make up, fake eyelashes and contacts so that she could pretend her eyes were gold.
"Go freshen up in your cars, you have two hours before dinner," she said, clapping her hands together. I remembered when Mom had told me about her time in the Hunger Games, and her descriptions of Effie. This woman seemed less preppy than Effie, and colder... or at least, than my mental image of Effie. Maybe Effie was like that at first, too. Or maybe all capital women are cookie-cutter.
I didn't go to my room immediately, because I always hated not knowing where I was. It turned out that the doors we entered were the main dining car. Behind the dining car were five more cars linked together tightly so there was never any open air... I supposed they were afraid of the tributes jumping out. One of them was my room, one was Allie's, and one was the capital woman's... the other two were locked.
Doubling back the other way, there was a bar car in front of the dining car, then there were the boys' rooms. Past those, the doors were locked but I think there was just the navigation and engine rooms. I made my way back to my room.
The room was like it stepped out of the stories I was told as a little girl. The room was large and had a broad queen bed that was fluffier than my bed at home, even though it was one of the nicest homes in district thirteen. The walls were huge and I knew that they would adopt scenes if I wanted, but I didn't. Instead I went straight for the bathroom, because Mom and Dad always laughed about those the most.
They were exactly the same. A huge panel of buttons on the side, which blinked at me in the dim lighting. I quickly undressed, but I took care to place Dad's necklace on the counter out of harm's way and climbed inside, seeking out the buttons that would start the water and do all the magical things they had talked about. It was strange in that shower, and suddenly soap was everywhere. It smelled of roses, and then the water was back washing it all away.
Dad talked about when he talked with the interviewer guy... what was his name?... about smelling like roses.
The numbness wore off then. I sat down abruptly on the bottom of the floor, the warm water washing over me in waves and I just stared at the walls. I was going to die. I was really going to die and there was no way out of it and for all of Mom and Dad's stories it was never going to change and I was never going to see them again, because even though Mom and Dad survived their hunger games together there was no way both Ash and I would make it out, much less with Johnny in tow and anyone else who might be there that I knew or...
... anyone else that I knew. My stomach turned then and I realized that anyone might be in those games with us. Maybe Annie and Finnick's son... scratch that, he was too old now. Maybe Beth from district two, who I had played with on Dad's political visits. Maybe... maybe...
My eyes blurred and I couldn't figure out why. After a moment, I realized they were tears.
The shower shut off some time later, and I got to my feet slowly. I opened the door and was blasted with air, sending my hair floating around me and drying me off. My dress was gone, and I rubbed my eyes to make sure they were clear of tears before leaving the bedroom to find clean clothes.
In my car I found drawers and closets filled with disgustingly preppy, clean, capital clothes. How the hell had the capital bounced back so effectively so fast? And HOW were clothes a number one priority?!
After searching for what seemed like ages, I found something I didn't completely hate. A simple blue tank top with broad straps and dark blue ribbons around the hems... a bit more festive than I would have wanted, but it would do. Soon thereafter in a streak of good luck, I found some simple black pants.
There was a knocking at the door then, and the capital woman's voice filtered through the wood, "Supper time, come and eat!" I threw back my head and took a deep breath. I returned to the bathroom and retrieved Dad's necklace, and hung it around my neck.
I left my car and in the corridor that connected the different cars, I bumped into Allie. She looked away from me immediately and said nothing, doing her best to avoid eye contact as we walked in an awkward silence to the dining car. We sat down in the same seats as before on reflex, and we waited. The capital woman came down the corridor from the other side of the dining car with the boys behind her, and she was talking quickly but the boys weren't replying.
She didn't seem to mind, and kept talking anyways. "You know I was just a little girl when the rebels took the capital, so I don't remember the games much. I am just so THRILLED to see the games again! And to have my very own tributes!" she patted Ash's head and I saw a stormy anger ignite in his eyes. It took a lot to make Ash stop laughing, and apparently this capital woman rubbed him in just the wrong direction. He didn't say anything though.
She finally stopped jabbering and looked around at us, annoyed.
"Oh, did you ask a question?" Johnny asked, blinking up at her. She made an angry grumble and sat down heavily.
"I said... have you met your mentors yet?"
"Mentors?" Ash asked, sitting more upright in his chair. "I thought we didn't get any mentors this year."
"Not your parents, mister," she said, rolling her eyes. "But capital appointed mentors. I mean, honestly, with the Hunger Games they didn't start out having mentors for everybody did they? At the very least it would take thirteen games to have mentors for each district, wouldn't it? So one by one the capital appointed mentors will be replaced by victors."
"Oh," Ash said, sitting back in his seat again.
"I'm sorry, Aelia," a man's voice came from behind my head. "I'm rather afraid I drifted off. My sincerest apologies. As for Hadriana, she has not been feeling well and will not be joining us for dinner. She will join us for the reaping viewing after, however."
I turned and saw a tall, well-built man with short-cropped dark hair and a neatened beard, wearing a dark blue suit. He had a kind enough face and was less of a capital mess than the capital woman, who I supposed was named Aelia, which made me like him more than her immediately.
"Do not worry, you are here before the food so that is all that matters," Aelia said, straightening her hair. The man sat down between Johnny and I, made sure his cuff-links were straight, and moved the napkin from the set table to his lap.
"I am the mentor for the second-drawn names, which I believe to be Rosa and Johnny," he said, looking from his left to his right and making eye-contact with both of us. We nodded, and I felt a small pang inside... could I not be mentored with Ash?
"Couldn't I be mentored with Ash?" he said, looking me in the eye steadily. "That's what you're thinking, right? Well, unfortunately the answer to that is no. The capital is more strict now than it was when your parents played, Rosa."
Before I could respond, men with food appeared, placing it on the table in the first course.
"Um, excuse me," Johnny said slowly. "But... two things, if you will. Firstly, I am about to go to my death, and have less than a two percent chance of winning... I'd like to be called a more mature name than Johnny, so John if you wouldn't mind. Secondly, what is your name?"
"Naevius," he replied. "And as you wish, John." He nodded his head in a sort of semi-bow, and then delicately picked up the smaller of the two forks on the left side of his place setting, and skewered a tiny tomato.
"Now, for the sake of not wasting time," Naevius said after he finished eating his tomato. He tapped his mouth gently with his napkin and then returned it to his lap before continuing, "Do the two of you have any questions? Actually, all four of you may ask questions because Hadriana is not here right now."
There was silence around the table for a few beats, and then Allie raised her hand slowly. "Is it true that only one of us can win? I mean... what about that one Hunger Games where two people won?"
"That will not happen. Plans have been put in place since then, they will just have fans vote for the victor and kill the other," Naevius said, his voice completely smooth and emotionless as he committed at least three of us to death. "Also, you have a less than two percent chance of surviving, as John said so eloquently. In my eyes, this makes each and every one of you an adult, no matter your age..." his eyes flickered to Ash then, "... and because of this I will treat each of you like adults. You do not need to raise your hand to ask me a question, and I will be glad to talk with any of you, even the two who I am not strictly mentoring."
"Is it just like the second Quarter Quell?" John asked, ignoring his salad completely. "Are the rules going to be the same?"
"It's very similar, the rules they announced in the broadcast stand however, and there are four more tributes in the light of the return of district thirteen."
I sat quietly, eating the cheese off of my salad and ignoring the rest of it. It was whisked away and replaced with soup, and a dramatic sort of silence fell over the table.
"Well," Aelia said, looking around the table. "I know that Ash and Rosa are Katniss and Peeta's children, but I really know nothing about the two of you. Tell me about yourself, John."
"Oh, ah..." John said, shuffling uncomfortably in his seat. "I was born in District Seven, but my dad moved us out here when District 12 started coming back. I went to school with Rosa, we're in the same year."
"What does your dad do?"
"He was a butcher, so Katniss always sold her meat to him after the war, and Rosa did too once she was old enough and went hunting with Katniss."
"Mmm, you're on a first name basis with the Mockingjay, how exciting!" Aelia clapped her hands together, and then looked at Allie. "What about you, dear?"
"Oh," Allie said, looking down into her lap. "I was a year ahead of John and Rosa, and I didn't know them. My mum did agriculture in district 11, and moved back here around the same time John's dad did, I guess. The demand for grown crops in District 12 skyrocketed when people did, so she figured she'd take advantage of it."
"Did either of your parents play big roles in the rebellion?" Naevius asked, blowing on a spoonful of soup to cool it down.
"My mum and dad didn't do anything in the war," Allie said, shaking her head. "When the wars got too bad, they went to the backwoods part of district 11, where the war was mildest. With the smoking remains of district 12 to one side and boring old district 10 to the other, no one really fought there..."
"So it was truly bad luck that your name was drawn," Naevius said, with slight sympathy written across his face. "You, John?"
"My dad was a second commanding officer. He was the only one in all of District 12, so my name was in there a hundred times... not so much luck as the capital hates my guts."
"Mmmm," Aelia said, and another silence fell over the table. It stayed that way until the meal was over, and a woman appeared from the corridor in the back of the train.
"So.. that whole... reaping thing," the woman said, who then proceeded to cough into her arm. Aelia nodded, clapped her hands, and turned the TV on.