Thanks to Omalara, LC3327, and hplover2198 who favorited my story. You have no idea how excited I am about it! For my first fanfiction, I'm doing pretty well :)

I wanted to make the chapters a little longer, but it is during the school week, so I'm not sure how that will go. At least this one is a little longer.

My mother runs after him, but I don't follow. What happened? I look at Lich, and in his eyes, I see the same mix of fear and confusion that must be in mine too. We go inside and go through the motions of making breakfast. Dad stays in the barn all day and Mom acts like nothing is happening. "Dad just needs to paint for a while, that's all." She explains, but the hurt in her eyes is obvious. Lich and gather our school supplies and pack our backpacks for the following day. The first day of school. I sigh, as it finally hits. Summer is over. But, I brighten with the prospect of seeing my friends again. Camelia Galer and Echiae Brenatt. They are both merchants' kids. We live far beyond the fence, so I don't really get to see them anywhere but school. I go to bed early. We have a long day ahead of us. Wehave to wake up early to walk all the way. Something tells me that Dad won't be driving us tho school in the carriage tomorrow. However, I am wrong.

Dad shakes me awake and I look up confused, he can't be better yet. But he seems to be, he smiles and jokingly asks: "So, you gonna talk to Acerus today?"

I slap him playfully with a pillow, "Don't be ridiculous Dad, why would I do that?"
"Maybe because you spend your whole history period trying to catch his eye instead of learning." He looks at me, I try not to blush but I can feel my cheeks burning.

"I wouldn't do that, Dad, I always pay attention!" I retort.

"Then why do your grades say otherwise?" He grins playfully at me.

"Ugh, Dad! Why don't you go wake Lich."

"You should try to talk to him, believe me, I learned it the hard way. Try to be friends before he slips out of your grasp."

"OK, I get it, just don't tell Mom, promise?"

"I promise lovebug."

"I love you Daddy."

"I thought you grew out of calling me Daddy...?"

"I know, (pause) I just missed you last night."

"I'm sorry, honey, but I'm back now. I promise I'll stay this time. I love you."

And with that he kisses my forehead and is gone. At least he admitted it. Mom never does, she always denies all her nightmares, trying to protect us. But I don't really understand what from. So what, she has bad dreams sometimes. I do too, without the screams.

We are in the carriage within a half-hour As we drive away, I see mom frantically pulling up the roses. Roses! I forgot, she doesn't like roses. I just planted a couple but that was enough to set her off. I didn't hear her screaming last night, but she may have been out in the woods, trying to forget them. She does that sometimes, just goes off into the woods to try to escape the pain we all see in her eyes. Lich always finds her. After a day or so of her absence, he always goes out to the woods. He never tells me what he does but I think I know. Sometimes I can hear him singing in the basement, where he thinks no one can hear. I imagine them singing together, driving away the fear in her eyes. As we drive to school, I try to forget the strangeness between my parents. What an anniversary they had this year!

When we get to school, I jump out of the carriage, and race towards them. "Bye Dad!" I call as I run across the school yard. We are slammed into a hug and we fall to the ground.
"Don't look now but someone is watching us..." Camelia giggles at me.
"Probably because we look like idiots rolling on the ground." I respond, brushing the dirt of my clothes.

When I look up, our eyes meet. I quickly look down, embarrassed and confused. He must be new, I haven't seen him before. He has dark tousled hair, deep grey eyes, and broad shoulders that I'm sure all the girls will be whispering about soon. Camelia flashes me a knowing smile and I lightly slap her.
"I don't care, I still like Acerus."
"OK, but if a cuter guy smiles at you I think you should take him, Lys."
"He didn't smile he just -" The school bell loudly rings, drowning out my last words. Echiae sprints to the door.
"Where were you? You're five minutes late." I inform her. Echiae is always early on the first day of school, so I wonder what caused her to be late.
"I'm sorry, but I have a really good reason, my mom had her baby last night." She explains. "She is the cutest thing! We haven't decided on a name yet."

Camelia and I sigh in unison. We run to our classroom as the warning bell rings. All through the day we exchange smiles, and we throw out all sorts of crazy name suggestions during lunch. The boy is in my history class, but I refuse to look at him again. In the yard I catch him looking at me for a minute and he shifts his gaze slightly to my right. I follow his eyes and see a man, who must be his father. They have the same hair, eyes, and shoulders. I have to admit the boy is handsome, but I am determined not to be distracted from my mission. I run by Acerus and causally call "Bye!" as he walks to the road. He turns and his blue eyes scan the yard, looking for the speaker. I freeze when his eyes meet mine. "See you tomorrow!" he calls back. I grab Lich and run to the carriage that had just pulled up.
"So, how did your day go?" Dad asks.
"Fine." I say, although inside I want to scream.
"No homework!" shouts Lich, which makes Dad laugh.
"Well, don't get used to it, they'll probably slap down hours of it tomorrow."
"Probably", I agree. I smile to myself, and pretend to be absorbed in picking at the splintered wood. As I look back, I see the boy's father watching us with a strange look on his face. I quickly turn around and get ready to face Mom and the whirlwind of emotions that we will soon be facing.

I love this chapter, a little breather in all the drama… One question, should I bring Gale back? I'm not sure, I think I will, but I think he may complicate things. This was originally supposed to be a story about how the kids found out about the Capitol and what they did to Katniss and Peeta, but now I'm not sure. Is Gale important for that? Alright, I'll shut up now…