I have just finished putting my pictures on the little bed-side table when there is a knock on the door. I slowly walk over to the door and open it. There I see a coloured man standing in front of the door. He's wearing a black jumper-shirt with black trousers. Unlike the headmaster, he gives me a nice worm smile. Unlike Effie, he is not pressuring me. "Hi are you Katniss?" I give him a shy nod "I'm Cinna. I'm a teacher here and a therapist. May I come in?" I hesitate for a moment, but I fell okay to let him in. I nod and open the door more to let him in. He makes his way into the room. As I close the door I see Cinna make his way over to the window were there are two seats. He hits down in one of them and looks at me. He points the the chair in front on his. Its obvious he want me to sit down and talk to him. I make my way over to him and sit down in the chair.
"So how are you doing?" He asks me. I shrug my shoulders. "Katniss I've read your file." He gives me a sad smile, "I know what you have gone through and it is completely normal to be on mute. There are other people in this school just like you." I look up at him since I was looking at my hands, "Many teens here also suffer from PTSD and Anxiety issues. Half of them were on mute when they arrived here as well, but they recovered and I know you will as well." I look down, now wanting to say something, but scared it will be the wrong thing. "If you want to say something then just say it." Cinna say calmly. I look up at him with a surprised look. How did he know what I was thinking? "It's like I said before Katniss, I have dealt with people like you before so I know when someone want to speak out but is afraid to." I look down again.
"How do you know?" I mumble.
"What?" He asks.
"How do you know I will get better?" He smiles at me as I look up.
"Well fore starters, that's the first time you've spoken since you got here isn't in?" I nod. "For some kids it can take a lot longer." We stare at each other for about a minutes before he breaks it with a sigh and stands up. "I bet your pretty hungry? Why don't we get you something to eat?" I nod and stand up and make our way over to the door. Cinna makes it there first and opens the door for me. I give him a nod before walking out of the room. I wait for him to close the door, and then we make our way to the canteen.
Once we arrive I slowly start to panic. The canteen is different to what I thought it would be. There are plastic school chairs and tables that you would normally find in a school. I figured it would be fancy dinner chairs and fancy dinner tables. The one thing that is scaring me the most is that there are many people in the room. Cinna must see that I am getting scared, he puts his hand on my shoulder. "Its okay," I look up at him, "Listen I need to go back to my office to get some work done. When you finish, if you want to talk more I am up the fist set of stairs on the left and then the first door on the right okay?" I nod at him. He gives me a little smile before leaving.
I am now left standing on the edge of the room. I look around unsure of what to do. I then see a queue of people lining up with a try in their hands waiting to get their food. I slowly make my what over there and grab a tray for myself. The queue moves slowly but I get there in the end. I come face to face with a lady who asks me what I would like. I look down at the food to see the choice is either sausages or chicken. I point to the sausages. The lady puts two sausages on a plate and passes the plate to me. I smile and nod at her. She nods back.I go to the person next to the lady. She then asks what I would like. I look down to see I could either have bacon or chips. I chose bacon. They final I get the choice of beans or peas. I chose beans. I then grab a glass of water and put it on my tray and walk away from the queue.
I look around for somewhere to sit. Most of the tables either have groups or pairs of people. I then see a table at the back of the room in the corner. My kind of space. I walk over there and sit down. I look around quickly to see if anyone was watching me. They weren't. I stab my fork into my sausage and cut it with the knife. I am about to take a bite of it when someone takes my fork out of my hand. I look up to see a girl around my age, maybe older, holding my fork. She has a smirk on her face.
"I wouldn't eat that if I were you." She places the fork on my plate and sits down opposite me, her tray already on the table. "The sausages here are crap. If I were you, take the chicken. They are a whole lot better." I look down at my food, unsure of what to do. She's already digging into her food. "I'm Johanna, what about you?" I stay quite. "Let me guess: Anxiety, a bit of depression, and by the way you are covering your hands with your sleeves you are PTSD." I look up at her in shock. "Don't worry about it. I was on mute when I got here as well, an till I started to not give a crap about what people thought of me." I look down again. "So what am I supposed to call you? Brainless?" She says it with a little chuckle in her voice.
"Katniss.." I say quietly. Johanna nods and carries on eating. "How did you know?"
Johanna stops eating and looks at me. "What? That you have PTSD?" I nod. "Easy, cause I do too." I look up at her with a surprised face. "I'm not the only one. A bunch of kids here have PTSD. Some have it worse than others though." I look at her with a confused look. She smirks. Johanna then turns her body so she is facing behind herself.
"See that girl over there with the red hair?" She points to a girls looking really shy, sitting next to a boy with blond hair with his arm around her waist. He is whispering to her. "That is Annie Cresta. She has, lets see: Severe Anxiety issues, depression and PTSD." I look at her. We both have the same medical condition. "She was in a foster home so bad, she saw some of the kids get killed." I look at Johanna in shock. She nods making on of those moaning noises. "And the guy sitting next to her, that's Finnick Odair. He has surprise, surprise PTSD. His foster parents would sell his body to get more money." I look over at Finnick to see that he was now talking to some other boys smiling like hell. I wouldn't even think that was his past. I then look back at Johanna.
"What about you?" Johanna looks at me with a slight nervous look on her face.
"I don't talk about myself." She says as she puts some beans into her mouth. I am about to start eating when the door opens. Johanna turns around to see who it is. A guy enters the room. He has blond hair and blue eyes that stand out. Johanna lets out a little laugh. "About bloody time." She mumbles to herself. This made me curious.
"Who is that?" I ask. Johanna looks up at me with a smirk on her face.
"That," she points to the guy behind her, "is Peeta Mellark. One of the most dangours guys in the school." This made me ever more curious.
"How?" Johanna looks up at me again.
"He suffers from PTSD like us, but he also suffers from Psychotic Disorders. His mother used to beat his so bad he nearly died, more that once." I look at her with a shocked and upset face. "Just last week he had a flashback, or episode as the doctors like to call them, in a cooking class of his mother trying to beat him and kill him. He saw this guy holding a rolling pin and attacked him. He broke the guys nose, wrist and dislocated his arm." I look over at Peeta, to see him looking around the room. Finnick sees him and invites him over. Peeta sits down next to Finnick and carries on looking around. His eyes then land on me. I want to look away but I can't. We stare at each other for about a minute. Finnick the snaps Peeta out of his gaze and points at me with a smile. No doubt he was saying Peeta had a crush on me. Peeta makes a face and looked away, but not before stealing one more glance of me.