A/N: Hey guys! In this chapter you will be introduced to a new character. Her name is Paige and I hope you like her! This chapter will bring in the idea of anonymous'writer13. So check out her stories as well. She is a very talented writer! Thank you for this idea anonymous'writer13 and your idea will be inferred in other chapters as well. Not so much this chapter because we are just getting to know her but I hope that this new character lives up to your expectations!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own The Hunger Games or any recognizable characters.
Chapter 14
I didn't agree to be their Mockingjay. I didn't even know what that meant; what they wanted me to do.
They placed the entire family in one room. Except for Haymitch who got his own room. They said it was better to place my family and the Hawthorne's in an "apartment" with five beds rather that make us all split in to five separate rooms.
Once we were settled Gale, our father's, and I showered first then went back to command while the others rested. We wanted answers.
"Ah!" President Coin says when we walk in. "They're back." She glances over at Plutarch and then to a young woman who wasn't in Command before.
She was very pretty; maybe eighteen or nineteen. She had long brown hair, almost blonde, and bright blue eyes.
"Katniss, John, Jacob," the President pauses then glances to the man standing to my side. "Gale. This," she pauses again and walks over to the woman and the woman stands. Coin takes her hand. "This is my beautiful granddaughter, Paige."
"It's a pleasure to meet to you, Katniss," Paige says. "I heard so much about you. They've all been so worried. Hoping that you would make it here alive."
"Nice to know you had faith in me," I mutter to no in particular.
"It's not that we didn't have faith in you, Katniss," Coin retorts. "It's just that we heard about the explosion at your cousins house-"
"We're not cousins," Gale and I break in simultaneously.
"Cousins. Lovers. It doesn't matter. The point is-"
"And we aren't lovers!" I exclaim.
Coin sighs.
"The point is," Paige says. "We heard about the explosion and we didn't know if you were in that house or not. If it was an accident, if it was suicide, murder, or just a ploy. We were worried. We need you, Katniss. We believe that you are the only one that can start something and end it all at the same time."
"And what do you mean by that?" Gale asks.
"We mean," Plutarch steps in. "That we believe that Katniss can be the beginning and end. The beginning of the revolution that will end everything."
"Everything?" John asks.
"Yes, everything. Mainly The Hunger Games, but also the starvation, and the abuse, and President Snow," Plutarch's voice lowered with each idea.
I grin but it doesn't stay there long. I glance at Gale, who isn't looking at me but he is shaking his head. I look at my dad he is grinning down at me and when he catches my gaze he shrugs. John has the same reaction as Gale.
"I'll do it," I say. "But I have some conditions."
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where dead man called out
For his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run,
So we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope,
Side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree."
The Mockingjays picked up on the simple rhythm as my father and I sang. My sister and I used to get in trouble with mother for singing the song around the house. She eventually banned the song to be sung at all anywhere when she found us making our own necklaces of rope. Of course at the time we didn't know what the lyrics actually meant. We just found the rhythm simple and odd and intoxicating and even after my mother banned it from the house I still found myself humming the rhythm.
Right then, outside of District Thirteen, was the first time I had sang the song in ten years. The song seemed to strike Gale as well for when we finished he had a puzzled look on his face.
"Are you okay?" I ask him.
"Yeah, it's just," he begins then he sighs.
"Son?" John asks.
He looks at his father. "It's just sometimes, sometimes I feel like the man in The Hanging Tree," he then turns to me. "Always waiting. Always waiting for an answer."
He drops his head to the ground then walks by us without another word. I sigh.
"Do you know what he meant by that?" John asks me.
"Yeah," I say as I stare off in the direction that he disappeared.
"I'm glad you finally understand," he replies.
"I do," I say as I turn toward him. "And I'm the one that told him to move on."
"And do you regret that?" my father asks.
I sigh, "I don't know. Maybe. He's been hurting ever since."
"Ms. Everdeen!" the President exclaims. "Mr. Everdeen and Mr. Hawthorne's!"
I snort at how she combined Gale and John.
"Oh don't you start that! Must I remind you that your hunting is a privilege? You all are twenty minutes late! Now your schedules will have to be redone!"
"My God! Would you give it a rest, woman?" Plutarch says as he enters the room. He then whispers in the President's ear but is not subtle about it, or quiet for that matter.
"We have to keep her happy. We need a Mockingjay! She's irreplaceable. If she bows out now, no one can take her place."
Hunting was one of my conditions. I can't handle being underground for so long so they put hunting as our training. Every morning you get a specified schedule scanned on your arm. You have to follow that schedule. It's very annoying and Coin throws a fit if even one person does not follow their schedule. I don't see why it's so important that we were twenty minutes late. I don't think she understands that we were tracking deer that could feed many people. Especially with the way Greasy Sae makes it.
But the most important condition of all: I KILL SNOW!
A/N: The Hanging Tree: Credit goes to the writers!
Thanks. Review. Sorry I know there wasn't much of Paige in this chapter but I will add more of her in the next few chapters.