Long time no update guys. I'm sorry, blame school. I hope this update makes up for things. I know I usually reply to all my lovely readers' reviews in my chapters. But this is so long already, so if you reviewed I love you, and am in the middle of replying to all your reviews over private message. Things will get back to normal soon, but I'm in a rush to get this up because I love you guys. I hope you enjoy this!
"Hi Katniss" Effie mumbles. I think she is attempting to sound bright, but she just looks terrified.
"Effie…" I gasp, looking her up and down, "What are you doing here?" I ask her. She doesn't answer but she shakes her head at me. Plutarch begins to talk to me but I don't hear anything. It's only when he is happily clapping his hands and telling us to board the hovercraft I come back to my senses and hop up into the thing.
Effie pushes herself up after me and Plutarch follows. He heads of down to corridor talking to himself. I hang back with Effie, waiting for her to say something. Silence between us lasts a while. Then just as she opens her mouth we hear thudding and before I know it Haymitch is coming towards us.
"Come on you two" He says, pushing me forward slightly and wrapping his hand around Effie's arm to drag her along the right path. I can see he is trying to remain calm. Whilst Effie is shaking due to what I assume is nerves, he is shaking out of keeping his anger inside him. I can't blame him. I too am angry at Coin for making Effie accompany us to twelve. She is in no fit state for leaving the hospital wing, yet alone go and help film propos. But yet she has her own room and is in the hovercraft with us. I have a feeling Haymitch is going to try and reverse this decision the second we return to thirteen.
"Haymitch, I'm glad you decided to join us after all!" Plutarch says when Haymitch kicks the door open and leads us inside. "Wasn't going to come were you? But here you are. Team player"
I snort a little at this comment, earning a glare from Haymitch who looks ready to smash something. I never thought I'd hear Haymitch described as a team player, especially by Plutarch. "Well, here I am" He grunts, before throwing himself down into a chair.
"Miss Trinket, it's good to finally have you on the team too" Plutarch says, turning away from Haymitch when he doesn't say anything else. The former victor choosing to glare at the floor instead.
"Thank you Plutarch" Effie says quietly, managing a small, polite smile.
"Well, it's all going well so far. Haymitch and Effie always worked well together so it's good that you're finally together again! And, Fulvia should have the first we remember propos soon!" Plutarch grins before showing us a map of the districts. Telling us the before and after effects of the propo we aired, and re-ran to death.
When we land in the meadow I make sure to position myself between Haymitch and Effie so I won't be pestered by Plutarch. Or have to feel guilty about Gale – even though he should be the one feeling guilty. "Effie, are you okay?" I whisper to her as we walk. She turns to face me for a second and nods. "Are you sure?" I ask as I step over a branch. Well, I hope it's a branch…
"I'm fine thanks Katniss" She says quietly. I don't believe her for a second. But Haymitch's hand is prodding my shoulder, and when I turn to ask him what he wants, he simply shakes his head at me. I understand – he wants me to quieten down and leave Effie alone. I nod back and spend the rest of the journey to my old house staring at the floor. My quietness stretches on even when it shouldn't, because I find myself simply staring at the sky as I sit in my old home instead of talking to the camera. Thankfully I don't have to speak, and we move on.
"Was the house nice, before this?" Effie asks as we walk away from it.
"Well… it was home" I mutter, "A lot of memories…" I add.
"Have you got a nice memory? Of your old house?" Effie asks me. The timid shake in her voice makes me determined to find a good one to tell her about.
"Well… my favourites usually involve my father" I say, "Like, he used to pick me up and spin me around the room. My mother said I always enjoyed that. But I kept kicking things of tables so he had to stop doing it. In the house anyway, he still spun me around in the meadow though"
"My father did that. Spun me around the room" Effie tells me. I think I see the glimpse of a smile on her face, which manages to make me feel better about the current situation. We fall silent as Gale reaches his old address and pulls out the last possession from the 'house'. A twisted metal poker. He tells Cressida about his old life, how he made a living… all that sort of information. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is glad when we leave.
"Are they filming your house Haymitch?" I ask him. He shakes his head and carries on walking forwards.
"He's finding it hard, been back here. That's why he's been a little… off" Effie tells me.
"Well… Gale managed" I say, kicking a pebble as we walk. I can hardly say I managed, seeing as I couldn't get any words out.
"Don't be hard on him Katniss" Effie says shakily, "He didn't want to be here. He's trying his best"
I shrug and we walk in silence. If he didn't want to be here, he didn't have to. Something Plutarch said on the Hovercraft comes back to me as I think about Haymitch coming along. He wasn't going to come, but he changed his mind at the last minute. When Effie was introduced to the team… he's here to help her. I can't blame him, what with Coin's warning hanging over us. I decide to follow Effie's advice and not be hard on Haymitch.
Lost in my thoughts, I find myself at the lake. Cressida calling for a break. I stand were I am for a moment, observing the others that have made the journey to twelve. I notice Effie as chosen to sit next to Pollux. I expected her to stick by Haymitch's side, but he seems to be in conversation with Plutarch. I decide to join them, with Pollux been an avox and Effie as silent as one, I won't have to worry about conversation with them.
Cheese sandwiches are passed around, and I take a bite out of one, struggling to swallow. Pollux next to me is taking small bites of the sandwich, after a while he begins to rip chunks of with his fingers and pops them into his mouth instead of biting. Effie hasn't touched hers. And after looking over her shoulder to check no eyes are on her, she chucks the sandwich into the bush close to her.
I decide to catch up with Haymitch on the hovercraft and tell him about Effie not touching the food. She suddenly looks up, her braid bouncing upwards elegantly, and I follow her movement and see a Mockingjay flying around. I nudge Pollux and show him, then point to my Mockingjay pin. Effie turns round to look at us; I see her eyes fluttering down to look at my pin. I remember back on the victory tour, when she said we should all have matching Mockingjay items and such to show we were a team. At the time I thought it was a harmless comment, that she didn't take into consideration that my pin became a symbol for the rebellion. But after recent events I'm starting to think she knew full well that my pin was the sign of rebellion, and that the word team meant more than just parading around the Capitol together during the games. I guess that's something else me and Haymitch need to discuss.
I'm taken from my thoughts by a nudge from Pollux, who as picked a twig up and as written 'sing' in spindly letters in the dirt. Effie too is looking down at them; I wonder when these two damaged people last heard singing, or bird song. Something that isn't simply the noise of the Capitol or District Thirteen. So I sing for them, I sing the hanging tree. A song from my childhood. My childhood with my father. I remember how Effie looked a little happier when I managed to bring up our fathers, so I decide to tell her the origins of this song – and the memories tied to it – at a later date.
I finish. Silence. Pollux is looking up at the birds that no longer are passing around Rue's melody, tears running down his face. I look to see how Effie took the song, and she is simply staring of into the distance. Haymitch is stood behind her, his hand on her shoulder looking down on her. I wonder how he got to her so fast, unnoticed. Then I see something else I never noticed – Castor filming what just unfolded. It is then the Mockingjays pick up the chorus of the Hanging Tree, beautifully passing it around.
"Cut!" Castor yells. I never even knew they were filming.
"You have such a nice voice" Effie mumbles, looking at me. "You should have sung for your talent, not had Cinna make you a fashion extraordinaire"
"I'm not that good" I shrug, deciding not to tell her that I never wanted the Capitol to hear me sing. I'm glad she liked it though, and she shuts her eyes as the birds carry on the sing the tune. I hope she is remembering happier times and not something bad… with her eyes shut, her innocent features make her look the same age as me, and not… then I realise I don't know how old Effie is. I guess I'll have to ask her. Or Haymitch. My mother once said asking a woman their age is cheeky, I learnt that the hard way after asking a friend of Greasy Sae. She wasn't very pleased to say the least.
We are been led back to town now. We don't get there as soon as we thought. Gale and I end up sat in our old lookout. Talking about hunting, funny stories… all been filmed to be shoved into a propo. Finally, I pluck a blueberry from a branch and launch it high into the air, so he can chose whether to catch it or let it fall. "And may the odds…"
"…Be ever in your favour"
He takes a while to say it, but he does. We both use the same, mocking, Capitol accent we did back before the first games. Its only when I see him smile slightly, I realise that the woman whose accent we would mock relentlessly back then is stood watching us. I turn to face her, expecting to see hurt or something of the sort on her face. Instead she is staring straight back at me, and my eyes are looking directly into hers. Whilst you can't see it on her face, the glisten in her usually vacant eyes tells me she found this… amusing in some way maybe. I smile at her, and to my surprise, she gives me a small, timid smile back.
We hop down from where we were seated for the interviews and begin to make our way back to the hovercraft. I hang back to keep pace with Effie. "Do I really sound like that?" She asks me. I wasn't expecting this question, and the fact I was caught so of guard makes me laugh a little.
"Um, maybe… a little" I say, having no idea what to really tell her. I don't know what her answer will be to this comment, but I don't add anything else to it. Instead she looks to the floor a smiles a little. I honestly don't know what's going on in her mind, one minute she's a complete wreak, the next she's smiling. It seems getting outside has done her good.
"Back to District 13 it is then! Come on everyone!" Plutarch says, gesturing for us all to enter the hovercraft before him. I step inside, and hold my hand out to help Effie in. But as her hand wraps around mine I notice she's shut off again. A vacant, empty shell of a person once more. I don't know what it is about thirteen that makes her shrink away from everything, but I can tell as she shakily enters the hovercraft she isn't looking forward to going back.