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Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games
Italics are flashbacks.
Grayson POV
Mom and dad are talking on the phone nonstop. It's crazy how they are on our birthdays. Then on their own birthdays they don't really do anything. I just snuck up to my room to take a break from their insane plans.
"What 'cha doing?" Someone says. I can't help but smile at the sound of her voice. . I pick myself up off my bed and look at her. Her strawberry blonde hair is up in a bun and her blue eyes are shining just like they always do.
"Napping. I can't take much more of what's going on downstairs."
She laughs, and it makes my heart flutter. As cheesy at it sounds, I can't help myself around her. "Me neither. My mom and I just got here and they already wore me out."
I pat the bed next to me and motion for her to come sit with me. She does without hesitation. "So where's the birthday girl?"
"I'm not sure. Probably over at the Mellark's house. Mrs. Mellark just called their bakery and asked Mr. Mellark and Peyton to come help. I imagine she'll get Katrina pretty soon."
Maysilee scoots closer to me and lays her head down on my shoulder. She and her mom, Mayor Madge Undersee moved here three years ago from the Capitol. She's my age and the prettiest thing alive.
When she and her mom first came here, dad introduced us to them and secretly told me that he had a thing for Madge when they were younger, but of course that was before he met mom. When they showed up at our door they were both a lot thinner and they didn't have much color in their faces.
We were all gathered around the fire, the Mellarks and our family, we were playing cards. Peyton was eyeing my sister very intently. That guy has no idea how obvious he is. Then his sister Katrina was drawing a picture of her and Finn. You can only imagine where she'd rather be, but the Odairs were in District 4 for the week because of Finnick's dad's death.
A knock at the door surprises everyone. It's late, and raining, who would be here? Dad goes to open the door and we see him freeze.
"Madge." He says under his breath. Mrs. Mellark apparently hears it and shoots upright bolting for the door.
"Madge!" She launches herself at her. I moved to the door and saw a woman about Mrs. Mellark's age, but she was very pale and very thin. Her blonde hair was cut very short, and her blue eyes looked tired. She had bags under eyes and old bruises covering her body that she tried to cover up. "Madge, we thought you were dead!" Mrs. Mellark says sobbing. I later learned that Madge was the closest thing Mrs. Mellark had to a best friend besides dad when they were younger.
Madge looks at them and then sees me beyond the doorway. "He your son?" She says quietly nodding towards me. Both dad and Mrs. Mellark look at me, then themselves. They both have gray eyes and dark hair like me. No wonder she thought I was their kid.
Mrs. Mellark and dad break out laughing at the same moment. "No." Mrs. Mellark gets out. "He's Gale's son. Not mine."
Madge then lets out a sad laugh. Then Mr. Mellark moves to the door way and puts his arm around Mrs. Mellark. Madge's eyes light up again. "Peeta." She breathes. "I thought you were dead!"
"Far from it Madge. It's good to see you." Mr. Mellark embraces her in a hug.
"Come on in." Dad says. Madge picks up her one bag, and moves to go inside, when she turns around behind her and calls to someone.
"Maysilee!" She calls. Dad, Mr. and Mrs. Mellark all share a confused look. Then in comes a girl carrying a similar bag and she looks even thinner. She is practically her mother, but younger, a light dusting of freckles run across her nose, and her hair is a bit of a different shade and in a braid running over her shoulder. But other than that, their eyes, smile, and figure are the same. Including the bruises covering her arms. She moves cautiously and quietly. Taking in everything around her.
Madge turns to everyone. "This is my daughter, Maysilee." She says.
I can feel my eyes glued to her and she does too. I have a sudden urge to help her and shield her from whatever gave her those bruises.
Then mom moves into view. "You must be Madge." She says.
"Johanna Mason. Victor of the 69th Hunger Games. I'm sorry that's all I know about you." Madge looks down at her shoes.
"It's actually Johanna Hawthorne now." Mom says and moves over to dad. Madge nods her head in realization as if everything suddenly makes sense.
"Let's move to the living room. That's where everyone is anyway." Dad says casually. So we do and mom and Madge seem to be eyeing each other. I can't help but look back at Maysilee who is still standing in the doorway. So to be nice and to get a better look at her, I move over to her.
"Hey." I say. "I'm Grayson. You're Maysilee." She nods her head. I lean down and pick up her bag for her. When I stand up again I can see her eyes better. They're beautiful things. The rims are dark blue, filled in with a sky blue in the middle. An almost on the edge of her pupil is a small silver ring. "Come on." I say and grab her hand. Though she was shivering, her hand was warm. It sent chills up and down my spine, and though I tried to tell myself it was just the wind from outside, I was quickly reminded that dad already shut the door.
I look back at her, and her eyes have grown and her face looks shocked. But she quickly hides her face in her bangs. I lead her through the hallway, and into the living room. Everyone has gathered in a circle, and we're all sitting by our family. I secretly thank the heaven's that the only two open spaces are in between dad and Madge making impossible for us to be separated.
Madge and Maysilee look around at everyone and everyone introduces themselves.
They both learn everyone's names quickly, and Madge seems to relax. Maysilee on the other hand is still a bit on edge.
They move into one of the newer built houses close to town. Madge was brought here from the Capitol to become the new mayor of District 12.
Maysilee began to warm up to me when I wouldn't leave her alone after a few weeks. Mom laughed at me when I came home late one night from making sure Maysilee got home safe. I wasn't with her, I was watching her. Mom called me a stalker and laughed again. "I don't stalk, I investigate." I say to her, which makes her laugh even harder.
Eventually we became inseparable. Sometimes she'll shut down and won't talk to anyone for a day or two. Madge says not to worry about it. I overheard mom and Mrs. Mellark talking to Madge one day and asked her about why she didn't come back earlier. Madge explained that before District 12 was bombed, some peacekeepers guided her family to the Capitol where they executed her parents and held her captive. She was in a prison much like the one Mr. Mellark and mom were held in but it was in the mountains in the back of the Capitol. She wasn't alone. The other prisoners there, were all the children of the mayors of the rebelling districts. Soon, all districts mayors children were there. All parentless now. They were all tortured, and were believed to have information regarding the rebels. They were held there even past the rebellion was over with a short supply of peacekeepers for about 6 years. During those years is when Maysilee was born. Madge doesn't know who the father is because of how many times she was attacked. Then they were moved to an abandoned plantation in the outskirts of the city where the remainder of the children were abused up until a few months ago. When they were discovered. They took the remaining children who were now grown, and any that were born in that prison to the Capitol and fixed them up and sent them to their home districts asking them to be the new mayors.
I've asked Maysilee about her past, but she never wants to talk about it. And that's just fine with me.
I hear the front door open and listen to Katrina and her mom talking about something. Their voices raise higher.
"What's wrong?" Maysilee asks.
"I don't know." I get off my bed and walk over to my window and watch Katrina running towards her house from Haymitch's house. Our house is in between the two of them. Katrina looks frantic and she's holding a key. Haymitch comes stumbling on after her. Mrs. Mellark is standing outside her house when they reach her. What's going on? Just then I hear a crashing noise.
"What was that?" Maysilee is standing next to me now and is also looking towards the Mellarks house.
"I know as much as you know." I say.
Some more footsteps enter my room. I turn and see Greg standing in the doorway. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Yea we did."
"Do you think we should go check it out?" Greg asks.
"No, stay here buddy." I say and look back to the window. Peyton is approaching his sister and mom. He starts talking to them, and then Katrina starts yelling with her mom. There's another crash sound and a scream. I know who that is. But what's she doing at the Mellarks? Suddenly Peyton is running towards the house while Katrina and her mom look frozen in the spot. Then he's gone, inside. Mrs. Mellark starts crying. But it looks as though we're not the only ones who heard her scream. Mom and dad are running towards the Mellarks. Mrs. Mellark starts talking to them and mom starts crying.
I run out of the room yelling at Maysilee to stay with Greg. Once I'm outside, I see Peyton leaning out one of the second story windows and is tossing his mom the key. Mrs. Mellark runs to the house with mom and dad following. Katrina stays outside with Haymitch. She sees me coming, and gives me a sad look. No words needed. I run inside and hear crying from upstairs. Dad is still downstairs.
"What happened?" I ask him. He looks sad but very upset.
"Jane." He seems a bit distant. "Your mother needs you." He says coldly. Without a second thought I run upstairs and see a mess of blood and tears that is my mother. But she is not the one bleeding. Mom and Mrs. Mellark are kneeling next to Jane who lays unconscious on the ground in a growing pool of blood. I meet Peyton's eyes. He looks sad and helpless. And he's shirtless. I need to know what happened. But right now, my sister is dying on the floor and no one is doing anything.
I kneel next to Mrs. Mellark.
"We have to mover her. I can help her, but I need your help." She nods her head, and I move to scoop up my sister. She's so light and frail. I move swiftly and she remains limp in my arms. I run down the stairs and past dad who seems to be waiting for something. Out the house we go and into our own. I have a private room set up for people who come in. When I'm older, I want to be a doctor. I always have. Mrs. Mellark's mother was a healer, so that's where I started. I asked her to teach me things and she did. But there is still so much I need to learn.
I kick down the door and run to the healing room. Mrs. Mellark shows up behind me. I gently lay Jane down on the table, and strip her of her shirt. She has a puncture wound under her ribcage but it doesn't look too deep. A very long but shallow cut from her collarbone to her shoulder, and another shallow cut above her eyebrow.
I call out orders to Mrs. Mellark as she frantically runs around the room. Together, we use a disinfecting cream made of some leaves and plant roots on all her wounds. Then very carfully, I give her a shot from the Capitol (when they heard that I wanted to be a doctor they sent me a bunch of supplies) that should speed up the healing process but she will be in a lot of pain for a short while. I give her a morphing shot after to help with that. Then I stitch up the wound on her ribcage, and bandage the others. Then I take a look at her wrist. It's only sprained, and it's already bruising. With one quick snap, it goes back into place, and then I quickly wrap it up in a cast. The whole process is very time consuming.
Well, now Jane doesn't have to have her party. But if she wakes up and we tell her this, being as stubborn as she is she'll ignore me and feel bad for putting all of mom and dad's hard work to waste. If I can just keep her asleep for now, she won't wake in time. She needs her rest.
She stirs occasionally but she doesn't wake.
Mom and dad seem to have calmed down enough to go to sleep, and Greg was kept somewhat out of the loop so he goes to bed without question. It take some time but eventually Maysilee and I finish calling all the people who were to attend Jane's party cancelling the event because Jane was 'sick'.
Katrina and Finn came by to see how Jane was doing and Katrina apologized for her father's actions. I told her not to worry about it. We were just lucky he didn't puncture a major organ.
"Grayson?"
I look over my shoulder to Maysilee. "Yea?"
"Grayson, I'm sorry, but I'm going to start my way back home. Mother will be worried." She hangs her head avoiding my gaze, and rubs her arm like she did something wrong.
"You don't need to be sorry." I tell her pulling her into a hug. "You did nothing wrong." I kiss the top of her head and she relaxes into me. Whenever she does this, my mind races. Mostly filled with thoughts involving no clothes, but being with Maysilee, such a fragile creature, before marriage would be like taking candy from a baby and just watching it cry out. I would wait until the end of time to be with her. Just being near her could fulfill my happiness. "I'll walk you home." Then I take her hand and lead her towards the door.
"But what about your sister?" Her eyes are filled with pain and guilt like she's stealing me.
"She's fine. She won't wake up for another few hours at minimum, and she's healing very fast." She nods.
"Okay."
We walk into town where people are taking down streamers and balloons. They watch Maysilee and I and whisper. She looks around frantically. I squeeze her hand harder in reassurance and don't let go until we've reached her front door.
Once she's inside, I start walking back.
"Grayson!" I turn to see Maysilee running towards me tears in her eyes. She launches herself into my arms and wraps her arms around my neck. I wrap my arms around her waist and we stay like that for a few minutes. "Thank you. For everything." She whispers.
I pull back to look at her. "Why are you crying?" I ask wiping away a tear from her face.
She lets out a sort of giggle choking noise. "I guess it's because I never realized how lucky I am to have you around." She strokes my face. Then she pulls my face towards hers. Our lips meet. This is not the first time we've kissed before. But it is the first time she kissed me, and it felt as though an atomic bomb went off inside me. When we pulled away, we were both panting, and both our faces were red.
"I love you." I say before I can think of what was coming out of my mouth. I brace myself for her to react badly, but instead, she looks as though she's finally seen the light. Her eyes are brighter, and her smile bigger.
"I love you too." She says. Then she kisses me again, and before I have time to react she's back in her house.
The sun has set now. And I can't get her kiss out of my head the whole walk home. I feel like I was floating and I forgot all the past events of today. It was perfect. Until I reached my home and realized my little sister was suffering a great injury.
I walk inside and hear mom and dad snoring upstairs. They both snore when they're sad. An unfortunate trait both Greg and I were blessed with. Jane got lucky.
Very quietly, I walk through the house towards the healing room but stop when I hear a voice.
I glance into the room and see Jane on the bed still asleep, and Peyton sitting next to her whispering something. Is he crying? He's holding her hand. I contemplate going in there, but decide against it. I've always known Peyton had a thing for my sister, and he proved it today when he went to her rescue, and he's proving it right now by just being with her.
Who knows? Maybe she feels the same way for him. Just then I get my answer. She inherited an unfortunate trait of talking while asleep. And while my sister was silently in pain yet somewhere in a dream world, she mumbled… "Peyton."
Oh boy. Wait till dad finds out.