Chapter 2
Throughout the whole train ride,I wondered what their lives were like now. I knew they were together from a couple questions from the Capitol that they answered, but other than that, I knew nothing of them. I alway tried to avoid anything that had to do with them, for the most part.
Did they have a family? No,I got that idea out of my head. Peeta would be lucky if they were even legally married, considering how stubborn Katniss is.
The train finally arrived. District 12. Home. It's been 21- no, 22 years since I've last seen it in person, not just from Capitol newspapers.
As the train pulls up at the station, I grab my luggage from overhead and immediately Go onto the street. I saw all new houses where the sweet shop,the shoe shop, even the school building used to be, and I recognized few faces. So many people had been lost in the war, and although District 12 was populated again, it was mostly filled with people from other districts.
I was passing by a shop when I finally saw someone I knew, or used to know. She recognized me right away.
"Delly!" I said to get her attention. She quickly turned, and did a double take when she couldn't believe who she was staring at.
"Gale?!" she runs to hug me, her blond curls bouncing. "How, when..? What are you doing here!?" she asks me in her high excited voice.
" Visiting. Somebody finally convinced me to come." That somebody was Clementine, a girl in two I've been seeing for a while. We haven't tied the knot yet, but she lives with me. She told me- or more like persuaded me- to come back to Twelve and get reacquainted with my past home, and the people from it. Well, maybe she didn't mean Delly, but it was a start.
"That's great, Gale. I've got to go, but maybe we can catch up later?"
"Sure thing."
"Great! See you around!" she says as she turns to leave. I realize I'm letting someone who might know where the real reason I came go, so I call back to her at the last second.
"Wait- Delly!" she turns back to look at me, waiting. "Have you seen her- Katniss?" Delly gives me a kind smile.
"Woods, where else?" and with that, she runs off to wherever she needs to be.
"To the woods it is, then" I whisper to myself, starting the trek there from town. On the way, I pass by my old house, unoccupied, keeping my stuff there for the time being. I reach the district borders soon enough, and squeeze under the un-electrified gate.
I travel through the woods, all of my old days with Katniss coming back to me. Getting attacked by bears, whistling to the Mockingjays, countless jokes about Effie Trinket and her Capitol accent. In the midst of my thoughts, I hear rustling in nearby. Deciding it could only be Katniss, I silently walk towards the noise.
I'm behind a tree where the noise came from when I see her. Signature dark brown braid in her hair, bow and arrow in hand, fathers hunting jacket draped over her shoulders. It's like I'm looking at the 16 year old again. It's now or never. I make my move.
"Hey, Cat-" I'm stopped suddenly, finding an arrow pointed directly at me, Katniss looking at me.
No, it's not Katniss looking at me. A girl who looks like Katniss exactly, except I find blue eyes studying me, trying to place me. Katniss doesn't have blue eyes.
"I-? " I attempt. I have no idea what to think, much less say.
" One more step, and I swear I'll shoot." the girl says. Eyes still trained on me, she calls out. "Mom!" Mom?
"Ivy, I found-" the one I was looking for comes out of the trees to my right. She stops suddenly when she sees me, anger in her eyes.
Katniss.