Phoebe
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
Snow came to District Six every winter, but she had only seen it stained by soot and city grime.
The snow here was white, white, white . Blinding whenever the sun came out of the gray clouds, which wasn't often. It covered everything, the ground, the big spiky trees, the piles of boulders here and there.
Snow was ugly in District Six, because District Six was ugly. At least the parts Phoebe had seen. Ugly like the dress she'd had for the interviews, and the matching suit for Cogs, all black-yellow-gray and looking like an oil slick on a street. Maybe that's why the stylists had made those outfits, to match the district. Maybe they just didn't care.
Nobody cared about District Six, that was what Dad always said. And nobody in District Six cares about anyone but their own family and friends.
She didn't miss the district itself. Even though it was hard to sleep in the Arena without the distant hum of machinery and the sound of the trains going by every couple hours.
She did miss her parents, and her older sister and brother. She missed them so much her stomach ached even when she was in the Capitol and her stomach was actually full of delicious food.
She missed Penny most.
That hadn't started because of the Games, though.
If the other young kids hadn't gotten in the way, one of the Careers would've gotten her before she could run away from the Cornucopia. If the Arena clothes weren't so warm, she would have frozen the first night, let alone all the nights after. If she hadn't paid attention in training, she would have starved.
If the escort hadn't pulled her name out of the big glass bowl, she wouldn't be waiting to die.
When they were littler, her mother had read to her and Penny and Beka and Cyle out of a dirty, tattered book about cartoon forest animals, even though none of them had every seen a forest except on a screen. The squirrels in the book had talked about burying nuts.
Phoebe had found some squirrels in the Arena, in a little forested valley near the cold ocean. She had watched them, followed them to their nut hoards. That hadn't kept her fed, but she didn't starve.
She liked that little valley. She would've stayed if the wolves hadn't come. They were tracking something other than her, though, giving her a chance to escape. She didn't dare go back, and survived on bitter herbs buried in snow by tree roots.
Every time she slept, she expected to freeze before she could wake up.
Even when she'd been sleeping in the warm, soft Capitol bed, she'd missed Penny's back against hers.
Penny had been the quiet one. Phoebe had been the louder one. But Penny had been smarter, the one who remembered boring stuff from school.
"Why did you get all the brains, Penny?"
"Why did you get all the speed? You always run faster than me!"
Penny would've remembered more from the Training Center.
Phoebe had only made it so long because she'd heard the story about the squirrels and seen the faded pictures of them so many times.
Outside the little valley, she couldn't find any squirrels, and didn't know how to catch the rabbits. They were cute, anyway.
It kept getting harder to get up every time she got cold.
The mayor in District Six was rich, favored by the Capitol, Dad said. The Peacekeepers let him do whatever he wanted, as long as it didn't make the Capitol mad. So no one went after him when he ran over the little girl playing tag in the street with the other kids. He was speeding in his car to get home and watch the daily recap of the 50th Hunger Games. He said it was her fault, for playing the street.
But where else was there to play in this part of District Six? That's what Mom had said, over and over.
Phoebe had screamed her twin's name until her voice gave out.
PennyPennyPennyPennyPennyPenny…
She never spoke again.
The sky in the Arena was too big. Phoebe liked to sleep under trees with lower branches, or in a little cave in a rock pile like the one she found after days of wandering.
She felt like she could stay there and stay a bit warm. She didn't have to move.
So she didn't. She was too tired.
She thought she heard the nightly anthem in her dreams.
Someone was there when she kind of woke up, too weak to move, confused. A person was next to her, bending over her. Her half-open eyes could only make out dark hair and a thin face in the very dim light.
Penny?
She couldn't do more than twitch when the person's hands closed over her mouth and nose.
"I'm sorry…" a croaking voice said.
No, wait…
The Arena was black now. Everything was.