We stick to walking behind buildings, taking the long way to avoid the main roads. We don't need anyone reporting us, even if most people don't care. When we arrive at the butchers, it's starting to get light out.
I pound on the door. "Uncle Rye!" The door swings open right away, and a blonde lady with a huge smile on her face is pulling me into a hug.
"Willow! I missed you!" She kisses my cheek. Aunt Delly had always been over the top but she fits right in, especially with Uncle Rye. She and Dad grew up together and he even considered her his honorary sister. Marrying his brother only made that official.
"And who is this?" She waves at Sawyer who stands awkwardly behind me.
"This is Sawyer. He helped me carry the deer here."
"Woah, little Kat," Uncle Rye steps up behind her. "You shot that all by yourself?"
"Yup!" I stood a little taller. It wasn't often that we were able to bring back a catch this big.
"Nice job, kid!" He tugs the end of my braid and I scowl. "Need me to cut it up?"
I nod, gesturing for Sawyer to help me carry it inside. Uncle Rye helps us set it onto his table. "Half for me, half for him. You guys can have half of mine though. I know Tilly's birthday is coming up." Tellulah was their five year old and the oldest of their three kids. They also had twin boys who were three and wreaked havoc wherever they went. Aunt Delly says it's payback for all the trouble Uncle Rye gave his parents growing up. "It won't all fit in our ice box anyway."
"Thanks Willow," Aunt Delly gushes. She loves when I bring them fresh meat. The shipments from the Capitol are never enough for them to keep much of it.
"Can you come back in an hour or so? This is a big order," Uncle Rye goes over to his knives and grabs a thin one to skin the buck.
"Sounds good. I'm gonna head to the Hob to trade the rest of this," I point to my bird and squirrel.
"We'll have it ready for you when you get back, alright little Kat?" Uncle Rye promises.
We bid them farewell and leave their little shop. "Do you have time to wait?" I ask Sawyer.
"I'm not doing anything else today."
We start the journey to the edge of town to the Hob.
"So," I speak up after a few minutes of silence. "How many siblings do you have?"
"Four. Not including me," he must see the shock on my face. "My dad is the oldest of four."
"So it runs in the family."
He laughs and I frown. It wasn't meant to be a joke.
"I'm the youngest," he tells me. "My oldest brother is twenty five, then there's my sister who is twenty four, and then my other brothers who are twenty two and twenty. I was sort of a surprise. Mom and Dad thought they wouldn't have any extra mouths to feed."
"Wow." I wonder what it would be like to have so many siblings like that? I mean I have a lot of cousins, I guess, but it's not the same.
"What about you?" He asks.
A smile overtakes my face, in the way it always does when I talk about my sister. "I only have one. Dani. She's twelve."
"I think I've seen her around. She has seam eyes," he comments, without the malice that's usually behind a comment like that.
I know he's asking for an explanation and I have no problems giving it to him. "My mom was raised in the seam. My Nana and Papa still live there."
His eyes light up in recognition. "The Everdeens. They're our neighbors."
"Isn't everyone in the seam neighbors?" I think back to how close together the houses are.
He doesn't seem to hear me and keeps talking. "My parents mentioned there was a seam girl a while back who traded up."
For some reason, that makes my blood boil. "She did not 'trade up.' My parents love each other!" I stomp past him into the hob building. I go straight to Greasy Sae's stall. Sometime's Greasy Sae herself is there but more often than not, it's her granddaughter who runs the stall, now that her grandmother is getting older.
"Willow!" I hear Sawyer's voice chasing after but I'm too annoyed to deal with him right now. "Mellark!"
"Hi Ms. Piper," I greet the woman at the stall. She has an apron on and a bandana holding her hair back.
"Willow Mellark!" She always greets me by my full name. "What do you have for me today?"
I hold up the rabbit and squirrel. Sawyer has caught up to be by now and I refuse to look at him. He seems to get the message because instead of trying to talk to me, he holds up his three rabbits.
Ms. Piper looks delighted by what we brought her. "I'll give you three coins for all of them," she tells us. Usually I'll get one coin for both rabbit and squirrel so I was more than happy to take the deal. We both hand over our catches and she hands us the coins. I pocket one and hand the other two to Sawyer and move past him to look at the stalls. Mom mentioned looking for some herbs to help with burns that Dad sometimes gets from the ovens and if I could find some more cinnamon, I'm sure I could convince him to make some cinnamon buns, which were mine and Dani's favorite.
"Mellark, will you just stop for a second?" Sawyer grabs my upper arm to slow me down and I whip around to face him, ripping my arm from his grasp.
"What?" I glare at him.
"Look," he runs his hand through his dark locks. "I didn't mean anything by it, promise. It just caught me off guard that the seam girl my parents were talking about was your mom."
"You don't know anything about my family. And technically she's half merchant." Everyone in town gossips about my family and I didn't want him doing it too.
"You're right, I don't know anything. Forgive me?" He pleads, offering a weak smile.
I sigh, most of the fight leaving my body. Sometimes I'm too much like my mom for my own good. And when I don't have someone to balance it out like she does, it can do more harm than good.
"Fine," I tell him and he smiles. We both try to find what we're looking for and I'm able to track down the herbs and cinnamon while he gets some grain and potatoes.
We're just about to leave to go back to the butchers when there's a crash near the entrance of the Hob. Mr. Abernathy had just walked in and bumped the edge of a table.
"Sweetheart!" He calls out, oddly happy to see me. Sawyer raises a brow, silently asking if I know the man but I ignore him.
"Mr. Abernathy, ever consider drinking less?" I narrow my eyes at him. Even if Dani liked him, I didn't want him to be around her if his drinking was this bad. Although if I'm being completely honest, she seems to be one of the only things that makes him drink less. I notice he seems to be a little more sober whenever we come around for our weekly delivery.
"Ever consider butting out of matters that don't concern you?" He snaps back. I can see some people around us surprised at the way we're talking, if you can even call it that, but they don't realize how normal this is. "When you've seen the things I have, then you can tell me to drink less," he tells me, condescending. "Now, have you seen a bottle about yay big, about halfway full?"
I blink at him. "You're holding it."
He looks at his hand, surprised to see the bottle he's clutching like a lifeline. "Thanks, sweetheart. I knew you'd be useful for something."
"I'm leaving Mr. Abernathy!" I tell him, moving away from his drunken form.
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"
"There is no door!" I can hear some chuckling at our banter and I finally leave the stuffy warehouse, breathing in the fresh air.
"You know the drunk?" Sawyer looks back towards the Hob as we walk back to the butcher.
"His name is Mr. Abernathy," I snap. "And he's different than everyone thinks."
I know Mr. Abernathy and I don't quite see eye to eye on anything, really, but it rubs me the wrong way when everyone in town just simply tries to label him a drunk.
"Geez," Sawyer chuckles. "Can't seem to say anything right today."
"Then maybe don't be so judgemental."
"Oh, I'm the judgemental one?" We're face to face now, neither of us willing to back down. For some reason, the whole thing is so hilarious that we both burst out laughing.
"How about we just start over," Sawyer says, wiping tears from his face. "Sawyer Hawthorne. I'm apparently judgemental and put my foot in my mouth."
This time, I didn't hesitate to shake his hand. "Willow Mellark. I'm stubborn and not very likable according to Mr. Abernathy."
"Ah, what does he know," Sawyer bumps my shoulder with his arm as we approach the butcher. Uncle Rye is waiting for us with several wrapped packages.
"Alright kids, we have the venison," he points to the biggest pile of packages. "Those three are yours, little Kat and the rest are your friends. And we have the hide and the antlers," he points to the rest of the packages.
"I already grabbed the bit for Tilly's birthday," Aunt Delly says. "Thanks again, Willow."
"No problem," I eye Sawyer who looks to be contemplating how to get everything back home. "I'll help Sawyer carry his load over to the seam. I think Mom and Dad would appreciate it if I dropped off some of that to Nana and Papa anyway. I'll come back for the rest on my way back."
Sawyer sends me a grateful look as we gather up the various packages. I'm able to stuff a couple into my game bag but end up carrying the antler while Sawyer carries the rest. Sawyer wasn't kidding when he said that he was neighbors with my grandparents. He really lived just around the corner from them. I think if I threw a rock I could hit their house.
"Ma! Dad? I'm home!" Sawyer opens the door to his house, and holds it open so I can follow him in. It looks identical to Nana and Papa's, only a little bigger and I think there's one extra room in the back that theirs didn't have. But other than that, it looks identical to all the other one story seam houses. There are a few papers and such on the ground but other than that it's almost spotless and feels completely homey.
"Sawyer, honey? What took you so-oh!" A woman who looks to be around Mom and Dad's age comes out with the same gray eyes as Sawyer, although her hair is much darker. A man, who must be his dad, follows behind her. His eyes land on me and he narrows them for a moment, before relaxing his features.
"This is Willow," Sawyer introduces, but doesn't say anything else. I almost want to smack him for how little he's helping the awkwardness.
"Hi," I try to smile.
"Sawyer," his dad frowns. "I thought you were…" He doesn't finish his sentence and looks at me.
"I was in the woods, dad," Sawyer confirms. His mom looks worried as his dad pulls him close.
"We can't let anyone know about that-"
"I was in the woods too, Mr. Hawthorne," I interrupt. I didn't want him to get in trouble with his parents because they thought he exposed their family.
Mr. Hawthorne scoffs, clearly not believing me. His wife is glaring at him, obviously furious at her husband.
"Please. You really expect me to believe a merchant girl was in the woods? Willingly? Couldn't you two go to the slag heap like any other teenager?"
"Gale!" Mrs. Hawthorne chastises him. I was internally horrified too. The slag heap was where a lot of teenagers in the district went for a quick hookup or makeout session. I would hear people talking about it all the time at school but I would rather cut my arm off than go there.
I feel my entire face heat up and tip my chin up and look him right in the eye. "I've been going out to the woods since I was a kid. My grandparents are the Everdeens."
Mr. Hawthorne raises his brow, assessing me in a new light. He must know my Papa at the very least since they lived so close together.
"And you hunt like him?"
"Yes," I kept my reply short. If Sawyer wants to explain to his father why I hunt then that's on him, but I didn't need to explain myself to him.
"So what's all this?" Mrs. Hawthorne asks, her face warm and kind as if trying to make up for her husband's remarks.
"Willow shot a buck! She gave us half." Sawyer excitedly explains. "And I got a pretty coin for the rabbits I caught so I also brought home some extra grains and potatoes."
I help Sawyer unload all the packages onto their table.
"We don't take charity," Mr. Hawthorne tells me, still not completely on board.
"It's not charity," I insist. "I promised him half of he would help me carry it back. I wouldn't be able to manage on my own and I didn't want wild animals to get to it before I could reach Papa."
"Let up, Gale," Mrs. Hawthorne scolds.
"It was nice to meet you, " I tell Mrs. Hawthorne, not wanting to be completely impolite. "I have to stop by my grandparents. If you'll excuse me."
"See you at school!" Sawyer waves. I give him a tight smile and slip out the door.
I only let myself take the short walk to be frustrated by Sawyer's dad. I know a lot of people don't understand but I hate that he would jump to conclusions too. I mean, the slag heap?
"Nana?" I call out knocking on their door. It was still on the early side and it was the weekend but she and Papa always were up before the sun.
"Come in, Willow!" She says, recognizing my voice. "The doors unlocked."
I walk right in and see her and Papa sitting at the table, eating breakfast. Mom and Dad come over pretty often to drop off bread and game now that Papas getting older and doesn't go out to the woods to hunt very often.
"What a nice surprise!" Papa beams, opening his arms I go to give him a hug and Nana stands up to give me one as well. "What are you doing here so early, little songbird?"
"I brought you two things." I hand them the package from my game bag. "I shot a buck."
"That's my girl," Papa takes a look at the meat.
"This will be perfect for dinner tonight," Nana lovingly pats my cheek. She takes the package from me and goes to place it in their ice box.
"How'd you carry it back?" Papa asks.
"Um, the Hawthorne's son was out there and he helped me. I gave him half, although I don't think his father was very happy."
"Forget, Gale," Papa says, shaking his head. "They have good kids."
"Yeah…" I trail off, changing the subject. "I can't stay long. I just stopped by to drop this off. I don't want Dani to be alone too long."
"Alright, Willow," Nana walks me to the door. "Thank you for the venison."
I wave goodbye to the both of them and make my way back over to the butchers. Uncle Rye sees me coming and hands me the packages on the doorstep. The kids are awake now and Aunt Delly brought them to the shop so they could help clean it so they were a little busy. I thank him again and finally head home.