Chapter 3

Katniss Everdeen POV

I get home from school around 4:30, the first couple of days seemed to go well. I feel bad for Annie, but I know Madge and Johanna will help her get through it. Usually when I get home, I have to help my mom with household chores and preparing for dinner before I do my homework.

"Mom!" I call out. Prim is sitting at the table doing her homework. "Where's mom?" I ask her."

"In her room," she says to me. That can either be for something normal or something bad.

I walk into my mom's room, and I can see that it's the latter. She's laying in her bed face down, and I can tell she's sobbing.

"Mom, you have to get up," I say. "We have to clean up around here, it's a mess."

"I can't," she says. "I can't live without him." She does this every once in a while where she cries about my dad and how much she misses him. It hasn't happened in a while, so I thought she was past it.

"I know, mom," I say. "I miss him too, but this isn't healthy. You know that."

"He would've loved to have been here for your first day of school," she says. "It would've devastated him to miss it."

"I know," I say, pausing. I don't always know what to do when she's like this, it's really hard. "He also would've wanted you to push forward." There's a pause, and my mom doesn't respond.

"How about this?" I ask. "How about I clean up some and you get out of bed when I'm done. Then we can start preparing for dinner."

"Okay?" She says. "Deal. Come and get me when you're done."

I get up, head to the kitchen and start washing the pile of dirty dishes. It looks like my mom hasn't done them in a while. I would have, but I was busy getting ready for school and doing any work I can get.

"Is mom okay?" Prim asks me.

"She'll be fine," I say, even though I'm really not sure. "She's just a little sad."

"She's always sad," Prim says. "We get sad too, and we still go to school and get our homework done because she would kill us if we didn't."

"Prim, don't do this now," I say. "Everything will be fine, she's just having a hard time."

"You always say, 'Don't do this now.' When can I have feelings?"

"Later," I say. "Sometimes in life, you have to put your own wants aside and take care of them later." I say that, but it seems like I never can take care of myself. I always have to take care of everyone else first.

Sometimes Prim gets into these moods where she gets mad at mom, and it reminds me of how I was when right after dad died. I had to take on so much after he died, and I was so young. I'm definitely more angry as a person, because I had to grow up so fast. I don't want her to end up like that.

Gale Hawthorne POV

I'm doing some reading for school when I get a text from Katniss.

Ding. *Can you come over with Rory?* the text says. *My mom is in a mood, and I could use some help.*

*Let me see.* I say to her. I head downstairs where my mom is.

"Mom," I say. "Can Rory and I go over to Katniss' place? Her mom is struggling again."

"Sure," she says. "I'm assuming you'll eat there?"

"Yeah," I say, even though I don't know if the Everdeens have enough food. "Thank you."

"Be back by 9," my mom says. "And make sure Rory does his homework there."

"Rory?" I call out. "Do you want to go see Prim? You have to bring your homework." He runs out of his room to meet me, he always loves hanging out with Prim.

I text Katniss. *Be there in 15.*

"Why are we going over there?" Rory asks me as we're walking to Katniss' house.

"She just needs some help," I say. "Her mom is having a hard time, and she and Prim could use the company."

It's hard for me to explain it all to Rory and for Katniss to explain it to Prim. They're getting older, and they're starting to understand more. They shouldn't have to deal with all this, and neither should we. None of this is fair.

We get to Katniss' house, and I can see that she's pretty stressed when she opens the door.

"Hey," she says. "Thanks for coming. My mom said she would help me make dinner, but I've asked her to get up like four times and she hasn't."

"Can we go outside?" Rory asks. Katniss gives me a pleading look.

"Sure," I say. "Just don't go too far."

"I don't know why my mom keeps doing this," Katniss says after they walk outside. She starts mixing up food, and she hands me some vegetables to cut. "She knows this isn't fair to me and Prim, but she still won't make an effort to change."

"It's really hard when your husband dies," I say. "It's still hard on my mom."

"Like it isn't hard on us too?" She asks. "We lost our father, we don't deserve to lose our mother too."

I don't really have a response to that, because she's right. My mom was also a mess after my dad died, just not to the same extent as Katniss' mom. I know her mom is trying, but she needs to try harder. It's been 4 years since the accident, we all need to move on with our lives.

Primrose Everdeen POV

I like when Rory and Gale come over, they're always great at helping me take my mind off things. I want to believe Katniss when she says everything will be okay, but it seems like that's becoming less and less likely. Rory and I come back from our walk, and my mom is eating at the table with Gale and Katniss. She looks like a complete mess, but at least they got her up.

"Are you okay, mom?" I ask, walking up to her. She just nods and cups my face with her hand, she does that a lot.

"I'll be okay," she says, unconvincingly. "Just missing your father."

"I miss him too," I say.

"Don't ever forget about him, please." She's tearing up.

"I won't, mom," I say. "I promise." Katniss interrupts us by putting plates of food in front of us on the table. She gives Gale and Rory a little bit of food as well. The portions are small, but it's something.

"Is there enough for you?" Gale asks Katniss.

"I'm fine," Katniss says. "Madge gave me some food earlier."

"How's school?" My mom asks Rory. "Did you hear Prim got onto the middle school cheer team?"

"I did," Rory says. "School is good for me, too. I wish our friend Rue got on the cheer team too, I know she really wanted to."

"Maybe next year," my mom says. "I'm sure she can do it."

"Our first game is next week," I say. "Will you be there, mom?"

"I'll try my best, honey," she says, cupping my face again.

"Gale and I will definitely be there," Katniss says. "I can promise you that." My mom gives Katniss a look, I think she feels like Katniss is being condescending when she says stuff like that.

"I want to go, too!" Rory says.

"Of course you can come," Gale says. "I have to see if Vick and Posy also want to come."

Rory scrunches up his face. I love Vick and Posy, but I know Rory likes to hang out just him and Gale. I understand that, I would probably get jealous too if I had younger siblings and had to compete for Katniss' attention.

Peeta Mellark POV

I'm having a good first week of school. I'm decently popular, and I have good friends. It feels so stupid to say I'm popular, but I just mean that I think I'm having a good high school experience compared to some people.

Family is a different story, I'm definitely not popular in that regard. I'm closest with my brother, Rye. He's the middle child, I'm the youngest, and Nickel is the oldest. I know I'm my mom's least favorite, I think she wanted a girl. I'm fine with that, I'm loved by my dad and loved at school so I can deal with her.

I'm doing some homework when my phone rings, it's Rye. He tries to call me every couple of days at the beginning of the school year, and he usually abandons that within a few weeks.

"Hey," I say. "How's it going at college?"

"It's good," he says. "How's good old Panem?"

"It's fine, I'm just excited for wrestling season to start. I need to get back in shape for it."

"Remember when I was the only one who could beat you in a match?" He asks me.

It's true, we used to compete against each other in wrestling leagues because we were usually the best ones on the team. When I started competing without him, things got harder and I wasn't second best anymore. That obviously pissed my mom off because she was raising a loser.

"Yeah," I say, laughing. "I wish I was still that good."

"You can get back there," he says. "We practiced over the summer, just remember the tips I gave you."

"Thanks," I say. "Promise me you and Nickel will come to my first wrestling match?"

"I promise I will, he's starting to be over it. I'll try to convince him." Nickel is kind of in his own world now that he's 21, at least Rye is 19 and he still likes me. Nickel used to love hanging out with me, but that changed a lot as we got older.

"I have to go," Rye says. "I'll call you in a couple days."

"Bye," I say, hanging up. I walk downstairs to get something to drink, and my mom is sitting on the couch, reading.

"Who were you talking to?" She asks me, not looking up from her book. "I could hear you on the phone with someone."

"I was talking to Rye," I say. "He's doing that thing that he does where he says he's going to call me every couple days."

"I don't think he's a good influence on you, he wasn't exactly the best behaved in high school."

She's said that before, but it never made any sense to me. Rye and Nickel rebelled like any other teenagers, but they honestly were pretty good kids.

"He wants to make sure school is going okay for me," I say. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"It is, but just make sure you aren't taking what he says as gospel."

I just roll my eyes and walk upstairs. She didn't see me roll my eyes, luckily. She would've thrown a fit if she had. She says these weird things sometimes to drive a wedge between me and my brothers, particularly me and Rye. I think she just doesn't want us talking about her too much and seeing all of her toxicity. We do see it, and we do talk about it. I wish she would try to be less toxic, or at least not try to monitor my relationship with my brothers.