The Price of Fame and Fortune (Hunger Games)

3

I avoided home for most of the day after training. Not that I really had to. Johanna wouldn't come out of the top floor regardless if I was home or not.  I decided to walk around the district with no destination in mind. With no work and all my friends of working age, my days have become quite lonesome. When I was eighteen at least I could go to school and see my friends, all the while avoiding home for six hours. 

Now at nineteen everyone in the district is forced to work. To provide for the Capitol and whatnot. Well, everyone but myself and Trent.

Where ever I walked people stared or smiled at me encouragingly. A weird sort of fame in my district that I've never been able to shake. It's not like I've helped them in any way. Peacekeepers would report me as soon as I give handouts. Then it's a note to mother or a meeting with the President himself. I actually asked a peacekeeper when I was eleven why the President would care that much. All I got was that if I continued asking questions he'd put my name in as tesserae.

So yeah, that's why I don't help the people of my district. It's my mother who won. My mother who provided the District with food every month of her winning year. My mother whose a legend in District Seven. Not me but yet they still stare and smile. And I have to endure it, knowing I can't help while I go live in a mansion and they live in wooden shacks.

I kept walking though, until I could see nothing but trees. A smirk had instantly made its way upon my face. If there's one thing I can do better than wielding and axe then it's climbing trees.

I leapt from branch to branch with ease. Climbed the tree in under forty seconds, fast like an insect running from threats. It's second nature. My favourite thing to do is perch on the top branch and look out at the entire district. And beyond it...where there's distant hills and I have to ask myself which district it is?. By the colour of the golden fields I have a suspicion it's District Nine. 

When I make it back to Victors Villiage the sun is just starting to set. It casts the trees in an ominous mood while the sky sings out in a rainbow of red and orange. I swallow down the tight feeling in my chest as I stand before my house. I shake my head as if to clear the feeling away and enter the empty like mansion. Fully furnished and cleaned, not by Johanna but by some cleaner she hired years ago. 

I think Liza started out as my nanny first before Johanna promoted her to maid. Her hours are six to ten-thirty in the morning. Essentially to spend as little time with us as possible because lord help us if Johanna opens up to anyone. I used to resent that too. Even begged once for her to change Liza's hours so I could have someone to talk to. That was a big no-no.

I stretched out my shoulders and lazily swept my eyes onto the counter where a crisp fifty dollar note had been carelessly dropped. Now, if that's not love I don't know what is. Just as I was about to pick it up I jumped at the sudden voice of  Caesar Flickerman blasting around me. 

I blinked maybe twice before I remembered that today is the announcement of this years Quarter Quell. Hence, it's mandatory viewing and why the screen in my living room turned on by its self. 

I haven't given the Quell much thought mainly because it doesn't occur to me. I'm nineteen now, so I feel free and not anxious about the upcoming reaping. It's worrisome for the children of my District. Especially because it's a quell and they usually come with a sick twist. So far, it's been voting in tributes, double tributes and the youngest children of reaping age. It was the first time a twelve-year old ever won the games...

With a sigh I sat down on the nearest couch and picked the dirt from under my nails. A nasty side effect of climbing trees all day. I was so engaged in doing so that it hadn't even registered that President Snow had entered my screen. I only paid attention when I first heard him speak.

His beady eyes were cruel and satisfied at the same time. As if, finally putting into action a master plan. He smiled out at me from my screen. "In penance for the uprising. The tributes in this; The one hundredth hunger games, a monumental achievement of this nation. Shall all be reaped from the decedents of living Victors under the age of Twenty-Five".

It was like a pin had dropped. My whole body was instantly frozen, as if I'd be drowned in a cold sweat. All I could hear was a loud ringing. My hands had gone shaky and suddenly the twenty five year age law made allot more sense. Why make us spend the last years we have left working if we're just going to die anyways, right?.

Making us all celebrities makes sense too. The one hundredth games...it had to be big but also put every district and Victor in their place. And this is it. The icing on the cake. Make everyone watch us grow up and adore us, only to butcher us all at the last second. 

Everyone assumed that children of Victors would be reaped for a bit of extra excitement in the games. Once it was clear it wasn't the case, Victors started having more kids. I guess Snow was saving us all for the main event. The Capitol will adore this, it'll be worthy of the title of the hundredth games. While every district watches their precious Victors lose everything once again. 

A deafening scream came from the top floor of the house and for the first time in years I remembered I don't live alone. Fuck. I could hear her stomping two whole floors up along with the sound of shattering glass. 

With a gasp I was off the couch and instantly racing out of the house. I ran into the clearing and climbed the nearest tree. Until I was sobbing in the clouds, or at least it felt that way. 

I always felt like I was uncaring in life about most things. But this, this has shaken me to my core. I was clinging to the trunk while steady tears fell down my cheeks. I wasn't sobbing anymore, just staring out at the clouds while they faded into darkness. 

What I wasn't prepared for was a figure to scream below my tree waking me from my tormented daydream. I swallowed down the tears lodged in my throat, wiped my eyes and stared below me at Johanna. 

Axe in hand and cigarette in the other. I felt my nose crinkle in distain at the sight of it. Since when does she smoke?!?.

I watched her wield her axe while she screamed her lungs out for hours. Until I could faintly make out blood on her fingers. And then, she wasn't screaming. She threw her axe into the same tree she had this morning and fell to ground while she sobbed.

All the while I watched her in secret and wonder from twenty feet above her, perched on my branch. One thought entered my head...maybe she does love me after all.