Shades of Gold and Blue | Finnick Odair

Thirteen

Iris and Mitch join us at the table and we spend the time with Mitch sharing stories about fighting a giant sea-serpent with his crew when they were younger and the children poking fun at him as he does. After dinner the girls beg me to teach them some Capitol dances and we spend the night dancing around in the kitchen before Iris brings us all into the lounge for hot cocoa before the children go to bed.

Mina plaits my hair into a traditional District Four braid as Heidi sits in my lap drinking her hot chocolate.

"How old are you Cassie?" Heidi asks, looking up at me with a foam moustache.

I laugh and wipe her moustache away, "I'm eighteen."

She shoots up excitedly, "Like Thalia!"

"Who's Thalia?"

"She's my cousin and she turns nineteen next month and she'll have a big party on the beach and everyone in the whole district will celebrate that she's nineteen."

"Oh, is it an important birthday?"

"Yes, nineteen means you don't get reaped anymore." She looks at me like I'm silly, and yet again, I feel it. "Momma says that one day all of the people will fight the bad people in the Capitol and that we'll tell them that we don't want the Games anymore." I freeze at her words and look up to Iris and Mitch – both of them looking absolutely terrified.

I find myself furious with Iris and Mitch for the danger they've put this little girl in by giving her promises of revolutions and uprisings. The fact that they've told something that could have terrible consequences on their entire family to this five-year-old child with absolutely no filter is ridiculous. All it would take is for someone back home to get a whiff of rebellion, send someone out to investigate and ask this child and I'm sure she would have told them things that would have resulted in the firing squad being sent out. Yet I can't fully bring myself to truly be annoyed at their choices – was it stupid? Absolutely. Could it have gotten them all killed if the wrong person had heard? Definitely. 

But I know that really all this comes down to is a parent trying to give their child some semblance of hope for their future – that one day they might not be forced to die in penance for something that they had no part in.

I take Heidi's hands and wait until her attention is completely on me, "Sweetheart, I hope that one day you won't have to worry about those Games and that day might be soon or it might be a long way away. But you need to leave all of the worrying to us grown-ups okay – don't you worry yourself about it."

"Okay," she smiles sweetly.

"Heidi you need to promise me that you will never say what you told me to anyone again. And anything else that your Momma has told you – you don't repeat any of it to anyone outside of your house."

"But you're in my house. I can tell you."

"No sweetheart you can't, you see, there's always going to be the chance that someone is listening that shouldn't be. Someone that might want to get your Momma in trouble and we don't want that do we?"

She shakes her head and looks up at me curiously, "Are you going to get my Momma in trouble?"

I look up at Iris and see her eyes glistening as she looks at me, Mitch looking between the two of us with worry, "No I'm not. But you cannot tell anyone Heidi, okay? Now that you're a big girl you've got to help keep your family safe. You don't tell anyone anything that your grown-ups say – not to your friends or teachers, not anyone okay – even if they say it's safe to tell them. Even if it's someone in your home like me, you don't tell them. Do you think you can do that?" She nods enthusiastically and gives a smile back to Iris before I lift her up and set her on her feet, "Now, your Momma said bed time was at eight but I've been talking to you for so long that it's way past your bed time."

Iris stands up then and picks Heidi up, "You two need to come up to bed now too, it's getting late and you'll be sleeping in til noon at this rate." She places Heidi on the stairs and directs the children up, "Go on up, I'll be behind you."

Iris, Mitch and I are all quiet until the children have moved far enough away that they won't be able to hear us, but Iris directs me into the kitchen regardless. Mitch puts on some quiet music and closes the door to ensure that none of the children can hear.

Iris leans on the counter, her hands shaking, "So what happens now?"

"You stop telling your children things that could get you all killed – Osier is maybe old enough to understand the severity of what's being said and could perhaps keep it to himself. The other two are much too little."

She frowns, "No I meant what happens with me being taken away? How long do I have?"

I look between the two of them baffled, "I just told your daughter that I don't want to get you in trouble, why would you think you're being taken away." I hear Mitch let out a noise half way between a sob and a cheer, "You thought I lied to them?"

"You're his granddaughter, of course I thought you were going to tell him. Everyone knows you're his favourite, you're as thick as thieves."

"Even so, it doesn't mean that I want to see three children become motherless. Perhaps even orphans because let's face it, there's no way it's all just you saying this." I look to Mitch and he nods his head.

She walks around the counter slowly until she's in front of me, her voice just a whisper when she speaks, "Thank you. I know what we're asking you to do."

I sigh, "My family is everything to me and I would do anything for them. But what they don't know won't kill them. I can't say I blame you, I'm sure if it were the other way round, we would be wanting you to fall as well. But the truth is the Games are going to be around for a long time yet and as much as you and I might not like them, the people that are in charge do and so long as that continues, they'll be there."

Mitch frowns and looks at me puzzled, "Why don't you like them?"

I shrug, "It's children murdering each other, what's to like?"

Hoping to get another chapter out very soon! Thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate each one of you. I'm not all that great at writing but I figure that practice makes perfect.

C