LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO | The Hunger Games ₁

1. THE LAST HURRAH

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO

The 72nd Hunger Games

NESSA JADE is well known by the locals around District 8; the carefree young girl is always parading around with colourful dresses and eccentric fashion. It was the night before the reaping and she was currently on her way to The Spotswood, an underground bar where she and The Covey perform. The one place she feels truly at home since her grandmother passed.

She knew most young people would be there, the last night of freedom before the hunger games, before the reaping, before two children aged 12- 18 are chosen to become lambs to slaughter. For the entertainment of the capitol, making the districts suffer for a war that was 72 years ago.

As she made her way underground, she made sure to avoid any loitering peacekeepers who would surely shut down the bar. Passing a few older drunkards on the way down she made sure to stay away from them for they could be unpredictable. Nessa Jade made it to the back door to the bar which led her to the dressing room.

Toby Green and Lily Rose were huddled in a corner together, a routine they have before every performance, helping to calm each other down. Millie Iris and Sadie Sky were playing their instruments together and fooling around. Looking around the room she spotted Sebastian Fern and Ava Honey playing hand games, rock, paper, scissors.

"Hey everyone, ready to perform!" Nessa Jade exclaimed, her infectious smile spreading onto the faces of those in the room. Completely lighting up the dim mood.

A chorus of cheers from the band caused the smile to broaden on Nessa Jade's face. They all gathered their instruments and made their way to set up the stage in the bar. Ready to perform one last hurrah before the reaping. Her dress sparkled under the light, catching the attention of the crowd without even having to speak.

After a few songs the band decided to slow it down a little bit with a new song, one that Nessa Jade wrote a while back, when her grandmother had first passed. Can't Catch Me Now is an empowering ballad, a song she hold close to her heart.

It's a promise that no matter what Nessa Jade Baird would make sure that President Snow knew that Lucy Gray Baird survived him and thrived without him. It was a promise that she would never let her grandmother be forgotten again, that President Snow cannot escape her no matter how hard he tries. She will always be there.

"Oh, you think I'm gone cause I left. But I'm in the trees I'm in the trees, my footsteps on the ground. You'll see my face in every place. But you can't catch me now."

The crowd was enchanted by this haunting ballad and knew that this was just the beginning. The song for many in the room was like a beacon of hope. As they listened the song began to get progressively louder.

"You can't, you can't catch me now. I'm higher than the hopes that you brought down. You can't, you can't catch me now. I'm comin' like a storm into your town. You can't, you can't catch me now. You can't, you can't, you can't"

The raw emotion both the crowd and The Covey Band could hear in Nessa Jade's voice was nothing new, however, everyone could tell that this haunting melody was precious. A warning. To whom they don't know. But she does, and she will make sure that he knows he didn't win his battle against Lucy Gray.

"There's blood on the side of the mountain. It's turning a new shade of red. Yeah, sometimes the fire you founded. Don't burn the way you'd expect. Yeah, you thought that this was the end".

As the song came to an end the deafening cheers and applause from the crowd ricocheted through the room. The band on the stage had large smiles on their faces as they basked in the joyous feeling the cheering and applause gave them. The powerful song was a hit, that was for certain.

Before the band could continue a herd of peacekeepers swarmed the room and without warning began dragging people out. The Covey looked at each other before running toward the back door which was hidden from the sight of the peacekeepers. The septet gathered their things before going their separate ways Toby Green, Sadie Sky and Lily Rose ran together one way while Millie Iris, Sebastian Fern and Ava Honey ran together another way.

Nessa Jade was left to her own thoughts as she ran, sneaking up the side of the old, abandoned apartment building on the outskirts of the district. Since her grandmother's death she had been left on her own in a cruel world, but she made do with what she had left. Her mother died during childbirth and her father died when she was seven in a factory accident. Which left her under the care of her grandmother, having no other living relatives.

Being forced from her old home because she couldn't pay to live there was one of the hardest things she had to do. Packing all her belongings into a box, having to pick and choose what to leave and what to keep.

Since finding the abandoned building she stored her belongings there and has been able to slowly retrieve her belongings back from her old house, it's been a month since she got kicked out and she's just lucky that the district hasn't given her house to another family who can afford it.

Setting up her bed for the night, she decided to sleep on the roof and sleep under the stars. Something she used to do with her grandmother all the time. She used to sing her the lullaby Deep in the Meadow which always put her to sleep. She could almost hear her grandmother singing to her as she drifted to sleep.

"Deep in the meadow, under the willow. A bed of grass, a soft green pillow. Lay down your head and close your eyes. And when they open, the sun will rise."

"Here it's safe, and here it's warm. Here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet, and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you."

Nessa Jade drifts off to sleep a soft smile on her lips, her last night of happiness, her last night of calm before the impending storm of the reaping. Which will inevitably suck any thought of joy out of the minds of the children reaped.