Down the Primrose Path

Chapter Two

--CHAPTER TWO--

I feel a soft hand gently shake me, waking me from my dreamless slumber. It is Mum. She mumbles a quiet good morning to me and starts to wash up a half-broken plate. "Your breakfast is on the table. It's porridge." On a regular day, I eat at least half of the sloppy concoction and usually with Katniss. When Mum leaves the room, we'd look at the bowl in disgust and scrape the remains into Buttercup's bowl. Buttercup's my pet cat. I love him to bits but he's tremendously ugly. Buttercup and my sister are enemies and Katniss says when I'm not looking, she'll throw him into a boiling pot and cook him.

But today is different. I don't want to eat; I'm too miserable to touch my porridge. Mum watches as I dump my breakfast into Buttercups bowl. He happily licks up the stuff. At least someone is happy today.

Mum comes around to where I'm sitting and hugs me tightly. "Don't lose hope, Prim." she whispers in my ear.

"Like you did?" I spit at her. I wriggle out of her arms and flop onto my bed in despair. She watches me again in sadness for a moment, then disappears into another room.

Mum was happy once. She was beautiful, and her smile lit up the world. We'd laugh, play, sing, dance...me, Katniss, Mum...and Dad...but the mines blew up, killing many men, including my father. Mum changed almost immediately. She's still and hard and melancholy. She doesn't smile anymore. Happiness died inside of her when Dad died. With Mum a depressed vegetable, we were starving and sick. At eleven years old, Katniss took control over the family and brought us food. Sometimes I say that bits of the old Mum live in Katniss. My sister either ignores it or changes the subject. Mum has recovered heaps after Dads death, but she'll never be old Mum. That Mum died with Dad.

When she comes back into the room, Mum briskly wipes a tear away and collects my porridge bowl to wash. My eyes flicker to the to analog clock hanging awkwardly on the wall and the breath is knocked out of me.

9:02

3 more hours until the Reaping! I can't do it. I can't be brave. I lost all hope for myself. "I need some fresh air." I say to nobody. I race out of the house like there is no oxygen in it.

I stand on the left side of our destroyed balcony. A massive earthquake came a couple of years ago. We lost half of our home in the time we had no money. On the less ruined side of our house are the beds, kitchen and bathroom. The other side is where the television sits, along with a cupboard and a few toys I play with. Katniss used to play with toys too. She had a teddy bear called Tiny that she was only allowed to touch. She grew up too quickly when Dad passed away. Tiny was given to me like a snap of a finger and I care for it better than my other toys in case Katniss ever wanted it back. She probably won't. But if both Katniss and Mum became unstable, I would put down my doll and work. As much as I feel I need air, it's worse out here than inside. The strong smell of cigarettes and the dead hangs in the air.

Disgusting.

But as bad a condition we Everdeens are in, our neighbours are worse and I can only watch in sympathy. The Magnolia couple that live a couple of blocks away had two stillborns and their oldest died in the mine explosion. Mr Ginn, our next door neighbour, has a lethal, infectious disease because he can't afford to buy food so he eats badly cooked rats he catches in his house. The Hawthornes, Gales family, four kids, one mother, not enough money and food. Mr Hawthorne was one of Dads best friends and died in the mine explosion with him. Gale became like Katniss; he took his dads place and became the breadwinner. The Mellarns...no wait, the Mellarks! They're on the business side of town but still poor. They have a kid Katniss's age. His name is Peeta. His dad is real nice but his mother is seriously insane. Abusive insane.

Once I begged Katniss to take me into the store to see the cakes. They were so beautiful. Like food for angels. There was a vanilla cake with pink icing and a ballerina on top that I wished with all my heart I could have for my 11th birthday. But we had no money for pretty cakes. Peeta was carrying sacks of flours into the storeroom. He saw us by the counter and thought we were buying.

"What can I get for you?" he smiled at me and Katniss warmly.

"That ballerina cake should be mine." I demanded aloud. Katniss scolded me for bad manners and apologised to Peeta. "I'm sorry. She really wanted to see the cakes."

He smiled. "That's alright." We stood in silence for a moment while I drooled over the ballerina cake. Then I heard him make a 'hmm' sound and he checked behind him sneakily. His mother wasn't around. "I can't give you the cake," he said. "But you can have this." He held out a petite chocolate cupcake with white icing and a little sugar primrose flower on top. I stared at it in amazement. Did he know I was Primrose? I took it gratefully and shoved it in my mouth.

He offered a cupcake to my sister with a sugar katniss flower on top. At first she refused it politely but he said it was free and he insisted she had it. As Katniss lifted the cupcake to her lips, her eyes looked past Peeta's head and she gave the cake back.

Crazy Mum Alert.

Mrs Mellark stormed in, not bothering to be polite in front of us. She struck him with a rolling pin in the head and called him a cheat. Blood ran down Peeta's forehead. Katniss dragged me out of the store before I could scream.

That was the only time I have seen Peeta Mellark. Katniss told me she's seen him before my visit on one of her getaways. She pretended to go to sleep when I asked what happened. But something did happen. It was in a time when we had no food. Katniss had gone out searching for food. That night she came back with bread that fed our family. He must have given it to her. And that's why she's embarrassed to talk about him.

I snap back into reality but my mind has not turned off. I don't care about what happened with Peeta. I need to focus on the present , not the stupid past. Reaping Day thoughts return to me. My heartbeat races as I hear Mums voice call out.

"Prim! It's 10:00! I picked out a nice dress for you to wear. Come take a quick bath."

I take one last deep breath and enter my home with a cold feeling in my heart. The Hunger Games didn't leave my mind.

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DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reaping coming up soon...and terrible things with happen.... :o

Sorry my chapters are like only two or three pages. I've been writing them on my computer then copying them onto my IPad. And on my computer the chapters look like six pages each. If only you could changed the font. Too bad.

Vote, comment do everything please please please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or I'll kill off Prim. Mwahaha!

Or even worse....PEETA!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. nah, I won't kill off Prim. I want to make a sequel of this when I'm done.

P.P.S. OR WILL I????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHA