Crossing Paths

Chapter 13

Katniss

                  I’m going through Cinna’s clothes trying to find something that might fit Jay when she comes up from behind me.

                  “Papa said to meet you here,” she says in a light and barely audible voice. I look at her from head to toe and see that she’ wearing her special occasion dress. Her long hair is curled and flowing over her shoulders and the emerald green satin ribbon tied around the waist of her pearl white dress brings out the small, and usually invisible, flecks of deep green in her eyes. Her one and a half inch heels makes her look taller and more sophisticated as she waits patiently for me to tell her why I wanted to see her here. Considering how beautiful she looks I suddenly wonder if I should still give her another dress to wear to the reaping. I toss the thought away. I want her to have at least one thing from home to hold onto during the train trip to the Capital. And since Cinna made the dress it might even give her a little bit of luck.

                  “Yeah I have something for you.” I turn away from her long enough to pull out the royal blue knee length dress I wore during the victory tour in District Nine. The silk rubs against my cheek as I bend down to pick up the matching heels. When I turn back to hand it to her she gasps.

                  “This is for me?” Her eyes are wide in shock as she rubs the hem of the dress back and forth in her fingertips.

                  “Mhm. Do you like it?” I ask hopefully. She nods, still staring down at the dress. I take her hand a lead her back to her room. “Try it on so I can see you in it.” She silently goes into the bathroom and comes back out wearing the dress with a huge grin on her face.

                  “It’s beautiful!” she exclaims as she twirls around. The silk flies up off of the ruff mesh that makes the skirt of the dress poof out just enough to give it some body. I laugh and hand her the matching royal blue heels.

                  “Here see if these fit.” She takes them and gratefully replaces her white heels with the ones I handed her. Once they’re on she jumps up to give me a hug.

                  “Thank you,” She whispers in my ear. I smile as my eyes fill with tears and I kiss her on the top of her head.

                                                 Jay

                  One thirty come all too soon leaving me no time to stall the thought of me leaving my family behind and going to fight to the death for other people’s pleasure. As I walk inside the triangle of my parents and Haymitch I can’t help but wonder what the reaping will be like. Effie Trinket and Haymitch are no longer the mentors for the District Twelve tributes so I wonder who will take their places. But the thing that bugs me the most is that I don’t know who my District partner will be. Considering Melody’s determined to make my life a living nightmare it’s likely to be one of my friends.

                  We get to a line of children my age and Mama turns to look at me, worry covering every inch of her face. “Okay Jay, we have to leave you now but we’ll get some time together before you board the train.” Tears threaten to pour from my eyes as I realize everyone already expects me to be picked, like it was planned all along. “They’re just going to take a little bit of blood. It doesn’t hurt much. Be brave for me okay? I love you.” She bends down to kiss my cheek and then quickly turns and walks away with Benit before she can do any damage by crying. I turn to Papa and his expression causes me pain to look at. He holds me in his strong arms before letting go and kissing the top of my head.