A True Tribute [Hunger Games Fanfic]

Chapter Two...

Chapter Two:

After the Anthem finished, I was taken to the Justice Building, by a guard of Peacekeepers, which made escape almost impossible. Stepping over the threshold of the building was in itself a new experience for me, having never needed to enter the place before.

I’m left alone in a room on a plumply cushioned chair. The room is lavishly decorated with a thick blue carpet and chairs made out of the same deeply coloured material. The usual smell of District Four has not been allowed to penetrate this building, and already it makes me home sick.

There’s a loose thread on the chair and I start to play with it, it occupies my mind, well part of it because I keep thinking as to what my mother would say if she saw me fiddling with expensive furniture, or anything really. My mother; what will she be like while I’m away? She’d have to be strong, she would busy herself, if not I would rely on my brother and father to look after her, even so I hope it doesn’t come to that. I have to compose myself because I have an hour and only that to say goodbye to those I’m leaving behind.

The door opens and the loose thread I was fiddling with falls back to rest on the chair. Running in much the same way I did when I was a child, I fall into my mother embrace. For quite a while we both stand, my mother stroking my hair and me with my hands clenched at her back, not wanting to let go.  I don’t cry, I can’t because now’s not the time and I don’t want the rest of Panem to see me a weeping wreck. My mother has been though; her eyes are puffy and red when I break away.

I look around at the rest of my small family. I note each sign of stress and anxiety. My father’s already grey hair seems o be getting whiter by the minute and Lee’s neat hair has been ruined where he has obviously run his hands through it. My Grandfather looks grey and nauseous.

I run over and hug my father too, my mother bursts into floods of tears now so much so that Lee has to go and comfort her.

“Remember,” my father whispers into my hair “we’ll all be thinking of you.”

“Even Lee?” this is a stupid childish question but it reflects how I feel at this moment, small and insignificant. “Of course.” This time it’s my Grandfather talking; he comes and pats my head.

It’s all over to quickly when a Peacekeeper walks through the door and ushers my family out of another door. I give them one last fleeting look as through the opposite door bursts my friends. They seem to be arguing over something and it’s only when they draw nearer do I see that it’s a large food hamper.

“Surprise!” They all chorus.

“Urm what?” I ask dumbfounded.

“We figured you wouldn’t be coming back to school either way... so w...we’re here to throw you a leaving party.” Says Annie, there’s an unmistakable lump in her throat. My face falls at the sight of their obviously strained happiness.

“Don’t you like it? I told you we should have left it Ash.” Seth murmured Seth

“No it’s just such a good idea, and...” I have to stop myself as I feel I’m about to cry again, Ash with all the tact of a fish offers me cake, he has obviously passed over my current expression as hunger. I accept it and begin to eat I order to break the awkward silence in the room.

After the initial awkwardness everyone starts to relax and talk amongst themselves. Ash starts telling the most obscure jokes we’ve ever heard which means even I forget, for a few refreshing minutes that I’m heading for almost certain death. Seth starts ranting on about The Capitol several times and each time I, Caty and Annie have to shout loudly to tell him to shut up. By the time they leave I’m laughing and at least three pieces of cake fuller than I’ve ever been in my life; yet as I watch each one of them leave, each piece feels like a lead brick.