Shattered (A Hunger Games Fan-fiction) (Wattys2015) (#feels)

Chapter 7

I don't know how long we stand there, just holding on to each other. It could have been minutes, or even days for all I know. But eventually, Annie pulls away, her expression calm and serious.

"Okay," she says. "We need to think this through."

"Think what through?" I ask her having no idea what she's talking about.

"About how you are going to drop out of school, Finn," she says sadly.

I stare at her for a moment before my brain registers what she has said. Of course. How could I have just assumed I would drop out of school without graduating. The Capitol made it mandatory for all children to go to school till the age of eighteen. I still have four years left. They are very serious about education. I can't just drop out without stating a reason, and if I tell them I'm dropping out because my parents are gone and I need to take care of my sister, they'll just put us in foster care and force me to go to school. Annie is right. We do need to think this through.

I scratch the back of my neck impatiently and Annie starts pacing in front of me. We are a few minutes away from our school building and the warm rays of the sun brush against my face. I glance down at my watch to see that we only have ten more minutes till our first class begins.

"Look, we'll figure something out, okay?" Annie says with a weak smile.

"Yeah," I reply, not believing that we will.

"Let's get to school. We're getting late."

So I fall into step with her again and we start walking towards the school, momentarily dismissing our troubles. The trees that border the road are tall and green with leafy canopies. Their leaves are swaying back and forth in the breaks, casting soft, feathery shadows.

We reach the school in record time, just as the first bell rings, and dash towards our classroom. We both have Panem History first. I gaze out of the window as the teacher drones on about how the Capitol crushed the first revolution. I used to find our history cruel and unfair before too, but now it just feels downright evil: how they basically exiled district thirteen and killed their people. How they killed every district's people. But thirteen was excluded from our map too. I bite back a foul word when we are asked to write an essay on how the Capitol crushed the revolt and restored peace. The truth is that the only thing peaceful about our lives is the fact that our kids will certainly not be killed before the age of thirteen. After that however, there is no telling whether they will live or not.

"Mr Odair!" The voice of my history teacher jolts me out of my daydream: a daydream that involved me killing the president and restoring justice in our country. I raise my head off my desk and stare into the cold eyes of the teacher: a tall woman with grey hair and dark hazel eyes. "Will you tell us what exactly you were doing with your head down on the table in the middle of my class?"

Normally if a teacher scolded me, I would be ready with a witty comeback that would get me extra work. But today is different. Today, I know that if I go too far, they might do something to my sister. So I just look at her meekly and tell her that I'm sorry and that I accidentally fell asleep. That earns me a cold glare.

"You will write an extra essay for me, Mr Odair," she smiles. "On how you deeply regret falling asleep in class and how you will never do it again."

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"That foul, evil, heartless....cow!" Annie is fuming as we make our way out of the history room. She knows how badly I always want to talk back to the teacher, and she knows I held back today but the teacher gave me an extra essay anyway.