Into the Woods- A Tale of the Hunger Games Story

Chapter 15- Midgame Surprise

I stretch awake and look over at a sleeping Watts. So he didn't kill me in my sleep. That's a plus for me. I nudge him awake, and he stretches as well.

"What's the plan today?" He asks in a sleepy voice.

"I think today we need to go hunting and get water. Same as every day, and if we find someone, we fight or run," I say. He agrees, and we pack up and head out. The rest of the day goes by quietly. We hunt, we eat, we sleep, and we talk. The crowd in the Capital is probably bored, but I'm sure Caesar is filling the time with a recap of our fights yesterday. We head back to the house from the first night. I realize something, we are in the final 8, so they're doing interviews with our friends and families.

"What do you think your family's saying about you right now?" I ask him.

He shrugs, "I don't know. I think that they're proud of me. Probably showing off the car my Dad and I are building."

"Can you drive it yet?" I ask.

"not yet. He gets old parts from the scrapyard, and we work on them together. It's the only time just he and I get to hang out; It's my favorite," he says with a sad smile.

Just as we get back to the house, he speaks up for the first time in a while, "what do you think you're family's saying about you?"

"I know they'll talk to Collin and Ethan. My brothers and sisters will have a lot of embarrassing stories about me probably. I don't really have a lot of friends besides Ethan," I finish with a grunt as I push him over the fence.

"What about your Mom? What'll they do with her?" He asks as I toss the backpack on the floor.

"Umm....not much. She hasn't been the nicest person since my Dad died. I just hope she's supporting the others right now," I say, and he looks at his feet, avoiding eye contact. "Collin's probably talking about us and how we started dating and then not dating and then dating again. I love that guy," I say with a laugh.

"He sounds like a nice guy," Watts says with a smile.

"He is. If they want a good story from my Mom, she should tell them how she nicknamed us all after trees," I say with a smile.

"Haha, what? Why?" He asks with a big grin.

"Ok. When I was about 4, my Mom asked my Dad for a box made of Redwood for quilts cause it's was pretty. He said no, it was too much money and she was sad. So me being the brains of the family, I Found a box and some old red paint and made it for her," I say with a smile. "I've since learned how dumb that sounds, but it made sense to me as a kid."

"And what does that have to do with your nickname?" He asks and nudges me.

I groan, "this is actually embarrassing. Now, why did I say anything? She laughed so hard that she started crying, and kissed me on the forehead, and called me her little Redwood. Ethan got jealous and wanted a name, so he's Birch. Sammy is Cedar. Petey is Spruce. Colton and Molly are Oak and Pine. All because of one little present."

"Does she still have it?" He asks.

"She does. It's in the kitchen; we use it to hold the bread," I say with a smile.

He's about to ask more questions when suddenly the anthem is playing around the arena, and we look and see that there were no deaths today.

"We need to get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow'll be another busy day with no cannons today. The room in the back can be locked; we should sleep back there, seeing as one of us can't stay awake," I smile as I push him around playfully.

He hands me his jacket and climbs into the sleeping bag, and we're both asleep within minutes.

The next morning I hear a bird chirping and playing musical notes. It must be a Mockingjay. They were invented by the Capital after the war by accident. They created the Jabberjays that could record human speech and tried to spy on the rebels, but they caught on and fed the birds useless information. After the war, the Capital left them to die off, but they made a new species. The Mockingjay can't make human voices, but they can make music; the lumberjacks like to sing to them when they're out taking care of the trees. I sit up and stretch and see Watts is already up eating some of the rabbits.