June 5th, 69ADD (After Dark Days)
Today is my birthday. I'm turning 11.
I've been dreading this day ever since I came to this world. Between now and Katniss' next birthday, our fathers are going to die. I've spent months now trying to brainstorm a solution to keep them alive, but no solution comes to me. Even when I attempt to be selfish and only think about my father, nothing…
If I throw a tantrum to keep him, I humiliate myself and he goes to work anyways. If I try to get him sick by contaminating his food with something he'll still have to go to work, only now his death will be more likely. And I still can't remember exactly when the explosion occurs! I feel the weight of this burden growing heavier and heavier every day.
I try to push those thoughts aside as I walk out of my bedroom and see my mother and father sitting at the kitchen table muttering something between them. When they catch a glimpse of me their faces burst into smiles.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!!!" They both yell out. There is a decent sized slab of meat in my usual sitting place, probably what's left of the rabbit from last night. My first gift of the day.
"Wow, thanks Mom and Dad! I wish I didn't have to go to school today." I say with a grunt and I sit down to tear into this amazing delicacy.
"Haha, well just be glad summer is almost here. A whole month of playing with your friends and goofing off will do you some good. Lord knows you need it. You spend too much time working at Old Greg's shop. We appreciate the coin you're bringing home, and you're looking stronger than ever, but you need to enjoy your youth while you still have it!" Dad tells me.
"Oh leave him be. He's enjoying himself and learning a lot of useful skills from the old man. Who knows, he might even leave the smith to him in the future if he keeps helping out." Mom speaks up for me.
This isn't anything new. At first they were both against the thought of me working after school, but when I explained I wanted to get stronger and that he pays pretty well Mom started respecting my wishes.
"Yeah yeah, so you say. Anyways, what's the plan for today bud? Going to stop by Greg's after school again or take it easy for your birthday?" Dad asks, trying and failing to hide something.
"Umm, well I was planning on stopping by and seeing if anything really needed to be done. If not I was gonna go by the Everdeens and see if Katniss wanted to go out to the field."
"Sounds fun sweetie. Just make sure to be safe out there. The peacekeepers tend to not patrol that far out, but always keep an eye out for them!" Mom warns me.
Before I can even reply, the front door flies open along with a soaking wet Lila and a half full bucket of water.
"I got the water!!! How do you carry this so far every day Liam? It's so heavy!"
"Ha! Lots and lots of practice squirt. Why'd you get the water today? I was going to do it once I'm done eating."
"It's your birthday silly! I wanted to give you your present this morning but Daddy said I had to wait for…" She tries to finish but Dad's hand covers her mouth before she could.
"Haha, don't mind her. She must be tired from lugging that heavy bucket around. Why don't you get in some dry clothes sweetie. I'll put the water up." Dad tries to play it off cool, but that's not exactly his strong point.
"Mhm, sure. Well I'm gonna head out and meet up with Katniss and Gale before class. I'll see you guys later. Thanks for breakfast Mom, it was delicious!" I make sure to get out of the house fast. It seems my presence itself makes Dad anxious today. They're probably throwing a surprise party for me later. I'll try to act surprised if I can.
SKIP TO AFTER SCHOOL:
"So, are you heading over to Greg's?" Gale asks me once we exit the hell that is school in Panem.
"Yeah but only for a bit, I just want to check if he has anything that really needs to be done right now. I was gonna head over to Katniss' place afterwards though if you want to drop by."
"Sure. Make sure you don't take too long, can't have the birthday boy spending his free time next to a furnace." Gale says with a chuckle.
We split up and when I get to the door for the smith, Greg is already waiting for me.
"Nope, not today kid. Today's the one day out of the year where you get to do nothing and no one gives a rat's ass. Now, take this and go on to do whatever it is you do when you're not here." He says while handing me something that feels like metal wrapped in an oily cloth. I attempt to see what it is before he stops me saying "Not here. Wait 'til you get home to look at it."
"Are you sure Mr. Greg? I can help out at least a little if you need me?" I feel bad for not at least doing something. The old man has done a lot for me these past few months. Not just letting me work in his shop, he also occasionally teaches me some techniques like how to start the fire, how/where to hammer when making tools, the types of rock that useful metals are found. He even showed me his knife-throwing skills. When I had stars in my eyes he promised to teach me eventually.
"Yeah I'm sure, no go on, get." He shoos me away with a slight smile on his face.
"Alright I'll get out of your hair. Thanks Mr. Greg!" I call out as I turn to leave.
As I approach the Everdeen house, I can see Gale, Katniss, and Prim all standing around Lady talking about how she's not producing as much milk as she should this time of year.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" I ask
"Lady isn't feeling good Liam. I'm really worried about her!" Prime cries.
The goat does seem to be more lethargic than usual since it's not actively attacking Gale or me. Probably just a little under the weather but sick animals can get a lot worse real fast.
"She's probably fine, just a little tired. Why don't we make a nice bed of straw in her pen for her to rest on huh?" I ask the 7 year old.
"OK! I know just the place!" Her mood immediately gets better as she shoots off behind the house.
"Thanks Liam. We had no idea what to do to make her feel better. I was starting to get worried she'd have a panic attack." Katniss says.
"Not a problem at all Kat. Anyways, y'all got any plans before dinner?"
"No, not much besides checking the snares. I found something I want to show you both though. We'll go after Prim gets back." Katniss replies.
It doesn't take long for Prim to come back with her arms full of straw and some sticking out of her hair and all over her. Once we take a few minutes to make a nice plush bed for Lady we gently coax her to lie down on it and rest. It's not much but it's the best we can come up with at the moment. Hopefully she's ok. I don't know what Prim would do if she got worse.
Gale, Katniss, and I head over to the field and while we're there we see we caught 6 whole rabbits today! It's the right time of year for a good haul of game but this is better than most days. We split them up evenly. Gale getting the 2 fattest because he has the most mouths to feed. Katniss and I each take the rest and as we are walking down the fence line Katniss pipes up.
"Just up ahead. I saw this a couple days ago and have been meaning to show you."
She walks up to a part of the fence that is partially hidden away from view and peels back a blanket of grass and leaves. There is a decent sized gap, perfect to squeeze through.
"Woah! A hole in the fence?! How on Earth has this not been patched up?" Gale asks with a start.
"Probably because they don't know about it. Look how rusted the wires here are. Bet it hasn't been maintained in years!" I reply. This must be the spot where Katniss and Gale make their daily hunts from in the future. I've been wondering just how they were getting out. The 'electric' fence is never turned on for power reasons, but this is the first time I'm ever seeing a full on hole in it.
"Exactly! We know some folks around here go hunting when it gets bad enough. I mean a deer doesn't just magically appear in the Hob one day and my Dad has been teaching me how to use a bow for a long time now. I just assumed they climbed the fences when it was dark out. Do you know what this means?!" Katniss seems more excited than I've ever seen her, like someone just told her we were moving to District 1.
"We can escape!"
"We can hunt!"
Gale and I turn to each other.
"Escape? Where are you escaping to? There's nothing out there but forest and capitol patrols!" I ask in absolute befuddlement.
"I don't know! But we could be free! No more peacekeepers, no more starving for the sake of starving, no more Hunger Games!" He says with a fire in his eyes. The Games are coming up soon and this is Gale's 2nd year up for reaping. He's already taken 3 tesserae each year for his siblings so his name has to be in there 8 times already. He hides it well but when summer rolls around you can tell he gets more tense than he ever is.
"True, but everyone in town knows us. If we and our families just up and disappear then it won't take a genius to figure out where we went. We'd be hunted like dogs before we even made it past the mountains." I reply trying to calm him but also clear up the fog in his head.
"He's right Gale. We might not be able to escape, but we can start hunting out there! Imagine how full of life the forest is! We might not even need to take tesserae again!" Katniss is almost vibrating at the prospect of actually hunting in the wild. Her face full of joy at the possibilities almost stuns me. We're only 11, but I can see the beautiful woman she'll grow up to be. I almost feel my face heat up at the embarrassing thoughts but I turn away to save my pride.
"This is an amazing find, Kat. We need to be super careful but this is a gamechanger!" I say, trying to distract myself.
"Yeah, I doubt we're truly the only ones to know about this. We need to keep quiet and make sure no one sees us next to it." Gale replies
We spend the next few minutes discussing plans to sneak out here when school lets out for a month. Eventually it's time to head home so we all split up, making sure to grab our rabbits we caught.
I get home just as the men of town are walking back into town from work. I get inside and see Mom cooking an abnormally large pot of stew for us. For the 'surprise' party no doubt.
"Hey Mom, we caught a bunch of rabbits today! I managed to bring 2 good sized ones. Want me to get started cleaning them?"
"Sure honey, go ahead. Just please make sure to keep your clothes clean! I don't want to have to slave over a blood stained shirt for hours again!"
"Haha come on, that hasn't happened since the first time! Have a little more faith in me." I say with a sarcastic chuckle. You get drenched in rabbit blood one time and all of a sudden you're Pigpen. (A/N lets see if anyone gets that reference or if I'm just really fucking old)
"Oh stop being so dramatic." She rolls her eyes.
After cleaning and butchering the rabbit down and setting some out to turn into jerky, I sit down in the living room. Dad got back while I was doing that so I plop down beside him and we start talking about our days. Apparently some miner across town got a girl pregnant and now his family is forcing them to get married. Normal drama for District 12.
It's not long until we hear a knock at the door. Dad get's up to see who it is and suddenly our living room is full. All the Everdeens and Hawthornes stopped by to celebrate my birthday with me.
"SURPRISE!!!" They all yell.
Not much of a surprise. I watched all of you walk into our house and chat for about 5 minutes before but it's the thought that counts I suppose.
"Wow, thanks guys! You didn't have to!" I put on my best surprised face and voice but it obviously doesn't work.
"Pfft, like you didn't already know we were coming by. You're a lot smarter than you look but your acting skills need some work HAHAHA!" Mr. Everdeen chimes in.
Rude.
"Happy Birfday Liam!" Vick, Gale's 5 year old brother yells out. Happy to be apart of the 'big kids party'.
"Hey, thanks V! Whatchu got there?"
He's holding a box in his arms and extends it to me after I ask. It's just a normal box about the size of a pencil case, wrapped in some paper.
"It's a surprise for you!" He says after pushing it into my hands.
"We got you something too!" Prim says as she hands me a bag filled with what sounds like some coins.
"And here is a little something from us. It's not much but we hope you like it." My parents hand me a little wrapped square shaped item. It's hard to the touch, almost rock-like.
"DON'T FORGET MINE! I made it myself!" Lila says as she hands me a paper bag.
"Wow, thank you guys so much! You really didn't have to. I just feel lucky that all of y'all are here and we have some good food to eat!" I reply a little misty eyed. It's not very common to give actual gifts in the Seam. Most of the time we exchange a little bit of food here and there for special events like this but it seems like all our families are doing well right now.
"You're a good kid, but now's not the time for that! Go ahead, open them!" Mr. Hawthorne says with subdued enthusiasm. He's always been a jolly man, trying to be the life of the party.
"Your parents mentioned what they were getting you so we decided you'd need your own writing board like Mr. Greg. We hope you put it to good use." Mrs. Hawthorne says as I unwrap their gift to see a sleek blackboard roughly the size of an iPad.
"Awesome! Now I don't have to worry about cleaning the walls in the outhouse!" I comment both seriously and as a joke.
"What was that young man?!" Mom asks in fake outrage as she tugs on my ear.
"Ow ow ow, I was just kidding!"
After thanking them again I open my gift from the Everdeens. It's a bag full of rounded rocks and some glass-like material. Marbles.
"I found some obsidian in the mines a couple weeks back and remember Katniss talking about the game some of the Merchie kids were playing. I thought it would be nice for you to have a set of your own." Mr. Everdeen comments as I take one out. A shiny bead of purpley black glass. They're not perfectly circular but still good enough to be called a marble. This must have taken hours of work to make these. It looks like there are about 15 in here.
"Oh wow. This is amazing Mr. Everdeen. It must have taken so long! I really can't thank you enough." I say with sincerity. I might not have been too interested in the game before, but for the sheer thought put behind the gift, it truly meant a lot.
"Oh it was relaxing in truth. He would use it to wind down at the end of a hard day. We're happy you like it." Mrs. Everdeen says.
Now it's time to open the gift from my parents and Lila. I'll start with the one from Mom and Dad.
I quickly open the one from them and see it's a box full of those chalk-like rocks. Just what I needed. Lila has been going crazy with her 'mural' ever since I gave her the green light all those months ago. I've even started getting into it too after Greg showed me how he designs his tools on a large blackboard with the stuff.
"Woah, just what I needed! Where did you guys even find this much?!" I ask. These rocks aren't very common around here. Usually all you can find are chunks of coal or normal ones in the dirt.
"That's for me to know and you to find out young man." Dad says with a smile.
"Fine keep your secrets ha ha. Thanks a bunch you guys, I love it! Now last, but not leas is Lila's gift."
"Yay! Mine's the best one!"
We all laugh at that and I open the bag to see… a piece of wood? I take it out to examine it better and can see it's carving of what I can only guess is supposed to be me?
"Woah! Did you do this yourself?! It's amazing sis!" I say. Not exactly blown away by the craftsmanship, but touched that she spent her own free time making it for me.
"Yup! All by myself! Do you like it? It's supposed to be you in your nice shirt and pants!" She seems both happy and a little nervous that I'd hate it.
"Of course I love it, Lila. It's one of a kind! That makes it the most special thing in the world!"
Mom wipes a stray tear from her eye and the mood in the house is filled with joy and love. A rare break in the monotony of life.
We all sit down and enjoy a nice hearty meal before having to go to bed and face that same monotony again. I wish I could freeze this moment, or at least capture it with a camera because we won't have another for a very long time.
A/N: Birthday took longer than I thought because I wanted to show a little bit more interaction between the families. I don't want my MC to just be shoved into the friendship with Katniss and Gale. I think I've set up the foundation of all their relationships now so it doesn't feel like I just smashed an OC into canon. Let me know any comments or critiques you have or anything you're itching to see in the future! Next chapter: timeskip to the accident.