I hope you like this! I am having a great time writing it. :P

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING! SUZANNE COLLINS DOES!

I cringe slightly as my mother pulls the braid tighter to my head and secures it in place with an overused, stretched out rubber band. My thick, dark hair is now contained as it cascades down my right shoulder in which looks like a very complicated and elaborate twist. My mother has always been good with these intricate plaits, which she shows every day in her own hair.
She hands me an old cracked mirror that she must have had since she was my age. "It's beautiful!" I tell her. As I say this, I see her great grey eyes transform into almost pure happiness, that even brings a smile to her face, but then it soon fades away and her eyes become the evil-looking dark color that makes me shiver. They have looked this way since one day, two weeks ago when the president visited our house. You would believe that it would be a privilege to have the ruler of Panem in your house, but I could tell by the voices the crescendoed through the house that it was in fact not that, but the complete opposite.

A light snow had begun to fall on my walk home from school, but even through the precipitation falling from the sky, I could see the shiny black, snow frosted car that sat parked in front of our house in Victor's Village. A group of neighbors had gathered on Greasy Sae's property across the street, and even from where I was, I could hear them all talking in worried, hushed whispers. Whose car was that? Why were they at my house? To give myself time to think about things, I checked the mailbox that had recently been placed in out front yard. There was only one letter, addressed to my mother inside the green box that my father had painted. I looked at the return address. The first thing I saw was DISTRICT 2 stamped in bold blue ink. Gale Hawthorne. Gale! My mother had told me a handful of her childhood memories, and almost every single one included Gale. Sometimes I find myself wondering if my mother was so fond of Gale, why she didn't just marry him and not my father. I had never met the legendary Gale, of course. The trains that once served as transportation to the other districts during the Games are rarely used now, and when they are, the old freights just import goods from around Panem and export the coal that is still currently mined locally.

I walked up to the front door and almost forgot about the mysterious black car and muted voices of the neighbors, too focused on the letter, I guess. I cautiously and slowly opened the door, and for once, it meandered open without letting out a squeak in protest. I must have inherited my mother's gracefulness, because my feet didn't make a sound as I made my way to back of the house, where the study to the door was left a jar. Shouts emerged from the narrow crack where the door had been left slightly open.

"This is absolutely ridiculous, Galilee!" A woman's voice protested, my mothers. Galilee. I knew of only one, President Galilee. She didn't mean that though, did she? Oh no. Suddenly everything added up, the extravagant black car outside our house, the name Galilee. It WAS the president herself.

Senmet Galilee had been our president for three weeks now. She had been elected after the mysterious death of our current ruler, President Paylor. They had told us how she died, but I knew it was a lie as much as the people who made it up did. Who in the Capitol would die of sickness? They had all of the medicines that a person might ever need in their life, plus real doctors that had been trained to treat even the sickest of people. But then again, why would you tell the whole country the real reason? It wouldn't benefit anyone; it would probably just result in a bunch of paranoid and freaked citizens.

President Galilee seemed like a nobody. When they first appointed her, I had never heard of her. She was not a mayor of another district. My parents, who hadn't heard of her either, speculated that Senmet was one of the top-rated Peacekeepers in the Capitol, one that kept the wildly clothed and mannered natives in order.

I dropped the envelope in surprise. The voice stopped now, but I don't see how they could have heard something as light as a piece of paper fall to the floor. I listened and light footsteps approached the door slowly. Before I could run away, a grey eye looked at me through the crack in the door and I gasped as it is jerked open.

"Calarose Mellark!" My mother yelled, "You should known not to listen to people's private conversations! I thought we had raised you better than that!" She continued, scowling, "How much did you hear?" I had never seen my mother as mad as she was then. When I didn't respond to her, she repeated the question.

"Only a couple of seconds, I swear!" I finally manage.

"Katniss, she is just a kid," a voice said from inside the study. Haymitch, definitely. I could tell by the slurred words. I heard louder footsteps and my father appeared next to my mother and put his hands on her shoulders. She suddenly relaxed and her expression softened a little. Then she saw the letter on the ground, and she picked it up, looking as pale as the white roses that she hates for some unknown reason.

"Calarose, why don't you go and buy yourself something," my father said while pressing three golden coins with the Capitol seal on them into my hand. I nodded my head. "Pick up Aden from Posy's when you're done." I looked into his calm blue eyes and shook my head again and turned to retreat out the front door before I could comprehend what had just happened.

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~luvkatnisseverdeen