At this point the entire world know that Suzanne Collins was the one who wrote The Hunger Games, so all that I can say is how much I love the characters and wanted to see them in this alternative universe.

The road was full of beautiful oaks and surrounded by mountains, I can barely recognize it. Considering the fact that had been years since my last visit this is no surprise. Only the wind disrupts the utter silence inside the car, until Prim breaks the ice.

"Are we there yet?" her small voice is broken and ragged, I take a look over my shoulder, she is lying on the backseat holding tightly to a small bouquet of flowers. Her eyes are swollen and red from crying, she lets out small sobs once in a while, just by looking at her makes my heart constrict.

Suddenly, I am the one fighting the tears, my mind wanders to my neighbors, to my dear friends, to Gale… all left behind, an entire lifetime that came to an end.

"Please, Primrose. We are going to get there, when we get there," my mother doesn't sound like herself, the tone is stern and cold, eyes focused on the road and hands firm on the wheel. At least is something, until a few months ago she wouldn't even speak, so I take any sound coming from her as an improvement.

I keep following the subtle changes in the landscape, from the dense woods to vast green meadows. It happens only for a second, almost as if the car had made a brief stop just for me to contemplate the sight.

A path of dandelions greets my eyes and I'm jolted back in time. I shake my head slight, forbidding myself from revisiting such memory, it would be childlike and too desperate. Then the city comes into view, at first all that we see is some small houses and some stores. After some time we park in front of this two storey house with white fences and a flowerless garden.

Mother inhales deep and her voices comes shaky, "Here we are, our new home," the way she says the word home almost breaks my heart, but it's impossible since I didn't had the chance to mend it in the first place. We get off the car, Prim still clutching to the bouquet, and soon the front door of the house opens, revealing a familiar figure.

He comes in our direction and I recognize him, Haymitch Abernathy, the very own man that gave this house to us. He seems to be in his forties, he has this scrappy look and constant knowing look that annoys me and he seems to observe anything and anyone all the time.

"Mrs. Everdeen, glad to see you," my mother just nods, they both seem to be walking in eggshells. "The moving truck must arrive in a couple of hours, but feel free to explore the house or the neighborhood if you want," he gives a key to her and motions his hand to the houses around us.

Mostly of them look similar, big front yards, family cars, white fences, two floors and I can see some dog houses in front of some houses. I grin comes to my face at the sudden thought of Buttercup, Prim's cat, being chased by some random dog.

"You girls will enjoy here, the school is not so far away and most stores are near by," he inform us, he looks at Prim with a pained expression, he doesn't seem too oblivious to her distress, "You take good care of her, sweetheart," his words are addressed to me.

We met briefly in the day that my mother received the testament, we didn't talked much that day, but he felt free to call me 'sweetheart'. I find very odd how comfortable I feel by him calling me like this.

We say our good byes to our newest 'friend' and he surprises all of us by going to the house next door. Haymitch is our neighbor, well, at least if I need any guidance I can come to him, I guess…

We take our luggage from the car and step into our new home. From the small entryway we can see how big the living room is, the kitchen right in the end of the hallway and right in front of us is the staircase to the second floor. All the furniture is covered with white sheets, I start to pull them off, making dust float around the room. The sunlight makes the room shimmer and while I fold the sheets my eyes fall on a wall covered with portraits.

I come closer to the pictures and see an entire family history displayed, photos of the wedding day of a young couple, of them holding a baby, from a beautiful blonde girl dancing ballet… I notice how they all have blonde hair and blue eyes, the only person different in one of the photos is a young man with olive skin, grey eyes and dark brown hair. He is holding a small baby girl while the young lady beside him holds another.

"They never spoke with us again," her voice disrupts my thoughts, I turn on my heels to see my mother admiring the family photo, her fingers brushing softly the picture frame, "We really wanted them to know you girls," her voice breaks when her fingers trace an imaginary pattern on the man's face, "I miss your father so much,"

"You're not the only one," I decide to explore upstairs, too tired of my mother's emotional breakdowns.

Aside from the photos displayed in the living room there I not much else that tells the history of my family, apparently my grandparents didn't like to revisit the past, of how they saw their only daughter marry some miner and leave town, how they turned their backs to their own granddaughters and now it's too late.

The walls are plain, the rooms empty, except for the beds and some tapestry. I end up with the room with a view to the street. I go to one of the windows and I can see children playing in small playground located in the street corner, the mailman delivering some package to an elder woman across the street and notice how our garden is the only one without flowers or trees.

"Mom wants to know if you could go downtown to buy some groceries, she wants to be here when our stuff arrives," Prim appears in the doorway, a pleading look on her face, bouquet in hand.

"You should put that on a vase with water," I say matter of factly. She takes the bouquet in her arms and hugs it as if her life depended on it. "Hey, cheer up. Things will turn out just fine, okay?" I knee down so our eyes can be at the same level, taking the bouquet from her grasp, she looks nervously at me, "Would you like anything? Maybe chocolate, it makes everything better, right?"

"Since when you became such an optimistic person?" she says, whimpers diminishing by the second.

"Since you became the downcast one of this duo, little duck," I say pointing my finger between us, "Why don't you come with me, Buttercup can make company to mom," she nods somewhat enthusiastically and we descend the stairs to meet our mother, who is waiting for us in the front porch, she seems sad and for a second I think that she is gone again.

She turns to us, giving a halfhearted smile, "Here are the car keys and money, don't worry the merchant area is a few blocks away," she explains how to get there and I listen intently, we ride according to her directions, soon we spot the grocery store and a few other establishments.

I park in front of the flower shop, Prim seems genuinely interest in this part of the town, she looks attentive to every single storefront. While walking to the grocery store I notice how little this part of the town has changed, I even recognize some places such as the candy shop, the movie theater, a small restaurant and the bakery. I wonder if everyone from that summer still around too.

We go to the grocery store and I can feel everyone's eyes upon us, the cashier don't take his eyes from us the entire time while we survey the shelves and this unsettling feeling increases. Prim fills a basket with groceries and we go pay for it. The cashier, name is Thom according to his tag, seems a bit embarrassed when we start to place our stuff in front of the register, good, I was uncomfortable way before that.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare at you, it's just that… we don't see many visitors this time of the year," his apology gets me by surprise.

"Don't worry, besides, I think that we do like fish out of water here," I take a look at Prim, her two blonde braids and shiny blue eyes, "Well, at least I do," I correct myself, "And we're not visitors, you are going to see a lot of us from now on," I correct him now.

Thom gives a good natured laugh, "Nah, everyone will receive you with open arms, you're Mrs. Everdeen daughter, right?" my eyes widen, and Prim is the one who answers him with a vigorous nod, "I knew it!" he says triumphantly, "Ever since your grandparents… you know, passed away, the whole town was expecting for you guys to arrive,"

This news surprise me even more, our grandparents should had been quite notorious in town, or maybe my mother was popular and now everyone wanted to see how she was faring.

"Well, nice to meet you…" he lingers in the last word, waiting for me to finish it.

"Katniss, and this is my sister Primrose," Prim gives him a smile and takes some of the paper bags that Thom arranged for us, "See you around, Thom," I take the rest of the bags, placing the money in front of him before leaving.

"So, what did you think?" Prim asks me while we walk back to the car, "Mom is popular, or our grandpa and grandma were?"

"Maybe both, we ask mom later," right at this second, Prim's eyes wide and she runs to a window store, I take a look at its facade, it's the bakery.

"Katniss, look!" she points to frosted cake displayed, the frosting is intricate and beautiful, you can tell that whoever did this is an expert, some costumers leave the place and the smell of fresh bread exhales from inside out, making my mouth water. "Oh, could we please go inside," she begs with her big blue eyes, that she knows that I have no defense against.

"Fine, besides, some bread wouldn't do any harm," I convince myself.

The front door bell chimes when we enter the bakery and the cake displayed seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. The entire place is full with the most beautiful pastries, strawberry tarts, cinnamon buns, many cupcakes, sugar cookies and a large variety of breads and cakes. I keep my jaw firmly closed, sure enough I'll drool if I open it.

"May I help you, ladies?" I tall man with blonde hair and gentle hazel eyes appears from behind the counter, his apron tells me that he is the baker running this place. His eyes meet mine briefly before finding Prim staring at a red velvet cupcake. "You…" his eyes widen, mouth drops a little, almost as if he had seen a ghost.

"How much is it?" Prim asks pointing to the cupcake, the man keeps looking at her. I grow unease by this, it's like he knows Prim. After a moment of silence he clears his throat and takes the cupcake from the display case, he hands it to Prim. Not answering her question after all.

"We also would like two loaves of bread, the ones with raisin," I say, joining Prim next to the counter. He nods and places the loaves in a paper bag, I notice that we are out of hands to hold all the bags. "How much, for the bread and the cupcake?"

"It's gift to the Everdeen's girls," he says smiling at us, "I'm glad to finally meet you, you two resemble so much your parents," he smiles gently at Prim and then at me.

The front door bell chimes again, but I'm so focused trying to jungle all the bags that I don't dare to turn around.

"Oh, son, right on time, could you help these lovely ladies with their groceries?"

"Of course," the voice is gentle and wave of warmth rushes through me, I turn on my heel to see his face.

His eyes lock immediately with mine. The sunlight streaming through the shop window makes his blonde hair golden, his blue eyes shimmering, flour all over his clothes and unmistakable smell of cinnamon and dill exhaling from him. He is the boy with the bread…