My mom has sent me to California with my little sister Prim. She claims that I am too much work for her to handle. Whatever that means. I know that is not true because she is never home long enough to know. Sometimes I never understand her. We are living with our Uncle Haymitch for the next year. My mom claims that 'he is going through a hard time and he needs to be with family.' I know that is not the case. He has been going through this 'hard time' for twenty-three years.
We are sitting in the plane chair waiting patiently for the plane to come to a 'complete stop'. I look over to Prim and see that she is bouncing in her chair ready to see her old friend from last summer; Rue. She is a sweet little girl that came to visit her Aunt with her older brother Thresh. Her Uncle died in a car accident and so they were spending time with their Aunt to help her cope. Thresh and I worked at the same amusement park over that summer to gain money for our sisters. We hit it off pretty well and stayed friends for the rest of that summer, and when he went back to California we kept in touch for a while but we drifted apart.
When the plane comes to the complete stop that we were waiting for, Prim jumps from her seat and looks over at me.
"Come on Katniss! Hurry! I want to see the beach!" She smiles brightly. I can't help but chuckle.
"Calm down Little Duck we just landed." I say standing and making Prim walk back into the seat so I can grab our bags from above us.
"I can't help it! Did you see the pictures of Uncle Haymitch's place? I can't wait to hang out with Rue on the beach!" Prim squeals. I can't help but chuckle.
"I know Prim, I know." I say and hand her, her bag. "Now let's get going. We don't want you and your girlfriend waiting any longer." I laugh and usher her forward.
We walk to the pickup area in the air port and wait for Thresh and Rue to come pick us up. Haymitch would be picking us up but he has to work, even though I think that he could spare the ten minute drive from the airport. Yeah, he is a web designer but he has deadlines for a reason.
Prim finds a spot in the waiting area and we take a seat. We sit there for about a minute when Prim turns to me.
"Katniss, can you make me a promise?" She asks sweetly, blinking her pale blonde eyelashes. I nod my head cautiously. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Okay... I know you have Thresh to spend time with here, but I want you to make friends here. Rue and I are going to be hanging out this summer and when school starts I don't want you to be all alone. Thresh is a year older than you." She says looking down and at our laps. I sigh. I know that I am not good at making friends. Never have been never will be. I only have two friends in Ophir. And that is Madge Undersee and Gale Hawthorne. But once they started dating it became more and more weird to be around them and finally they stopped talking to me. But this is Prim. I take a deep breath and exhale. What is the harm?
"I promise." I sigh giving her a small smile. Her smile brightens and she jumps and hugs me. I am taken back. Didn't know she was going to be that happy. Then I hear a squeal that doesn't belong to Prim.
I look in front of me and I see the mocha skinned thirteen year-old that my sister loves. Prim lets out a squeal when she recognizes Rues squeal.
"RUE!" Prim screams.
"PRIM!" Rue follows the screaming my sister started. Prim lets go of me and whips around and runs to her best friend. They run into one another and hug. I can't help but smile. I then look around to try and find Thresh. He was not far behind Rue. When he sees me his eyes widen happily.
"Thresh!" I say mimicking our sisters. He lets out a laugh knowing what I am doing.
"Katniss!" He yells back. We don't run and give one another a hug but we end up meeting one another and hugging quickly.
"I missed you! How have you been doing? Sorry it has taken so long to get here the traffic is crazy!" He chuckles walking back over to where our two sisters who are still hugging.
"I have been doing good, work and school is a lot! You?" I ask grabbing Prim and I stuff.
"Same. Rue and I haven't been doing much lately. Let's get to the car. I have to have you both back by six. Haymitch says that he is taking you guys out to dinner." Thresh says trying to take the bags out of my hands. I glare at him when he tries to do so. He chuckles. "Same old Katniss." I nod when he says this and we turn to the girls who are still hugging and squealing.
"Okay girls. Time to break it up. We still have to make it out of the traffic." Thresh says walking to the two. They laugh.
"Okay let's go! I have so much to tell you! And we still have to plan our sleepover!" Rue yells giddily.
When we get to Thresh's deep red jeep we all jump in and start to talk about what we did over the year that we have missed with one another. The girls are laughing and chatting so much back in the jeep, that me and Thresh just stick to looking at the road. When we get to Haymitch's I am taken back. I forgot about how big the house was.
After going through the winding driveway full with palm trees, we are greeted by the large, beautiful house. The house is all white with aqua shutters. It is designed to look like it is made out of different boxes stacked on top of each other in different formations. The house is mostly made of windows so you can see what is in side. I look over at Thresh; eyes wide.
"How come you didn't warn me?" I ask. He laughs.
"Thought you knew." He shrugs and steps out of the jeep. I shake my head and jump out of the jeep also and go to help the girls out. But they are already out of the jeep and running up to the door. I laugh.
I go and help Thresh with the bags and walk up to the door. The girls are already pounding on the door. Great. I think, Haymitch will want to get rid out us early.
"Prim! Calm yourself." I say trying to not be harsh. She just gives me a fake glare and moves out of the way. I move to be in front of her and I see Haymitch come to the door with a smile on his face.
"Girls! And there friends! Come in! Come in!" Haymitch says motioning us in. Okay this is different. Haymitch is almost never happy to see us.
"I am so happy you guys are here! Your rooms are already made up. I hope you like the rooms that I picked for you girls. They are both beach view. Your stuff is already made up in there and your rooms are painted also. The colors that you picked anyway so I hope you like!" Haymitch says happily. My eyes widen a bit. Who is this man and what has he done with my Uncle? Thresh clears his throat.
"I am sorry they are late. There was so much traffic." Thresh apologizes. Haymitch shakes his head.
"No, no it is fine. I doubt the girls would have wanted to come to dinner anyway. They probably have jet leg. We will do it some other time. Nothing like a home cooked meal by their Uncle!" He says. Thresh laughs awkwardly.
"Yeah, well we better get going. Our mom will want us home for our own dinner." Thresh says quickly. Haymitch nods.
"That is fine. Thank you for dropping them off for me." Haymitch says as he walks Thresh and Rue to the door. Prim follows them to give Rue one last hug.
"See you tomorrow!" They say together then giggle. Thresh throws me a wave and I return Haymitch closes the door he turns to face us.
"Okay, because you guys were late lets go into the kitchen so see what you guys want to eat!" He says leading us to the kitchen. We still have our bags in our hands.
"Umm... Uncle?" Prim giggles. Haymitch turns and looks at her.
"Yes sweetie?" he says nicely.
"What do you want us to do with our bags?" she says looking at ours bags. Haymitch slaps his forehead causing Prim to giggle again.
"Of course! Rooms! Follow me!" he says spinning us around. He leads us up the stairs. "Your rooms are on the third floor; they are right next to one another. My room is on the second floor, and I have one rule for the rooms and that is NO and I repeat no, boys allow in the rooms unless I say so." He says facing me. My eyes widen. He thinks I am going to have boys in my room. I chuckle.
"Don't worry Haymitch you won't have to worry about that." I say waving my hand so that he moves forward. He laughs.
"Just you wait sweetheart." He tells me and then continues walking up the stairs.
When we get to the third floor I am utterly impressed. The whole second floor is an office and hangout place. But that is his 'hangout' place full of different things that make him happy or things he likes to do which includes having a mini bar all to himself stocked with some snacks and collection bottled whiskey I found last time we were here also. The basement is our place he tells us. When we walk to our rooms I am completely shocked with what he did to my room. When I walk in with Prim I am greeted with the forest green that I love. My bed is literally in the wall. There are stairs that are leading up to it and to top it off, it has a forest-y look to it. My metal desk is below it and when you look on the other wall on the left; there are to two mahogany doors that are partly opened, so I can see that they lead to my closet. In the middle of my room there is a couch and on the wall my door is on there is a flat screen TV. When I look on the other wall on the right I see that it is a glass window leading to the ocean view he promised. My boxes that I guess containing my clothes and other personal items are lined up along the window. I spin to look at him; eyes wide and mouth on the floor. .
"Thank you." I breathe and then I drop my bag and hug him. I can feel him tense when I hug him. He knows that I am not one for hugs. But he quickly wraps his arms around me and gives a big squeeze then we both let go. We give one another a look saying to one another that the lovey dovey uncle hugs will not be happening a lot. We both nod in agreement then turn to Prim who is looking at us in awe. She shakes her head.
"Never thought I would see the day." She mumbles. I can't help but chuckle at her remark. Then she begins bouncing again. "Where is my room?" Prim squeals. I laugh and look at Haymitch. He nods and then walks past Prim.
"Follow me doll." He says while taking her hand and leading her to the room next to mine.
When he opens the door I am amazed. Amazed that a old man like him could be so girly. When the white door swings open we are greeted by a pink wonderland. Prim's usual twin sized bed is replaced with a queen and is surrounded by a wall sized dresser all of which is pink. When you look on the right wall you can see the walk in closet that I also have and one the right is also a ocean view window with her boxes lined up on the wall. Prim squeals and spins around.
"This is amazing!" She yells throwing herself at our Uncle.
Haymitch is not prepared for the hug and falls on the ground with a thud. I laugh and help them both up. Haymitch dusts himself off then looks at the both of us.
"Alrighty then. How about you both get settled in I will start dinner and then we will see where that takes us." He says not in the asking way. Prim is too busy running around her room so I look at him and nod.
"Okay we will be down in a minute." I say while he turns and heads to the stairs.
I look back at Prim. "I am going to be in my room if you need anything just come and get me." I say this quickly knowing that she is not even listening to me. She mumbles a "Mumuu." and then she runs into her closet. I laugh and walk to my room. When I walk in I am still in shock at how awesome the room is. I walk over to the window and look through all the boxes that are lined up by the window. I look and stare at the ocean view that is in front of me. I see a group of guys playing volleyball in the distance and in the crashing waves a couple of surfers.
I sigh and continue looking at the boxes that are all labeled clothes, books, shoes, blankets, and school supplies. I decide to start with the clothes so I have an excuse for looking in my closet. I grab the five boxes that are stuffed with clothes and set them on the large couch in the middle of my room. I open each one and dump them out. When I was packing I didn't even think to sort the clothes, plus it gives me an excuse to stay in my room a little longer.
I start to sort the clothes into jeans, t-shirts, tank-tops, sweaters, shorts, sweat pants, and swimsuits. When I am done sorting out all my clothes I take all my shirts, sweaters, and tank-tops and open my closet. When I do I gasp. The lights are already on; glowing from the small crystal chandler hanging in the middle of the room. There is a small no back couch in the middle of the room that has a small table in the middle of it. When I continue to look around I see the closet area is slit up into four areas for hanging up clothes. And at the bottom of each section is an area for jeans and shorts and other bottoms. Then there is a whole area still dedicated for just shoes. At the end there is a three way mirror and next to it is a door that leads to the bathroom. (I know this because the door is open).
I set all the tops on the couch and sit down taking all this in. This is probably the best place that mom has sent us. By far. I look around the room once more then grab a handful of the wooden hangers on the closets rod.
I quickly finish hanging up the clothes and go back into my room to grab my jeans and shorts. I walk back into the closet and put the jeans into one drawer, my sweats into another, and my shorts into another. I then run back into the room and grab my four swimsuits, then run back into the closet and place them in another drawer then sigh.
I then walk out of the closet out of my new room and walk to Prim's room to find her lying on her bed playing with her laptop that mom got her for getting straight A's. "Hi Little Duck. Did you finish unpacking? At least some of it?" I say jumping on her bed. She laughs and nods.
"Hey Katniss," the computer says. I jump up.
"What was that?" I say looking around. Prim giggles.
"It was Rue. We are skyping! Say hi!" Prim says pushing the computer over to me. When I look down at the computer screen, Rues little face is on the screen smiling at me.
"Hi Rue." I say.
I then hear loud footsteps marching up the stairs.
"Girls! Dinner is ready!" I stand up and wave at Rue.
"I will so you tomorrow! Night!" I tell her and walk out of the room. Haymitch is at the front of the stairs.
"Hey sweetheart. I made grilled cheese hope you don't mind. Where is the little girl?" He asks looking behind me.
"She is finishing up talking with her friend Rue. That was the little girl that was here today." I tell Haymitch as we walk down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Oh, that boy that was with her was her brother right?'' He asks. I nod.
"Yeah Thresh. We worked together last summer. We are friends. I think he has a girlfriend here. I forget her name though." I tell him following him to the kitchen. It is behind two swinging doors.
When we step in I gasp. The kitchen is an Italian theme with a white marble island in the middle. There are three plates set in the middle of the island. Each plate is a different color.
"You go ahead and pick your plate. I will be in the living room. All you have to do is walk straight if you want to find me. I don't really care how long you both stay up but I would recommend going to be early because I am not letting you stay in the house all day tomorrow. Plus your friends are early risers I see them running all over the beach at nine in the morning. I hope you have as much energy as them." He says grabbing a plate of food.
"Okay and thank you again for letting us stay with you. And thank you again for the rooms. It was really nice of you." I say following his lead and grabbing the green plate full of grilled cheese. He nods.
"Glad you are happy." he says then walks out.
I pull up a stool and start to eat my dinner. I sit there for about a minute when Prim comes walking into the kitchen.
"Wow. This place is amazing I can't wait for tomorrow. Rue says that Thresh can't wait to introduce you to all his friends. Rue says most of them are boys but they all have girlfriends but one. So you can make friends with them!" Prim says happily. I just smile.
"Can't wait." I mumble.
Prim and I finish dinner and went to my room to watch a movie. We ended up watching The Notebook. One because that is Prim's favorite movie, and two because I was tired and I didn't care what we watched. Right now we are in the middle of the movie and Prim is fast asleep at my side. I sigh and grab the remote to turn off the TV. When I do the only light that is in my room is the light of the moon. I close my eyes and fall asleep into a dreamless night.
END OF CHAPTER ONE
Okayy this is the first chapter! I hope you liked it! PLEASE review! if i get at least one review I will post the other chapter! I will probably post it anyway but PLEASE REVIEW!
xx Kai