27th Throw - [ written - private from Cato ]

[shenevermisses]

[The arguing with Cato has been... difficult. So has trying to get her head on right. The last draft reminded her what she's good at, but it also reminded her that she's only good at that.

Doing a bit of cleaning and organizing? Meant she found a stuffed bear and picture she'd hidden a long time ago. A picture from the world in which she and Cato won the Games and were crowned co-Victors.

Where she had a baby girl.]

I always wanted kids.

That was my plan at the Academy, actually. Before the Reaping.

I was going to graduate, take over my dad's job as foreman of the marble quarry near our village, get married, and have kids. I always wanted at least two. A boy and a girl.

A couple shifts here gave me part of that.

I hadn't died in my world, and I had a daughter.

[A pause, and she writes a correction.]

We hadn't died. We had a daughter.

Just before I left my District, my mom found out she was pregnant. I went home that weekend to see my parents, and they were getting along better than ever. They actually seemed to like being around each other.

Maybe kids help.

[Maybe kids would help.]

Comments

[notsosolo]

Anything that extreme backfires sooner or later.

[shenevermisses]

It worked for seventy-five years, at least. After that, there was a war again.

[notsosolo]

There would be. I'm surprised it took that long.

[shenevermisses]

The Games came about because of a brutal war. No one wanted another.

[notsosolo]

That's where the Empire came from.

We wound up in another one within decades anyway.

[But what option had they had? Let them keep destroying planets?]

[shenevermisses]

I'm kind of sorry I didn't get to see it. The war, I mean.