Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games (2008)

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By the end of the session, I am no one at all. Haymitch started drinking somewhere around witty, and a nasty edge has crept into his voice. "I give up, sweetheart. Just answer the questions and try not to let the audience see how openly you despise them.

Suzanne Collins
I search his eyes for the slightest sign of anything, fear, remorse, anger. But there's only the same look of amusement that ended our last conversation. It's as if he's speaking the words again. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other." He's right. We did. The point of my arrow shifts upward. I release the string. And President Coin collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead.

Suzanne Collins
I never see these things coming. They happen too fast. One second you're proposing an escape plan and the next...

Suzanne Collins
I reach out to touch his cheek and he catches my hand and presses it against his lips.

Suzanne Collins
That was the one thing I had going for me. Taking care of your family.

Suzanne Collins
Charred bits of black silk swirl into the air, and pearls clatter to the stage… I'm in a dress of the exact design of my wedding dress, only it's the color of coal and made of tiny feathers. Wonderingly, I lift my long, flowing sleeves into the air, and that's when I see myself on the television screen. Clothed in black except for the white patches on my sleeves. Or should I say my wings. Because Cinna had turned me into a mockingjay.

Suzanne Collins
Peeta bakes. I hunt. Haymitch drinks until the liquor runs out.

Suzanne Collins
The way she kissed you in the Quarter Quell…well she never kissed me like that…I should have volunteered to take your place in the first Games. Protected her then…I guess it's Katniss' problem. Who to choose…Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't survive without.

Suzanne Collins
They more than do their work, they take pride in it. Like Cinna.

Suzanne Collins
Great. Now I have to go back and tell Haymitch I want an eighty-year-old and Nuts and Volts for my allies. He'll love that.

Suzanne Collins
So, here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down then, eh? says Caesar encouragingly. I don't think it's going to work out. Winning…won't help in my case, says Peeta. Why ever not? says Caesar, mystified. Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. Because…because…she came here with me.

Suzanne Collins
It's funny, because even though they're rattling on about the Games, it's all about where they were or what they were doing or how they felt when a specific event occurred.... Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena

Suzanne Collins
In really bad times, the hungriest would gather at his door at nightfall, vying for the chance to earn a few coins to feed their families by selling their bodies. Had I been older when my father died, I might have been among them. Instead I learned to hunt.

Suzanne Collins
Really, the combination of the scabs and the ointment looks hideous. I can't help enjoying his distress. "Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven't looked pretty?" I say. "It must be. The sensation's completely new. How have you managed it all these years?" he asks. "Just avoid mirrors. You'll forget about it," I say. "Not if I keep looking at you," he says.

Suzanne Collins
But Mockingjays were never a weapon," said Madge. "They're just songbirds. Right?" "Yeah, I guess so, I said, But it's not true. A mockingbird is just a songbird. A mockingjay is a creature the capitol never intended to exist. They hadn't counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to thrive in a new form. They hadn't anticipated its will to live.

Suzanne Collins
The audience must be sick to death of the star-crossed lovers from District 12. I know I am.

Suzanne Collins
I look down at our linked fingers as I loosen my grasp, but he regains his grip on me. No, don't let go of me, he says.

Suzanne Collins
If it's true, why do they leave us to live like this? With the hunger and the killings and the Games?" And suddenly I hate this imaginary underground city of District 13 and those who sit by, watching us die. They're no better than the Capitol.

Suzanne Collins
As coal pressured into pearls by our weighty existence. Beauty that arose out of pain.

Suzanne Collins
And then, when he's been underwater so long I feel certain he's drowned, his head pops up right next to me and I start. Don't do that, I say. What? Come up or stay under? he says. Either. Neither. Whatever

Suzanne Collins
And so I'm stupid for thinking they might be useful. Because of something Johanna Mason said while she was oiling her breasts for wrestling.

Suzanne Collins
It means we're on your side." That's what Bonnie said. I have people on my side? What side? Am I unwittingly the face of the hoped-for rebellion? Has the mockingjay on my pin become a symbol of resistance? If so, my side's not doing too well.

Suzanne Collins
Come on and eat with him. I promise, I won't let him kiss you again.

Suzanne Collins
The heat of the bread burned into my skin, but I clutched it tighter, clinging to life.

Suzanne Collins
He could have had his choice of any woman in the district. And he chose solitude. Not solitude – that sounds too peaceful. More like solitary confinement.

Suzanne Collins
Because I'm selfish. I'm a coward. I'm the kind of girl who, when she might actually be of use, would run to stay alive and leave those who couldn't follow to suffer and die.

Suzanne Collins
Something keeps me moving forward, though. A lifetime of watching the Hunger Games lets me know that certain areas of the arena are rigged for certain attacks. And that if I can just get away from this section, I might be able to move out of reach of the launchers. I might also then fall straight into a pit of vipers, but I can't worry about that now.

Suzanne Collins
I do plan on saying one or two things to him when we're allowed an hour for goodbyes. To let him know how essential he's been to me all these years. How better my life has been for knowing him." -Katniss Everdeen

Suzanne Collins
I cover my face with my arms because this isn't happening. It isn't possible. For someone to make Peeta forget he loves me... no one can do that.

Suzanne Collins
This perplexing, good natured boy who can spin out lies so convincingly to be hopelessly in love with me... and I admit it there are moments when he makes me believe it myself.

Suzanne Collins