Somewhere along the way -Katelyn oneshot-

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KATELYN PERSIMMON

Katelyn stood in front of Annora Taylor’s headstone, recalling the ceremony that had been held when they had first arrived back home. She had respects to pay, and maybe more than that. There were dozens of tombs in the graveyard, probably enough to account for all the fallen tributes district eleven had had in seventy-one years. She rested a hand on the marker in front of her. More would join Annora in the years to come. There was no way around it, and that weighed on her. But she had more to do than think of the future. Katelyn walked around the tribute graveyard and searched for one marker in particular.

Potato Earnest.

It looked so forlorn.

How had it fallen into such disrepair? Many, but not all of the gravestones had seen better days, but even so this one was more recent. How did it have weeds growing over it already? And…nightshade? There was some nightshade growing by it. Then she remembered that his parents had passed. Maybe there was no one to visit him. Did he have any siblings? She couldn’t remember. But she knew what she was there for. She started to uproot the weeds and tossed them to the side to collect later. “You don’t know me.” She said to the gravestone. “But I know your wife. She tells me we could have been good friends. That I could have been a good mentor to you.” Katelyn wiped some of the grime away and traced the letters of his name.

"I remember watching you in the games. You were strong. I don’t think Opal realizes how strong she is too.” A sigh escaped her lips as she turned to the wheelbarrow by her side, enjoying the earthen smell of the dirt and the tart scent of the berries. She planted the strawberry patches in rows around the grave in the shape of a heart, nearly two dozen in all to encircle it. It was the best she could do and she hoped it would be enough. The way the Capitol was about inter-district travel outside of the victory tour, it was probable that Opal would never get to visit her husband’s grave until the next time district one had a victor; and there was no telling when that would be.

The alternative was letting the Capitol blackmail her for having done her a special favor. Katelyn knew something like that had happened to Mace, though she didn’t know all the details, and she wanted better for the people she considered friends. Finally, after two hours of work it looked presentable. Like someone still cared. Like the young man in the grave still mattered. Katelyn breathed deeply and made up her mind to talk to the groundskeeper, see what she could do to help maintain the graveyard as a whole. Maybe see if she could find some other people to help. Her words carried weight in eleven; it was one of the few perks of being a victor in the public eye.

“Don’t you worry about a thing Mr. Earnest,” she said quietly as she got the camera out. She’d bought it in the capitol before she left. “Me and her other friends are here for her. She’s in good hands.” The shutter clicked and Katelyn exhaled. It’d be a couple months before she saw Opal again, but she swore to herself that she wouldn’t forget to bring the picture with her.

That’s what friends were for, weren’t they?

"When you’ve lost your way, when you have no words,
we are your strength, when you don’t have anymore. "

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