Tidal ~ Hunger Games [2]

four

+ chicken +

I walked back into the kitchen slowly, Kai trailing along behind me as the wooden floors felt cool against my bare feet. The conversation in the kitchen was still flowing as if I never even left, mom staind next to Mags and Molly at the marble island as they worked at chopping a large bag that was full of different types of vegetables that were spilling out of it. Kai walked over to the table, where Haf, Finnick and Zale all sat, sorting different types of silver cans of different foods.

"You alright, sweetheart?" my dad asked, being the first one to notice I was back, which just made everyone stop talking and turning towards me, staring with beady eyes. "Yeah, just fine" I said with a forced straight smile, pointing at my mother quickly as I cleared my throat. "Can I help?" I asked her as she looked over at Mags quickly, who was still slowly cutting the potato that was on the board in front of her.

"Firth and Talisa have gone to the basement freezer with all the poultry, you could go give them a hand" she replied to me as Kai slapped Haf and Finnick up the back of the head, which was enough to make them both stop staring at me. "Sure" I said as I looked around quickly, having no idea where the basment door was as my dad pointed through the archway, making me push out a smile to say thank you as I walked towards it. I knew that the look my mother and mentor had shared wasn't normal, but I wasn't too focused on trying to figure out what it meant.

The conversation picked up again as I found myself in a small box room connected to the kitchen that had three tall white doors surounding it. I pulled one open, taking a random guess, just for it to be the wrong one, a large pantry that was stocked full with cans and bags of flour and sugar all stocked up on the shelves. "Behind you, pumkin" dad shouted to me as I closed the door again, turning arounf the door behind me as I opened it, revealing a large wooden staircase into a small lighted room, the sounds of Firth and Talisa'a voice coming into earshot. "Thank you" I replied as I took a step down onto the stiarcase, leaving the door at the top open as I walked down the stairs.

"Chicken?" I heard Talisa ask as the sounud of her voice got closer, the lightbulb hanging from the cieling not offering too much light for the small, cold room. "I've never seen a chicken before" Firth said as they both came into view, the stair I took a step onto letting out a loud creek as both of them turned towards me. There was a large white freezer next to them, the lid pushed open as they stood with about 5 open crates surrounding them, filled up with different types of meat wrapped in paper.

"Is this a chicken?" Talisa asked me as I walked down the last few stairs, looking at the paper she was holding that had a fillet of pinkish meat in it. I looked at it for a moment, furrowing my eyebrows as I got chills from the cold air emitting from the freezer. "I'm not sure" I said with small shrug of my shoulders, Talisa sighing as she brought it closer to her face, inspecting it. "You've had chicken before" Firth said to Talisa as he leaned down, grabbing another package of the meat as he stacked it into the freezer.

"Doesn't mean I've ever seen one raw" Talisa said to him with a roll of her eyes, folding the paper back up as she handed it over to him. "I've been sent to help"  I said to the two of them as I bent down to pick up a package of meat from the crate, the hard bones distinguishing it as lamb. "Mags wouldn't let you near the knives?" Talisa asked me as she raised her eyebrows, making me shake my head at her. "Nope" I replied, having guessed that was why I wasn't allowed to be on chopping duty.

"Well, lets hope you're better at identifying poultry than your brainy boyfriend here" she said as she pulled out more packages, throwing them into the freezer as I passed the one I was holding to Firth as he held it in his hand. "I can identify 170 types of fish" Firth said to her as she let out a snort, rolling her eyes once again, not finding that impressive. "So can the rest of us" I said to him with a small smile on my face, Firth letting out a a defensive breath as he held his hands out on either side of him.

"I grew up in the water, not on a farm" Firth said as Talisa nodded her head slowly, narrowing her eyes at him. "I grew up in an academy yet I can still tell you what a cod looks like" Talisa said as I smiled at Fifth, waiting for a comeback as he awkwardly cleared his throat. I could tell that he was uncomfortable talking about anything that was to do with the games, especially that my victory was so fresh. "You're going to be eating for years off of all of this" Firth said quickly as he looked down at all of the meat, nodding his head towards it as he picked up more.

"Swap it at the market" Talisa said quickly as i looked over at her, making her shrug her shoulders as she picked up a package, throwing it in the air before she caught it again. "Gladys will give you 7 bottles of spirit for a rack of lamb" she told me as both Fifth and I stared at her for a moment, making her sigh as she looked over at me. "Don't act like you're surprised" she said as I nodded my head, not expecting anything else from her as I picked up another package before handing it to Firth.

"Does everyone get a package of meat?" I asked Talisa as she stacked up onto of the boxes onto an empty one, looking back up at me. "In a can sure" she said with a shrug as I stared at her, making her straighten up as she ran her hand through her hair. "You're the victor, this stuff comes straight front the Capitol" Talisa said with an eyebrow raise as I nodded my head in reply, knowing that the amount of food I was getting was enough to feed the whole district for a night.

"Pity a chef doesn't come with it" I said to her as she let out a breath which was supposed to be a laugh, an agreeing look on her face as she nodded her head. "The lamb stew" she said with a small sigh as she looked over to me, making me let out a laugh as I nodded my head in agreement, having missed the taste of the food that we were given an abundance of. None of us said anyhting as Firth cleared his throat uncomfortably, picking up a package as he unfolded the paper delicately.

"Chicken?" Firth asked as he held it out for the two of us to look at it, both Talisa ans I leaning over to look inside of it. "That's venison" I said at the same time as Talisa chimed in with "Venison". Firth nodded his head slowly as he wrapped it back up tightly before placing it down next to the rest of the venison which sat in the corner of the freezer.

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A/N: honestly you can except a bunch of Talisa chapters because i love writing her character because she's got so much depth to her
please do not forget to vote and comment and I will see you all again soon