Who: Scott, Clint, and Natasha What: Cassie's birthday party Where: Victor's Village, District 12 When: Nine years ago
Birthdays were something of a foreign concept for Scott growing up. With his house a revolving door of neighborhood children, that particular anniversary tended to slip his mother's mind, and he often got a harried happy birthday wish two or three days after it had occurred. It was a non-event, something you might notice on a calendar and spend a moment being mildly interested in. The idea that there was anything more to it had come wholly from Maggie, whose upbringing hadn't been quite so.. sparse. When the subject of Cassie's first birthday had arisen, his wife was quick to insist on what she considered birthday staples: cake, some balloons, a few presents. It was nothing garish, certainly not by Capitol standards, but felt pretty luxurious to Scott. Especially for a one year old. Who ever remembered being one?
They'd compromised, settling on cupcakes and a few practical toys, but there was something about the way Cassie had meticulously destroyed the cake-for-one that had made him want to do it again the next year, with more cake and more people. By the time Cassie was three, Scott was inviting friends and family members to witness the demolition, and two years later, it had become a yearly event. Cassie was old enough to consciously enjoy the celebration, then, and had some very strong opinions on which cake, exactly, she would take part in obliterating.
Scott, for his part, liked the excuse to gather with friends. Maggie was well-known in town, and the guest list was comprised of mostly her invitees, but he had a handful of people that he liked to open the house to. A few were friends from the District that he'd known for years and always enjoyed seeing, even if he felt like the part of him that had been close to them hadn't left the arena. The others were Victors, who more accurately understood Scott, his troubled sleeping patterns, and his impotent rage.
He and Clint, for example, had grown particularly close since Scott had joined Murderers Not-So-Anonymous - enough to warrant a standing invitation to District 12. Cassie's birthday was just a good excuse to actually make the trip.
The house was the only one lit up in the neighborhood, making it easy to see that the party had reached maximum chaos from the entrance to the Village. Cassie and several girls from the schoolhouse were tearing around the first floor like a pack of tiny, sugar-filled wolves, upsetting the few decorations - how many shades of pink were there - that Maggie had insisted on putting up. When the doorbell rang, the pack descended on the front of the house before Scott could even think to leave the living room, and Cassie pulled open the large front door without hesitation. They were still working on Stranger Danger. "What's the password?" But at least she had security in mind.