Haymitch feels guilty for his part in the reaping of Katniss and Peeta:
"I gotta get this off my chest now: the odds were 100% in favor of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark well before The Reaping of the 74th Games. See, Katniss was the perfect proto-Mockingjay and she and Peeta made the perfect proto-couple so I set them up - in the exact right place, at the exact right time - for the war against the Capitol.
"Actually, it was Plutarch and I who stacked the deck so that Katniss and Peeta were selected for the 74th Games. I kinda wish she knew the truth so I could have one less guilty secret on what passes for my crappy conscience but she'd probably kill me if I told her the truth. So I'm writing it down and hiding it in my victor's house where she'll find it if she looks through the house af ter I'm gone. Then she'll probably go kill Plutarch.
"Plutarch recruited me into his rebel organization years ago because he liked my cover – a drunken victor in a rotten mood. He told me (I'm trying to quote here) "The very i-de-a that anyone would entrust highly sensitive, indeed dangerous, information to you-ou is ri-di-culous, therefore you would be a perfect rebel if you could be just a leettle more sober when we need you?" in that stupid Capitol accent. After my experience in the Games and after the Games I hated the Capitol with all that was left of me, and I wanted to kill off Snow even more than I wanted to be oblivious to the lifetime of boredom and sorrow I faced. So I perfected the art of partial sobriety that looks blind drunk and I got away with a lot of rude staring at the people of District 12, though the ones I was really interested in were the kids who might be tributes. Plutarch had plans for the 74th and 75th games and he needed the right tributes to play the parts he planned. About a month before the 74th Reaping Day, I proposed two possibles: Katniss and Gale Hawthorne.
"See, Plutarch intended to manipulate and choreograph the 74th and 75th games to unite all twelve districts together against the Capitol, and to ignite the rebellions already smoldering in maybe half the districts. Most of these rebel groups were fighting not the Capitol, but their own Peacekeepers. By and large the people of Panem hated the Capitol, but their personal goals were mostly just to stay alive to the next sunrise. We needed a greater goal – to bring down the Capitol – and a leadership that would unite all the districts against the one enemy – President Snow. We needed someone to personify the rebellion the way Snow personified the Capitol. This is all Plutarch's words, by the way. I could never come up with this kind of stuff. Plutarch's idea was that the Hunger Games are the only thing all districts have a stake in, so an icon of rebellion could arise naturally from the games, with a little of his manuevering. Plutarch's plot would start with two tributes from one district and the Games would mold him, her or both of them into this icon. I didn't get how Plutarch was going to pull this off, but he was confident he could do it. Plutarch told me to look for a girl with the skills and the spunk to get out alive, and a boy who would easily grow a crush on her.
"Well, Katniss was the obvious girl. The only girl really. You watch that girl striding through the Hob, trading and bartering, and you know #1. she can take care of herself, and #2. she's smarter than any tribute since maybe me. Smarter than Beetee, even if she doesn't understand electricity and whatnot. I mostly saw Katniss in the Hob and it's a rough crowd in there, but there weren't many guys who didn't stand up straighter, suck in the gut, and generally brighten up when she came in. The young guys like Darius were getting to be more and more like flies around a pot of honey with Katniss in the Hob. The boy she hunted with – Gale – I could see him getting more and more uncomfortable with all these lusty flies around Katniss. He clearly thought of Katniss as his girl. But you could tell she had no idea. She was as oblivious to all this attention as it was possible to be and not be blind, deaf and dumb.
"I figured Katniss and Gale were the tributes Plutarch was looking for but he didn't want Gale after all. Gale's fire would draw the women, but not the men, Plutarch said. Gale would be a rebel soldier anyway, he was already headed in that direction. I didn't really understand what Plutarch wanted in his male tribute, but eventually I stumbled upon a Town kid, good looking and likable, strong and capable but with a different set of skills than Katniss had, and already in love with her: the baker's kid. I've been in the bakery while Peeta waited affably on women and girls and seemed a perfect gentleman. I've been in the bakery when Katniss was there and Peeta almost froze hisself into a loaf of bread.
"So Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen were set to be the tributes from District 12.
"That year there were two sets of reaping balls. The Capitol's set had a couple thousand names and Gale's name 42 times, Katniss's name 20 times, Madge's name 4 times and Prim's name once. Our set had thousands of pieces of paper with (I assumed) Katniss's name in the girl's ball and Peeta's name in the boy's ball. I switched the Capitol's reaping balls with our reaping balls before Effie arrived. I hugged Effie on the stage so she would be in no state to notice anything odd, and I fell off the stage to get the cameras off the balls and so that I'd be back in the Justice Building to take charge of both sets of Reaping Balls before anyone could discover what we'd done. That was the one act I performed for the rebellion that required bravery, not so much because I was afraid I'd get caught, but because it was a pretty a rotten thing to do to Katniss and Peeta. But ever body sacrifices in a war, says Plutarch.
"Now, I have to say that I did not believe that Plutarch could pull his big idea off. I didn't believe that specially selecting the tributes for one district could have any effect on the outcome of the Games. When the ceremony got underway I assumed Effie Trinket would hollar out "Katniss Everdeen!" Instead she called Prim's name. I was surprised when she called Prim, but not when Katniss volunteered to take her sister's place. And then I was surprised by the crowd. They made no sound when Effie asked for a big round of applause. Instead they silently gave Katniss District 12's traditional gesture of respect, an act of rebellion itself. That was when I started to believe that whatever Plutarch was planning might actually happen.
Peeta stays calm and thoughtful when his name is called at the Reaping:
I'm stunned when I hear my name called out by Effie Trinket and realize that I'm going to the Games. I don't fear death, really, death is probably like just another day in District 12. I haven't known much pain in my life, unless you count the pain of loving Katniss Everdeen without having the guts to try to talk to her. I don't imagine physical pain could be that much worse than the stab I feel when I catch her eye at school and let my gaze drift away, for the 1000th time, and I go through that a couple of times a week.
I realize that I'm not much concerned with staying alive. I manage to enjoy myself day-to-day in school, in the bakery, with my friends when there's time. But no one depends on me and I haven't got that much to look forward to in the future. The bakery probably won't support both my brothers and me too, especially if one or more of us gets married and has kids. These thoughts pass by in a flash and then I'm shaking hands with Katniss and her hand feels electric crossing my palm. I notice her startled glance at me and then we're hustled off stage to separate rooms, for goodbyes.
My mother pops in for a moment, says something unpleasant and leaves. My brothers and my father are more affected by my predicament. We never paid more attention to the Games than is absolutely necessary, and we never talked about what if one of us was reaped. Both my brothers remind of my wrestling skills, that's got to be useful, they say. We joke about a baker at the Games, then my brothers say they'll miss me and bow out before it gets too emotional. My dad stays a few minutes longer, not saying much. Just as he gets up to go he looks me in the eye and says "Maybe some good will come of this, son. You never know." I know his story with Katniss's mother, and he knows mine with Katniss. Hopeless romantics, me and my Dad.
My gang of friends are waiting when my dad leaves. They are most of them upset and pretty much at loss for something to say. "Shit, man . . ." is about the most eloquent contribution, but I appreciate being in a crowd of friends one last time. Then they're ushered out, whether they like it or not, and I'm hustled to the car with Katniss.
For everyone but the Everdeens, Hawthornes, and Mellarks it's a holiday now.
Katniss is correct that in the Seam after the Reaping most houses are cheerfully lit, windows flung open, with laughing and cheerful voices cutting through the drone of the old TV's playing the reapings of the other 11 Districts. The residents are required to watch; generally the adults of each house take it in turns to watch for Peacekeepers, and if one shows up they all quiet down and swivel to the TV.
The bakery can't afford to close on the night of a celebration, but only the mother is working behind the counter. She is so tough she can sell bread and cake and cookies the night her son was taken away to die, yet no one would dare to offer a word of sympathy. A word of sympathy might have done her good, but she had cultivated her tough exterior until no one (even she) knew there was a mother underneath. Such were the cruelties of Panem that a woman could bury her real personality under the armor she required to keep herself going.
The Everdeen's house is quiet.
Prim sits sobbing in her mother's lap, her head on her mother's shoulder. Her mother has already spread a diaper over her shoulder so that Prim's face wouldn't chafe against the tears she'd already shed, and she holds another in one hand to mop the new tears as they well up.
"I heard my name and I thought 'Katniss, help me!'"
"Of course you did, dear, Katniss was always ready to help you."
"But I didn't realize that this time if she helped me she would have to go."
"But Katniss understood that, Prim, and she would have volunteered even if you had not thought of it. She wanted to save you from the Games. Even if you had not wanted her to, she would have done it."
The tears that Ahngora, Katniss's mother, held back for Prim's sake threatened to spill over, but Prim is a healer too and she knows her mother suffers.
"Tell me, Mamma. If you tell me why you cry you'll feel better."
"Now Katniss may never know how much I love her."
"She doesn't know? How can she not know?"
"You will be a healer when you get older, like me, but Katniss takes after her father more than she does me. She didn't understand how I could be so sick when your father was killed. She was frightened and later she was angry with me."
"But you couldn't help being sick."
"Nobody knows what makes people get sick in that way. We cannot be sure I could not stop it. But you must help me stay well for you."
"What can I do Mamma?"
"Make sure I take my medicine. Help me make of list of things to do while you are at school every day. And we must walk in the sunshine every chance we get. Sunshine is good for your mind."
"Katniss used to say she felt happier when the sun was shining even though there was nothing to be happy about."
"We must not get used to thinking of her in the past. She is still alive, and she is well trained for a wilderness life. She may come home."
"Oh, Mamma, do you think so?"
"I must not think so, or I will be too disappointed if she does not. But I will hope so, with all my heart, and so must you, Prim. She will feel our love and our confidence in the Arena and it will help her sometimes. The more we think about her, the better."
Prim begins to sob again. "Wouldn't it be better if I had gone? You can spare me more easily."
"I can't spare either of you, Prim. Katniss couldn't spare you either. She loves you more than anybody else. And though Katniss feeds our bodies, you feed our hearts. A heart is nothing without its body and a body is nothing without its heart. You are both necessary to us."
"But you must be wrong to say Katniss doesn't know you love her. I can't believe she doesn't know that."
"She was very scared when your father died and I couldn't take care of you. When she began to hunt and we all started to get better again she was angry at me because she had been so frightened. She is still angry, but she is young, and there is so much to learn about love. You will always love easily, but for Katniss it is harder. She doesn't trust other people with her heart."
"I don't know what you mean."
"Perhaps in a few years you will."
Prim and Ahngora spend the night talking and crying and sometimes laughing as well when a funny memory intrudes. After milking her goat and trying to eat breakfast Prim sets off to school, still in her dress from the Reaping Day. The next day when Ahngora and Prim watch the opening ceremonies they are astonished by a new Katniss they have never seen before: the Girl on Fire.
Peeta asks to see Haymitch alone on the day before the interviews.
"A'right kid, you got me alone now. What is it you cain't say in front of Katniss?"
"I'm in love with her."
"No kidding!"
"Can you tell? I mean, can anyone tell just by looking?"
"Naw. But I know you from home and I seen you freeze up when she comes in the bakery. But I ain't surprised when a man's gotta crush on her. She comes into the Hob, jest about ever body perks up. They all like her. And she don't notice nuthin. She's clueless."
"If I'm going to die in the Arena, I want her to know. And let's face it, I probably will die in the Arena, I'm not exactly Games material. I don't even want to be Games material. But I'd be happier if I knew that she knows that all these years I've loved her as much as a boy can love a girl."
"How many years you talkin' 'bout?"
"Since I was in first grade."
"Sounds like you got a story to tell. So tell it."
Peeta stares out the window so he doesn't have to see Haymitch's face and tells Haymitch about himself and Katniss, his father and Katniss' mother. He tells Haymitch how the birds stopped to listen when Katniss sang on the first day of school. Peeta even tells Haymitch about the bread, the one interaction with Katniss in the eleven years since Peeta first saw her. Haymitch listens thoughtfully, and stays silent and thoughtful when Peeta finishes. Peeta's eyes remain on the window, but he's no longer seeing the view, he's seeing the girl with two braids and a red plaid dress standing on a stool and singing while the kids and the birds listen.
Haymitch finally speaks, "Well, kid, I respect your feelings and that, but the thing is – you can use this to your advantage in the Arena so now since I'm your mentor, I gotta tell you how. 'Cause this kind of thing will bring in the sponsors. And the sponsors are your best friends when you need a good meal or you really belong in the hospital."
"I'd rather use it to Katniss's advantage."
"You got a death wish?"
"No, I'd really rather live happily ever after with her when this is all over."
"Well, think of that as your goal. Don't question me on that, just accept it. And don't tell nobody I said that to you. NO body, you hear? Nobody."
"Wow."
"It don't really matter how much you prepare for the games, or how much of the good stuff you get out of the Cornucopia, or how big and strong you are, there are a couple a things you cain't do much to control. One is what audience thinks of you, one is the brains behind the Games, and the last one is pure luck. You got no control over luck. But you gotta believe you might be lucky. You, not that blond bruiser from Distrist 2 or the oversized ox from 11. You, Peeta from District 12, you might get lucky."
"So, no thinking I can't hack it."
"Right. And with this here story you got 'n opportunity."
"So what do I with it?"
"You musta had something in your mind about the interview, right?
"Right, I was wondering if I could tell it in my interview, how I feel about her."
"Sure you can. Caesar loves to talk about stuff like that. Give him half a chance and he'll be asking all about your girl. You wanna practice it, me quizzing you?"
"No, I'm ok now that I've said it out loud. I could do it again."
"So, BUT, there a couple of things you gotta know about Katniss. You notice how the first thing she asked me about was a strategy thing? She's gonna think this love story is your strategy. Then when you finally get her alone she's gonna be hard to convince that this is for real and not something you cooked up with me this morning to gain sympathy from the spectators."
"Um, I'm not sure I understand that."
"See, some tributes use strategies to trick other tributes or influence the audience. Couple years ago a tribute pretended she was scared of ever thing, in the training and when they got to the arena. After the bloodbath was over, turned out she was faking. She was a killer, that girl. And she won. So that's a strategy."
"How can me loving Katniss be a strategy?"
"It'll make the audience feel for you so you get some sponsors. Could be you want to show a weak side so the other tributes don't expect a fierce competitor. Lotsa ways you could spin it."
"But I'm sincere."
"I know you are, kid, I don't doubt you. But Katniss will and the other tributes will. You don't care what the other tributes think. But here's another thing about Katniss. That boy she hunts with – he's in love with her too, and she gots no idea. Not a clue. Don't know how that could be, but so it is."
"How do you know Gale's in love with Katniss?"
"I see 'em together practically ever day in the Hob, trading and such. All the guys in there try to flirt with her. She don't notice it, but that boy she hunts with does. He don't like it much, other guys flirting with her."
"So I've got a rival?"
"I wouldn't worry about that so much as I would to get her convinced you're telling the truth, period. See what you got here is real life that is also good Games strategy. She'll have to sort out what's strategy and what's real, and you want to help her with that."
"This is so confusing."
"Naw, it ain't confusing. Love is real simple; if you feel it you should tell her, 'cause you might not have another chance. But you gotta look at it from her side. These here are the Games and nobody trusts nobody at the Games. So she might not believe it at first. She might be hard to convince. Ain't so different from real life actually. They don't always know when you're sincere or just flirting."
"Should I try to team up with her?"
"Naw. If I was you I'd try to do something for her first. They don't usually have bow 'n arrows at the Games 'cause most cain't use 'em. But I betcha they have a real fine one for her after her shot at the Gamesmakers. Only I don't want her at the bloodbath. So you figger out how to get that weapon yourself, then you team up."
Peeta can't sleep the night before the tributes are taken to the Arena and he hopes writing his thoughts down will calm his spinning head.
I can't sleep and my Hovercraft will come to take me to the arena in just a few hours. I wonder if anyone will ever read this. Maybe they'll send it home with my clothes and stuff, and my mother will probably just throw it out.
Like I told Katniss, I don't think I'm a real contender in these Games. I have no survival skills, I don't like fighting, and the whole thing just – ugh – . But I'm not sorry I was reaped, not really. And because I was reaped I got to tell Katniss (and the rest of Panem) that I love her.
What I was fretting about up on the roof just now, that I don't want to die as just another piece in the Capitol's Game – I just realized that I've already taken care of that! Sure, they're using me as a pawn in their game of revenge and fear. But I used them too! I used Caesar Flickerman to get the message to Katniss that I love her. A lot of boys like her, but I love her. With that secret off my chest I'm more myself than I've even been. Too bad I didn't think of that until after Katniss left in a huff, though it might not have made any difference. For one thing, I don't think she believes me that I love her. She's practically oblivious to anyone's feelings about her, according to Haymitch. And my philosophical musing on the roof irritated her survival instincts, which were already turned to MAX.
I'm glad Haymitch and Cinna and Portia made us be friendly with each other during the training days. I understand that the Katniss I love is partly a romantic ideal but some of the things I love in her are definitely real. I love that birds listen when she sings. I love that she keeps her family alive with rabbits and squirrels and food from the meadow. I love that she strolls daily through the Hob, a place I'm afraid to visit. I love the look of her: her thick dark hair I want to lose myself in, wide grey eyes that always seem focused on something behind me, her slender, graceful figure as she stalks through the school. I love her enigmatic quiet and her penchant for solitude. Now I have a few more notes on her character. My dad was right, something good has come of this.
I've just had an idea. Those landmines we've been warned about, the ones that detonate if we step off the circles that bring us up to the arena: I wonder if those could be salvaged and rearmed. As Katniss hikes away to find water I could get one of the District 3 tributes to talk about rearming them. We could join the careers with a weapon like that. I figure the careers will concentrate on Thresh and Katniss, so if I'm working with them I could spread some disinformation about Katniss, then maybe escape them and be Katniss's ally.
Well, my mind's clear now so I guess I'm ready for the Games, as ready as I'll ever be . . .