Author's Notes: After being out of the Fanfiction game for a while, I'm jumping back in with The Hunger Games! I don't own any of the characters. Please Read and Review! Enjoy!
Sleeping Spark
Chapter One
Katniss Everdeen surveyed the work that still needed to be done. With every box she packed, it seemed that more belongings would spring up from the floor boards to stake claim on the newly cleared space. Feeling overwhelmed, Katniss glanced nervously at the clock wondering if all this could possibly be done in the little time she had left. In a few short days, she would be a college Freshmen. She never thought this day would come. The day that she competed for through all 4 years of high school.
There were a very limited number of scholarships available to a non District 7 citizen and with Katniss, Prim and her mother barley scrapping by, a scholarship was her only way out of the poverty ridden District 12. With this thought, Katniss was gripped with the anxiety that comes from the pressure to succeed at one of the District's top colleges, Cypress University, so she could make a better life for her mother and sister. Only District 1's Klein University, out ranked it and it was so selective that no one from District 12 had ever been accepted.
The clock on Katniss's wall chimed eight and she resigned herself to the fact that she would not be able to bring all of this mess with her. The thought of leaving everything behind started to become a welcome thought. A fresh start in a new place. New opportunities. Though Katniss knew that some parts of her life here would follow her to District 7. Thankfully, those parts would have been the hardest for her to leave behind. Gale and Peeta, her two best friends were also attending Cypress and to help ease the shock of college, they agreed to rent a house together near campus. Though, if Katniss was being entirely honest with herself, she had jumped at the chance to live under the same roof as Gale. The very same Gale that she hoped would finally notice her as more than his slightly sassy best friend.
Her thoughts drifted to her first memory of Gale and Peeta. Being the first day of high school, Katniss was very lost and very late for her first class. Rushing through the door, she observed that the teacher had already separated the students into groups of three. She awkwardly made her way to the only group with two people. She was welcomed by Gale's dark hair and features and Peeta's warm eyes and blonde hair. And there it began. Katniss noticed almost right away how the other girls in school reacted to Gale and felt a pang of jealousy, which would be her first hint of how bad she had it for him.
Peeta, though much quieter and reserved then Gale, was brilliant in his own right. Peeta was easily accepted into Cypress and his baker parents had used their life savings to pay the steep tuition. Katniss found a true friend in Peeta straight away. Since Gale wasn't too interested in grades, Peeta and Katniss bonded over studying. She often caught him staring at her when she would look up from her book when they were studying in the library, but never thought much about it. It was over those piles of books and hours of cramming for tests, that Peeta fell silently in love with Katniss. But that first day, they looked at each other as lifeboats in the rough sea that was high school. And so it remained for the next 4 years.
The blow of a car horn brought Katniss back to earth as she raced to her window and pulled back the curtain. In the in the street in front of her house, Gale and Peeta waved from Gale's brand new car that was already brimming with boxes. How would she ever fit any of her things in there? She gave them a nervous smile and a wave before going to the doorway and yelling, "Prim! Come help me with all this down to the car!"
The clouds had just started to gather when the group pulled onto the street of their house, when Katniss suddenly became nervous.
"So, can I just reiterate how irresponsible we were for renting this place sight unseen?" Katniss yelled over the music from the back seat.
"What?" Gale yelled over his shoulder never taking his eyes off the road. With a small laugh Peeta reached over and turned off the radio.
"Well, I guess we'll see how that decision worked out. It's coming up here" Peeta said double checking the address from a slip of paper.
Gale put the car in park in front of a older two story yellow Victorian house. There is a collective sigh of relief as they exit the car to take in their new home.
"Well, we have one day to get this house in some kind of livable condition before classes start." Katniss said opening the hatch back of the car while simultaneously stopping the boxes that began to tumble out.
"Here" Peeta said rushing to her side and helping to start to pile the boxes on the curb.
"Thanks" Katniss said with a warm smile, clearly grateful for the help.
"I get first pick of a room!" Gale said still gazing at the house, oblivious to the fact that the unpacking has begun behind him.
"Gale, let's get the boxes into the house before this rain starts and then we can decide who gets what room" Peeta said playfully as he shoved a box into his arms and directed his body toward the house.
"Fine" Gale said defeated as he fished the keys to the house out of his pocket and headed for the door. Peeta turned back to see Katniss longingly watch Gale walk towards the house. He hoped that with them living together, it would bring Katniss and him closer together. That she would see, though he cared deeply for his best friend Gale, that he was a ladies man known for his lack of commitment when it came to girls and that if she tried to get involved with him, she would only get hurt. Peeta was steady, dependable and loyal. Peeta hoped she would see that eventually.
The room Katniss chose was at the end of the hallway that was lined with very dark wood. It was large and airy, painted a deep red with a beautiful bay window seat looking over the front yard. The boys had picked smaller, sightly more masculine rooms across the hall from each other. A knock on her door brought Katniss's attention away from the view from her window.
"You unpacked quickly" Gale said as he took a flying leap onto her bed. If it had been anyone else she would had been annoyed at someone so blatantly invading her private space, but it was Gale and he could almost do nothing wrong in her eyes.
"I guess so, you and Peeta didn't really leave me me much room to bring my stuff along" Katniss said with a smirk.
"You sorry about that. I had to bring my entire wardrobe, you know" He said folding his arms behind his head, getting comfortable. After a moment, his face took on a worried expression. "Kat, come here and sit with me"
Katniss wordlessly went to sit by his side on the bed.
"It's no secret that I only got into Cypress because my mother wrote a check. If I'm ever going to get through this year in one piece, I'm going to need you by my side. Can you do that?" Gale said taking her hand in his.
"Where else would I be?" Katniss said with a swelling heart and genuine smile.