Hey Guys another new story. I saw a prompts thing which was Everlark movies in the month of may and it got me thinking about this so I began to write it. It's rated M for some themes that will come up in later chapters, i'm probably being over cautious with the rating, but better safe than sorry. As it says in the description it is based on the movie Dirty Dancing, don't worry if you haven't seen it because the story should make sense if you haven't. I hop you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do now own The Hunger Games or Dirty Dancing.
She's Like The Wind
Katniss' P.O.V.
Summer 1963
Part 1: Be My Baby
The night we met I knew I needed you so
And if I had the chance I'd never let you go.
So won't you say you love me?
I'll make you so proud of me.
We'll make 'em turn their heads every place we go
The luscious green trees speed by the window and as each second goes by my heart feels heavier with dread. It's the summer of 1963, I've just finished high school and it's my last summer before I leave for college, but all I really want to do I join the Peace Corps. I look around and survey my family the people I will have to endure the next three weeks with. My sister Madge sits next to me, she's only a year older than me, but she's so immature sometimes it feels like I'm the older one. We're nothing alike in personality or looks, she's much more like my mother, fair with blue eyes and I'm more like my father dark hair, steely grey eyes and olive skin. Her interests differ to mine also, where she prefers to shop and find someone to go steady with I prefer to be out in the woods or reading. I lean forward and wrap my arms around my father; I don't think I'll ever find a guy as great as him. We're very close and even when he's really busy with work he always manages to find time for me. I've never really felt that way with my mother, it's not that she favours Madge per se; it's just that they have more in common and we both recognise that spending time with each other isn't something we'd enjoy. I love both my parents though, and Madge in her own funny way.
We round the corner and the big bold sign comes into view, 'Snow's' the holiday complex where we would be spending the next three weeks. I sigh and turn away from the sign, hoping that if I can't see it none of it is real. I hate going away as a family, I understand that I'm very lucky to live the way I do. My parents are quite wealthy and there are so many people that cannot afford the luxuries we can, but I do hate this life sometimes. I hate the snobby people I'm forced to spend time with; I hate the ridiculous conversations about who's got the more expensive car or whose child is going to the more expensive college. I can't wait for these three weeks to be over so I can go and live my own life the way I want. We pull into Snow's and my father parks the car. I get out and observe my surroundings. Wide green open spaces with people of all ages playing games, cabins nestled in the trees, the big main house looking very out of place surrounded by all the nature. I jump when I hear Madge wail,
"Look mom, I should have bought those other shoes!"
"But sweetie you've already brought ten pairs." My mother tries to soothe while Madge pouts, I roll my eyes,
"Girls, this is not a tragedy," My father reasons, "A tragedy is three men trapped in a mine, or -"
"Or monks burning themselves in protest!" I add, Madge glares at me,
"Nobody asked you Katniss!" I ignore her and turn round to see a small, large man dressed in a suit, with grey hair and a beard followed by a tall, handsome young wan with bronze hair and chiselled features walking over to us,
"Doc!" He exclaims, approaching my father to shake his hand.
"Cornelius!" My father greets him, and I then recognise who he is. He's Cornelius Snow, the owner of this resort. I take and instant dislike to him, it's smoothing about his eyes that unnerve me, "How's the blood pressure?"
Snow turns serious, "I want you girls to know, if it were not for your father here, I would be dead," he pauses and looks over to the young man, "Finnick get the bags! He yells, and my father passes Finnick the key to our car. I follow him to the trunk and help him unload the bags, I've always hated being waited on, I feel like I don't deserve it. He looks up and smiles at me,
"You want a job here?" He teases, and despite myself I laugh, charmed by his friendly nature. I hear my mother call me and return to my parents.
"Snow says that there's a wonderful dance class taking place soon, the teacher used to be a rockette!" She exclaims, and I feel bad for being so negative about this vacation. She just wants all her family together before we all leave and go our separate ways. I smile,
"That sounds great mom!" I try to match her enthusiasm and her smile widens when she sees that I'm trying to make an effort.
All my positive energy ebbs away as soon as we find the gazebo where the dance class is being held. I'm the youngest person there and being surrounded my middle-aged and elderly people trying to dance is not my idea of fun. The only person who seemed to have any rhythm in this class was the teacher, a young woman with shoulder length brown hair and deep brown eyes. Her energy was intoxicating and I even felt myself trying to dance. She wore a vibrant red dress that matched her personality, and I felt a little intimidated by her. She instructed us to get into a round robin and I couldn't hide my disgust for dancing any longer, I felt my eyes roll so hard they practically went into the back of my head.
"Come on ladies!" She yelled, "God wouldn't have given you maracas if he didn't want you to shake 'em!"
I don't really have any maracas to shake so I just tried to look as if I was having fun and hoped that nobody would notice I was secretly dying inside.
"Okay now ladies when I say stop you're going to find the man of your dreams!" She called and I felt a relief flood over me, I could finally just go dance with my dad and not have to pretend to be having fun anymore. I begin to make my way over to him, but she yells stop just before I get there and she takes his hand. I stand there dumbfounded, internally screaming and damning this whole place and everyone in it.
"Now remember, he's the boss on the dancefloor, if nowhere else!" She calls and I feel my cheeks flush pink with anger and embarrassment at how she can be so sexy so easily. I feel a tap on my shoulder and am faced with Mags an elderly lady who vacations here every summer. I accept her dance out of politeness, but hate every minute of it.
The afternoon passes slowly, and I become restless. When the sky turns to twilight, I excuse myself from our family cabin and go for a walk. The resort is wonderful at night, the sky shines bright with stars and the crisp evening air makes me shiver. I walk up to the main house to look around. I walk up the steps and stop short when I hear Snow talking to the wait staff. Quietly, I walk over to the door and peak through the open crack.
"You know why you boys are here, why I hired you," Snow begins icily, "You're all from ivy league schools, you're smart respectable men, I shouldn't have to remind you that this is a family place, keep your fingers out of the water, your hair out of the soup and show the goddamn daughters a good time, all the daughters, even the dogs!" The boys all chuckle and I roll my eyes disgusted by their misogyny.
"Take them out to the terrace, show 'em the stars, romance them anyway you want- " Snow continues,
"You got that guys?" The most handsome man I have ever seen interrupts him. He's extremely tall, with blonde hair; he looks effortlessly cool with his leather jacket and sunglasses. I feel my knees go weak and I have to hold onto the window to steady myself. Snow turns red with anger,
"Oh look, it's the entertainment staff." He says bitterly, he walks up to the man and gets right in his face, "Listen wiseass, you can dance with the girls all you want, teach them whatever dance they pay for but no funny business, no conversations and keep your hands off!" Snow practically spits before storming away as fast as his little legs will carry him. The man just stands there, appearing nonchalant, but I sense his defeat. The waiters disperse and one particularly creepy one sneers at the man,
"You got that straight Peeta, what you can and can't lay your hands on?"
My heart skips when I hear his name for the first time. Peeta stops and turns back to the waiter slowly shaking his head,
"You just put your pickle on everybody's plate college boy and leave the hard stuff to me." He says before he stalks off, making sure he knocks the table as he goes so that the creep will have to reset it.
I return to our cabin in time to walk back to the main house with my family, when we arrive at the dining hall, Snow greets us and shows us to our table, He is followed by the creepy waiter from earlier. My father pulls out my chair for me and I smile at him, grateful that he still does these little things for me even though I've grown up. The waiter pulls out my sister's chair for her, my stomach turns at how Madge seems to be buying his fake charm.
"This is Gale Hawthorne," Snow says introducing the creepy waiter to my father, "He's going to Yale Medical School!" I roll my eyes; I should've known he was going to a school like that; however my disgust is contrasted to my father's obvious impressed expression. My father being a doctor himself is always pleased when someone he knows choses to go into the profession.
"Gale these people are my special guests, get them anything they want." Snow professes before sending Gale away. Dinner passes quickly although I spend most of it bored by my mother and sister's vapid conversation. I sit back in my chair full from the over the top food.
"Oh look at all this leftover food," My mother frowns, "Katniss are there still starving children in Europe?"
"Try southeast Asia Mom." I reply stonily, although I'm secretly pleased that she's taking an interest into one of my causes. Snow reappears along with Gale, who begins to clean away our table.
My Father laughs, "Gale, Katniss want's to send her leftover dinner to Asia, so you wrap up the leftovers!" Everyone laughs and I feel embarrassed, my father looks over at me and his eyes soften,
"Cornelius our Katniss is going to change the world!" My dad exclaims, his eyes full of pride, Snow turns to Madge,
"And what are you going to do young lady?" He ask,
"Oh Madge is going to decorate it!" I say my voice dripping with sarcasm,
"She already does," Gale says and winks at her, I feel my dinner threatening to make reappearance at his cringe inducing words. Snow calls over a young man of moderate height with blonde hair and introduces him,
"This is my Grandson Cato," He pronounces proudly, "he goes to the Cornell school of hotel management."
"Katniss is starting mount Holyoke in the fall!" My Dad says, and I shot him a glare, I don't like to talk about my college plans, mostly because I don't want to go. I want to be out in the world helping people not wasting money on college tuition when the chances are I'll never use my degree.
"There's dancing in the main hall, would you like to go?" Cato asks me and with my parents and Snow being there with expectant eyes, I can't refuse,
"Yes, it sounds fun." I reply through tight lips.
The dance hall is hot and stuffy, and dancing with Cato isn't helping. He's one of those people that's so full of themselves they are oblivious to the people around them, which is probably a good thing for me as I find it difficult to hide my dislike for people.
"Are you going to major in English?" He asks,
"No, the economics of underdeveloped countries." I deadpan. I look over and see Madge dancing with Gale, I wish I could stop her being with him, but I have nothing concrete to say why I don't like him, it's just a bad feeling I get in my gut whenever he's near. Besides if I tell her not to do something it will just make her want to do it more.
Suddenly the music changes and my breath hitches when I see Peeta enter, hand in hand with the dance teacher from earlier. The first thing I notice is his eyes, bright turquoise blue, I couldn't see them before as they were hidden by his sunglasses, but now his eyes are the only things I see. He looks amazing in a sleek black tuxedo and the girl looks gorgeous in a blush pink dress that would never look the same on me. I break away from Cato so that I can watch them properly, but Cato pulls me back in,
"Come on it's the mambo!" He exclaims, I dance with him again, but keep my eyes fixed on Peeta. Mesmerised by how gracefully he moves for such a tall, board man.
"Who are they?" I ask, and Cato stiffens uncomfortable at my interest.
"Oh them, they're the dance people, they're here to ah, keep the guests happy." He says disgustedly, I pull a face but don't press him anymore on the subject, I continue to watch Peeta and I can sense Cato become increasingly irritated. He steps out of our dance and places his hands on his hips in an exasperated gesture,
"They shouldn't be showing of like that!" He exclaims, "That's not going to sell dance lessons."
I just nod my head, too confused to try to think of a reply. My heart is racing at the sight of Peeta, but at the same time it's falling because you don't dance like that with just a friend. My conclusion that the dance instructor and Peeta are a couple shatters any illusion I had of Peeta and Myself and my heart begins to hurt. This feeling is totally alien to me. I've always been the practical one, the independent one, I didn't need nor want a boyfriend. It was always Madge who would go out to dances and bring home a different boy each week. I don't like feeling this way, but I can't help it, and that irritates me.
Snow walks in and his face turns thunderous when he spots Peeta and the girl. They continue to perform their array of impressive lifts, oblivious to his glare. He catches the girl's eye and motions for them to cut it out. Peeta Gently places her on the floor and they straighten themselves out before going over to the guests and encouraging them to dance. Cato relaxes and pulls me in again to dance; I sense someone behind me and hear the familiar voice of my father.
"Are you kids having fun?" He asks, I give him a 'what do you think' look but he ignores me, instead waiting for Cato's response,
"Oh yes, but I have to leave now it's my turn to help out with the games tonight."
My dad chuckles, "Oh I'm sure Katniss wouldn't mind helping you." My dad replies and I shoot daggers at him; his eyes are twinkly knowing that he's put me in an uncomfortable situation. I love my dad but he always thinks it's funny to antagonise me. So I leave with Cato and Help him with the Games.
I Hope you enjoyed that, this will probably be completed pretty soon as i have everything planned out and i've started writing part 2 already.
For the purposes of this story Madge is Katniss' older sister, if you have seen the film, it should make sense to you why this is, if you haven't it should become clear.
Thanks for reading! Please do follow, favourite, and review, it means the world to me :)