Thanks for reading, this is my first fanfic. It may start as Gale/ Katniss but it's not.

Chapter edited and reposted on 4/6. Beta-d by the fantastic and wonderful TatianaMellark

Chapter 1

Katniss' POV

The conversation still lingered in my mind, as if it had taken place seconds ago and not about two hours ago.

"Katniss, sit down," I accusingly glanced at my mother as she sat in her chair across the room.

"Katniss, I have decided to send you away." My mother said. Honestly, I didn't understand what she meant by that.

"Your Uncle, Haymitch, called me the other day. He said that he's been getting lonely and as we spoke I thought that it would be great for you to go live with him", My mother paused, probably expecting me to say something. I kept silent, so she continued again: "I know you want to stay with your sister and all, but he offered to pay for you to go to the best school and anything else you would need to get settled, plus seeing how-" She paused again, struggling to find the right words. "Seeing as you two are so fond of each other..." Fond, now that was definitely an interesting choice of words.

"And what about Prim? Or Gale?"

"I knew you would say that, and that's what I told him. Unfortunately, Prim is still too young for the Capitol lifestyle. Your uncle though, was more than willing to allow Gale to come, with some convincing that nothing…sexual, would happen."My mom said, avoiding my gaze. Years ago, Haymitch had walked in on Gale and I in a compromising situation and has yet to let it go.

"Are you nuts? Gale doesn't have the money to go to the capitol and either way, I won't leave Prim." I rolled my eyes and stood up from my chair.

"Katniss", My mother said sternly, "Let me finish, he said that he would pay for him to go as well."

"How about you guys? And Gales family? How will you deal?" I spat out, bitterly. It was no secret that both Gale and I were primary providers for each of our families.

"I've pulled myself together and got a job at the hospital." I've heard that one before. "And I know it's hard for you to believe me, but I have. And for Gales mother, some rich guy hired her to be his housekeeper. If you ask me, I think there's something between them." My mom said. Rich guy? There's rich people in District 12?

"I already told Gale, the mayors daughter will be joining you as well, your train comes soon, so go pack your bags." My mom said, as she got up and walked out.

I sat on the chair and stared long and hard at where she sat moments ago, attempting to process all the information, trying to find some sort of loophole, but as I thought about it, I realised that this offer was brilliant. If Gale and Madge were coming with me, and my mother got a job to take care of Prim, I had no reason to refuse the offer.

For me, packing didn't take as long as it would for most girls, I didn't have many things I wanted to take with me. Just some of the few clothes I owned and my bow and arrow, just in case we found something similar to the woods, and my mockingjay pin. The pin was one of the few things I had left from my father, and I didn't want to leave it here.

Not long after I finished packing, I heard a knock on the door. I went to open it, knowing it would be Gale or Madge; nobody else ever visited us.

"Ready for the Capitol, Catnip?" Gale asked, using the pet name that developed when we had first met each other. Like me, Gale carried only one suitcase.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I shot back. I grabbed my small bag,

and we made our way to the station in my moms old, broken down car.

I stepped out of the car, and faced my mother.

"Be there for Prim, help her out, okay?" I said. My voice was harsh, but that was the least of my concerns. As long as she looked after Prim, then everything would be fine. I then looked at Prim, and knelt down in order to hug her.

"Be good, okay? Help mom out, I'll visit as much as I can, 'kay?" I said, and Prim hugged me harder.

Gale nudged my shoulder, meaning it was time for us to go. I let go of Prim, gave her a stiff smile and a thumbs up, and stood back up. She smiled back at me and before I knew it, we were parting ways, Prim returning to our house, and me taking the first step towards my new life.

We walked up and down the aisles of the train, searching for an empty compartment, until finally finding one. It was small, only for four people, but that's really more than what we needed.

Gale and I sat down without a word. I pulled out my old, broken phone and texted Madge the number of our compartment. Shortly after, the door opened and Madge walked in, squealing and running to hug me.

"I can't believe it! We're going to the capitol for high school!" She said and sat down right next to Gale.

The train finally started to move. I stared out the window at our District, the poorest District in Panem. It didn't look as bad from the train, but maybe that's because the train was moving at such impressive speed that it made everything look like a pretty blur, you wouldn't be able to see any specific details of the District. All you could see were the trees, which looked a lot nicer than they actually were.

I excused myself to go to the restroom to change into my sweater. If I was going to be on this train for a couple more hours, I wanted to at least be comfortable.

I left the bathroom and on my way back to my compartment I looked at all the people in all the other ones, some people were reading, others were talking and some were simply staring out the window. I returned back to my compartment and looked through the glass, to find a dark haired boy lip locked with a blonde.

I moved closer, to find it was Madge and Gale! Since when are they even together? I smiled, before deciding to give them some privacy. I would definitely grill them about this later.

I walked through the halls, trying to find something to occupy myself with. I decided to enter a compartment with only four other people. It seemed like a small number, considering that every other one had a larger amount. I opened the door, "Um... Could I sit here for a bit?" I could feel all of their eyes on me while mine were focused on the ground, trying to avoid their stares.

"Sure thing babe, what happened to yours?" I looked up to find the owner of the voice. He had bronzed skin, with piercing green eyes and was easily one of the most handsome men I had ever seen.

"My friends couldn't keep themselves away from each other." I muttered.

"Well I'm Finnick Odair, and I would be glad to have you sit with us" He said as he winked and flashed me his pearly white smile.

"Don't scare her away." Said a girl with long, dark, flowing hair and a similar pair of green eyes.

"I'm sorry Annie." Finnick said, leaning down and kissing her quickly. It was obvious these two were lovers.

"What's your name?" Annie asked softly.

"Katniss" I stated.

"Catpiss?!" Somebody's loud and rough voice replaced Annie's soft and sweet one. I looked at the girl who said that, she had large, brown eyes and spiky hair.

"Johanna, lay off." replied a boy with blonde hair. How was it possible for so many attractive people to be seated in one room? I took a second to observe him. He was wearing a simple, dark blue shirt that enhanced his muscles. He had strong, broad shoulders and the bluest blue eyes I had ever seen.

"Yeah Johanna, listen to Peeta, she said her name was Katniss." said Annie.

Through that sentence, I easily learned the rest of their names. The girl with the green eyes was Annie, that's what her lover, Finnick, called her. The really handsome one was Peeta, and the girl who called me Catpiss, was Johanna. I wonder if Johanna and Peeta were together... Finnick still had a smile on his face and Johanna was smirking. I sat down in the empty seat near the door.

"So, where are you headed to?" Annie asked. Annie definitely had one of the softest voices I had ever heard.

"I'm going to the Capitol to finish high school."

"That's great, so are we!" She exclaimed.

"Is it your first time?" Peeta asked, joining our conversation.

"Yup, You?" I tried to make my response as laid back as possible.

"Yeah, it is." He replied. I nodded, before looking out the window.

After a couple minutes of staring out the window, I decided it was time to head back to my own compartment, but as I got up to leave Annie jumped up.

"Wait! Since we're both going to be new there, we should hang out. Let's exchange numbers!"

"Sure." I said, and timidly pulled my old phone out. We all exchanged numbers and even though we barely knew each other, I couldn't shake the thought that Peeta looked somewhat familiar.

Annie gave me a quick hug, before allowing me to leave.

I looked through the glass and saw that Madge and Gale had stopped making out. I walked in with a smile.

"Katniss! Where were you?" Madge asked.

"Is there something going on, between you two? Anything I should know about?" I asked, and as the smile on my face grew Madge giggled. "Well Madge, I guess it's time to tell her…" Gale said as he smiled at Madge and put his arm around her. Madge's smile grew even wider, if that was possible.

"Gale and I are dating! It's been almost two weeks since he asked me out, we wanted to tell you, especially Gale, but I wouldn't let him. I thought you would be mad…" Madge said the last sentence quietly. I knew what she was getting at; she thought I would be mad about feeling like a third wheel around them.

"I'm happy for you guys!" I said while laughing. I heard Gale mutter: "I told you so", to Madge.

Hours passed, with us doing nothing but exchanging simple conversation, until the train finally stopped. We all rushed to grab our stuff and exit the train, to see the new area. It was odd that we would live at the capitol for at least a year, the place was what 95% of our jokes consisted of.

We walked for a bit, looking for something that would point us in the right direction.

"Sorry guys, this is my stop. My family's over there. I'll text you guys soon, so we can get our stuff together!" Madge said. She gave me a tight hug before giving Gale a kiss and then ran off, leaving Gale and I alone to find Haymitch. Gale took my bag from my hands, lightening my burden.

We walked around in circles until I heard a familiar voice call out my name. "Katniss!" I quickly turned around, searching for his face. I sped up my pace until I reached him, we both stuck our arms out and went in for an awkward hug. He then released me and looked at Gale. "Hello Mr…?" Gale started. Haymitch laughed. "Haymitch. Just Haymitch." he said as he shook hands with Gale.

"Where are your bags Katniss?" Haymitch asked. I pointed at the bag that Gale was holding and he smiled in approval at this, and then led us to his car. He had a yellow sports car, to say I wasn't impressed would be a lie. The car itself was probably worth more than District 12 altogether.

Gale and I put our bags in the trunk and then sat in the back. The drive to Haymitch's house was silent, and when we arrived the first thing I noticed was that it was huge! Haymitch and Gale each took a suitcase and Haymitch opened the door to the house.

"Your rooms are upstairs. If there is something you don't like, tell me and we can change it. When you're done come down so I can give you some other stuff and give you a tour of the house." Gale and I nodded and started looking around.

I always knew Haymitch was rich, but I never knew he was this rich. Everything here was so pretty, much nicer than my home in District 12.

Gale and I took our suitcases and went upstairs. I eagerly went into the first room I saw and fumbled with the doorknob before finally opening it. When I walked in, I was amazed with what I saw. There was a queen sized bed in the middle of the room and hanging on the wall in front of the bed, was a TV. I know what a TV is and what it did, but this was by far the newest model I had ever seen. The only TV in twelve was a small, old one that many kids would gather around to watch programs. It was in the Justice building. Other than that, I didn't really know much about TVs.

The desk was to the side, and on the desk was a laptop. I never owned a laptop, we couldn't afford it. The closet was on the other side of the desk and it was empty, which I was thankful for. I didn't want Haymitch picking out my clothes. In the other corner, there was another door. I walked towards it and opened it, to find it was my personal bathroom.

I was amazed. The room was so luxurious, not at all what I was used to. I felt bad though, I didn't do anything to deserve all of this.

I heard the door open and saw Gale walk in.

"Wow." He said.

"I know right, what does your room look like?"

"Come see." He said. I walked behind him, we had all the same furniture except it was arranged differently.

"I feel bad though." Gale said.

"Same."

"Im thinking about finding a job, so I can pay your uncle back." Gale said.

"That's a great idea, but honestly, I don't think it's necessary. Haymitch would never accept it, plus I don't think this is a burden to him. I think he has more money than he knows what to do with." Gale simply shrugged, I guess I could understand that it's more difficult for him, considering he's technically accepting loads of money from a stranger.

"Should we go downstairs?" I asked him.

"Sure." He replied. We walked down to where Haymitch was. In front of him were two wrapped presents and I gave him a questioning look before sitting down along with Gale.

"Um.. Thank You." Gale said and it was obvious that he really did mean it.

"Yeah, it was nice old man." I added with a chuckle. No way was I going to get cheesy, he gave a smile and a nod.

Then he pushed the presents forwards, towards us. I looked at it and ripped the wrapping paper off. Gale did the same, except he did it…cautiously. There were a couple things in the box: A credit card, a phone and a set of keys.

"The first thing is that those" Haymitch said, pointing at the phones "are your new phones, I didn't know what you guys would want so you can choose different ones if you want to. The next thing is the credit cards. They're wired to my account, so you guys can spend without worrying. Buy whatever you want, they're already activated. Then, the keys. The first key is for the house, but if you ever forget your key, the back exit has a code which is 4-3-2-1 and that will let you in."Of course that would be the code "This key, is for each of your cars. They're parked in the garage, which is why you haven't seen them. If you're living with me, you're going to have to live in style." Typical Haymitch, however, this was more than what I could have asked for. I officially loved this man.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I squealed, before jumping and giving him a hug. This was, honestly, like a dream come true. I looked at Gale and saw that he was speechless.

"Th-Thank you, this is more than I could have hoped for…" Gale stuttered, trying to find the right words.

"Don't mention it kid. The only thing is, once school starts, you have to pull off good grades or else I'll take away your privileges. Now make yourselves at home, my number is saved on your phones if you need anything. I have to go work, I know this is sudden but I'm not going to be home tonight and tomorrow night, but the night after that, I'll take you kids out somewhere so we can get all family-ish.", Gale and I both nodded as we watched him leave.

"I'm so happy I came here with you, this is so cool. The house, being with Madge and living here. It's the coolest place on earth, not at all what we thought it would be like." Gale said.

"Yeah, but I guess we haven't really seen much of it." I said, not really concentrating on what Gale was saying.

"Your uncle is so cool. The only thing is that we need is a forest we can hunt in, I brought my bow and arrow."

"So did I, now let's go look at our cars." I said while pulling at his shirt, dragging him along with me.

We looked around the house, since Haymitch forgot to give us a tour, but that's okay. We eventually found the door that led us to the garage and we flipped the lights on, to find the nicest cars I've ever seen. They were nicer than any of the cars in District 12, but I was sure that in the capitol, things were fancier. There were two cars: A fiery red car, with black wheels and a shiny, blue, sports car. Haymitch had truly outdone himself.

Gale was fawning over the blue car, which I assume he would take. It didn't really matter to me, I liked the red car more anyways.

"Lets take it for a drive!" I said eagerly, in District 12 we had cars, but not any this nice, but we had learned how to drive, which I was now grateful for.

"As long as we drive my car." Gale replied and I nodded and got into the passenger seat. We decided to drive to the nearest ice-cream shop, and as Gale turned the car on, the garage door automatically opened.

The car had a navigation system, so it was easy to reach an ice cream shop and as we entered I really wasn't expecting to run into 'them' again.

Review, Please. I like knowing when people actually read this story and enjoy it :))))