Hey hey hey! Crazy's Wat I Aim 4 here!
So I was working on a Harry Potter piece that I won't get done with any time soon when I got bored and started looking at some Hunger Games stories. And there's a pretty good one I read that was the 74th games but with Gale and Madge. So it was Madge announcing love and whatnot for Gale, and Gale with a follow up that made me wonder what it would be like if they really could have pulled Katniss on up after Peeta made his declaration of love. I also wanted to write this for a friend of mine, whos birthday is coming up. Happy Birthday Pythra!
Okay I see you girls in the back rolling your eyes saying I wish she would get on with this story. Well then fine, here it is.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Hunger Games. The first two amazing books and enraging third book is all Suzanne Collins.
"So is there a special girl waiting for you back in District Twelve?"
Why me? Really. Why me?
I know Haymitch and I rehearsed everything and I'm totally prepared to say it. But can't I still wish Caesar won't go there?
I shake my head. I wish I had said Madge Undersee, or Delly Cartwright. They would have had my back and said it was true if anyone cared enough to ask.
"Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name?" Caesar asks leaning forward.
You can still say Madge or Delly, I say to myself.
I sigh deciding to stick with the plan. "Well there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember." I smile as I think back to the first day of school when she sang in front of the class. The birds outside stopped sing and at the same time my heart stopped beating. Even though I still thought girls had cooties, she was different. She was too pretty to have cooties. "But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping." That's not completely true. There was that night with the bread. And I could tell she remembered when they chose me out of the reaping ball.
The crowd awws. What is with these people? They don't know either of us so they can't be truly sorry for either of us. All the cosmetic surgery must have messed with their heads.
"She have another fellow," Caesar says very interested in what I have to say.
"No but a lot of guys like her." That ones all true. And she doesn't even know it. She's the kind of quiet that's not shy, it's mysterious. The kind of antisocial that's not mean, but the rude kind of hot. The kind of invisible that's not overlooked but thought provoking. I wish I was that Gale guy she hangs out with sometimes. Some people say it's a business relationship but I can't help but wonder if something really might be there.
"So here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down then, eh?" Oh thanks Caesar. As if I wouldn't have thought of that if that had been the case.
"I don't think it's going to work out. Winning…" I shift uncomfortably in my seat. "Won't help in my case."
"Why ever not?" he says, bewildered. I look around quickly. Everyone in the audience hanging, waiting on me to finish with my declaration of unrequited love. Even her.
I can't do this. Maybe the plan will still work if I say her sister, Prim. Everyone saw how close they were when they broadcasted the reaping. She would hate me if I let her sister die in the arena. No, that would make me a pedophile, I'm more than four years older than her. And after that whole incident when I tried fixing the bow on the front of that little girls dress, I would probably be hung.
I see Haymitch in the crowd, purple in the face, urging me to say it. I feel my face heating up and I struggle to push the words out. "Because… because… she came here with me."
It takes a minute for everyone to process and figure out what I'm saying. And it takes Katniss one second longer as the cameras swing around to capture her reaction. Her mouth drops open and her eyes widen in shock.
"Oh, that's a piece of bad luck," Caesar says, actually meaning it. I don't know about the people in the crowd though. I think I just saw some lady faint. How can people become so emotionally attached to some on who they hadn't even known for a week?
"It isn't good," I say.
"Well, I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady. She didn't know?"
I sneak a peek in her direction. Her head's down trying not to let anything show until she's figured everything out. But I can still see part of her forehead that's almost as red as the jewels on her dress. I shake my head looking back at Caesar. "Not until now."
He shakes his head and looks down. Then all of a sudden he looks back up brightly as if he's just invented sliced bread. "Well how about we pull her out of the audience and get a reaction!" he looks around and the crowd roars their approval.
No. No. Please tell me this is all a bad dream, and when I wake up I'll have a newly made Katniss Mellark in my arms. I squeeze my eyes shut and then open them again. No, I'm still standing on a stage in front of millions of people as Caesar Flickerman waves Katniss up. Well it was worth a shot.
He looks around for an attendant and calls him forward, telling him to bring forward another chair for Katniss to sit on. He nods and scurries away getting a chair before he misses any of the action. Katniss makes her way up to the stage and the attendant hurries back with a chair and set it down. Right beside me. So close, that if I wanted to, I could scoot over a little and end up in her lap.
"Miss Everdeen, let me first say that my heart goes out to you. I know being a tribute in these games is hard enough but on top of that, now learn of affection from someone who you may never see again after tomorrow morning. But can you please tell us what you think of Mr Mellark's confession," Caesar says leaning forward indulgently. He doesn't even know how much he has screwed up my life.
"Well," she starts off, still looking down. "It was definitely a shock." She laughs nervously and looks around. I can tell that she's looking to Haymitch to help her and I look over in time to see him nodding and making something with his hands that I think is supposed to be a heart.
Caesar chuckles. "Oh trust me it was a shock to everyone. But what do you think about his affections. Do you return them?"
Her eyes flitted back up to Haymitch as if he were holding up cue cards. "Honestly Caesar, I'm not really sure what to think. One day I'm just in District Twelve, trying to keep my family safe and alive. Then the next my sister is reaped to be a tribute for the Hunger Games and I just know that I have to take her place. And now I find out that back home people actually like me." She looked Caesar in the eye then looked back at her shoes. "One more than others."
I feel heat on my cheeks and look at my shoes too. The crowd is muttering and some people are crying out with sympathy.
Caesar nods with concern. "Well is there anything you'd like to say to each other?"
I look up with wide eyes. This isn't one of those things you just happen to casually drop into a conversation! You can't confess to liking someone and then talk to them about it unless you know for sure they like you back, which I kind of don't think she does. For one of the least crazy people in the capitol, he sure is an idiot.
Not that I can really talk. I look over a Katniss and all I can stutter out is, "I uh… I like your dress." My face heats up again and I want to throw myself off the roof of the training center. Dumb force field.
Caesar laughs as if I were making some kind of a joke. "Ah, struck by her beauty. I know the feeling," he says winking. "And you Miss Everdeen?"
Her face is as red as I imagine mine to be. "Well, not really. Just that, I did notice you before the Reaping," she says now speaking directly to me. She then snaps her mouth shut as if she didn't want to let that out. I know immediately that she's thinking about the night with the burned bread. She must have had a hard time trying to figure out why I did that. At the time I had even wondered why I did that. I knew she wouldn't have come up and kissed me, and shouted, "Marry me Peeta Mellark!" or anything. I just did it.
Everyone sighs and Caesar puts a hand over his heart like it might jump out of his chest from the sorrow he feels for us. The timer rings and he jumps a little as if he forgot we had a limited time frame. "Well I think I speak for everyone when I say our hearts go out to you. Let's hear it for them, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the star-crossed lovers of District Twelve!"
Star-crossed lovers? Why did I agree to do this?
Katniss and I make our way of the stage and continue to stand while the anthem plays. The screens are taken over by a shot of Katniss and I standing next to each other, both blushing and trying not to look at anyone or anything, especially each other.
As the song fades out and Caesar dismisses us I take a look at Katniss's face as we turn to go to the elevators. It's not filled with love like I had hoped, or confused like I was expecting. It's angry.
My eyes widen and I run to an almost full elevator. I don't know why I try prolonging the inevitable.
Either in the games or before, the love of my life is going to kill me.
A/N: Whoop there it is! Hope you liked it. Review please!
~love, Crazy~