This is something I wrote for school and then decided to put here. I had to write a different ending for the Hunger Games starting at the chapter when they are on the train to go back home.
Peeta watches as Haymitch leaves, then he turns toward me, confused. "What was he talking about? To just keep what up?"
I look anywhere but at Peeta. The words catch in my throat. "He was just telling me to not mess anything up. I have to keep my opinions to myself. You know I have a problem with running my mouth."
For a second, I don't think he will buy it. His eyes narrow in suspicion as he looks back at the train. But then he smiles and I am filled with relief. He hasn't realized that I had been doing almost everything to keep us alive. To win.
He takes my hand. "I still can't believe we won. It almost doesn't feel real. Kind of like a dream."
The wind whips my hair into my face and hides the fact that my voice is shaking. "Don't say that. I don't even want to think, for one second, that all this could have been a dream."
And I am too lost in the horrors of the games that it takes me a moment to realize that Peeta is looking at me like he loves me, and that he must have taken the meaning behind my words the wrong way. Like I didn't want all the kissing and heartfelt words between us to not have really happened. Not like how I didn't want us winning the games to be a dream, and have to wake up in a place where I am still fighting for my life.
As Peeta brings his hand up to rest on my cheek, as he leans down towards me, I back away.
"Peeta-I-I-I can't. I'm so sorry," I say, because I just realized something. All the times I leaned into his touch and wanted his kisses, I didn't really want him. The weird feelings in my stomach whenever I am around him are not because I feel a connection to him, but rather because I feel guilty. Because, in my mind, instead of kissing him, I was kissing-
"Sorry. Sorry." He's stumbling over his words. "I just thought-?"
Peeta has pulled away from me, looking ashamed of himself and horrified. I want to tell him that it is my fault, that he shouldn't be ashamed for trying to kiss me when he thought that I liked him. I was the one leading him on. Tears sting my eyes as I think about what a horrible person I am, about what I have to tell Peeta
"In the arena… Haymitch was telling me how to act. We needed sponsors, and the only way to get them-"
Peeta's eyes fill with understanding and his face suddenly becomes void of emotion. "You were just acting. In the arena, none of that was true, was it?"
I force myself to look at him. I can't stand the way he is looking at me, staring but not really seeing. He says something, his lips barely moving, but the rumble of the engines drown it out.
When I don't respond, Peeta looks me straight in the eyes and says, louder this time, "Why? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why keep this up?"
I drop the flowers Peeta gave to me, and they get carried away in the wind. How do I tell him what I'm thinking? I know he feels something towards me. He might even love me. Whatever I did, whatever I had to do, I never wanted to break his heart.
"I thought we were both just doing it for the sake of the game." The lie comes easily from my lips. I know Peeta never pretended with me.
Peeta stares at me in disbelief. "You don't need to lie to me, Katniss. I am not as breakable, as weak, as you think I am."
I am shaking my head even before Peeta finishes. "I don't think you're weak."
"Then why-"
"BECAUSE I LOVE HAYMITCH!" I shout, gasping, trying to catch my breath. I didn't want anybody to know. No one. But now I am telling Peeta everything and I can't stop. "I have since he started helping us! I didn't know it before, but when I saw him after we came out of the games-I love him Peeta. I love him. I didn't want to, but I do."
Peeta just nods his head in grim understanding and walks away slowly, leaving me alone by the train.
;)