Okay first if anyone cares, I switched my Pen name to True Magick. I know, nobody cares. Alright I get it.
Next: please review, it doesn't take that long just to tell me what you think. It really makes my day. SO PLEASE REVIEW!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own the Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does. And that is probably for the better.
I finally pull away and know I am right. There is something different about Gale then last time I saw him. Different in a good way. Good, except for Peeta and all my emotions. Turns out my feelings are right. I might like Gale. I might like Peeta. I hate this. Why is love so hard to understand?
Haymitch Abernathy comes over to me. He is my mentor, well not anymore, but in the Hunger Games he was. He helped keep Peeta and me alive. Well, Haymitch comes over and whispers in my ear. "Okay, sweetheart, we still have to keep up the love-bird act. So go stand by Peeta and try to look like you're a happy couple. You have later to say your hellos and stuff." I know he is right. There is private meeting for reunions, much like when the tributes say goodbye when they are being ready to be shipped off to the games, or more like their deaths.
Anyway, I follow Haymitch's directions, which sound a lot more like a threat. I know he is trying to keep us alive, so when I reach Peeta, I give him a hug. Peeta pulls me in closer and kisses me. When we finally break away, Peeta smiles at the cameras and I put on a fake smile too. I look at Haymitch. He gives me a brief thumbs-up. I know the Capitol must be going crazy. They are all watching the screens, never taking their eyes off us. I grin inwardly to myself. I could pull this off, at least until the cameras leave.
Mayor Undersee then takes the microphone, his voice booming around District 12. "Congratulations Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, winners of the 74th Hunger Games. It is an honor to have not one, but two champions from District 12. We all admire your skills and hope you will be comfortable in Victor's Village… " I stop listening about here. I have heard the speech before. Every year the mayor of the winning district gives the same speech. I think it is mandatory, though the Capitol must count it as tradition like they do with the Hunger Games. Yeah, what lovely customs they have. Basically it is the same speech from the reaping. I really don't need to relive that. Especially now.
After a while, Mayor Undersee announces some important information. "Now to celebrate, the feast will begin." An appreciative roar comes from the crowd, particularly loud from the residents of the Seam. Hey, we barely have any food there. The mayor directs Peeta, our mentor, and me into a large room. The walls are a deep red and the floor is a nice polished mahogany. There is a table in the middle of the room that is made of glass outlined by wood that matches the floor. The table is covered with a white-laced linen tablecloth.
Fancy is the first word that comes to my mind, but replacing it quickly is the furious thought that the Capitol can afford this all. We all take a seat. The rest of District 12 is eating outside. Lucky, I think.
Cinna and Portia enter the room and take seats, Cinna next to me and Portia across from me, next to Peeta. Mayor Undersee and Haymitch have seats on the end of the table and Madge is sitting to the right of me, next to her father. Madge is the mayor's daughter and is one of the lucky ones. She doesn't need to fight for survival, doesn't even need tesserae. Even though we have completely different lives, we are friends, kind of.
The Avox serve the food and I am surprised to see the red-headed Avox girl. I give her a slight smile so no one would notice and she returns it. Maybe we could have been friends, if I would have helped her. But she thinks that I would have been an Avox, too. I need to repay her, I think. She deserves more than this life.
"Katniss!" Haymitch says my name severely as if I am a disobeying dog that needs to be punished. "Oh sorry, what did you say?" I ask.
"I asked you when you are moving into Victor's Village." Haymitch repeats. "Peeta's moving in tonight." I quickly respond, "Tomorrow, I want to spend some time at home first." It was the truth. I miss my bed and my old couch and everything about my house. But we aren't keeping the old things. Our completely new house comes with completely new furnishings.
The day moves slowly and I just keep urging it to move faster. Twice I caught Peeta staring at me but he turns away quickly when I meet his gaze. My heart aches.
Haymitch is having a blast, though, unlike me. He's getting drunker and drunker. I wonder if his heaven is filled with alcohol. He sure seems to love the stuff. I try some wine, but it makes me feel horrible. Though it does wash a little of the pain away.
Finally the day is over and night is just coming, time for the "meetings". I am put in the same room as before the Hunger Games. I have to ride up the elevator that smells foul. I sit on the couch and wait.
My first visitors are my mother and Prim. No words are spoken. I just sit there with Prim on my lap and my mother with her arm around me. We spend the whole time I am allowed like that. They get up when the Peacekeepers come, Prim giving me one last hug.
Madge comes in next and makes small talk with me. All my words feel forced and does little to comfort me. When she has to leave, she gives me a hug goodbye also. Is this the last time I am going to see them? Everyone seems to be acting that way.
Baker Mellark and his two eldest sons come in third, but the mother is nowhere in sight. "Thank you," the baker says. "for taking good care of Peeta."
"It was nothing," I lie. You will never guess what Baker Mellark does next. He gives me a hug and then leaves. What? Am I dying or something? I want to shout, but think better of it. Who knows, I could be dead from the Capitol in two days. Heck, I could be dead in two seconds.
That thought sends shivers down my spine. I could be dead soon. I shake my head to clear the thought. I sit there waiting for my next visitor. People come that who I would never have thought like Greasy Sae, a man Gale and I trade with a lot, and Gale's mother and three sibilings. But no Gale. I sit there all night waiting.
The red-headed Avox girl comes in and holds me while I cry and think about the games and all I have done wrong. She makes me sad and I want cry even more. She rubs my back and it feels like she is sending me comfort words.
The girl leaves and gives me one last hug. I cry harder. It turns out, as I find out later, that she is my last visitor.
Gale doesn't show. I want him here more than ever before. And he doesn't come. I keep hoping tears eventually run out. Otherwise, I don't know how I will ever be able to stop.
Nothing to add except please review!