AN: Thank you to everyone who favorite-d this story or me! Wow, took my breath away that you guys would do that after only one chapter. I'm speechless. Also, a big thanks to etf1975, AreYouGame, and lovelifepeace2000 for reviewing the first chapter! I'm glad to have such positive feedback right out of the gate.
Anything that you recognize is from Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games trilogy. Italics indicate internal monologues or dreams. Line breaks signal a switch in POV. Each chapter equals a week of workouts, training, eating, preparing for the Quarter Quell, etc. Thanks for your patience on the second chapter. I hope you all enjoy!
Workout Day 3, Sunday:
"Ahhh," I wake up with little fingers massaging the middle of my back.
"Good morning, Katniss," Prim giggles, massaging my back coaxing me awake with pain and relief. "I thought your muscles might be sore."
"Yeah..." I breathed into the pillow that I had smashed my face into. "Thanks, little duck."
Ugh, my voice sounds like a duck. I hate how I sound in the morning.
Prim massages my entire back, followed by my shoulders, and then rolls the muscles in my arms like she's making gingerbread snaps.
She likes making cookies now that we can buy the ingredients for baked goods, and she especially likes ginger snaps. Although, I can't say why she favors those cookies. Sometimes I catch Peeta helping her bake new cookies when he comes over to drop off fresh bread or cheese buns.
I give little "oohs" and "aahs" so Prim knows I appreciate her being my masseuse. My muscles have actually been pretty sore since we started. It's funny. I thought I was in pretty decent shape, but the workouts never fail to leave me stiff and languid for the rest of the day.
I walk over to Peeta's house and find Peeta and Haymitch both standing in front of the steps to Peeta's front porch. They are polar opposites of each other in the morning: Peeta bouncing on his heels, rocking his head side to side loosening the muscles in his neck, making conversation, and Haymitch's eyes drooping, shoulders slouching ever so slightly, not making conversation.
Peeta looks up at me, bright spheres of baby blue that match the sky of a perfect summer day and emit a calming effect I never encountered in any Seam eyes beyond Prim's.
Most of us all looked the same, olive skin, dark hair, and gray eyes. Most of the people in Town looked the same too; pale skin, light hair, and blue eyes. Like a clash of weather conditions, our eyes divided our social classes as much as our other features. My own family mirroring the division more than any other family I have seen, my father and I looked like the Seam, while my mother and Prim looked like the Town.
Maybe that's why I was one of the only people in school that was close to people from both sides. The division others maintained held no meaning for me.
Madge felt the same way I did, and I always respected her for that, especially since she is the Mayor's daughter. People from Town sometimes whispered about us when they walked by us in the cafeteria, but neither of us cared.
"Ready to go?" Peeta breaks me from my thoughts.
"Sure," I say. "Do we get to know now who are visitor is going to be?" I was half-expecting the visitor to meet us here.
"You'll see soon enough," Peeta says with a disconcerting look on his face.
"If this trainer is anything unlike you count me in," Haymitch grumbles.
"You just earned yourself an extra 10 push-ups tomorrow," Peeta pats his shoulder, and raises his eyebrows at him, and then at me, daring me to say something too.
Nu-uh. I hate push-ups more than anything else in our workout routine. I let out a small laugh at the ground because Haymitch and Peeta seem to be battling for top mentor, but decide to keep my mouth shut, although I doubt Peeta is serious about the extra push-ups.
When we get to the meadow Peeta starts us off in a light jog to "limber us up" he says. It's early in the day, but the Earth is heating up fast since summer is nearly upon us. Little beads of sweat begin to form on our foreheads from the jog and heat, and afterwards we shade ourselves under our big champion oak tree.
Peeta said it was good luck for us to climb a champion oak during training. When he directs us towards it he calls it the "Katniss tree." I rolled my eyes at him the first time he said that, but he insisted that whoever climbed the champion oak the best should have the tree labeled after them.
After we get a drink of water, Peeta has us warm up our arms by raising both our arms directly away from our bodies, one arm jutting out on each side of our body in a 90-degree angle. Peeta is standing in front of us demonstrating the circular and back and forth movements that make our shoulders crack occasionally.
He rolls his eyes Haymitch and I because we keep accidentally bumping our hands together, and then glare at each other for the interruptions. Eventually this turns into a 'who can slap each other's hand the fastest' contest. Peeta sighs at us, disenchanted when we don't take things as seriously as he does.
I feel a tap, tap on my shoulder from behind me. Huh?
I twirl around, arms still out past my sides, and nearly whack Gale with my circling left arm. "Jeez, Gale" I jump a little when I see him, and I notice a long box resting by his feet. "I didn't hear you."
"As usual," he laughs.
Gale is the last person I expected for our visitor today. He definitely dislikes Peeta, and Peeta dislikes him. Wait, he is our visitor right? Haymitch and I share a confused glance, and turn towards Peeta, both of us raising our eyebrows at him in inquiry.
I guess Peeta already knew Gale was going to be our visitor today since he gives him a polite nod, to which Gale nods as well. Hmm, a truce...?
I wonder if Gale asked Peeta if he could come, or if it was the other way around? Nah, Peeta for sure asked Gale, because I know that Gale would not ask him if he could show up. Gale just would.
What is he going to do while he's here though? I find it hard to imagine him working out with all of us, even if he does want to spend his Sundays with me still.
He's got no love for Haymitch or Peeta. I know he was grateful for what they did for him after during and after whipping, but he can't get over the role they played in creating new roles for both of us. Their good-intentions downsized him to being my 'cousin' and kept me locked into a relationship with Peeta. I can't blame him for that bothering him because it bothers me too.
Gale swoops his eyes around my flushed face, enveloped in little beads of sweat, and chuckles to himself. He had seen me sweaty before, but it was always when we were hunting in the summer heat, climbing trees for eggs or honey, or the rare occasions where we brought down a large animal, like a deer, and had to carry it to the Hob together.
He glances at Peeta who is finishing up a long set of pushups and breathing hard. I smile discreetly. I'm glad he didn't make me do any pushups. His red face contrasts sharply with his pale, white skin. Gale chuckles slightly at him too, and almost imperceptibly shakes his head.
Lastly, his gaze lands on an extremely winded Haymitch, whose red face and muttered curses would illustrate a hard workout if you didn't know him to be as pitifully out of shape as Peeta and I know him to be. But to us it was clear that he was going through withdrawals still, so we didn't razz him too much. Not yet. We had only started working out last Friday.
Gale scratches the side of his face and awkwardly asks Peeta "Well, should we get started?"
I bite the inside of my cheek. Started with what?
"Yeah, let's get started," Peeta replies.
Gale opens the flaps of the box and I peer inside. I laugh, why didn't I see that coming?
Inside the box Gale has a diverse array of branches, twigs, long blades of grass, and other things I recognize as some of the items Gale used to teach me my first set of snares.
"Ohh, trap day," I say and smile up at him. He smiles back at me. Maybe we'll be able to keep one of our Sunday traditions alive still. He holds my gaze for a moment longer before taking all the things out of the box and organizing them on the ground.
He teaches us, well more so Peeta and Haymitch, how to make the most elementary snares he knows from items we are most likely to find in the Arena.
After Peeta makes his first successful trap, he throws it in front of my feet but I leap away from it just in time.
Gale laughs. "Peeta-0."
"What?" I ask.
"Peeta-0, Gale-0," Peeta replies.
"What?" I ask again, slightly irritated. They're competing over something else now?
"Gale-1," Gale says smugly.
"Nah, that didn't count," Peeta replies fast as lightning.
"I wasn't talking about today," Gale says.
Peeta narrows his eyes for a brief moment and then relaxes them. "You know the rules," he says.
"Fine, 0-0," Gale concedes.
"What are you guys talking about!" I say louder than I meant to.
Before either of them get a chance to answer, both of their heads twist and stare at something. I turn around to see what they're looking at when I see Madge walking towards us from the dirt path.
"Did you bring in two surprise visitors today, Peeta?" I ask.
"No, I didn't know she was coming," he says.
"Neither did I," Haymitch says accusingly at me. What did I do wrong? What's wrong with Madge coming?
I think back to the last thing he told her: "I can't let that happen to you" he said about the danger of the Peacekeepers finding her helping us. Why is he so protective of Madge?
I tut-tut at Haymitch while I point a finger at my chest and raise my eyebrows in question. What is he accusing me of?
I roll my eyes at him and turn towards Peeta. "I guess you were being prophetic then huh, Peeta?" I say, quirking my eyebrows up at him.
He glances at me for a second, twitching up the corner of his lips in a small half smile before directing his attention back to Madge.
Madge interrupts our poor manners. "Hello everyone. I didn't mean to interrupt your training, I just wanted to bring you all my father's newspaper," Madge says.
"What?" I ask her, confused why we would need an extra newspaper. After I became a victor my mother subscribed to the District newspaper, although we only get the Sunday edition. I can't really see a need for an extra newspaper, unless she wants to donate it to Buttercup's litter box.
"It's from the Capitol," Madge says. "My father gets a special edition every Sunday and a mid-week edition on Wednesday. I could bring them by after he's done reading them. If you all would like to read them?"
"May I see that?" Peeta asks.
She hands it over to him, "Of course," she smiles.
My mother raised Prim and me to be well-mannered, but in the Seam you get teasing looks if you use words like "may" or "pardon me." "Can" and "excuse me" work just fine to Seam ears. So it's strange to hear Peeta use the word "may" in such a casual context.
I suddenly recall Effie's words: "What wonderful manners you have, Peeta. Your mother raised you properly. I always find it uncivilized when the tributes from District 12 reach across the table instead of asking"
When she said that to him I saw his shoulder muscles tense up, but he simply said, "Thank you, Effie. She always instilled good manners in me and my brothers."
Effie always gets under my skin with her annoying bubbly-ness, but that was the first moment I wanted to smack her. Especially since she kept berating us after Peeta's statment. It was as if she believed good manners needed continual lectures to maintain them.
I stilled my thoughts to lash out at her though. Her mother probably instilled those lectures in her, and now she's just continuing the cycle. I really hated her calling the children in my District "uncivilized" though. As if we were the barbarians of Panem. How differently the Capitol and District citizens see each other...
Laughter brings me out of my angry haze. "Haymitch, what are you doing?" says Madge, letting out a new round of laughter when he falls flat on his butt. What did I miss?
"It's called yoga," Haymitch says feigning an offended tone.
"That's not yoga!" Madge says and laughs again.
"Oh yeah?" Haymitch questions. "How would you know?"
"Because I took a yoga class last summer," she says with a smile.
"Where?" I ask her.
"In Town," she says sheepishly. "I could give you guys a lesson or two if you would like?"
"What is yoga?" Peeta asks, probably worrying it will be of little importance to our preparation since Haymitch isn't winded, but that's probably because he executed it so poorly. Right? Come to think of it, I have no clue what yoga is either. How does Haymitch know about it? What does he know how to do? I wonder again.
"It's a workout that people did in ancient times," she begins explaining. "It has slow-paced movements that combine stretching, endurance, and strengthening of muscles."
"No wonder Haymitch knows about it," I laugh. He narrows his eyes at me. How bad must he want a drink right now?
"Alright, we'll give it a try," Peeta says. "Do you want to come by tomorrow and teach us?
"Yes, that would be great," Madge says, clasping her hands together and smiling. "I would love to help."
Now he's got Madge too. Me, Haymitch, Gale, and Madge are doing whatever he asks us to do. Oh, and let's not forget, my mother is happily preparing community dinners for him and Haymitch, and Prim is now our team masseuse. Man, he's good with words.
Yes, Trainer Peeta. Whatever you say, Trainer Peeta.
Gale's POV
Dinner was so good that I almost felt like I was dreaming. I had forgotten what it felt like to be completely full. I felt a little bad at how much I ate though. I out ate both Peeta and Haymitch. Nah, I don't feel too bad. They're victors, so they can get as much food as they need, while it's hard for me and my mom to provide enough food for the kids let alone ourselves. Rory, Vick, and Posy, three kids all in the middle of growth spurts.
After dessert at the Everdeens, Peeta invites me over to his house to watch the Games with them.
When we sit down on Peeta's couch Katniss sits by Peeta who is off towards the left side of the couch, and Gale sits at the right side of the couch.
They're watching the Games of some girl they keep calling Mags. I keep glancing over at Katniss. Partly because I hate watching the Games more than any other activity in the District, but mostly because Sunday is my only real day to spend with Katniss, and I don't want this day to end, even if it has not been what I would like to be doing with her...
Katniss looks sick every time Haymitch gives a tidbit about Mags' personality, but I don't know why. Mags seems to be pretty clever, and she's not afraid of a fight either. No wonder she won.
Maybe that's why Katniss is acting like this. She shouldn't though. Katniss won the last Games and she can do it again. I know she can. She's intelligent and strong, and she knows how to survive better than anyone else I know. Or maybe I'm just biased. I'm sure some of these other victors struggled to survive as well, at least the ones who didn't come from the wealthier Districts.
Occasionally she looks over Peeta's shoulder at his notes.
"What kind of a student were you?" Katniss asks Peeta.
"Eh, I did well enough to pass, but not that well," he says.
She huffs at him in disbelief. "Sure you did," she says, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Really," he says seriously.
Her eyebrows scrunch. She clearly doesn't believe him, and she glances back and forth from his notes to his face a couple times. "You could've fooled me."
"I was more interested in other topics," he says, looking at her meaningfully.
I wish he'd cut that out. Doesn't he realize she chose me, not him? He should try to get over her. I mean does he really want to suffer more with her unrequited love. It no longer matters for them to be "engaged" anymore. Snow probably realized that showing them as lovers was a useless measure to still the uprisings in the Districts.
But her eyes are locked on his too. Does she have any idea how much I hate it when they stare at each other?
Of course she doesn't. She's oblivious as usual.
"And sometimes I thought it wasn't so bad..." he waits letting his words sink in slowly, "but you know the people there...I didn't want to become a piece in their games." he emphasizes the word people, and she seems to understand something that neither Haymitch nor I understand.
He continues, "And sometimes I didn't know what I would do, so I started sketching."
They're both staring intently at each other still. Do they understand each other on some unspoken level like Katniss and me? Or are they speaking in code? Wait, why would they speak in code in Peeta's house? Does Peeta not want Haymitch and me to know what they're talking about?
My mind flies to the possibility that he's talking about Katniss. "interested in other topics" yeah, Katniss is probably the "other topics"... "you know the people there" ok, it's a stretch but he could still be talking about Katniss. But he mentioned others. "I didn't want to become a piece of their games" ok, maybe that means the rumor mill? No one wants to be part of that. Gossip took flight like a bat of hell in our school.
Ok, so maybe he's talking about more than just Katniss. Besides she's looking at him like they've had this conversation before. Why can't I figure this out?
Then Katniss opens her mouth, but shuts it quickly, purses her lips, and looks around the room.
Damn, that's right. Katniss mentioned the listening devices...
I wonder if they've got any other devices in these houses. I mean, these people are the ones who create the muttations. They've got pretty sick minds, so I wouldn't put it past them to hide other creepy things in here...How do they stand living in these houses?
But then she speaks up. "I guess that's when you became so wise huh?" she smiles a small smile at him, and he returns it with a sigh. They're still looking into each other's eyes.
Alright, that's enough gazing into each other's eyes. Time to end the staring contest.
I put my arm around the back of the couch and let my fingers graze her arm. They both settle back into the couch and glue their eyes to the television screen again.
Good, it worked.
She doesn't seem to mind the contact, so I continue stroking her arm until I am eventually drawing little patterns on her arm.
We have been watching the Games over at Peeta's now for several long hours. Every once in a while being forced to watch some child I never knew die.
Eventually, Katniss falls asleep and to my surprise and exasperation, she slowly tumbles over towards Peeta.
She was so still before that when she falls my mind registers it disconcertedly.
Nooo.
Peeta's shoulder catches her body's descent, and she sinks into him.
She's asleep on his shoulder, not mine. I feel desperate to go back in time and pull her over towards me. How could I have let this happen? How could she?
Peeta looks down at her too and then his eyes shift upwards to meet mine. His face is an odd mixture for the incredibleness she is bestowing on him. And not me. I hate him.
I clench my teeth together sharply making my face hard, pouring in all the rage I felt from the Games last year, and glare at him.
"Peeta, why isn't the train moving?" she mumbles. My eyes instantly go wide. It was barely intelligible because she's half-asleep, but I heard it. Everyone in the room heard it. And now all eyes are locked on me.
My thoughts are flying like darts, and I am now fuming on the inside. Train? They were asleep on the train...together? She said they had their own rooms...
My stomach drops to the pit reserved for special anguish, and my heartbeat slows. I barely breathe and my eyes suddenly see nothing. My mouth opens slightly, showing just the tips of my teeth. They sleep...together. Does that mean they've slept together? She wouldn't...would she?
My eyes refocus on her. She looks so comfortable sleeping on him. She's even curling around him, like leaves stretching towards the sun to drink in as much light as they can.
Peeta looks up at me, sadness in his eyes.
Why the hell is he sad? I'd kill for her to be doing that on me right now!
I glare at him, he may be her fiancé in public but I should be hers in private. She chose me. This should be my private moment with her. My territory.
But his eyes soften as he looks down at her, and then back at me. He quickly raises his eyebrows at me like he's asking me to do something.
My glare stretches into confusion. "What?" I snap louder than I meant to. Oh hell, what am I thinking? Of course I don't care if she wakes up.
I just want her to wake up on me...I want her to look up at me with sleepy eyes. Not him...He already had the cave, and apparently the train. I have never had her fall asleep on me, sleep talk to me, and wake up on me...All I had was a few hours with her asleep next to me while I was half dead.
I wish I remembered more of that night, but all I remember was her briefly kissing me, telling me she was going to stay in the District with me, and lacing her fingers with mine before the drugs overtook me.
The worst part about not remembering much about that moment with Katniss was waking up and finding out she was gone. Peeta had replaced her, and I couldn't think of a person I loathed more in the whole world in that moment. Except, maybe Thread.
"Take her," he says, much softer than my outburst.
I blink my eyes in shock and my eyebrows jut together. What? Take her? He doesn't want her?
He helps slide her over to me without waking her up, and I pull her in close to my body and smile. I start stroking her arm again, and then her hair. If only I could keep her next to me all night...on a train...
I'm finally making up for lost time. And I'm definitely going to win the bet too. Mellark is going down.
Peeta's POV
Gale's looking down at her like this is the first time he's ever seen her, like she's a newborn baby. His newfound wonderment at her sleeping on him is a little comical, since I'm now comparing all the times I shared a bed with her, and this is presumably his first time holding her while she sleeps.
Too bad I had to hand over the 'already asleep on me' Katniss so he could enjoy this moment with her.
But I knew I couldn't let her sleep on me with him sitting there watching us, pining over her. I don't like him, but I know they love each other. I don't know if she's told him that yet, or if he's told her, but it was painfully obvious to everyone after he got whipped.
When I saw them lying there together
It's not right for me to steal their time together. I won't take any of it away from them anymore. I've already taken her first kiss, inadvertently made him into her cousin, and proposed to her all while I knew that she had something with him. When I see them together I feel like the scum of the Earth. I took so much joy away from her, so many firsts happened with me and I knew they both wanted to have those experiences together first. I stole from them, and I continue to everyday that I'm alive. She has to come out of the Quell. I have to give her back what I stole. I have to right my wrong. I will get her back here, back to him...
If anyone is coming back at all this year, it's her.
Workout Day 4, Monday:
Madge meets Katniss, Haymitch, and me in the meadow right after we get done with our warm-up jog and she gets us all into formation. She takes the lead, facing us, while the rest of us stand in a line carefully watching every move she makes and trying our best to imitate it. We probably look more like a line of idiots than a line of yoga pupils.
Madge is actually a pretty good instructor, although I'm not sure if we'll ever do yoga again. It doesn't seem very physically demanding and we all need to get into our best shape possible.
Haymitch loses balance during a yoga move Madge is showing us, where you balance on one leg and form an uppercase T with your body. He bowls over, crashing into Katniss. Then Katniss crashes into me.
She's touching me. Focus... She's crushing my prosthetic leg, and the pressure makes my leg hurt where it joins with the prosthesis. Ok...focus on that. Don't think about how close her warm body..Focus!
Katniss pushes herself off of me and then quickly shoves Haymitch off of her. Next thing you know she sends Haymitch to the back of the class, which is essentially just a couple feet behind us.
We move into a new pose, and Madge laughs at Katniss.
"Katniss, that's not right," Madge says. She comes over and swats her knee. "You have to stretch your leg out straight, don't bend your knee."
Then we move into a pose where we are supposed to resemble a mountain. We are on our hands and feet with our fundaments sticking into the air. This is a workout?
I look back at Haymitch, and see that he is now fast asleep, sprawled out on the ground. Great.
Madge shows us a new move where you start by laying down on your stomach with your feet together. Then you place both of your hands under your shoulders and push your upper body into the air while you keep your lower body close to the ground. I feel like a seal. I look over at Katniss to confirm that we do in fact look like seals, since I can't see myself.
Wow...Katniss looks...well not like a seal...stop looking at her! You're going to freak her out if she catches you looking at her.
We segue into "mountain" again, and I sneak a look at her. She looks back at me, noticing me staring at her.
Smooth...Now she knows you're looking at her...look away. Just focus on this silly yoga.
Next Madge instructs us to stand up, turn to the left, spread our legs apart past shoulder width, and then bend our upper bodies until we're at a 90-degree angle. I am now staring at Katniss' derriere, mere feet away from her.
Thanks Madge. This is really going to help me stay focused.
Ok, just look away. Or look down. Look up? Just don't stare at her curves...
This is not a good moment for that to happen.
Madge tells us to stay in that pose, while extending our arms straight forward, making our upper body into an even line. I look at her, positive that she must be joking. No, she's holding her arms out in front of her, forming what looks like a "7."
I bite my lip and do the same. Ok focus on the pain in my lips. My fingers are inches away from touching Katniss'...No! If she knew what you were thinking right now...I exhale audibly, and hate myself for it.
Madge tells us to reach further out as if we were trying to grasp something just out of our reach.
Seriously Madge? Do you have any idea what you are doing to me?
Gulp. Stop. I bite my lip again, this time harder than the first time.
"Peeta you're bleeding!"
"Where?" I ask and look down my eyes big. She and Madge had turned back to a forward standing position and I was still reaching towards Katniss. How embarrassing.
Now she's touching me and I snap my body up. This startles her a little, but then she grabs one side of my face and lifts her other hand towards my lips. Is this a dream?
Ow. Nope not a dream.
She pulls the fabric of her sleeve over the hand closest to my lips and is now wiping my chin and lip with her fabric covered hand. I must have unconsciously made a cut in my bottom lip.
Mm, it's not a dream...She's not very gentle, but I don't care.
She's touching my lips. Katniss is touching my lips. And she's standing so close to me. Her other hand is still cupping my cheek, and I can feel her hot breath fan over my face. My eyes glide over her face quickly. She's sweating a little. And her hair. Her hair is loosely tied in her braid and sticking out in different directions.
Dammit. I lost the battle.
"Why don't we break for lunch?" I say and move away quickly. I walk towards the Katniss tree and adjust my shirt, though its really unnecessary, and then my shorts, though that is necessary.
Katniss' POV
At lunch Haymitch says, "I want to do yoga everyday."
"Why? So you can sleep through half the workout?" Peeta mocks.
"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that, boy," he says.
Peeta's cheeks redden and he steals a glance at me. Then I blush, but I don't really know why.
"Yoga is very good for your body," Madge chimes in.
Phew saved. I don't think anyone knew how to work his or her way out of that conversation.
"Just wait and see," she continues. "Tomorrow you'll probably be sore in places you're not usually sore. Yoga uses a great deal of the muscles in your body, especially ones that aren't used to being worked out."
Peeta thinks it over for a few moments. "Alright, we can do yoga once a week."
He glances at me and then flicks his eyes away.
After lunch, Madge leaves and Peeta takes us through Lesson 2 of knife practice. You would think that for all the time Haymitch keeps a knife around he could actually hit something with it. It's clear with a few throws that he hasn't hit anything with his knife in a long time, well anything he intended to hit at least.
We have dinner together after we clean up as usual, but today it's sans Gale. When my mom serves a cake that Peeta baked for us after dinner, Prim enthusiastically tells Peeta about my recent cake baking exploits, and how I failed miserably.
"Thanks a lot, little duck," I say teasingly. "You're just as bad as Haysnitch."
Haymitch and Prim look at each other and smile. It is obvious to everyone that Trainer Peeta has taken the leadership role in our trio, despite the occasional bickering from Haymitch. And Haymitch and Prim seem to find it funny to poke fun at Peeta and me. Haymitch ratted me out last week for not doing my push-ups, and now Prim is ratting me out about not being able to bake a cake. I wonder what will be next.
While we indulge in Peeta's cake, we all start rubbing various muscles until Prim sets down her fork, and comes and massages my shoulders. Next, she walks over to Peeta, who sets down his tea and straightens up for her, ooh-ing and ahh-ing occasionally. Prim giggles and Peeta taps her hand gently to let her know that she can move on. Lastly she goes over towards Haymitch, but he puts a hand up and dismisses her.
"No, thanks Prim," he says picking at his dessert and not looking at her.
Prim gets behind him anyways and starts massaging his shoulders. He hunches over the table to get away from her small hand's reach.
She surprises him when she says, "Sit up straight" with a much more authoritative voice than I thought could be managed by my thirteen year old sister. He pff's at her, but straightens up after a couple seconds.
She looks over at me and rolls her eyes. I let out a small laugh and keep my eyes down at my dessert so as to not to meet Haymitch's glare.
All that time spent helping my mother care for people who were injured by the Peacekeepers has made Prim so much stronger than I have ever been around pain. The pains of the Districts nearly made me runaway and take everyone I loved with me; but when I look at Prim even managing to coax Haymitch into oblivion with her masseuse skills, I think that she has become a better person in spite of all the pain she encounters as a healer. I admire her for that.
Workout Day 5, Tuesday:
I slow my pace until my back is hunched over and my hands are resting on my knees. I'm not stopping. Just taking a break.
Thwap! I shoot straight up and take in a surprised breath.
"Peeta!" I say while rubbing my rear end.
"Come on Katniss," Peeta says calmly as he jogs past me. "We're almost done."
I start jogging again, but keeping several feet away from the reach of his arm. "Was that really necessary?" I ask annoyed.
"I'm not going to let you become like Haymitch," he states.
"Hey..." I say, and at the same time Haymitch snarls "Hey now, boy..."
I don't like my fitness level equated to Haymitch's level, and Haymitch doesn't like the insinuation that he's pathetic.
But I now see an opening to shift attention onto Peeta and Haymitch and quickly take advantage. "I don't see you spanking him," I challenge.
"You do, you die," Haymitch says looking square into Peeta's eyes.
Peeta exchanges a glance with me, and smiles. "Don't worry, old man. I wouldn't dream of it."
After we finish jogging, Peeta and I start lifting weights while Haymitch lays on the ground panting hard.
After lifting weights, Peeta makes Haymitch and I follow the routine he gave us last week. I don't do my push-ups and make sure to avoid Peeta's eyes. Maybe he won't notice.
After lunch Peeta decides to open up the package that we received from Effie yesterday. The box read: "Please open together." So we waited until today to open it.
I don't have high hopes for what she sent us. But maybe it will be some sort of Capitol snack food. They certainly know how to do food there.
Instead of something tasty, we find matching gold shorts and red t-shirts. Seriously? Is she really keeping up with this whole matching outfit thing they made Peeta and me do during last year's training before the 74th Games?
"I'm not wearing this" I spit out.
"No way in hell," Haymitch says.
Peeta laughs lightly and sets the box of useless clothes down. This is one present that will go unused.
After dinner and dessert tonight we start in on a new victor's Games, since we just finished Mags' Games last night.
We move onto a tape labeled "Gabriel Mokley." After we had decided to proceed in chronological order, we spent some time labeling the year that each victor won the Games. His Games is the year after Mags' Games.
Just like Mags, I don't remember anything about Gabriel's games from the "Top Replays" the Capitol plays every year in between the Games. Haymitch tells me that he goes by 'Gabe' amongst the victors, and that he keeps to himself. He doesn't speak, unless it seems of great importance to him.
Well I guess that explains why I don't remember him in any interviews.
Peeta hesitates a little on pushing play, and I know why. It's incredibly disturbing to watch the Cornucopia scenes from any of the Hunger Games. They are all bloodbaths.
Gabe instantly sprints towards the Golden Horn. He sure is quick. He is clearly the fastest runner in the Arena, and he was also the fastest off the stands.
When he gets to the Horn, he grabs a spear and launches it towards a large male tribute. My mind flashes back to Marvel throwing the spear at Rue. He was so quick to launch it, so sure of his aim. The way Marvel popped his body back up into a standing position after he hurled it is what gave me a clear shot at his chest.
I notice that Gabe's form matches Marvel's form almost exactly.
"Haymitch, which District is Gabe from?" I ask.
"He's from District 4," he replies.
I don't respond back. Him and Peeta seem to take my silence as indication to refrain from asking any more questions, or talking about the Games in general. Rue's death was the hardest for me to bear, and they all know it.
But none of us ever like to talk much during the viewing of the Games. It is just too sickening, too atrocious, and too recent, even for Haymitch.
We watch on as Gabe gets sliced here or there by small knives other tributes found lying in dirt mounds in a pasture. This time there doesn't seem to be any muttations around the Cornucopia, and I think back to Mags' Games and wonder if the green water monsters really were muttations after all.
I don't know why I never thought this before, but most tributes really do need to stay away from the Cornucopia bloodbath to survive. I almost got killed a couple times when I merely went for a backpack. I'm not sure the survival items are worth risking your life so early on...that is unless you are in a Career pack. One Career alone never does as well as a group of Careers banding together.
It now makes perfect sense why Peeta wants to become like the Careers. Not only will we be fighting experienced killers in this Arena, but also we will do better if we know the tricks to staying together and helping each other from the beginning.
And as painful as it is to watch these Hunger Games tapes, we are picking up tricks to defeating them at the Cornucopia, which undoubtedly many of them plan on charging.
Workout Day 6, Wednesday:
Madge brings us the paper in the morning as promised, and we hurry through our jog and workout to have time to read the entire thing. We take a couple hours for lunch, reading the paper and commenting on the opinions of the Capitol and the bets they have already begun placing. Within that time we get another surprise visitor.
Prim's blonde hair swishes around her back as she walks up to us with a small box in her hands. She greets us all sweetly, and tells me that the package just arrived, and that it's from Cinna.
The note reads:
Girl on Fire,
I cannot let you be seen in the clothes Effie sent you. It's bad for my reputation. Call this...the start of your new workout gear line. More to follow.
-Cinna
I take the package to our old house with Prim and try on the outfit for her. Before I even show her the outfit I know that it is a huge improvement from the one Effie sent. First off, I'm comfortable in it. And when I come out and show it to Prim, the look on her face tells me that this outfit suits me.
The bottoms are pants for one thing, not shorts. Well they are a little shorter than full length pants, but that will do nicely seeing as how it is getting warmer outside and we work up a sweat every day. The pants will be nice since we work out on the grass and I find that I am constantly scratching my legs from the irritation the grass causes my skin.
The top is a lightweight green tank top that has two layers of fabric around my chest, of which I am very thankful for. It is as if Cinna knows what it is like to be a girl while working out.
Prim comments on how the green color of the shirt compliments the color of my eyes, and I realize that I would have never noticed that until someone pointed it out. She starts talking about how soft the material is, and how she wishes she had an outfit like that. Maybe I can get Cinna to send an extra set for Prim.
Prim knows what I like to wear, and what I don't like to wear. I merely held up the outfit Effie sent me in front of Prim and her face squeezed up like a rotten piece of fruit. When I took out Cinna's outfit her eyes lit up, and it made me wonder if that's what they looked like when she saw Cinna's costumes for me before the Games.
When she saw the wedding dresses Cinna designed for me her eyes nearly bulged out of her head and she kept clasping her hands together in awe, coveting each and every one.
I ask her if I should wear the outfit to workout in today and she nods her head enthusiastically, giving me a big smile.
The workout runs smoothly today, and I'm beginning to feel like we're settling into a comfortable routine. Well, Peeta and I are at least. Haymitch is still pathetic at workouts and combat training.
When we sit down to watch more of the Games I crumple into the couch and bunch my legs into my body on the couch that Peeta and I are on.
It's not until I feel his fingers grasp onto my foot that I realize I had unconsciously slid my leg out towards him. I'm surprised when he takes my foot, and I quickly withdraw it from him. If he doesn't know that I'm ticklish on my feet, there's no point in him finding out. Even Gale doesn't know I'm ticklish there.
"This is the one that you broke right?" he asks.
I nod. He grabs my foot again and starts slowly massaging around my ankle.
Phew, no tickling.
He takes his time and hits every possible spot around my ankle, going especially slow and cautiously around the bone that broke.
"It doesn't hurt when we workout?"
"No," I say, and then hesitate, "it does get a little sore at night though."
"Does this help?"
I nod. I'm too embarrassed to say that it does help it feel less sore, and I am a little stupefied that he thought to massage the muscles when I hadn't.
Workout Day 7, Thursday:
I walk down my front steps and find myself completely alone in the road dividing the houses in the Victors's Village. I walk to Peeta's, thinking that maybe they're around the corner of his house for some reason, but they aren't.
Did they leave me? Am I late? Is Peeta really that much of a stickler for time?
I walk to the meadow to see if they're already there in the middle of the jog, but when I get there I find that no one is there. Where are they?
I go back to the Victor's Village and start wondering if they are pulling a prank on me.
I hear the front door of my house close and turn towards the noise to find Peeta bounding down the stairs towards me. "There you are," he says.
"There I am?" I ask frustrated. "Where were you guys?"
"In my house," he says as if I should have known.
"Are we no longer meeting outside?" I ask, vexed with his reply.
"No, we are," he starts, "just not today. Come on, Effie sent us something new."
I walk into his house and see a bunch of wires attached to a little, blue box that has lights on it. Some of the lights blink, while others just stay lit up.
Peeta says that Effie sent a note with the package, saying that it is "all the rage" in the Capitol right now for home workouts, and she hopes it won't be too hard to set up.
We spend near an hour trying to figure out how to set up the box to use it to workout inside for a change, each of us giving it a try before tossing the pieces down on the floor in frustration.
One by one, we sit down and start munching on some muffins that Peeta has on a plate on his large coffee table. We seem to have given up on the idea of working out with the little box and are slowly sinking into the furniture.
I hope Trainer Peeta doesn't make us get up just yet...I'm suddenly feeling sleepy.
The next thing I know, Prim is knocking on the front door, yelling through it that dinner will be ready in five minutes, and I realize that I am laying down next to Peeta. Both him and Haymitch are still asleep, and Haymitch is snoring.
Dinner? We fell asleep all day? Together...?
We we're sleeping facing each other, his arms around me, and my legs are interwoven with his. He opens his eyes, and stares back at me with a slumberous, content look on his face.
We lay there for a moment in silence, basking in how nice it feels to have gotten a decent amount of sleep without nightmares ruining it. And on the seventh day there was rest.
I throw a pillow at Haymitch and he wakes up with a start, slashing the air with an imaginary knife.
"Oh," he says groggily. "I think we should designate Thursday as Capitol gizmo day."
Peeta stares into my eyes. "I'm for it, if Katniss is?" he asks me.
I furrow my eyebrows up at him. "It's up to me?" I ask him. So far, very little of our schedule has been up to me...
He says nothing, just raises his eyebrows encouraging me to answer. I look at Haymitch who is letting out a yawn, and look back to Peeta who saw Haymitch's yawn and is now stuck in a yawn as well.
"Okay," I say quietly.
"Look at that," Haymitch says. "I guess you're not always doing something stupid."
I glare at him. He mock glares right back.
We get up and start walking over to my house. Peeta and I are walking side by side, and for the first time in a long time, I find myself wanting to hold his hand. I ignore that thought, and start up a conversation instead.
"No nightmares?" I ask him.
"No," he shakes his head. "You?"
"No," I respond.
We take our seats at the table and scattered around the table is a dinner of roasted chicken legs, a salad with baby spinach, tiny carrots slices, and chunks of tomatoes, and a huge bowl of rolls.
The dinner wakes us up out of our lethargy and we end up watching more of the Games than normal. It's probably a good thing though because there are dozens of tapes to get through and we only have a few months to get through them all.
After the fifteenth tribute dies, Peeta turns it off.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" Peeta asks me.
"Peeta, I live three houses down from you," I mock him, remembering when he said that to me during the blizzard.
"Peeta, will you walk me home?" Haymitch asks in a high-pitched voice, impersonating a teenage girl.
Peeta rolls his eyes at him and then turns away from us, heading towards the staircase. Such a large, empty house. Haymitch's house is too. I wonder if they get lonely.
As he ascends the staircase he says "Goodnight" to us and when I look back at him to say it back, I catch his eyes staring at me before quickly returning them to the stairs he's walking up.
"Goodnight, Peeta," I say.
"Goodnight, sweethearts," Haymitch sneers at us.
Workout Day 8, Friday:
We jog for an hour today before moving into weights, but we only get halfway through our routine before it starts raining and we have to take cover under the Katniss tree. We try to wait out the weather, but it's raining harder and harder with each passing minute. None of us wants to work out in the rain all day long.
I suggest sneaking into the school weight room to finish the workout before calling it a day.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Peeta says. "Remember when I went last week? Peacekeepers caught me coming out, and interrogated me as to why I was there."
"Oh you big wuss," Haymitch says. "No one gets in trouble for attending school. Let's go. I'm sick of this rain."
We sneak into the school gym and start working out on the machines in the small weight room. However, it seems to have coincided with one of the Physical Education classes, so there is a small group of guys and girls in there with us.
I notice that the guys instantly look at me strangely, and they don't seem to know that staring is rude.
Eh, it must be because I'm the only girl victor in District 12.
Maybe they're wondering what workouts I did to train before the Games, except it's not as if any kid here needs to train for the Games this year. In between workouts I hear some of the boys whispering and I look up at them only to find them averting their eyes quickly.
The next thing I know Peeta says that we've finished for the day, and we should take the rest of the day off to rest. We haven't even been here for a half hour, and we certainly haven't finished our lifting routine.
"I think this will be the only time we workout in here," Peeta says as we leave.
"Why? It's got machines with lots of different weights. Wouldn't that be good to use?" I ask.
"Yeah, I suppose so, but I think we should avoid coming here if we can," he says. "I don't want anyone to turn us in to the Peacekeepers."
I can't say that there are zero chances of someone turning us in to the Peacekeepers, because everyone in the District seems to have a precarious relationship with us. They love us for winning them food each month, but they hate us for bringing in more Peacekeepers and ultimately the starvation that continues to cripple the District. I wish I could say that it's not my fault about the latter, but I know I played the biggest role in the new security and punishment measures in the District. As for the food...I don't know if I should blame that on myself, but I do, at least partly.
My mom makes beef stew tonight since it was chilly and raining all day long. She serves it with cheese buns, and by the time the dinner is over Peeta, Haymitch, and I have all had two servings of stew and at least four rolls each.
We feel stuffed, and while we watch more of Gabe's Games we sigh here and there, holding our bellies. At one point a tribute gets slashed right in the stomach and I almost lose my stew. Instead I twist my body around backwards and tuck my head into the couch. Peeta gently rubs my back, until I turn back around after a minute to keep watching the Games.
Workout Day 9, Saturday:
We meet outside of Peeta's house as usual and I notice that the bags under Peeta and Haymitch's eyes are puffier than most days. It is a horrible thought that passes through my mind, but secretly I'm glad that I'm not the only one suffering from nightmares of the Games we watch together at night.
Before we leave for the meadow my mom comes out onto our porch, gracefully descends the steps, and walks towards us.
"Would you and Peeta like to have breakfast with us in the mornings?" my mother asks. I raise my eyebrows in disbelief. Great. Why don't we all just move in together and we'll be one big, happy family.
"I think it would be good if you all began your day with a bowl of grain and some eggs," she continues. "It would help you to put on more weight, and you will all feel a little less tired everyday."
We all perk up at that. Less tired. Sign us up.
Peeta and Haymitch look at me for approval. I nod my head once at them, and they both tell my mother that they would love to and give her their thanks for the offer.
We begin walking through Town and I can't help but ask Peeta, "What's in the box?"
"Effie said she sent us all some more workout things," Peeta says apprehensively. "I think she must have nothing better to do than buy workout things for us."
"Hmm. Well, that is kind of...sweet," I say.
"Yeah, it's downright peachy," Haymitch scoffs. "Well, open it up. Let's see what useless things she sent us this time."
He opens the box and I see an assortment of small objects I assume must be for working out, although I would never have guessed that some of them were made for that purpose. In fact, the only thing I can discern as useful is one solitary dumbbell. Doesn't she know that Peeta already has dumbbells for us? And why is there just one?
The dumbbell has two large silver ends, each the shape of a small cylinder, and the handle is made out of some type of spongy, white material. At first sight it looked identical to the ones that Peeta got, but now that I look closer, I see that it is much bigger overall and the handle bows out in the middle so that the middle of the handle is nearly twice the size as the rest of the handle. I look for markings that indicate its weight, but there is nothing accept a black stamp that reads, "Shake Weight."
I pick it up, examining it for a moment until I realize that my hand stayed steady but the dumbbell moved. I look up at Peeta and Haymitch with a confused look, but they don't seem to know what kind of weight this is either.
I hold the handle so the cylinders parallel the ground and slowly move it vertically, but nothing happens. So, I switch directions and move the dumbbell horizontally, and then it moves, well jiggles really.
It reminds me of one of the desserts they had at the Capitol. Effie said it was called Jummy, and it was a red, solid, but very light, jam-like substance, except it formed more of a cohesive mass and wiggled on the plate as the red-headed Avox girl set it down before me.
The dumbbell acts like Jummy and it is a strange feature to have in a dumbbell. Wouldn't it be better to just increase the weight? What's with the shaking? Does that really help build muscle, or it is just a sad excuse for a proper dumbbell?
Throughout my internal analysis I have continued moving this weight but stop the second I hear Haymitch and Peeta erupt into laughter.
"What?" I ask at them, my face twisting in confusion.
They just laugh louder and point at the dumbbell and then at me, so I drop it down on the ground. My cheeks flush because I have no idea what is so funny, yet I feel like I should be aware of what I did to bust them at the seams with laughter.
They don't answer me, and my lack of comprehension now has them keeled over shaking with laughter, their hands on their knees. My embarrassment transforms into irritation when I see Haymitch wipe away tears from his eyes.
"Whatever this is for, I can't imagine it being very useful," I say.
They erupt into laughter again, and I begin to wonder if people can physically laugh harder than this. When they don't stop laughing after a minute, I end up walking away from them to start my jog.
Peeta catches up to me during the jog and looks at me, trying to put on an apologetic face but failing miserably. Every time I scowl at him he ends up looking away and chuckling again.
AN: I couldn't resist adding in the yoga scene so I hope you guys don't mind it :) There are some guys in my yoga class that do the funniest things and constantly check out the girls AND get this—there is even a wrestler in there with blonde hair...I couldn't help thinking of Peeta every time I saw him.
I just finished with dead week, finals week, and moving to a different state. I apologize for the delay, but life has been crazy. And I also graduated yesterday! Yay! Reviews would be a great graduation gift ;) There may be some errors in this chapter on account of me being mentally exhausted. Please don't hesitate to let me know so I can fix them. Now that my crazy final two weeks of class are over, I promise to update much faster!