2.
My thoughts are interrupted by a deep cough coming from behind me, making me jump, I turn around expecting to see a peacekeeper come to kill me but instead I find Gale, staring at me with a sly, stupid grin on his face. His bow and arrows are slung around his shoulders and his hair is sticking up everywhere as if he just climbed out of bed and came straight here.
"Gale! What are you doing?" I ask awkwardly as if he was able to read my thoughts. "You scared me to death!" I pull myself to my feet and face him. He raises his hands in surrender.
"I'm sorry but I only just showed up. You looked like you where in deep thought so i left you to it and then you said, 'but why the bakers son' and then you groaned." He says, trying to holdin a laugh. "Something you want to tell me?"
I step even closer to him and he steps back slightly. "I never said anything about a baker so forget it! Lets just go hunting." He bursts out laughing and I feel my anger rising. My hand becomes a fist, as if off instinct and I punch him really hard in his arm. He finally stops laughing and looks at me, whilst rubbing his arm, at the spot I just hit him.
"Hey! Its not my fault, I just came over and you whispered something about the bakers son, you dont have to be so touchy about it!" He shouts at me.
"Well you dont have to be such a jerk about it!" I shout back, with the same intensity.
"Again! All I did was stand and listen! I was joking before!" He says in defence of himself.
"You stood and listened? Invading my privacy much?" I ask. I can see him getting more angry by the second. He looks as if his head is about to explode.
"What privacy? I'm your best friend, I thought I knew everything about you? I didnt think we had secrets?" He asks, his face a little softer now.
"Everyone has secrets Gale." I reply, taking a step back.
"Okay, I dont care if you have secrets, I just want you to know that as your best friend, I will always be here if you need to talk." He says. He looks at me as if waiting for a response, that I'm not giving him at the moment, as we stand there in silence. I know Gale very well and I know that it annoys him when there is something wrong with me that he doesnt know anything about.
"Everything is fine Gale." I tell him and turn around to pick up my bow. "Lets just hunt for food so our families dont starve. I dont want to go through that again." I pick up my Arrows and sling, both them and my Bow, over my back.
"Going through what again?" He asks and I feel his hand on my arm, forcing me to turn around. "Are you telling me that you have been starving before?" The only thing I havent told him about my life is the worst part of my life and now I think im gonna need to tell him.
"I've always been starving Gale, but yes, I have been through it before and I'd rather not talk about it because it was horrible so can we please go hunting now?" I ask, trying to make the conversation die down. I really dont want to talk about it. I try to walk away but he catches my arm again.
"Is this something to do with the Bakers son?" He asks, a littl bit of confusion in his voice. I turn around to face hi, wondering how on earth he got that it was something to do with the Bakers son.
"How did you know that?" I ask.
"Well a couple of months ago, you told me that you where helped by the bakers son but you didnt tell me why he helped you." He says.
"Yeh, and I'd like to keep it that way. Trust me Gale, its not going to change your life if you dont know this. Its in the past and I'd like to keep it in the past if thats okay with you?" I ask, trying to pull my arm away from him but he doesnt let go, he just holds on tighter.
"Well thats just it Catnip, Its not in the past anymore. You brought it up and now its in the present. So are you going to tell me what happened and how the Bakers son came into it?" I start to shake my head but he stops me. "Please, I just want to know. If you dont tell me, I'll keep bringing it up until you tell me. If you tell me now, I'll never bring it up again." He says with a small smile.
"I'm not going to tell you Gale, let it go!" I say.
"Fine then, I'll just go and ask the Baker if he knows anything about it." He says and my eyes widen.
"No please dont!" I shout to him and he starts laughing.
"Then tell me." He says.
I sigh and roll my eyes, finally giving up. "Fine! I'll tell you but if you ever bring it up again, I swear to god I will kill you myself. I have never told anyone this story before. Not even the Bakers son knows that he saved my life. I never even thanked him.
He nods in agreement and I motion for him to sit on our rock so that I can begin the story of the worst experience of my life. "Before we met, just after my father died, we wheren't getting any food because my mother couldnt get a job because of the depression. We didn't survive off the money for my fathers death for long so I signed up for tesserae, which also didnt last long and eventually we got to the point where we probably had about a week to live soi went into town to try and sell some of Prim's old baby clothes-"
"Wait, why did you go into town? You could have just gone to the hob, you would have got a trader in there?" He asks. I suppose thats a good enough question.
"Because I was too scared to go in there without my father and besides town people have more money than seam people." He nods in agreement and I carry on. "So when I got to the Market in town, nobody would buy the clothes and it started raining outside. I had lost all hope and had believes I had failed my family. I had also lost all my energy, so I couldnt carry on. Some kid from town tripped me over and I fell into a puddle and the baby clothes got all muddy. I just left them there and got up going to attempt plan B, which was the bins in town. I started with the Grocers but they where empty, so I tried the Bakery but it turns out that all the bins had been emptied earlier that day. I had crawled to the end of the Bakery yard and sat under a tree. I had prepared to die right there. Then I had a, Stroke of Luck, I suppose. You know Peeta Mellark?"
"The Bakers son? He's that Blonde, Muscly kid in your class thats always staring at you?"
"Yeh that's him." He probably thinks that I dont know he stares at me but its hard not to notice when he does it all the time. Especially when he is considered, 'The best looking guy in our year'. Mainly by the girls in town though. All the attention goes to him so I find myself looking at him more than I should.
"Then yeh I know him, He's pretty creapy."
"Yeah, anyway, He came out with 2 loaves of bread and threw them toward me and he saved my life that day and he never knew. Also the day after when I saw him in the school yard, I was going to go and thank him but then I saw that he had a big bruise on his cheek that his mother musthave given him for helping meand i looked away and right there on the floor was a dandelion which had filled me with Hope and showed me what I had to do to survive, Hunt. So I owe Peeta Mellark mine and my families lives and he doesnt even know that."
"Well I thank Peeta Mellark because if it wasnt for him, then I would have never met you." Gale says, nudging me slightly. "No, but seriously, I never knew all that."
"No I know, because I never told you." I say
"Why did you never tell me?"
I look up and meet his eyes. "Because I didnt want anyone to know. I dont like re-living. Everytime I even think about it, all I can think about is that feeling that I had when I was sitting under that tree. I had failed my family. My father was dead. And I had left my mother and little sister to die back home. I had no choice, I know that now but it is so painful to know that I just gave up and didnt even try." I try to hold back the tears as he stares at me.
"I understand." He replies.
"Its also very important to me." I say and he smiles.
"Shall we go hunting then?" He asks and I nod. We both step up off the rock and set ff deeper into the woods.
The day goes by really slowly, like it usually does when we spend the whole day hunting. Its still full of fun though. By the end of the day, I have killed 2 Rabbits, 5 Squirrels and 3 Fish. Gale has 8 Squirrels and 1 Rabbit from his traps. He gives me 2 Squirrels so that I have 7 and he has 6 even though his family has more members. Atleast his mother has a job though whereas my mother sits at home doing nothing. Either way, I try to give them back but he wont take them back so I shove them back into my bag.
When we get back to out meeting place, we are about to sit down to take a break before carryiing on back home but I suddenly hear sirens making us both jump. It confuses me until I realise where they are coming from. I share a look with Gale who seems to have caught on. The sirens are coming from District 12.