Chapter 3 – What a Day
I was awake but I stayed in bed, watching the sun's rays going permeating through the window. I didn't want to go to the woods, not today, not after what I saw yesterday. How long will Peeta survive with that gash on his leg? If he doesn't treat it that leg will have an infection which causes a fever later on, and. I couldn't think about it anymore, I can't think of Peeta dying in the arena. I sighed as I took the blankets off of me and felt the chill of the morning air tickle my skin. I pulled on the school uniform and started organizing things in the store.
"Katrina why are you up so early?" I asked the little girl who was rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"I noticed that you weren't in bed, so I was wondering where you were," Katrina replied as she slowly walked towards me with her bare feet. I smiled and grabbed hold of her hand. I started to lead her up back to our bedroom, and let her sleep for a few more hours before school started. Around eight o'clock the house was bustling with life now. Aunt Agave making sure that her three children had food and me some bread and a water bottle. I had my backpack packed and ready so she didn't need to check that.
The twins, as usual walked ahead of us to talk about whatever they were talking about. They were probably talking about the chances of which district tribute is going to survive. I hope that they're rooting for their own district. District one through four are the ones who will most likely to survive the arena. Those eight tributes have the most sponsors, but maybe it will be different for this year. Peeta confessing his love for Katniss, and it being unrequited the people in the Capitol will surely sponsor twelve more than usual. Katniss even had an eleven for training, the highest rating is twelve. Who wouldn't want to sponsor a tribute like that?
Classes were boring as usual. It was always about coal mining, which is the core class for us to pass, and the other classes were just general education that high school-ers throughout the districts needed to learn. I enjoyed Biology when I was a freshman, and History is somewhat interesting. When the bell rang indicating that class was over and it was finally lunch time.
I was joined by the usual friends, and ate what my Aunt gave me. Don't friends usually share their food? Whatever, they're not really my friends anyway. I walked excused myself from the table after I was done. I usually go to the library to do some studying but today I felt like walking around the deserted halls. I was walking right past the boys' restroom when the door swung open hitting my shoulder. I stepped back and winced in pain.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you," A familiar voice apologized. Of course he didn't see me, there's no window on the door, and why would there be a window? I looked up to find that it was Gale. We've been bumping into each other lately, which is weird. We have never had these "meetings" before, why now?
"It's alright," I said rubbing my shoulder. It wasn't that hard of a hit and there probably won't be any evidence of a door hitting me.
"Gabriella, fancy seeing you here," Gale said after realizing who he was talking to. I just gave him a cheeky smile. Yeah, fancy seeing you here, too. I thought. I scanned the halls again, hoping there would be someone nearby, but everyone was still in the cafeteria. "So do you usually try to sneak into the boys' restroom?"
I turned my head to face him as if he was mad. Do I look like a boy to him? The next thing I heard was his bellowing laugh that filled the halls. That just made me even angrier at him, the guy I have been crushing on for six years, is so, so, ugh, I can't even find a word to describe him.
I watched as Gabriella started to storm off. Was it something I said? Yeah it probably was, calling her a boy isn't the best thing that I've said to her so far. "Gabriella, wait!" I shouted and caught up to her without breaking a sweat. She didn't get too far, she was probably thinking about what to do to me. She can fight so it was most likely knocking me out. I grabbed her injured shoulder and turned her around. She flinched away from me, and put her hand on it. Great, just made it worse. I thought.
"What?" She growled, she looked furious, I have never seen Katniss this angry before.
"Look. I'm sorry for what I said and did earlier," I managed to stammer out. I did not know what to do when a girl was this angry with me, except to leave them alone and let them cool off. I looked up at the girl with jet black hair to see that her face softened a little. I started to relax.
"It's alright, I overreacted anyways," I heard the girl say. I was shocked to hear that she overreacted. I think any girl would react that way, but maybe she wouldn't mind actually being a guy. It's a lot easier to be a guy but also the maturation rate is quite slow. So it's sort of a lose-lose situation.
"So how's the shoulder?" I asked, the silence that grew between us was getting awkward. Why wouldn't it be awkward? We're not that close and we only did get to know each other yesterday, but it wasn't much. I watched as Gabriella rolled her shoulder to see if it was okay to move the joint.
"It'll be fine," she replied rubbing it a little. Now I feel quite bad for grabbing the injured shoulder, and for smacking it with the restroom door. I was about to apologize again but I decided it would be a waste of my energy to do so. She can probably tell how sorry I am for not being aware that other people were walking in the halls during lunch.
"How has your day been, so far?" I asked leaning on a nearby locker. Then something struck me, it was strange the way the light bounced of her hair made her look, beautiful. I never noticed that, and the way her skin glows in the sunlight how can I have not seen this before? I watched as she leaned on the locker next to me, and I also realized that she's quite short, she was at least a head shorter than me.
"Alright, nothing much happened, besides our little incident," she said and I think I noticed her blush a little. Maybe it's because this is the first time we've been standing so close to each other, I don't know. "How about you," The girl asked me. I looked at her and our eyes locked for moment. But I snapped out of it when I turned my attention to the lockers across from the two of us.
"Same," I replied folding my arms. The two of us stood there in silence, until the bell rang signaling it was time for the next class. "Where's your next class, I'll walk you there," Okay why did I just say that? I usually don't walk girls to class besides Katniss. She'll probably deny this request, I am so stupid.
"It's down the hall, where's yours?" She asked as people asked them to move away from their lockers.
"Huh, mine is down that way, too." I said, wow and I have never noticed her until now? But before we could walk towards our next class her friends popped out of nowhere.
"Hey Gabriella, let's go to class," one of the girls who had blond hair said while she linked her arms with Gabriella. She looked up at me with an apologetic smile and started walking with her friend to class. I watched as they stopped by their lockers, and walk into the classroom. I sighed as I slumped my way to the classroom across from her.
It's been a few hours since school was out. I was standing at the cashier waiting for costumers to purchase what caught their eye, but business was slow today. It was probably because of what happened to the two tributes of twelve. Everyone knows what the tracker jacker venom can do to a person. I sighed hoping that Peeta was doing alright with that injury to his leg. I stood up, suddenly realizing that I haven't visited the Mellarks in a while. They must be worried about their youngest son being in the arena. I wanted to leave the store and go to the bakery, but I was the only one in. I can have a break, can't I? I never tried it, but I guess I will.
I jumped over the counter, used the "we'll be right back" sign that had a little clock with moveable hands, hung it on the door and locked the shop. I walked to the bakery and looked at the windows. Peeta's decorated cakes, they were always different from one another. A lot of people admired them, and I'm one of those people. I walked inside after the window started to get crowded by little children who wanted those cakes.
"Hi Mrs. Mellark, is Mr. Mellark home?" I asked the not so kind woman. I'm used to it, Aunt Agave isn't the kindest woman either.
"Yes, he's upstairs," she grumbled as she stuffed a few rolls into a bag for a costumer.
"Thanks," I replied and walked upstairs to their living space. Most of the store-keepers in the square have this kind of structure. I knocked on the door of Mr. Mellark's study.
"Come in," He sounded quite sad, so I cautiously opened the door.
"Hi Mr. Mellark, its Gabriella," I said leaving the door open behind me. I'm sure what we're going to discuss is nothing really important. "How are you?" I asked staying by the door.
"Worried, I'm worried about Peeta," He said quietly. I nodded feeling exactly what he was feeling right now.
"He'll be fine, I'm sure he found a way to survive with that injury," I said hoping that cheered him up. Mr. Mellark slowly turned around and faced me. He looked like he's been crying. I held back my tears, I know what I said, but it's hard to survive with such an injury. But I can't assume he's dead, not until tonight's broadcast that is.
I wiped my tears as I left the bakery, and slowly walked back to the store, to find a line of people outside. I wiped the remaining tears and jogged to the shop. Every costumer was complaining how I went over the time, and I didn't even realize it. I thought I said ten minutes, and it didn't seem I was gone for ten minutes. I sighed and opened the door; I was going to walk in but was squished to the side by the stampede of angry costumers.
I was walking back from the justice building after selling my wild turkey to the lead peacekeeper of this district. He always paid a fair price for my wild turkey. I was walking with the gold in my hand, and then I saw something that I had never seen before. A line of people waiting at the clothing store that Gabriella's aunt owns. Should I intervene, and see what's going on or should I wait for her aunt to come back? But to my surprise it was Gabriella who walked to the shop and opened the door. She disappeared from my view once she opened the door. Okay, now I have to intervene. I walked towards the shop and found that the small girl was leaning on the door for support.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked as I helped her into the shop. The girl nodded in response and walked into the store holding onto my arm. I was surprised by how quickly she recovered when she had to take over the cash register, and rushing from one end of the store to another to help customers. After her third lap around the store I stopped her. "I can help you know," I said.
Gabriella turned her head to face me. I could see that she was overwhelmed with how many people wanted clothes all of a sudden. "Alright, can you take over the cash register? I'll deal with the customers." The girl said as she slowly loosened the grip of my hand on her wrist. I didn't even notice that our hands were that close.
"Right," I responded and walked over to the cash register and started on the long line of costumers that waited for their items to be purchased. I even started to get a bit overwhelmed with how many costumers had entered the store. After the last costumer left I leaned on the counter. I heard Gabriella lean against the counter on the other side. I have never seen this shop so busy before.
"Thanks Gale," I heard her tired voice say in the now silent store.
"No problem," I replied not lifting my head up. I was so tired from just punching numbers and giving the right change. All of them were crabby costumers. I lifted my head to find that Gabi seemed to be asleep, but I had to make sure. "Gabriella, are you asleep?" I asked shaking her lightly, but she didn't respond. I looked at her, she looked so peaceful. Who would want to wake someone who looked so serene? I walked around the counter and lifted the girl. I remembered her being light, but not this weightless? Did she lose weight?
I found the steps up to her house, and walked up the stairs, and opened the door slowly to find the family eating at the table. None of them came down to help. I understand that the little girl can't really do anything, but come on. "She fell asleep after the raid of costumers," I explained as they eyed me with suspicion. The little girl got up from the table and guided me to their bedroom. She told me that her bed was by the window. I nodded and gently put the Gabriella on her bed. I moved a strand of hair out of her face, and covered her with her blanket. I wonder if she'll wake up for the broadcast of the games.
"Gabi, wake up, it's almost time for the broadcast," Katrina's voice filled my ears as I rolled over on my bed. Wait, bed? Wake up? When did I fall asleep? I shot right up and I looked at a smiling Katrina, thinking that her waking me up worked.
"Thanks Katrina," I said giving her a smile. We watched as Katniss was given some medicine for her burns and the tracker jacker stings. Then the cameras switched to Peeta. We couldn't really see where he was but we heard his voice. Then I realized that he was camouflaged in the mud. He was saying Katniss's name, I smiled remembering how he always slept talked. There were pictures of the tributes that died, at the end of the broadcast, the anthem played, and the seal was the last thing we saw on the screen.
I was called to do the dishes, even though I didn't eat dinner because I was so tired from dealing with all those costumers. Of course I abided to her demand to wash the dishes. It was pretty late already, but I wasn't feeling tired, after my long nap. After I finished drying the dishes, I heard the twins and my aunt discussing something. I listened pretending I was still washing the dishes.
"I think those people did their job," Mavis's voice floated into the kitchen, as if he wanted me to hear what they were talking about.
"But that boy, helped her," my aunt's voice seeped through the door between the living room and the kitchen. Did they hire those people to crowd the store? What were they thinking?
"Yeah, but she came back exhausted," Max whispered, but he clearly can't. I even heard the twin's high-five each other. Did they want me to die in that crowd? I could have considering the size of the crowd that ran into the store, nearly crushing me. I was lucky that Gale was there. I know if I threatened to report this, they will bring me to the community center. They know that I don't want to live in the community center. I can't escape from this household, I need to find a way to leave, but I can't leave Katrina. I nosily put the dishes back into the cupboards, and opened the kitchen door. All three of them faced me, they tried to look calm but it didn't work.
"Since when did you three become so close?" I asked leaning on the door way with my arms folded. Aunt Agave gave a nervous laugh as she put her arm around her twins.
"They're my boys, how can we not be close?" She said hugging them closer. The twins tried to look happy that their mother was hugging them, but obviously they didn't like this. The twins and their mother never had a great relationship. They were always butting heads and they never really agreed with each other on anything. Maybe the only thing they ever agreed on was trying to kill me.
"Right," I said slowly, and raising an eyebrow telling them that I heard their conversation. I smiled and walked back to my room. I closed the door softly, changed, and climbed into bed. I laid there, awake for a few hours. I couldn't fall asleep, not after that nap. And I can't believe that they hired those people to go buy some of the merchandise in the store. I guess it was a win-win situation for them. I get exhausted, hurt, and there will finally be money in the bank for the store. I sighed and tried to fall asleep, so I started to "count" the stars out in the clear night sky.
"I really need to try to get out of here," I whispered to myself as my eyelids finally started to feel heavy.