Chapter Four: Prim in the Confessions

Hey people! I'd like to just tell all of you that I am going to try to continue to update regularly, every Friday, though I don't really know for sure if I can seeing as it is so close to the end of the year tests (only two months!) and school has begun to pile up. Hopefully I can keep with my schedule, but if I'm late every once in a while that's probably why.

Second, I wanted to let y'all know that I might be changing my Pen name soon. The new name will most likely be Sara Vincent. The reason for this is that I have been doing this same Pen name since I started this profile a year ago and I want a new one now. Hopefully y'all won't get too confused.

Third, and final, I want y'all to know that from this point out the story will be almost completely AU. Twists, turns, and all kinds of drama will be going on, and, oh yeah, the appearance of Foxface will happen in this chapter, so yay for that.

Now, I don't really have anything else to say except for to reply to reviews, and then I'm done.

Rachel Kate Doxey: Thanks! I'm glad you think so, because as I said I don't really like the idea of making this story the same as the movie. That makes it less fun to read, I think. Also, I probably will make Danvid and Prim get together; it just might take a few chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize.

That night went by very slowly, with Rue and I both trying to nurse our wounds as well as keep an eye on the Careers. At some point after dark a parachute came down bearing burn cream, which Rue and I shared, and a note from Haymitch telling us how to use it. We then decided to take turns sleeping, and I took the first half of the night while she took the second, when I woke her at three in the morning.

The little sleep that I got was uninterrupted and, thankfully, slightly refreshing. I woke back up at about seven to Rue shaking me, at which point the sun was already up. She quietly pointed up above us, and I followed her gaze until I saw a Tracker Jacker nest on a branch about two feet above us. Cut the branch, she was trying to tell me.

I nodded, showing her that I had gotten the message, and slowly got up. I reached up and, after making sure that the Careers were still sleeping, began to saw at the branch with my knife. The wasp-like creatures began to notice me and began to fly round Rue and I, obviously trying to find out if we were friend or foe. One wasp, then two, and even three stung me as well as Rue, making us cry out, before the branch fell to the ground.

It was instant pandemonium.

Screams ripped through the air as the Careers realized what was going on. Danvid was the first to jump off of the ground and start running, being the smallest and most agile. He was closely followed by Marvel, Cato, and Clove, but Glimmer couldn't get away and eventually fell.

Rue and I quickly jumped to the next tree and then the next and the next, but my vision was blurry and I saw a rainbow of colors all around me. I heard a loud ringing in my ears, and my eyes were getting heavy. My breathing came in spurts, and though I couldn't hear myself I was pretty sure that I was making quite a racket with my breaths. I briefly wondered if this was what it was like to be drunk before my world went black.

I woke up a while later, feeling something sticky on my arm and neck. It took me a moment to realize where I was before I sat up, quickly surveying my surroundings.

I was lying on the ground, beneath a sort of rock-like structure that curved slightly above my head, making a sort of make-shift tent-like structure. It was probably mid-afternoon, around the time that I fell asleep, but I was pretty sure that I had been outside for more than a few minutes. My eyes widened even more considerably when I realized that Rue was not within my line of vision anymore.

"Rue?" I whisper-yelled. "Rue, where are you?"

I scrambled to my feet, picking up my knife –which had, thank goodness, been put next to me on the ground– and looked around for a moment more. It wasn't until I turned to look to the left that I felt the sticky leaf that I had noticed when I woke up move.

I sighed, relieved, as I realized what must have happened. "Rue," I called quietly. "I know you're here somewhere."

Leaves crackled on the ground as my ally made her way over to me from behind a tree. A small smile grew on my face. "Why were you hiding?" I asked. "We're allies!"

"Sorry," she said meekly. "I just wanted to make sure that when you woke up you weren't delirious and accidentally stabbed me. But I put some medicine leaves on your tings as well as mine. You've been out for three days. The girl from Ten died. I wasn't asleep because I only got stung once so my symptoms were only mild. You got stung a lot though; I almost thought that you were done for."

"Good thing I wasn't then," I said, my smile getting a bit bigger. "I guess we should go now then?"

Rue nodded. "Back to the trees," she said.

Pulling off my leaves, I made my way to the nearest tree and Rue and I began to climb. We climbed all the way to the top, well hidden in the leaves from anyone who might be wandering under us, before I heard my stomach growl. "We need to hunt," I said. "Either that or we need to find someone to steal from."

"Oh yeah!" said Rue. "While you were sleeping, I caught sight of the Careers. They've stacked their entire supply of food, water, and weapons in a big pile near the lake, and they leave sometime around noon every day to hunt, as well as at night. They usually leave the fourteen-year-old from Three there to watch. He's really small, but not as small as us and while you were asleep I didn't want to risk going in alone. But now…"

"But now the offer seems just too tempting to pass up," I finished. "Alright; I have a plan."

The rest of that day was spent with me outlining my plan to her, and after a small meal of squirrel we went to bed, our plan ready for execution the next day.


"Are you ready?" I asked Rue the next day as we were about to part.

She nodded. "Yup," she said. "And remember, we're going to need to be able to contact each other when we're done."

"What do you propose?"

"Here," she said. She then looked up into the trees and hummed four soft notes. Instantly the notes were picked up by the many Mockingjays that were flying around in the trees everywhere. She looked back at me. "Now you try."

I pursed my lips together and whistled the same four notes, allowing them to carry through the birds, before looking back at her. "Okay," I said. "I'll see you in a few minutes then." And with that I turned and ran toward the lake.

When I got there, just like we had planned, the Careers weren't there and the only protection the supplies had was the boy from Three. The day before, Rue had told me about the small bumps of dirt in the ground, so I had already warned her about the mine bombs.

I saw her make her way to the edge of the forest on the other side of the pile, so that I was in front of Three and she was behind, but before I could give her the signal to start our plan I saw someone make their way from about sixteen yards beside me, run up to the pile, jump over the small dunes in the dirt, and grab some food before running off again… right in the direction of Rue.

Abandoning the plan altogether, I quickly scrambled up the tree before jumping into the next one, and the next, and the next, hoping to get to Rue in time.

By the time that I got to the other side, the person that I had seen earlier was standing in front of Rue, talking to her. Confusion clouded my features for a moment before I climbed down from the tree, making my way over to Rue and the other person, who I figured out was a girl by the long hair (which I had now seen was orange-red in color).

I came to a stop right next to them. "Five?" I asked as I realized who it was.

"It's Finch, actually," she said. She turned back to Rue. "Allies?" she asked.

Rue nodded once before turning back to me. "Prim," she said. "This is Finch. She says that she can help us get food, and in return we can help her by being her 'eyes in the sky,' so to speak."

I nodded. "Alright," I said. "Where to from here then? We never got the food from the lake, and the Careers are probably back by now."

"Don't worry about that," said Finch, smirking. "I nicked some while I was there." She brought three apples out of her backpack. "And that's just a snack," she continued. "They go back out to hunt again around ten, and then I'll go back and get some more for dinner."

"Okay then," said Rue. "Then maybe we should go back to wherever you usually stay, Finch. Obviously you know how to stay out of sight, and I don't think it would be very easy for you to climb up to where we stay."

So we walked back to a small cave in the center of the arena, where Finch led us inside before rolling a big boulder most of the way in front of the entrance, only leaving enough room for a bare bit of light to be let in. The way that it was structured, I might even have been able to start a small fire every once in a while being that the smoke would only be coming out in small streams rather than in one great pillar that the Careers would see.

"So this is how you do it," I whispered, noticing how the cave echoed loudly.

"Yup," said Finch. "Home sweet home. It's humble, but it keeps me safe and it's the one place that I feel relatively safe in this God blessed arena. Plus, I found an emergency exit in case the Careers find me."

She pointed to a secluded corner, and I saw a small hole under the edge of the cave, just small enough to crawl through but not big enough to give any real light to the place.

"Good," said Rue. "That's probably a good thing to have."

"It has been before," said Finch. "I actually had to sneak out of it once when that guy from your district, Rue, came in looking for a place to stay during the night. I had to find a different place, but he cleared off the next day and hasn't come back since, so I think that we're safe."

"You're safe anyway," said Rue, smiling. "Well, not while you were on your own, but I knew Thresh when we were in Eleven. He's a family friend. He always used to play with me and the other kids. He looks really mean, and could snap your neck easily, but he would never hurt me or anyone else he actually cared about."

I giggled lightly. "Yeah," I whispered. "It's just like my sister's friend, Gale. He's real cold to people that don't know him, and he is really strong, but he would never hurt Katniss or me. He' a real sweetheart when you get to know him like we do. My sister likes him, but I don't think she knows it yet, and I know for a fact that he likes her." I looked up. "Nice to have that secret out, isn't it guys?" I asked playfully.

"I think everyone knows someone like that," said Finch. "My older brother, Abie, looks mean and acts mean, but really it's just 'cuz he's sad and confused. See, our parents died when I was seven and he was nine, so he had to raise me all by himself. For a while we were on the streets, and I had to learn to scavenge for food in the dumpsters while he got odd jobs with neighbors. It sucked, but we got by until we were old enough to take out tesserae."

We grew silent. Nobody knew what to say to that, and nobody tried. I was sure that the screens had turned to us during that moment, and while I knew that Finch might get more sponsors due to sympathy to her, I didn't think that she had said that for that reason, nor that she was lying.

Nobody talked for a long time, and around ten o' clock Finch went back out for food, coming back a few minutes later carrying three sandwiches and three water bottles. After that, we all went to bed, but I didn't sleep soundly. I kept thinking of Katniss, of Gale, of Danvid, and of what would happen if I did manage to get out of here with my life.

So the ending's a bit gloomy, but I figured I would give you a bit of a backstory on them. Plus, that kind of explains, to an extent, the relationship between Thresh and Rue, and of course why Finch is as good as she is at scavenging and such.

Anyway, I hope that you all review soon, and for now I think that I'll call it a night. Till next time.

-CahillGirl2001