"Let's get out of the kitchen. It's kinda stuffy." She says, heading through the door. I follow behind her. halfway through the kitchen, I stop abruptly. She stops when she sees I stopped and looks at me, concerned.
"Something wrong?"
Gale looks at me straight in the eyes from across the room. He sits in a table with Beetee and Finnick, talking about who knows what. They all follow Gales gaze towards me, but I just notice one thing. Only one word can describe the flow of emotion he has in his dark eyes.
Revenge.

His gaze intimidates me some, but I give him an equally cruel glare to show I'm not backing down, even though I'm not really sure why I'm angry at him. My gaze only lasts a few seconds though.
"Peeta, what's wrong?" Says Delly.
"Nothing." I respond. Delly follows my gaze. She looks at me questionably.
"What's up with Gale?" She asks "Fuzzy relationship between the two of you?"
"You could say that." I say sourly. She looks sad. Then, In a very overly happy voice says "Well, let's go say hi!" She grabs my arm and pulls me towards them. Finnick waves, Beetee smiles politely, and Gale just keeps staring daggers at me. A face of pure disgust hits his face once more before he turns around and pretends to not see me coming towards them. Delly nudges me to say something first. I nudge her back. She nudges me harder, so I just decide to speak.
"Hey guys." I say uncomfortably.
"Hello Peeta." Says Beetee good naturally. "Want to sit with us?"
"Nope." I say softly so only Delly can hear me. Delly nudges me really hard. "Yeah sure." I say loudly, and sit directly across the table from Gale. Talk about awesome seating choice.
"Did you eat anything? My favorite is the fish soup." Says Finnick, trying to make the atmosphere less tense. What a weird topic he chose though. Fish soup. I guess there's not much more to talk about. I give him points for trying.
"Yeah, I ate chicken soup." I say. The silence that comes next is awkward.
"I've heard your good at electronic stuff Beetee." Says Delly.
"Yeah, I guess you could say I'm a wiz with technology." He smiles. "I've been creating weapons to help out in the war."
"Oh really? Like what?" Says Delly, interested.
"Well, I've made some cannons that shot off time bombs. You could make them explode in ten seconds or ten days. They go long distance."
"That's cool." Says Delly nodding. "What are you doing Finnick? Anything special?"
"Oh, nothing." He says with a hint of boredom. "Just talking to you." He winks at Delly. She looks at me and rolls her eyes, though I suspect a hint of blush. She nudges me in the ribs. It takes me a moment to figure out what I did wrong (with girls you never know). Then I notice how she asked Beetee and Finnick about their lives. The only one that she didn't ask was Gale. She wanted me to ask him how he was, to be friends, but no amount of nudging would make me talk to him first. I nudge her a little harder than usual so we don't have to keep up the little charade. I also give her a tiny glare, just to make sure she gets it. She sighs but surrenders.
"So, Gale, anything going on with you?" She turns to him.
"No, not really." Is all he responds, not really open to conversation. A little bit of awkward silence passes before Delly decides it's hopeless to try to keep up a conversation, especially since the only one who is cooperative is Beetee.
"Well, Peeta and I must be going." She says awkwardly. She stands up and I stand up too, following her lead. "We have to," She pauses, thinking of a good excuse. "We have to get Peetas schedule. It's been nice talking to you guys."
"Don't hesitate to come back." Says Gale while looking at me. He puts very heavy sarcasm into his words. Beetee shoots him an irritated look, then he turns to me.
"Sorry Peeta. Gale is just on his period and he seems to be a little moody these days. You know, the usual. It's got me a little fed up to tell you the truth." This surprises me. To hear Beetee saying something like this is a sight I thought I'd never see. He seems like the very polite type. I almost burst out laughing.
"Bah humbug." mutters Gale. He turns around. If this were a cartoon, he would have smoke coming out of his ears.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that." Says Delly, smiling. "Well, Got to go!" She goes towards the exit door and I follow. Once outside of the lunchroom I say
"Wow, never thought Beetee would say something like that."
"Oh you know, that wasn't so bad."
"Yeah, I guess." I shrug. "The talk was terrible though. Why did you make me go through that?"
"You guys have to be friends! You know what they say! Keep your friends close." She scoots close to me. "And your enemies closer." She scoots even closer to me. I was a little pissed off for her making me go talk to Gale, so I just throw my arms in the air, turn on my heels and go the other direction.
"Hey! Where do you think your going mister!" She grabs my arm and even though I could shake her off and keep going, I stop and turn around.
"What? Just going to my comfy home, shelter, whatever."
"I don't want you to be mad at me!" She puts on a pouty face. "I just wanted everyone to get along." I know she only meant well, but I don't want her to make any more decisions like that for me.
"I'm not mad at you." I say "But next time, I won't let you off the hook so easily."
"Fine, I promise I won't make you talk to him anymore." She looks a little disappointed. She crosses her arms in defeat.
"Good." I smile at her. Behind me, I hear footsteps. The smell of liquor hits me and I automatically know who it is. I don't even have to look. Haymitch. Ugh. I wrinkle my nose in disgust.
"Hey Haymitch, what's up?" Delly says.
"Save it Delly, I'm not in the mood for chit chat." He says.
"Gosh, don't be such a negative Nancy." She drags her voice in a lazy hum. Changing her voice into her regular one she says "I'm going to leave now." She points at us "Clearly you guys have some important, thing to do. Meet me later k?" Without enough time to respond, she skips away, out of sight. I sigh and look at Haymitch. He shouldn't smell of liquor anymore. I doubt they let you drink it here. He probably snuck it in somehow. I pretend not to notice.
"What do you want?"
"It's not what I want sweetheart. It's what Coin wants, and she wants to see you A.S.A.P." Oh, right, I was supposed to tell her about my choice of being the Mocking jay or not. I didn't even get to ask Delly if it was a good idea to become the Mocking jay.
"Okay." I tell him. We walk in silence, towards the lonely conference room where I talked with Coin last time. We stop in front of the door.
"Sweetheart." He tells me. "I want you to know whatever you choose, I'll be right by your side. Don't do something because everyone wants you to do it. Do it because you want to." I am moved by his words. He leaves and walks away. I've never hated Haymitch. Even when he gave me the news to Katniss, I never really hated him. I was very angry, but you can never truly hate someone you love. With that thought, I open the door and enter the room. This time, there is more people. The only people I really recognize are Plutarch and Coin though. The rest are complete strangers. Complete upper-class (or as upper-class you can get here) strangers. They were sipping wine and talking. When I entered, people put their glasses down and all talking seized. Coin clapped her hands twice and all the drinks disappeared. They got cleaned out and the cup molded into the tables. Talk about technology.
"Peeta, take a seat." Says Plutarch. They're all siting in a circle this time and I sit in the only available seat there. My footsteps echo in the room.
"Did you make your decision?" Asks Coin. "As promised, I gave you one day to think about it. Your time is up." I start feeling anxious. I barely even thought about my answer. Talk about not making any rash decisions. That's pretty much my only option at this point. I have to go with my instincts now.
"I'll be your Mocking Jay." I decide. People sigh in relief, but I stop them "I have some conditions though." Coin doesn't even flinch at my request.
"What are they?"
"I want to get my own compartment." I say
"Done." She says. People around her are relieved that my request isn't a big one. "Is that all?"
"No." I continue "If Katniss lives, by some miracle, I want her to be spared." In the capitol, stuff could happen. Make her say things that she doesn't really mean, and I don't want her to be blamed on the Rebel side.
"Easy." Says Coin. She waits a while, not sure if I want anything else.
"I don't really want anything else." I say. "You just have to keep your vows. People in this room are witnesses."
"I promise, to not break my vows." She says. "If you break your vows to be our Mocking Jay though, Katniss will not be spared."
"Fair enough." I shrug.
"You should be proud of yourself." Says Plutarch. "Your saving millions of lives by making this decision." and possibly killing many others, I think to myself.
"Thank you." Is my response.
"Your compartment number will be number 274 in section C." She presses a button and a little beeping sound bounces off the walls.
"Here is your room card. To enter your room, just slide it across the card swiper. You are excused now, ." I take the card, bow respectfully and exit the room. I search everywhere until I finally find my compartment. I take out the card from my back pocket and swipe it in the card swiper. My door makes a little beeping noise and automatically opens. I smile and enter the room. The walls are a nice beige color. In the middle of the room it has a king size bed with orange colored bed sheets and pillows. It has no windows or anything, but the furniture is nicer than I thought it would be. I lay the middle of my bed and put my arms behind my head. I take a deep, clean breath. Way better than the hospital. I don't even bother to change my clothes. I toss my card onto the little desk beside my bed, kick off my shoes, and fall asleep. I dream about nothing.