Chapter Six
Mishaps
Gale falters, sitting down his cup. "Is something wrong?" he asks. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes. When I reopen them, Nadia and Gale have moved closer. "Nothing's wrong," I say. Gale raises an eyebrow. "I know that look, Katniss," he says. I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "It's just. . . .maybe if you'd responded to my letters you'd know what was wrong!" I say, shooting up and storming away. I hear Gale and Nadia calling after me, but I ignore them. I make a beeline to the train, sending word to Effie to let the conductors know to fire up the engines.
I make it about halfway there when I'm stopped by someone. It's not a tap on the shoulder, either, it's an arm, preventing me from going any further. "Excuse me,'' I say, trying to push away the arm. It resists. "Wait," they say. I turn to the voice and see that it's a young girls. Maybe sixteen or seventeen to my twenty-two. "Can I help you?" I ask. "I'm kind of in a hurry," The girl's eyes are familiar. Too familiar.
"Clove," I murmur under my breath. The girl must be her sister. She stares up at me with so much hate. It's been six years, and this is the time for her to demand my apology. Which I'll give willingly. I didn't want anyone to die in the arena, but Clove had to go so I could stay. "I'm sorry about your sister," I say sincerely. The girl's hateful glare flickers for a second, then reverts straight back to her previous expression.
"I'm sure you are," she spits. Her arm is still preventing me from moving. "I am, really," I say. "You don't know what it was like in there," The girl shoves me back. "You don't know what it was like on this side of things," she says. I swallow. "Actually, I do," I say. I slyly reach behind my back to press the button on the little communicator Effie gave me should things go awry.
"You still have enemies, Katniss," she had said. And I believed her. I'm standing in front of one right now. She cocks her head, just like Clove used to. "Oh yeah? How?" she says. I huff out of my nose. "I lost my sister too," I say, forcing myself to relive that moment. Clove's sister crosses her arms. "Good riddance to her, then. You deserve it for killing my sister," she says. I narrow my eyes at her comment.
"You think I don't know that? Every day I know that I'm paying for what I've done to so many people. I don't need someone like you to remind me of that," I say. I see Clove's eyes flicker upward, and I whisk around. When I do, I have just enough time to catch the knife that's swiveling toward me. The thrower freezes, unsure of what to do, now that I've messed him up. I slowly turn back around, holding the knife.
Clove's sister looks mortified, now that her plan has gone so horribly wrong. "Killing me won't bring your sister back," I say, giving the knife to her. She takes it, confused. I look over my shoulder, and see the Capitol attendants coming. I wave to them. I turn back to Clove's sister, giving her a little wave.
"So nice to meet you," I say, following the Capitol attendants. She's torn between coming after me or running away. But I'm gone by the time she makes a decision.
"I need you guys to do something for me," I say. They turn to me.
"I need you to bring in Peeta,"
