7.
The training seems to go by really quickly. Me and Peeta cover everything but the shooting and anything that would show Peeta's strength. It becomes a little fun sometime during the second day and me and Peeta keep creating little games at every station which helps speed it up I suppose but every minute I still worry about my private session. I know I'm going to show them my shooting but I'm only used to using my own bow back home in the woods, I havent had a chance to use their bows so I dont know what they are like. I'm hoping they arent much different. I watched the district 1 girl using one whilst me and Peeta where at one of the stations and it looks tighter thsn my own but it might simply be that she isnt that strong. I guess I'll see soon.
Today is the last day and this afternoon, after lunch we will go to our private sessions, one by one. Starting with the District 1 male and ending with me. Which means I will be sat there for a good few hours, worrying. Atleast I'll have Peeta by my side until he's called.
In the morning, me and Peeta split up. He goes over to throw some spears with Thresh from 11, well not with him. Thresh is just there when he gets there. I however, end up being the only person at the climbing station. The first obstacle I devour way too easily. The second one is a little harder but I get through it easily. The third one takes me a little longer. The fourth one, I get half way up when I hear someone yelling at someone else, I turn to see Cato from District 2 getting up in Peeta's face but Peeta just smiles at me and I smile back. I decide to climb back down to find out whats going on but as I move my foot down, I slip and I try to grab hold of something but I cant and in no time at all, I hit the floor and everything blacks out.
When I next wake up, I'm lying on the floor with a pounding headache. Peeta is standing over me with one of the attendants next to him. "You alright?" Peeta asks, looking worried and I nod. The attendant walks away almost immediately and it is really quiet for some reason. Everyone is either watching or gone somewhere.
"Where is everyone?" I ask as Peeta helps me up off the floor. I dont know why I blacked out considering the mat is underneath me.
"Dinner started 10 minutes ago, we should get going. You okay?" He asks. I get up and sway a little, everything spins and Peeta has to hold me still.
I nod even though I'm not that fine. "Everythings just spinning thats all. Come on I'm hungry." I'm not really hungry but I know Peeta will. He always has eaten a lot when he has been worried. With the private sessions this afternoon I dont doubt that he is hungry.
In the dinner hall, its oddly quiet. For the past couple of days, everyone has been talking and laughing and generally having a good time but today, no-one is saying a word, they are all just sitting there silently having something to eat. When we walk in we get a few people looking at us, clearly they all saw what happened out there. As they look at us, Peeta moves me away and takes me over to the food table. "Just ignore them Katniss." They probably think that I'm weak because I fell off the climbing wall but I'm not and they will come to see that in time.
Peeta is swallowing the last piece of his second plate of food when the first tribute is called, 'Marvel'. He turns to look at me with his mouth full of food and smiles slightly. I finished my food a while ago and I'm surprised Peeta can eat, I'm that nervous that I dont think I'll even be able to have tea. When he see's Marvel standing up to take his place at the doors, he looks back down at his empty plate and stands up, taking it with him. I follow him, realising that he has had too much or he will end up throwing up during his private session. "Peeta, dont you think you have had enough?" I whisper to him but we catch the attention of the Career table when I grab his arm to pull him back and he snatches it off me. He glares at me until something in his face changes, like he didnt realise it was me at first. "You're gonna make yourself sick."
"Katniss..." He whispers. "I'm scared. I wont be able to lift anything with my wrist this way and you havent even tried their bow. We arent going to be able to do this." He is now gripping my arm. There is pure fear in his eyes, which I have only seen one other time and that was when I woke up after hitting my head at Haymitch's that day.
I ignore the look in his eyes, however much it is scaring me and grab his free hand, which turns out to be his broken wrist. "Listen to me, even if you wont be able to lift anything, you where able to wrestle and you can do what I taught you in the other stations. I know you will think of something Peeta."
He takes a breathe and closes his eyes for a moment. I take this chance to look away to find no-ones eyes on us anymore. "Thank you." Peeta says, I quickly look at him again, just as he is opening his eyes. He pulls me to him and we kiss, right there in the middle of the room full of people that could be trying to kill either of us in a couple of days.
About 5 hours later, its just me and Peeta sitting in silence until his name is called. 'Peeta Mellark' He looks at me, just like he did when Marvel was called and I look back. He still looks scared. I do the only thing I can think of and reach up to kiss him. He seems to unclench and lets go of my hand, walking to the door, strong. "Good luck. I love you." I say to him just as the door opens.
"I love you too." He replies and dissapears from view.
I'm sat there thinking about how he is doing or what he is doing when suddenly I hear this loud crash, making me jump almost completely out of my seat. I pull myself up and walk to the doors, hoping that I would be able to see something through them but I cant. I'm trying to look through the gap in the door when I hear my name, making me jump again. 'Katniss Everdeen'. Good thing I'm already stood here.
The door opens and Peeta is on the other side looking really angry. "I'm sorry about that." He smiles at me sadly, motioning behind him and then he walks away. I walk into the room to find atleast 10 peacekeepers picking up pieces of what was obviously the climbing wall. Did Peeta do that? Oh no, thats terrible, they are definitely not going to like him after that little stunt.
PEETA POV
When I leave Katniss standing there, I walk to the elevator and push the 12 button with my fist. I was planning on staying here and waiting for her but I need to get out of here and cool down. The bastards wherent even paying attention to me, what do they expect me to do? Stand there and wait? Call them? Do it anyway and hope that they saw me? No, I had to get there attention somehow and when my attention fell on the climbing wall, I thought about Katniss falling and next thing I know the wall was falling. A few of the game-makers where actually applauding me though, atleast one good thing came out of it, even if I did lose my patience which isnt really a good thing apparently.
The doors open to the 12th floor and I step out. Haymitch, Effie, Portia and Cinna are sitting there. "How did it go?" Haymitch asks whilst everyone else sits there quietly. I think about dissapearing to my bedroom but instead I throw myself down onto the sofa and let out a long breathe. "Well?"
"Oh brilliant!" I shout at Haymitch. "Even though I might as well have killed myself in that training centre because now I'm gonna be dead within 2 minutes of the arena and so is Katniss!"
Haymitch speaks again, the rest of them just sit there in silence. "Okay, firstly dont take it out on me, its not my fault that you are a complete idiot and secondly what did you do?" So I explain it to them. Thats when Haymitch bursts out laughing and Effie starts flapping her fan at me, giving me every curse word she probably knows, which isnt that many.
When Katniss walks in about 2 minutes later, she gets the same question from Haymitch but unlike me she just huffs and walks off to her bedroom. Looks like both of us are getting low scores.
KATNISS POV
Why the hell did I do that? What was I trying to prove? That was probably the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Now I've done it. No doubt they are gonna kill me and Peeta within the first 24 hours and I wanted to keep Peeta safe. He wanted to keep me alive and now both of our pllans are ruined. Not that I wanted to survive anyway.
The elevator doors open behind me and I hear a quick mumbling of a conversation and then everyone falls silent when they realise that the doors just opened. I know that Peeta is with them because why would he not be? He faces his problems unlike me. Keeping that in mind, I step out of the elevator and run past them all towards the hallway and lock myself in my bedroom, throwing my clothes to one side and jumping into the shower.
It doesnt feel like too long when I hear a knock on the bathroom door. I have no idea how they got in as I locked the bedroom door but somehow they did. "Katniss? You in there?" Its Peeta. I stay silent though, I dont want to see him. "Look, I can hear the water running, I know you're in there. Whatever happened in your private session, we can work through it I just need you to come out."
"Go away!" I shout through the water.
I hear him sigh on the other side of the door. "If you dont want to talk I understand but dinner is ready, come and eat." More silence. I honestly dont think I'm up for eating just yet. "Please Katniss, you need to eat. Look if I go back without you, Haymitch will be coming down and I dont think either of us want that."
I sigh and turn off the shower. He's right. Haymitch always makes a big deal out of it. I think he has been spending too much time with Effie to be honest. "Fine, can you grab me some pyjamas?" I ask him as nicely as I can and begin trying to get rid of the red spots all over my face from crying.
Dinner isnt what I expected it to be. Everyone seems happy, hardly anyone talks to me. I expected everyone to be questioning me, though it does eventually come, most of it is fine. Its not until I've finished my food that Haymitch turns to me. "Right Sweetheart, He fessed up, its your turn now, how bad was it?" He asks, leaning over slightly.
I can lie to them, they need the truth and what harm can it do really if they knew? "Very bad, I shot an arrow at them." It comes out just above a whisper but they still catch it and I can tell by the horrified look on Effie's face and Haymitch laughing. Cinna and Portia are just watching me which isnt too bad.
"You what?" Effie all but screams. "How could you do that! Are you crazy? You realise that your actions reflect badly on all of us not just you!"
"Its fine. They just want a good show." Cinna pipes up giving me a small wink.
"How about its just bad manners Cinna? How about that?" Effie asks waving her fan around. I look at Peeta trying to stifle a laugh. "And what are you laughing about?" She looks to Haymitch who isnt trying to control his laughter in anyway.
Instead of noticing Effie at all, Haymitch turns to me. "What did they do when you shot the arrow?" He asks, leaning forward slightly in his chair to get a better a look at me or whatever.
"Well, they look pretty startled." I say remembering how one imparticular reacted. "One of them actually fell back into the punch ball." Haymitch throws his head back and his laughs fill the room once again. I can hear Peeta laughing beside me and I cant help but smile.
He looks as if he is about to say something else but then Effie chimes up. "Come on, the show should be starting soon." Then she leaves in a huff. Me and Peeta follow her first, closely followed by Cinna and then Portia. Haymitch stays behind to finish his food but joins us about 5 minutes after we get there. The tv comes on just as he enters.
The careers mostly get 10's except from the boy from 4 who gets a 7 and the girl from 4 who gets a 10. 3,5,6,7,8 and 9 dont do that bad but they are no where near as good as districts 1 and 2. I guess no one ever is though. I definitely wont be and Peeta wont either. The boy from District 10 does really bad but he has a broken leg so he wouldnt have done good anyway. I dont how he is going to survive 2 days in that arena. With that thought, I find myself looking down at Peetas wrist which is lying on his leg as he rubs circles at the base of it. He notices me and takes my hand in both of his and smiles at me. I smile back just as I hear Caesar Flickerman announce that the little girl from 11, Rue, got an 8. My eyes go back to the tv in awe. How can such a small girl get a score like that?
Thresh gets a 10 which doesnt surprise me at all. Then its on to us and I pull myself up to lean forward. Peeta is first and this is the one I'm really worried about. "Peeta Mellark, District 12..." Caesar starts. "With a score of... 9" I let out a shaky breath, thats good. We can deal with that. Everyone congratulates him and then its my turn. "Katniss Everdeen... With a score of...11." The room erupts in applause and even Caesar is surprised.
I find myself looking at Peeta but he's gone all frigid. No moving and not reacting to the fact that I got a good score. His hand is tighter in mine than it was before. Something wrong. Whilst everyone else is cheering. Peeta is thinking about the bad things and once again over thinking it, like he has done as long as I have known him. Just like that night with Eric, his dad told me what he was like and it would have come down to him over thinking it all because he does this time after time after time and the only person that gets hurt is him. "To Katniss Everdeen the girl on fire!" I hear Cinna behind me but I cant focus on anything but Peeta.
He's still not looking at me when he pulls himself up dropping my hand and walking out of the room. "Peeta..." I mumble and Haymitch turns to me whilst everyone else celebrates.
"He knows its bad." Haymitch says and I nod. "And he's gonna over think?" I nod again. Haymitch saw him that night with Eric too so he knows what its like. Nobody else in this room would understand. "Just give him time and find him later." I nod a third time and turn to the festivities even though I'm not going to celebrate so instead I find myself going to bed. I need to sleep. After the events of the day I'm knackered and the clock tells me its 9:06 anyway so its about time I did.
I get to sleep easy enough but I dont stay asleep for long as I end up waking up sometime later, at first I have no idea why and then I realise that its because I'm alone. Peeta hasnt come to bed yet and everyone else would have gone to bed so he isnt talking to them lot.
I decide its best off, me looking for him. Its not normal for him to be out of bed at this time, which is 1:06 by the way. I pull on my robe from the door and slide my feet into the shoes that I was wearing at the reaping. A thought quickly runs through my head. I wonder if Cinna would let me and Peeta wear our matching shoes for the games, it might make me feel a little bit better, maybe I can talk to him about it. Now onto the more important thing.
As soon as I'm in the hallway, the cold hits me. Someone must have left the door to the roof open, I'm about to walk that way when I hear voices from the sitting room. Not anyone I recognise so it must be the tv, which means that someone is awake or asleep in the sitting room. When I get there I find Haymitch asleep in one of the chairs. I turn off the tv and continue my search for Peeta.
I look in Haymitch's room but I don't dare look in Effie's. Id rather not see her without all the make up and stuff on. She would probably have something to say about it if I did anyway and I dont think I'm up for Effie's rath at this time in the morning when I have no idea where my boyfriend is. Its not like he's going to be in there anyway so I move on.
I look in the room that would of been Peetas if we didn't share a room. The covers on the bed are all ruffled so he has been here. It doesnt look like he was sleeping here, just like he was looking for something, or throwing the covers around but the pillows definitely havent been slept on, the seem untouched. The clothes he was wearing today are on the bed. I check the bathroom but no one is there. I look in the drawers to find loads of clothes soI pull out a pair of Peetas pyjama bottoms and a hoodie from the drawers and swap them for the covers around me, finishing the look with a jacket that is hung on a hook next to the drawers. Its time to go up to the roof, thats the only other place he could be.
When I get to the roof I see Peeta looking out over the Capitol. Letting out a sigh, I walk out the door and I'm hit with too much wind. It's freezing. Peeta is out here in some pyjama pants, no top and no shoes. He might be a lot stronger than me with these kind of things but I'm really surprised that he can stand it. Thats when I notice how stiff he is and just how blue his hands are turning, he cant stand it at all. The tears streaming down his face have all but freezed.
"Peeta what are you doing out here?" I say wrapping my arms around him. He's freezing. "Peeta your freezing we need to get you inside." He turns to me and as soon as he sees my face, his head hits my shoulder and he lets out a sob as his arms circle round my waist. Under the jacket that I took from Peetas room.
"You shouldnt be out here, you should be in bed." He says, pulling away from me once again and looking me in the eye before turning away really quickly to look over the Capitol again. I knew that he would be over thinking it but I had no idea that he would let himself freeze while doing so.
I start to shake my head even though he cant even see me. "I'm not going back without you I can't sleep." He turns toward me and smiles slightly but turns away again as I wrap his jacket around my tighter.
"I'm fine Katniss, I'll be down soon. I'll meet you down there." I barely hear him say.
I cant let him stay up here by himself, is he crazy? "Then I'm going to wait for you, what's wrong." I ask, wrapping my arms around him from behind.
He sighs and I can feel it rumble through his back. "I can't stop thinking about that 11 just flashing on the tv. It's going to make the careers come after you. I dont know how much I will be able to save you from." His head drops and he grips the ledge tighter.
I pull my face away from his back and move round to his front but he still wont look at me. "Peeta let's talk about this tomorrow please it's late we need to sleep." He begins to shake his head so I strip off his jacket and the hoodie and pull the jacket back on but hand him the hoodie.
He finally looks up at me but is still gripping the ledge that I am now leaning against inbetween his arms. "No I'm not cold" He shakes his head again and I just pull it over his head, not taking no for an answer. Not long after I get him downstairs.
When we get back to our room I leave Peeta on the bed and run back to the other room. I grab both covers from my bed and his bed. All his pillows and another hoodie from his drawers for me. I take of my boots and leave them with his and our reaping clothes.
I go back to my room and Peeta is asleep curled up in a ball. Peeta isn't the kind of person to Sleep like that he is the kind of person to sleep spread out. It must be because of how cold he is. I quickly lay one of the covers over him and then the other one and climb under with him, carefully as to not wake him up. He needs sleep tonight. The normal heat he emits is gone and it's just cold, its not normal. I feel tears fall from my eyes. I try my best to fall asleep not thinking about how cold I am next to him. He needs the warmth or he will get ill. I dont think Peeta's going to be the one loosing sleep tonight.
So Peeta isn't doing too well with this whole thing! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!