AN: I write really crappy poems for this fic, huh? But I guess that's kinda the point.
Katniss and Haymitch walked back to the train in silence, as Katniss had declined Haymitch's offer to sing a song for her. Katniss was so worried that Haymitch's singing would probably make her throw up. But then, his singing usually made her want to throw up, so that wasn't a surprise. Katniss entertained herself with thoughts of throwing up all over Haymitch. As amusing as that would be, she decided not to. For one thing, it would make her breath stink.
"You could do a lot worse than Peeta," Haymitch said as they walked back to the train. Katniss nodded silently. She was too worried to even think about makeup or clothes. And that meant she was pretty darn worried.
When Katniss got back to her room, she took her wet clothes off. She definitely didn't want to get sick. That would just ruin her public appearances. Nobody wanted a victor who was coughing and sneezing all the time.
Plus, it would totally ruin her makeup.
Katniss crawled into bed in just her underclothes. She thought about what Haymitch had said. Of course she could do worse than Peeta. She could be forced to marry a…hobo for example. Or Haymitch. Katniss shuddered at the thought. Yes, she could do much, much worse. But if she married Peeta, she would have to spend less time with Gale. Katniss never thought Gale would be this important to her, but now, knowing that she would soon not be able to spend time with him, she suddenly missed him. She would miss his emo poetry. His threats to commit suicide that he never acted on because he was such a wimp. His black eyeliner. But most of all, she would miss his emo hair. Well, you never know what you have until it's gone, she thought. Katniss widened her eyes in surprise. Had she just thought something that sounded fairly smart and didn't have anything to do with fashion? Katniss shuddered for the second time that night. She was ashamed of herself.
Katniss tried to think of a way out of having to marry Peeta. This took her a while because she was a spoon—even though she hated to admit it. She thought it was because her mom had dropped her when she was a baby. She had hit her head on the floor hard. Maybe her whole life, her whole personality would've been different if that hadn't happened.
Peeta's poetry was cute, but even she thought she would get tired of it after a while. She didn't want to get married to anyone yet. Not Gale and not Peeta! They weren't her type (meaning they weren't obsessed with makeup and fashion).
Could she just run away from it all?
Katniss sighed. Running away meant she wouldn't have easy access to makeup. So she dismissed the idea immediately. Katniss shook her head to clear it of all thoughts concerning her plans. The Victory Tour was no time to think about this. She had to look good and put on a good show. Her life depended on it.
Dawn came all too soon, and before Katniss knew it, Effie was knocking on the door, yelling at her to wake up. Because Katniss was not in the mood to get slapped by Effie, she listened. Effie told her to hurry, so it only took 1 hour for Katniss to get dressed, instead of the usual 4 hours. Katniss was sure she looked horrible.
Katniss walked to the dining car. Effie slapped her as a greeting. Katniss had been half-asleep, but that slap certainly woke her up. Effie smiled brightly. "Hurry up and eat. We're arriving in District 11 soon!" she said brightly. Katniss saw Haymitch and Peeta at the table too. Looking at their wide-awake faces, she realized that they had also gotten slapped by Effie. Katniss didn't know whether to feel happy because she wasn't the only one slapped or unhappy because she wasn't special—Effie had slapped everyone, not just her.
District 11 was their first stop. This was Rue's home, and Katniss was glad that this was the first stop on the tour. She was sure her family would thank Katniss for taking care of their daughter! Even though in the end, she had died anyway… Katniss tried to keep the memory of that little incident out of her mind. It was just an accident! It wasn't her fault she was too busy putting on makeup for the cameras to pay attention to who was trying to attack Rue.
Katniss sat down at the table and ate the food. The whole meal was spent in silence, though Katniss was itching to start the day with a stimulating conversation about which color lipstick worked best on her. She somehow had a feeling that Peeta and Haymitch wouldn't appreciate that. But that feeling must have been wrong, because who didn't like to talk about makeup all the time?
Her prep team spent all of the morning prepping her while she talked to them about different fashion trends and herself. Her prep team didn't talk too much, and it was only Katniss' constant chatter that kept the room from going into total silence. In fact, her prep team seemed quite annoyed with her. What was wrong with talking about herself all the time? That didn't mean she was self-centered. It just meant she simply had a lot of self-esteem. And surely that was a good thing.
Flavius tilted her chin and sighed. "Too bad Cinna said no alterations on you."
Octavia nodded. "We could make you into something special."
Katniss pouted. "Are you saying I'm not special now?" she looked on the verge of tears. She had always prided herself in the fact that she was special. Because she awesome, that's why.
"No, Katniss, you're pretty special now," Venia said quickly. Cinna had told them not to make Katniss unhappy. Then she would just stay in her room all day and sulk.
Katniss brightened immediately. "Yay!" she squealed.
When she got to lunch, Katniss talked nonstop about topics nobody else cared about. In fact, Effie desperately wanted to slap her. And yes, she did slap her. Peeta was the only one paying any attention to Katniss. And that was only because he was a lovesick idiot. At least her future husband would listen to her. Haymitch was muttering the lyrics to a My Chemical Romance song under his breath. Katniss was glad that he didn't sing the song too loudly. Her ears would probably bleed, and that would be very unattractive indeed. Effie was polite enough not to slap anyone (except Katniss) when they were eating, so she was slapping the table instead. Katniss thought she was hurting the table's feelings.
Later, the train stopped. Their server informed the passengers that a part of the train had malfunctioned and it would have to take at least an hour to get it fixed. Effie pulled out her schedule and started panicking. Finally, Katniss couldn't take it anymore.
"No one cares, Effie! Everyone just cares about me! I'm just awesome like that!" she yelled suddenly. Everyone stared at her in shock. Katniss was surprised. After all, she was only stating the truth.
Katniss walked out of the train so that she could get some fresh air. She knew that everyone in the dining car would inevitably get slapped by Effie, but she didn't care. Katniss thought about what she had said to Effie. Effie would probably get mad at her, but who cared? Was it a crime to speak the truth?
Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her. Without turning around, she said, "Unless you have makeup, go away."
"I don't have makeup, but I have a poem!" a familiar voice said. Katniss turned around to see Peeta approaching her. Katniss glanced at the paper in his hand and back at his face. He looked excited.
Katniss shook her head. "I'm too upset to listen to a poem right now, Peeta," she said tiredly.
Peeta's eyes got moisturized (he cried but didn't want to admit it). "B-but I love you!" he exclaimed. Then he hugged her. Usually, Katniss loved to be hugged, but not when she was caught off guard. She pushed Peeta away, and he hung his head in shame.
"But you said you would listen to my poems!" he protested.
Katniss sighed. "Fine."
Peeta looked down at his piece of paper then widened his eyes in surprise. "Oops. I must have grabbed the wrong piece of paper. This is my…uh…grocery list…" he muttered.
Katniss peered at the piece of paper before Peeta could pull it away, which he did right after she saw the words written at the top of the page. "If it really is a grocery list, then why is it titled 'My Plan to Make Katniss Fall in Love with Me'?" Katniss asked in confusion.
Peeta blushed. "Uh…that's the name of a brand of…apples!" he lied.
Katniss, being a spoon, believed the lie. What a sad, sad little girl. "So what do you want?" she asked Peeta.
"I wanted to ask you if we could be friends. We just ignore each other when we're not in public," he said hopefully.
Katniss tried to decide whether being friends with Peeta would be a good thing or not. "As friends, will you get me makeup?" she asked.
Peeta, knowing Katniss, had been prepared for this question. "Yes," he said.
"Yay!" Katniss leaned toward him and hugged him. She had forgotten about Effie, which wasn't very surprising considering Katniss never really cared about other people's feelings unless she was close to them.
"So…we're friends, but I don't even know anything about you," Katniss pointed out. "What's your favorite color?"
"Or—"
"Oh, no one really cares. My favorite color is pink!" Katniss interrupted him, not really caring what his favorite color was. She had only asked to be nice—she hadn't really expected him to answer. But she was sure that he would want to know what her favorite color was. Peeta looked disappointed that she didn't care. Well, get used to it, Katniss thought. But looking at his sad face, Katniss felt sorry for him.
"Everybody talks about how you paint in your free time. I feel bad that I haven't seen them," she said. Painting was his talent.
Peeta nodded. He took Katniss' hand and led her back to the train. When they got back to the dining car, Peeta suddenly remembered something. "Shouldn't you apologize to Effie?" he asked Katniss.
"Oh," she replied. So she went back to the dining car and apologized to Effie. Effie seemed to accept her apology because she gave Katniss a friendly slap afterward. Yes, there was such a thing as a friendly slap. Effie expressed all her feelings by slapping people—she didn't just slap people when she got mad. Katniss had gotten used to Effie's strange ways.
After talking to Effie, Peeta took Katniss down a few cars to see his paintings. She didn't really know what she was expecting. Maybe wonderful pictures of her? That would've been awesome. Instead, Peeta had painted the Games.
Katniss looked at the paintings. She saw the Cornucopia. Some mutts, Water dripping through cracks in their cave. Katniss putting on makeup. Katniss thought the painting didn't do justice to her beauty—she looked far too ugly. But she guessed that no painting would be able to make her look as beautiful as she really was.
Looking at the paintings, Katniss almost felt like she was back in the Games. She felt something that she hadn't felt since the Games. Fear. She still got nightmares each night. The Games had been terrifying. But the experience was made slightly better because she had her makeup with her. How did she sneak makeup into the arena? Well, that was her secret, and she sure wasn't going to tell anyone.
"Your paintings scare me," Katniss said bluntly.
"I get nightmares every night…" Peeta mumbled. He looked almost as depressed as Gale for a minute, and Katniss was tempted to pull an Effie and slap him hard.
Peeta seemed to understand that Katniss didn't like his sudden emo-ness. "Come on. We're almost to District 11. Let's go take a look at it," he said.
AN: I'm just curious. Who do you want Katniss to end up with in the books? Gale? Peeta? Haymitch (my friend would want me to add that, sorry)? I can't write poetry, so if you want, you can submit any poem you want Peeta to write for Katniss and I might use it. Also, are there any songs you want Haymitch to sing?
Review? (I'm begging you)
