10: Day 5
Peeta
Next day at school, everyone's talking Katniss. I love it because I finally get the chance to talk about her and say how brilliant she is without anyone being suspicious! However, there are a few times when I have to rein in my enthusiasm, before I say something inappropriate.
Gale Hawthorne was back at school today after his unexplained absence yesterday. We're sat near each other during the update video at lunchtime and I send a small smile his way. He doesn't exactly return the smile, but he does look at me without glaring or grimacing so it's an improvement.
He's certainly not the friendliest of people, but since our altercation and subsequent apologies, I feel a strange urge to talk to Gale. Maybe I want to know more about Katniss by getting to know her best friend, or maybe I'm feeling guilty for being in love with her, or maybe I just need someone to talk to. After all, apart from my brother, Gale is the only one who knows how I feel about Katniss; he's the only one who can understand why I feel that way. My brother doesn't get it at all – he's only interested in girls who might sleep with him.
The lunchtime update brings interesting news regarding our district's other tribute. Last night, things weren't looking good for Steffi – he'd collapsed from hunger out in the open where anyone could find him. Luckily for him, the first tribute to see him was Rue, the twelve-year-old girl from District Twelve. Instead of attacking him, she dragged him away from the river and slowly dripped water into his mouth to wake him. Steffi groggily opened his eyes. On seeing the girl, he shouted in fear and backed away from her, but with his lack of energy he only got a few metres before collapsing again.
She approached him slowly, the way one might approach a nervous animal, and spoke softly under her breath, convincing him that she wasn't going to hurt him. Eventually he responded and thanked her for saving him before desperately asking if she had any food. She did. The two of them shared some of Rue's roots and berries, with Steffi taking miniscule bites to prevent his stomach from cramping up after days without food. Both exhausted, they curled up in a cave together and went to sleep.
The next morning, the two of them discussed what they had seen in the Games so far. Steffi didn't have much to contribute because he hadn't come across any other tributes yet, but Rue told Steffi about Katniss' experience with the careers. It turns out that Rue had been hiding in a tree nearby the whole time!
I feel bad for the Games two youngest tributes; neither of them really stand a chance of winning, but at least now they have each other for company and they can help each other to survive.
After lunch and afternoon lessons, it's finally time to leave school. Walking out the school's front door, I see the tall silhouette of Gale Hawthorne already out of the gates and follow after him at a brisk pace, eventually catching up once we're out of sight of the school.
Gale
"Gale! Wait!" I hear my name and glance over my shoulder, seeing Peeta Mellark behind me. I consider ignoring him; I could easily just keep on walking, but I feel bad for the guy, so I reluctantly stop and cross my arms, looking at him expectantly.
"What is it?" I ask
"Um... I was just wondering if we could talk? About... you know... uh... Katniss?" the guy really needs to man up and stop stammering every time he talks to me.
"No, thanks," I say dismissively, and turn around to keep walking.
"Please. I really need someone to talk to and I thought you might too...?" he trails off. I can tell he's not going to take "no" for an answer.
"Fine," I sigh reluctantly, and continue walking, "I'm going to the woods so if you want to talk you can follow me there,"
He smiles and follows, practically jogging to keep up with me. Our conversation is very one-sided, with Peeta talking almost constantly and me giving occasional one-word answers or just grunting in agreement. He asks me all sort of questions about Katniss. For someone who claims to be in love with her, he really doesn't know her very well. It actually makes me feel bad for being angry with him when I first heard about his feelings for her. Clearly he just has some kind of schoolboy crush on her; she'd never choose him over me anyway – I'm her best friend, I know her better than anyone and I'm the only one (apart from Prim) who can actually make her smile.
Despite his incessant talking, I find myself liking Peeta more and more. He's a sweet guy really and I've heard all about how his Mother treats him, so his optimism and calm demeanour come as even more of a surprise – obviously he takes after his Father.
When we reach the fence separating the town and the woods, he stops.
"Well, I'd better head back to the bakery," he says, smiling – why does he smile so much? - "Thanks for talking with me Gale!"
"Um... you're welcome?" I reply, phrasing it as a question since I don't think what I did really counts as "talking".
"So, are you going to the square to watch the Games tonight?" he asks
I hadn't been planning to, preferring to watch in private in case the unthinkable happens and I break down. However, Peeta's looking very hopeful and I guess that means he was hoping to see me there and talk some more, so I go for the undecided approach and say "Maybe, I don't know yet."
"Okay, well... maybe I'll see you there"
We go our separate ways; me ducking under the fence and Peeta hurrying off in the direction of town. I have an hour or so to check the snares before I need to get home. Apart from my thoughts of Katniss, which are now more or less constant since she entered the Games, I think about Peeta. He's basically the opposite of me, with his easy smile and talkative nature, but I can't help thinking that maybe we could become... friends?
Peeta
I feel a lot better as I walk home. Gale isn't the most talkative person, but he doesn't seem to mind me just talking at him and that suits me just fine.
A few hours later, I head out towards the town square to watch tonight's installment of the Games. When I arrive, I glance around the square to see if Gale is here or not. There are a few small groups around the square, mainly of kids my age or older who don't want to watch the Games with their parents, but aren't old enough to have their own homes yet. I fit pretty neatly into that category; I don't want to spend any more time with my Mother than absolutely necessary!
Gale doesn't show up until a few minutes before the beginning of the programme. He comes to stand beside me, arms folded, but doesn't greet me or make any attempt to talk to me, so I keep quiet.
After the recap, which again shows Katniss attacking the careers and shows Rue and Steffi forming a tentative alliance, the rest of the show is fairly uneventful. Evidently, Katniss' encounter with the careers was enough action to keep the Capitol satisfied for a while, so the Gamemakers didn't interfere with anything today.
The careers, particularly Cato, are still intent on finding Katniss and taking her down. He has removed the arrow from his leg and bandaged it up, but is limping slightly. If anything this makes him appear even more dangerous. Their plan is to wait until nightfall, find Katniss while she sleeps, then wait for her to wake up and come down from whichever tree she is in, and chase her down. Obviously they've learnt that she has a big advantage if she's above them, so they'll wait until she's on their level.
It's really not the best thought-through plan in my opinion, mainly because it hinges on them being able to find Katniss in the dark when they have no idea where she is. I'm definitely not complaining though: the worse their plan, the better it is for Katniss and, by extension, me.
Rue and Steffi spend the day getting to know each other and gathering food. Rue shows him which berries and leaves are safe to eat, so that he won't starve again. Steffi shows her the cave where he hid for the first few days, and they decide to make it their home for now.
The redhead from District Five remains in her original hiding place. With the careers' attention focussed on Katniss, she's managed to stay out of their way pretty easily. From her vantage point, she can see the careers camp, and is able to snatch food from their supplies a few times a day. For example today when the girl from Four, who the careers left to guard their camp today after Cato killed their previous guard, goes off into the woods to relieve herself, she darts out from her hiding place and grabs a packet of crackers from the top of the pile of supplies. She's surprisingly quick and nimble, managing to dodge the landmines with apparent ease, and only ever takes a small amount of food at a time so that the careers don't even notice it's missing.
The boy from Ten, with the injured legs, is managing to get by – but only just. He's spent most of the time just sitting beside a small cluster of bushes, and eating the berries off of them. I'm actually surprised that the Gamemakers haven't tried to force him to move or do something more interesting, since all he does is sit there eating or sleeping.
Thresh remains in the wheat field, where he has been since the very beginning. Once or twice he's ventured out to the lake, under cover of darkness, to fill up his large water bottle. Most of the other tributes know where he is, but they're not planning to come after him anytime soon.
Katniss is doing well. The injury on her shoulder is starting to heal up, and the burn on her leg is also looking much better, thanks to the ointment from her sponsors. She spends the day walking, trying to put more distance between the careers and herself. Interestingly, she just barely misses the boy from Ten, walking within a few hundred metres of his hiding place. She also passes the cave where Rue and Steffi have set up camp, but they're inside at the time and don't see her. Considering the size of the arena, it's surprising that all the tributes are so close together.
Shortly before nightfall, Katniss climbs a sturdy-looking tree and settles down for the night – sleeping bag over her legs, gloves on her hands and strapped to the tree, as always. After a final shot of the careers continuing their night-time search for her, the crest of Panem shows and the show is over for tonight.
I turn to Gale. The relief is evident on his face; clearly he also realised how weak the career's plan is. I still haven't said anything and, surprisingly, Gale is the first to break the silence.
"She's safe" he whispers. I'm not sure whether he's talking to me, or just reassuring himself.
A/N: I'm so sorry for the wait since the last chapter and I also apologies for the lack of action in this chapter - it will pick up again soon. My last exam is on Friday and then I'm going to London for the weekend. After that I'm free for pretty much the whole Summer so updates should be much faster. Thanks for your patience and thanks to everyone who's put the story on favourite/alert!