Thanks a bunch to everyone who's stuck around for the story, reviewed, loved it, thank you. This was a lot of fun, I appreciate everyone's comments and stuff. This is the last and final chapter.
For the next few weeks, Gale came over regularly, mostly to help Ivy with her schoolwork since she was starting, now, the 4th grade. Ash was jealous and continuously asked if he, too, could start the 4th grade, but we laughed and told him he's too little.
Now I sit here, alone. Peeta is out at the bakery, Ash is over at Haymitch's, probably playing with the three little kittens. Buttercup, Prim's horrid old cat, had died a year back of old age, but he'd found himself a girlfriend before then and she'd had 5 kittens, 3 girls and two boys. Now there are only the 3 girls, and they are a few months old. They are adorable. Haymitch, who keeps them in his house, got rid of the two boys due to the fact that they had kept wanting to mark their territory whenever my kids went over there with toy cats. Pft.
Well, anyway, he'd given the two boys away to a family whose little girl knows Ash because of daycare when he was 2.
I sigh. Ivy is at school, and no one else is here. Now I hear a knock on the door, and I say, "Come in." Gale enters the room and smiles. "Hey, Catnip." He says. I wave, laying back down on the couch. "Hey, Gale." I am so glad that Gale and I have made up. It is as if, now, that we were never apart. He and I hunt all the time now, and often we get Ivy out of her last period class (A study hall) and take her hunting with us. Now is one of those times, I know. At this time, Ivy is probably switching classes into her study hall, which she only ever reads during because Gale tutors her in some subjects and I help her with some and so does Haymitch and so does Peeta. I smile, he nods.
We both grab our bows and arrows from the closet and our game bags and strap them on our backs after we slide on out hunting jackets. I slip on some boots and soon we are out the door, heading towards Haymitch's house. I knock on his door and he answers, Ash clinging to his leg giggling. I smile. "I'm off to go hunt." I say. He nods and says, "I'll let Peeta know when he comes home."
"Nah." I say. "I'll stop by the bakery, because I want to get some bread to eat out in the woods while we hunt. Maybe even to set traps. He nods, and now Gale and I are walking towards the bakery.
When we arrive, I walk in and go into the kitchen, Gale following. No one stops me. I mean, people aren't allowed in the kitchen unless they are a cook. Or if they are me or Gale or Haymitch or Ash or Ivy. Of course, people didn't stop me. They know who I am. I am the baker's wife. So I'm allowed, ha. I'm glad I don't have to wait at the counter, because there is a line.
We get into the kitchen and Gale stays in the doorway as I silently sneak up on my husband. His blond curls, recently cut so now more of waves than curls, are a bit powdered with flour. He wears a sort of apron. He is wiping his flour-powdered hands on his apron. I mean, usually you'd think a guy in an apron making cakes and bread and pasties would look like a sissy or a girl, but actually he looks stunning. His blue eyes glisten whenever he's working here, he enjoys this job, and he's always been great at it. He becomes very concentrated when he frosts cakes. His hair is out of his face and his smile brightens when he is frosting cakes and pastries.
I sneak up on him as he wipes his hands, and I say in a very soft tone, "Hey, Peeta." He jumps, and Gale and I need to hold ourselves back from laughter. But when Peeta looks at me, surprise in his eyes, I grin. "Katniss!" he laughs, pulling me into a hug. "Don't freak me out like that! "
"But it was funny." I say. "No!" he laughs. I grin. "You're laughing." He rolls his eyes and places a quick kiss on my lips. "So, Katniss, what brings you here?"
"Well, I'm going hunting with Gale and Ivy again, and we would like some of your delicious bread." I stress the word delicious and he grins. "Why, yes." He says in a mannerly way. He chuckles humorously as he takes a fresh, warm loaf of bread from the oven and wraps it in foil and puts it in a bag. "Here you go." He hands it to me. I smiles and give him a thank you kiss. Gale and I leave the bakery; getting smiles, waves, hellos, and good mornings from almost every person I pass.
When we get to Ivy's school, Gale waits outside like he usually does. I enter, still wearing my bow, arrows, and game bag on my back. I enter the school office and the secretary, Mrs. Ambers, smiles at me. "Hello, Mrs. Mellark." She says good-naturedly. I smile. "You can call me, Katniss, Mrs. Ambers." She just smiles. "Ivy is in study hall and Ash doesn't have to come to daycare on Tuesdays, only Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays." She says matter-of-factly. I nod and say, "Can you get Ivy out of study hall?"
She nods and clicks the button on the intercom and says into it, "Mr. Oberg, Ivy's Mellark's mother is here for her." I hear a man's voice say into his intercom form somewhere in the school, "Alright, she'll be right there with all her stuff." I sit down in one of the chairs and fix my braid that holds my hair back. After several minutes, I hear footsteps coming down the hall and I look up. Ivy, he hair pulled back in two braids, her eyes sparkling like her father's always do, wearing a red skirt and a black top and a black hoodie, wearing white tennis-shoes, carrying a blue backpack, is skipping excitedly down the hall. I notice she has her arrows on her back and her bow clutched in her other hand, and her game bag slung over her shoulder. She stops in front of me as I stand up and I smile. "Hey, baby." I say. She smiles as well and says, "Hi Mommy." I look at Mrs. Ambers and she nods. "You got to sign her out, Mrs. Mellark."
"I know." I say. I write down Ivy's name in one spot on the sign out sheet, then the time, then I cross out the other time space, then I sign my name on the line. "C'mon, Ivy" I take Ivy's hand and we walk outside, meeting up with Gale.
We three go to the woods, and Gale shows Ivy more trap setting strategies. I show her more of how to shoot an arrow. Gale shows her how to be perfectly still and silent. I show her some hunting skills, climbing skills, help her climb a tree as far as I have before, show her the differences between edible and poisonous plants. We always do this when we're out here, and she loves it. She always has fun with it. And now, when she sees me climb a tree or shoot an animal or locate edible plants, she looks as if she remembers watching me do just that in the Hunger Games video, and I know she is remembering. She never asks me about it, neither does anyone else.
Ash ages, he goes into kindergarten, 1st grade, 3rd, 4th, he watched that video. I let my kids into the attic, where they look through our stuff from long lost but not forgotten years of pain and sadness. Ash doesn't ask either.
Ivy, of course, also ages, going into 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade, 9th grade. In 9th she must write a nonfiction story, several pages long, on one or more of her family members.
She chooses me and Peeta. She would choose Haymitch, but she knows less about his past and isn't rude, as she says, so she wont 'interview' him. She writes of me. She writes of Peeta. She writes, with descriptive words and many pages, she has written of our roll in the Games, how we met, what we went through. She has written of what we go through now, that we still remember and are affected by our pasts. It turns into more of a book, and she decides to title it, "The Girl on Fire and the Boy with The Bread." It's a long title, but it catches a lot of people's attention. She reads an excerpt of it in class, since she cannot read the full thing. Her teacher collects it and reads the whole thing. He says he was moved by it, he loved it. He sends it in to be printed and published. Several weeks later, Ivy is presented with the first new copy. It was made into a book, with a cover that shows flames and the Mockingjay pin. I am proud of my daughter. Several hundred of her books are sold. It is amazing.
Ash follows Peeta, somewhat, and works in the bakery for a while, as a 4th grader.
Both of my children are successes. Peeta and I are happy. Haymitch is happy. Gale is happy. Greasy Sae and her daughter are happy. Even the 3 kittens, Sammy, Tiger, and Misty, are happy. Both my children are happy. Mother is happy, and she decides to move back to 12.
I can finally go to sleep at night without having nightmares.