Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or any of its characters.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Cato screams at the boy. The boy freezes, and he has a water bottle and some food in his hands, along with a spear. He drops it on the ground and starts to run, but Cato runs after him, and catches him, grabbing his shoulders.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted some food okay? I'm hungry and thirsty…" the boy breaks from Cato's grip, and falls to his knees and put his face in his hands, pretending to cry. If he really knew Cato, he'd know this wouldn't work.
"Well too bad! You should maybe asked at least! We would have said no, but we wouldn't have killed you," Cato explains, drawing his sword. I want to get involved, and stop this, but Katniss's life is more important to me than this boy's life, which sounds bad, but I don't even know his name.
Marvel must be thinking the same thing, because then he steps in. "Hey, chill out man. Maybe he can help us. Is there any way you can help us, kid?" Marvel asks. Cato leaves his sword at his side, waiting to see how this turns out. Marvel stepping in and stopping Cato from killing this kid makes me admire Marvel more.
"My name is Ian. And since I'm from District 3, I know a lot of ways to protect your supplies. All I need you to do is stack it up in a pyramid, and I'll take care of the rest," he says, standing up and brushing dirt off himself.
Cato sighs. "Well, as long as it works. You do know that if it doesn't work, we will kill you, right?" I can't believe Cato will just let Ian take care of his plan, and not even tell us what it is. Cato is usually smart at the times when we don't need any intelligence. Some ally he is. He's lucky he's strong and brutal.
Ian nods. Glimmer and Malena are giggling for some reason, probably some girl thing. Clove shoots them a dirty look, and they stop. I like Clove the best of all the girls, I decide right at that moment, even though I don't really like Clove.
"Now, you said you're hungry, right?" Marvel asks. Ian nods. "Well we were just about to eat." I felt much admiration for Marvel at that moment, especially at how well he handled the situation.
We get situated and start up a meal of apples, dried beef strips, and I even found a loaf of bread, which I cut up into evenly sliced pieces. I put the beef strips on them, along with some cheese I found that we might as well use up. I gave a slice to everyone, and they all laughed, even Marvel and Ian.
"Peeta the housewife, huh?" Clove says. Now I'm embarrassed, I was just trying to make a good meal. I don't mind the Careers making fun of me, though, as long as I'm still alive.
As everyone eats what I made, along with an apple each, they all seem to like it and nod at me. "You would have made such a great mommy, Peeta," Glimmer says, which gets a laugh out of everyone but Marvel.
I roll my eyes, and Marvel looks at me, points a finger gun to his head, and pretends like he just go shot in the head, which make me laugh. Everyone stares at me, wondering what I could possibly be laughing at, but I don't care.
Ian apparently is 14 years old, and can handle a spear okay. He's been hiking around, looking for food and water, and is glad he finally has something to eat and drink. I smile as he starts talking about how sad he was about the death of his District partner. Apparently she was his little sister's best friend. Wait, why am I smiling? I'm such an idiot.
After eating all of our food and throwing all the garbage into a little pile in the woods, we start stacking up all the additional supplies that we don't need. Everyone gets a backpack and a weapon to use, just in case. I have a backpack, but all it has is food and water. Along with some matches. It's not the most useful pack, but at least I could eat, drink, and build a fire. My weapon is a knife. I guess they don't exactly trust me yet, and if they lose me they don't want to give me much chance of winning.
Cato and Clove are sitting right next to each other, smiling at each other. There is definitely something going on with them. Glimmer comes up next to me and fingers my chest. "So lover boy, you love the girl on fire?" She flutters her lashes and smiles seductively. I'm not really sure why everyone assumes that I love Katniss when I said I had a crush on her forever, but everyone knows you don't just have crushes forever. The amount of time I've had a crush on Katniss is definitely love. Also, I think I might have said I love Katniss here in the arena. There is also that. Glimmer keeps scooching closer and closer to me as I keep scooching away from her.
This is making me kind of uncomfortable. Besides, Glimmer may be sexy and seductive, but she is not my type. I scoot over, getting a little closer to Marvel, who notices my discomfort. He may be my friend, but I have the slightest feeling he wants to see how this all turns out. "Yeah, since we were five,"
"Oh, so you're in love with the girl on fire, who somehow got that eleven in training? The girl who won't date anyone?" Glimmer purrs, smiling seductively.
"That's my girl," I say.
"Well why her? You can do so much better lover boy," Glimmer says, and I see Malena watching from afar. She quickly glances at Marvel, her face red. I know what she's thinking. Malena thinks she should go to Marvel, and hit on him since Cato and Clove are together obviously, Glimmer's hitting on me, and Ian is 14 and too young for her.
"I've known her since I was five, I have reasons to love her. You know absolutely nothing about her!" I say. I'm mad, because Katniss is absolutely amazing. Glimmer is either trying to seduce me, or hit on me, but I'm not sure which is which. I know I'm charming, but seriously, Glimmer wants me? The thought makes me laugh.
"Why are you laughing, lover boy? Thinking that all the love you feel for Katniss is a joke? Because it is! She won't love you, you're too good for her. And you don't deserve her either, in a way," Glimmer says, as she sits in my lap.
Marvel knows I've had enough, so he comes over to Glimmer and me. "What's going on Glimmer? Why would you be hitting on this loser from District 12? Lover boy, seriously? You're better than that." Even though it sounds like Marvel is insulting me, he winks at me, as if to say, I got this.
I mouth, 'thank you'.
Glimmer suddenly looks offended, and her face starts getting red. "Oh I was just…well you see…" she doesn't know what to say.
"Why don't you get off of him, he's clearly not interested!" Marvel says. He looks at Glimmer with a really dirty look, and suddenly I am really appreciative of Marvel right now. I guess he is a pretty good friend. I remember James, and think about all the jokes he'd make about this. Something like, "Finally got a chick that's worth it, huh Peeta?" but the thought of my best friend from home makes me sad, so I try to get him out of my mind.
Finally Glimmer gets up off of my lap and gives me a really dirty look, but Marvel and I burst out laughing, rolling around like little kids. I didn't think I'd have this much fun in an arena where kids everywhere are trying to kill me.
The whole afternoon, Marvel and I talked, talking about home, and playing games, while I heard Cato and Clove whisper about us, even though we didn't care. But it was actually a pretty enjoyable time, apart from my injuries. Also, my limp is starting to go away because the cuts are healing. Glimmer and Malena went over to Ian, who was working on his thing to protect our supplies, and started talking to him. Marvel and I laughed when he told them to shut up and go away.
At around five, Ian came to us and said, "Hey, you want to see my finished product of how to protect your supplies?"