Effie tried to conceal her anger about Haymitch encouraging me in my bad manners, but she didn't really do a good job.
I excused me for a moment and went to my room where I changed into something more comfortable. My pin was still laying on the little table next to my bed and I looked at it for a moment. I took it in my hands once again and sat down on my bed. Haymitch had told me that I had done really great, that I had been unbelievably lucky today, but this didn't calm me at all. Suddenly my thoughts were with Madge. I hoped she was fine. I still wondered why she had given me the pin. We had often had lunch together at school, but he had hardly ever talked. But even when I knew only a few things about her, Madge was the girl I would call my friend.
...
"So here you are." Gale closed the door behind him and looked at the token. "Nice. Where did you get it?"
"Madge gave it to me as a present." I put it back on the table. "How did do you in your private session?"
"I think it was okay. But your show was really badass", Gale answered, wide grinning.
"You could already see it?"
"Yeah, obviously they broadcasted it live. Effie got completely crazy."
Oh yeah, I noticed that…
"I guess we should go back, Haymitch already wanted to know where you are", he said after a while and stood up. I followed him and we joined the others. Effie seemed to have calmed down in the meantime, because she smiled as she noticed us. "They are showing the scores in two hours."
That was just plain torture. I was so nervous that I wanted to know the scores right now. Why did I have to wait for two hours? It was hard to bear…
...
Somehow the time passed and when it was finally time for our scores I stared at the screen and clenched my hands to fists so hard that the knuckles beneath my fingers turned white. Gale was sitting next to me, completely relaxed. God, how could he be so calm right now? In this second they were showing the score for the first tribute. Cato was the third and scored a 10. The next tribute who caught my attention was the little girl who had stolen the knives of the careers. Her name was Rue and as when the showed her score I had to grin. A seven appeared on the screen. Really not bad.
"And now the score for Gale Hawthorne, District Twelve." Everyone in this room was staring at the screen, not wanting to miss a single second. You could see his picture, then a white 9 showed up.
"Fantastic! A nine!", I screamed, pressing a kiss on his forehead. I couldn't believe he had described his session with "okay". He must have been really impressive, because you had to be nearly brilliant to score a 9. The Gamemakers don't give a score like that for no reason. I looked at him, beaming with pride.
"Congrats, boy," Haymitch said and Cinna patted his shoulder appreciative.
...
"Now shut up, it's Katniss' turn", Effie squealed in excitement and everyone continued paying attention to the scores.
"Katniss Everdeen, District 12", you could hear the voice of the commentator again.
I didn't dare to look at the screen. If the Gamemakers interpreted my behaviour as a threat or an attack, I was as good as dead. "Please, don't let it be too bad." I begged while I was awaiting my score, slightly shaking. There were two digits, two 1. WHAT? Eleven points? Did I see that right? How the hell could I have got eleven points? For a moment you couldn't hear a single sound in the whole room then everyone started cheering. Gale was the first to hug me. "Well done, honey. I am so proud of you!", he whispered in my ear, causing the butterflies in my stomach to start flying.
"Eleven points?", I asked, still completely shocked. That could only be a sick joke.
"I told you that it was fucking genius", Haymitch said, but it was Cinna who hugged me.
"I knew you would be great." I smiled at him thankfully.
...
Everyone was in such a good mood that the viewing of the scores turned into a small party. After a while I noticed that Haymitch was keeping his distance, taking a long sip out of his glass. Then he came to me and pulled me away.
"You did great today."
"Thank you, but it's rather your merit", I answered him modestly.
He shook his head. "No, it's not, you did that all on your own. Listen, you are good and you can win this thing. I will move my ass and get the two of you good sponsors."
His words surprised me, but it touched me even more when me motioned at his glass. "I'll try to stay sober. For you."
"Thank you." Without even thinking I wrapped my arms around his neck and he patted my back awkwardly.
"It's okay, sweetheart."
...
Later that evening Effie, Haymitch, Gale and I were having dinner together, but before dessert was served, Gale stood up. "Excuse me, but I need to settle something. Won't take me too long." With these words he left the apartment.
At first I didn't even think about that, but when he hadn't come back an hour later I started worrying and decided to start looking for him.
I ran through the hallways for a while, but I couldn't find Gale. Just when I reached the room where we had met Cinna a couple of days earlier I saw him. He seemed to be chatting with Octavia, but suddenly she pulled him in a tight hug. To my dismay Gale returned this gesture. I froze right where I was standing and an unknown feeling was rushing through my body. It hurt seeing him with her. He had just told me how proud he was of me, why was he meeting Octavia then? When I saw him smiling at her, giving her that kind of smile he usually only gave me, my feet didn't seem able to carry me anymore. With all the force I could bring up I suppressed the tears, turned round and ran…