Hey guys! Its been a while, I know. I'm trying though! I'm looking for a new beta, so I thought I would post it here before I look through the list just because you guys know my story.

Requirements:

Age: Over 14 years old. I know this is easy to lie about, but I feel like it's for your own good.

Time: (Don't know what else to call this): I don't write that often, but when I do send a chapter I expect it back within a month. I'm flexible though and if you have something going on, such as finals or whatever, then we can arrange something. But like I said, I would really enjoy it if you could send it back within a month.

Willingness: This is a big issue for many people. If you become my beta I would need you to be comfortable beta-ing lemons or (if you are willing) to write them yourself.

If you are interested, please PM me with these details

-Age

-Whether you can agree to my time details

-What you are willing to do

-Strength

-Weaknesses

Chapter 25

We made our way to the Hob, and excitement began to fill through my veins. It was weird that I went from coming here at least twice a day, to not being here for a couple months.

The first person I saw was Greasy Sae, and although I already ate, I bought her soup for all three of us. We all ate it and talked with her and then bid farewell to continue making our way through the hob. Madge was the only one who stood out—her blue eyes and blonde hair different from the miner's distinctive brown eyes and brown hair, but Madge had been here so often with Gale and me that now, seeing her at the Hob has been a normal sight.

We spent about an hour walking through the hob and greeting everyone, buying their goods, and exchanging pleasant conversations. We looked at the town clock, which said that it was almost half past six, meaning about two hours left until dark.

"Let's head back now," Gale said.

"You two go ahead, I have something to do first," I said eyeing the little bakery at the end of the street. Madge and Gale looked at the receiving end of my gaze, and seemed to catch my drift.

"Alright, you do that, I'm going to Madge's, are we going hunting after?" Gale asked.

"Yeah, I'll meet you there in an hour,"

"Ew hunting gross," Madge said and laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow, have a nice time," She said before hugging me and soon, her and Gale faded off.

I walked toward the little bakery, an old conversation with Peeta playing back in my head.

"So I was on the phone a couple weeks ago with my mother, and she had told me that my father had passed away," Peeta's father was one of the nicest people around, but for some unknown reason, he and Peeta never got along.

"I'm so sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say—there isn't really much to say, I remember when my dad had died, nothing anyone would say or do could make you feel better, or at least that's how it was for me. But why wouldn't he tell me?

"That's not the worst, turns out, he wasn't even really my real father. My mom got drunk one night, and screwed some guy. She doesn't even remember his name, all she remembers is "tall, blond, and blue eyes","

"And that bugs you?"

"Well obviously, the man who was supposed to be my father for the past almost 18 years isn't. And I don't even know who my real father is,"

"Why don't you try to figure out then?"

"Its kinda difficult to go on tall, blond and blue eyes, that fits literally half of Panem,"

"You could always hire one of those people to find out—they're trained to do that, they know what to do… " I said, giving my only suggestion.

I know Peeta had yet to hire someone, and knowing his mom, she was most likely lying. His family was a bit dysfunctional, there was his 'dad', who was the nicest person around, but never got along with Peeta—or that's what I thought. And then there was Peeta's mom, and to describe her in one word, would be bitch. It was odd how different Peeta's mom and dad were: his dad so nice, so caring, and his mom who was abusive and judgmental. And then Peeta and his brothers, whom despite all the hardships their mom had put them through turned out similar to their father—sweet and caring.

I walked in and a bell attached to the door rung, signaling that there was a customer. I saw one of Peeta's older brothers walk out.

"Hey! I know you, you're Katniss!

"Yeah that's me," I said, laughing, "and you're…?"

"I'm Rye, Kale isn't in today. Just my and my mom," He said and then proceeded to wipe his hands off on his apron. You could easily tell he was related to Peeta, the same golden hair, for example, but whereas Peeta's eyes were a deap blue, his were more of a grey blue and once you paid attention, you could notice the distinguishing features that were different. Not that he was unattractive, because he was far from that, but Peeta was easily more attractive. He must've gotten all the good genes or something.

"How are you? Boy I've heard so much about you," I could feel the heat rising to my face, wondering what Peeta could have told them.

"Good things, I promise," He added, laughing.

"Rye! Did you sweep the floor like I told you to do?" Screeched out a voice that I could only assume was his mother.

"No, but—"

"You still didn't do it? Why am I always doing everything?" She said, finally coming into view. She looked at me and paused.

"What is the garbage doing in my shop?" She said, asking Rye but addressing me.

"Mother, she isn't garbage," Rye said slowly.

"Don't you dare argue with me boy!" She then looked at me murderously, "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to have a chat with you," I replied nonchalantly.

"A chat with me? Yeah right? Now get out before—"

"Before what? Anyways just calm down and listen to what I have to say, I promise it'll be worth your precious time," I said caustically. "And if you do, I'll buy many of your sweets after," I added, 'tempting' her. She looked me over once, before nodding for me to continue.

"Well I heard about your husband, and I am greatly sorry for that," looking to Rye before he nodded, accepting my condolences and I actually did mean that. He was a great, genuine man.

"And?" She spat out venomously.

"I also happened to hear about how he wasn't really Peeta's father." I said, unaware of how I should approach the topic with Rye there. I quickly glanced over at him and I guess he already knew that because he didn't look shocked.

"It doesn't make a difference, he's still equally our brother," He said.

"Yeah, that's good, but that's not why I was here for, I was just wondering who the father was,"

"You foul loathe some little cockroach! Coming and accusing me—"

"Mom, there's no point in arguing it," Rye said.

"Rye, shut up and get out," When she saw that he wasn't moving, she leapt forward with her arm raised and from there I relied on my insticts, I jumped in front of her, gripping her arm and shoving her back against the wall. And it wasn't because I thought that he couldn't take care of himself, because he clearly could, but I needed to get this done sooner rather than later.

"Listen here, if you don't calm yourself and give me all the answers I want, I will make sure the next thing I shoot won't be squirrels, do you understand?" I said, my grip on her arm unnecessarily painful. She nodded and I politely asked for Rye to leave, to which he complied.

"Okay, now do you want to finish this standing up or are we going to sit down?" I said, my grip on her unmoving.

"We'll sit down," She said, finally giving in. We made our way to the small table to the side of us and sat down, my eyes never leaving her back—I wouldn't put it past her to attempt something.

"Here's the thing, it would absolutely crush Peeta if he were to find out," Nice to know you kinda cared.

"It would crush him more not knowing," I replied.

"In some situations its true, but not in this one. You may think you know Peeta, but I'm his mother—despite what you think,"

"Come on and get to the story,"

"Its not as elaborate as you think it may be. Basically, I got drunk one time and things happened. It was a mistake because I was with Rye's dad."

"So who was it?"

"It was Ottus Armstrong," She whispered. Everything went spinning inside my head for a second. Armstrong.

"As in Cato?" I said, not believing what I just heard.

"Yes Cato's dad. How many times must I repeat myself," She breathed out. I now understood why it would kill Peeta. How would he even deal with the fact that he was brothers with the worst human being out there..

"You are disgusting. This is not over," I said to her before walking out. I walked to my house as quickly as I could, trying not to think about what she had said but unfortunately it kept coming back to my mind.

Cato and Peeta? They are the exact opposites. How is it possible for them to be even slightly related? But in a way, now that you think about it, they did have some similar features. Unlike Rye and Peeta, when you compared Cato and Peeta, you would have to be able to know that they were related—brothers, to see some of the similar features.

I slipped into my house quickly, grabbed my bow from my bag and set off. Mother must have been asleep because most of the lights were off. Prim was probably still with Rory.

I took off in a light jog toward the trees, still remembering exactly how to slip in and out. In comparison to the Capitol, slipping into the trees here was so much easier. The fence was broken and there was an area where we could just slip under instead of having to climb over.

I guided myself to where Gale and I used to always wait for each other. He still had about 15 minutes before I expected him to be here, which was good for me—it gave me time to think about everything.

Would I be the one to tell Peeta? How would he react? Honestly, that's possibly the worst news you could receive, it was equivalent to being related to Satan himself.

I wonder whether Cato knew. Whether Cato's dad, and now Peeta's dad even knew. How would they take the information? Cato would most likely resort to violence. But Peeta? Poor Peeta. I had no other words to even describe how he would begin to feel.

I heard the sound of leaves crumpling in the background; about twenty or so steps away. I turned around and saw Gale standing behind me.

"How was your meeting with the mayor of District 12?"

"Wonderful, it wasn't awkward as I thought it was. We drank coffee though. Not as much of a delicacy as it used to be huh?" He said, joking lightly before taking a seat next to me, crushing more leaves. We sat in silence for a couple minutes.

"How was lover boy's family?" He asked softly. I knew what he was indirectly asking me what happened. I didn't want to tell him yet for no apparent reason, I just didn't want to talk about it.

"Lets hunt," I said and we both got up. We split up and went our own ways, just like we always did.

There was lots of good game, which was obvious, but it was dark and I wasn't in the mood for hunting. So instead I walked around not bothering to be quiet until Gale came to me.

"Would you cut that out?" He said.

"Cut what out,"

"Stop sulking. If you don't want to talk about it that's fine but don't be weird about it," He said as he sighed.

"Loser," I said and he laughed. We both just walked around, this time I attempted being silent. Gale shot some arrows and caught some stuff, but I didn't.

"Okay so heres what happened," I finally said. I started telling him a summary of what happened—how she kicked Rye out, how she tried scaring me and then finally her confession.

"Well that is a lot to take in. What do you plan on doing about it?"

"I honestly have no idea. I feel like if Peeta is to find out, it should be from her and not me."

"Well that's true. It'd be a bit irrelevant for you to go to tell him,"

"Yeah, I'll probably go back and talk with her tomorrow and maybe figure out what I'll do then."

"Do you think this changes the thing with Snow?" Gale said. That had not come to my mind yet. But now that he mentions it, it probably could change a lot of things. I would definitely have to look into that.

"I'm not sure, but I really hope so. But what do I do about Peeta? Should I tell him or pretend like I don't know?"

"Well you can't do either of those. You pretend like you don't know cause if he finds out you knew, he'll hate you. And if you tell him he'll also hate you. Why don't you just have his mom tell him?"

"How exactly would I do that?" I mean what he said made complete sense, but for me to get his mom to tell him?

"You're Katniss, you'll find out a way."

I hope you guys enjoyed that! I'll try to write as much as I can but its difficult. I joined track recently, and let me tell you that it sucks. I hope everyone is enjoying their spring break! Lemme know what you're doing!

Remember to PM me if youre interested in becoming my beta

And pleaseee review! Would mean a lot to me