I'm fidgeting at the doors with excitement. I can barely wait for the train to stop rolling. I want to leap from the door now, but Haymitch is holding it closed until the train stops. I hop back and forth on each foot.
"You look like you have to pee, knock it off," he says.
"How long does this thing take to brake? Let's go!" I whine. He rolls his eyes.
Finally the wheels jerk to a stop and he throws open the door. I leap onto the platform, momentarily blinded by the flash of the photographers waiting for me. I squint in the bright light and try to hear her call over the cheers and shouts.
Her bright eyes and blond braid appear in the crowd.
I run to her as fast as I can and she runs back. "Prim!" I shout, lifting her off the ground as I squeeze my arms around her. She's crying and so am I. I see my mother over her shoulder, wiping her eyes. She wraps her arms around us both and cries on Prim's shoulder.
I release them and set Prim down. I feel a tug at my elbow. "Gale!"
I throw my arms around his neck and he's laughing as he hugs me. His mother is patting my back and smiling with shining eyes. "Catnip," he sighs in my ear.
"I'm home," I whisper.
The photographers demand a few more pictures with my family and friends. They pose Madge at my elbow as her father shakes my hand. I smile genuinely. I'm home. I turn to the next well-wisher and freeze.
I'm face to face with Tate's mother. The photographers start snapping with a vicious frenzy.
"Katniss," she croaks, a thin smile on her face. "Congratulations."
I rest my hand on her arm but she turns away, melting into the crowd.
Finally my mother is able to pull me from the platform and we step down to the earth. My feet know the ground and I feel at home breathing in the familiar air. I hold Prim's hand tightly, watching her toothy grin as she looks up at me. I bump into Gale as I bear right at the fork in the road to town.
He laughs. "Where are you going?"
"To my house!"
"You don't live in the Seam anymore."
"They've already moved our things?" I glance over at my mother. She nods.
"Your things," she corrects. "A crew arrived yesterday to collect your clothes and a few personal things."
"I helped arrange them in your room," Prim pipes up. "I wanted to make sure they didn't take anything."
"I doubt I have anything worth stealing," I remind her.
"Wait until you see your house," she says with wide eyes.
They lead me across town. It's a long walk and I can see people staring at me and pointing. I grow uncomfortable at the attention; I had hoped once I was free of the Capital I would no longer live under a microscope. I can see almost why Haymitch drinks the prying eyes away.
I spy him heading into his house when we reach the entrance to the Victor's Village. He must have slipped the crowd at the platform and left for home immediately. I can't blame him. I've grown tired of it all in my first year.
"This is it," Prim says.
I stop and look up. This pale blue house is giant compared to the lean-to we called home in the Seam. Two floors, a shingled roof, white shuttered windows and a wraparound porch look back at me. I step slowly up the three stairs onto the porch. I look back at my mother and Gale.
"Go on," she says.
I push on the polished wooden door and it swings open. I try not to gasp. The front sitting room is larger than my Seam house. The fireplace is big enough to roast a pig in. The stairs to the second floor are covered in plush white carpeting. I think I spy a bathroom under the stairs. I look into the open kitchen. A double stove sits in the wall next to an icebox. I won't be cooking over a woodstove again. We can keep food more than two days.
I'm stunned as I moved toward the stairs. I can hear my family, Gale and Hazelle enter behind me, shushing each other as they watch my reaction. I climb the steps slowly.
The upstairs is equally impressive. From the top of the stairs I can see another bathroom in the middle of the hallway and two bedrooms beyond it. I turn to my left to enter the largest bedroom.
Prim and I shared a small single bed at home. Here a large double bed sits in the center of the room. Two dressers, a low one on the right wall and a tall one tucked in a corner to my left tell me I have new clothes waiting for me. Two closets sit in the wall. I cross to one and open it.
"Cinna," I breathe. My dresses are lined up. I gently finger the fabric of the fiery dress I wore to my first televised interview. His stitching is perfect. I let the dress slip away and close the door.
"Do you like it?" Gale's voice is in the doorway.
"It's impressive," I say, looking over. "I hate it."
"Me too," he says, crossing to my bed and sitting down heavily. "But," he smiles "you still have a place in the Seam."
He lifts his eyebrows and smiles. "That moving crew wouldn't take your family's stuff; they're supposed to stay at home. I mean, they still moved their things over this morning, but this house is registered only to you."
"Is there anything left in the old house?"
He nods mischievously.
An hour later we're in my former home. "What am I looking for?" I laugh as Gale tells me if I'm getting warmer or colder.
"You'll see," he teases. "Colder."
"Dammit, Gale!" I cry out in frustration. "What-" I stop. I see it tucked away in the corner. "Gale," I whisper.
My bow peeks out from under the disused wood stove. I hurry over and pull it out, holding it to my chest.
"I found your hiding spot a few days after you left," he confesses sheepishly. "I need to make you some more arrows, but…I kept your bow safe."
"Thank you," I smile gratefully. "I…thank you."
He watches me. He takes a step closer to me. "Thank you for coming home." He leans in slowly. I watch him stunned.
He kisses me softly, pressing more firmly into me when I don't respond. He pulls away, frowning. "Sorry," he mumbles. "I thought…"
"No, it's nothing," I sputter. "I…I'm just…surprised."
"Really?" he asks doubtfully.
"It's been a very confusing few weeks," I apologize. I smile. "Let's hunt tomorrow. I want to remember myself again."
He smiles cautiously. "Okay. I'll see you at dawn."
It's sometime later, long after our first hunting trip together after the games, that the phone rings.
It's never rung before.
I pick it up.
"Hello?" I stammer.
"Katniss, how are you? It's Peeta Mellark." Peeta says.
"Oh, hi. I'm good, how are you?" I manage to stammer out, I thought he might have forgotten about me, although I don't know whether or not that would be a comfort.
"I'm well. I'm just calling to see how you've settled in and to let you know I'll be in Twelve for meetings with Mayor Undersee and then Parcel Day later next week, after visiting Nine and Ten. I'll be in town for a week or so, assuming nothing comes up. It'll be fun, I think."
"Oh."
I had completely forgotten he'd be making a visit to Twelve. How will I explain our tenuous friendship, if you can even call it that, to Mother, to Prim, to Gale?
"I'm settling in well, Mother and Prim are loving having all this extra space. It's a little strange, going from being cramped to suddenly having all this room. I'm sure you'd underst-, well I guess you wouldn't. Not that you couldn't imagine, I mean…" I trail off.
"No, I completely understand. Don't feel the need to hold your tongue, I promise I don't bite."
That may be so but do the people around him bite? After all, I'm sure they don't like a girl from District 12 becoming too friendly the President Elect-to-be.
"Well, Katniss, I had better let you go, I'm working on putting together a speech for after I'm sworn in later this week."
"Go ahead." I say.
"Talk soon." He replies.
"Bye." We both say in near unison.
My mother calls out from the kitchen, "Who was that?"
There's no point in trying to cover it up.
"It was Peeta Mellark."
"Who?"
"The President's Grandson, he's going to become the President Elect later this week and will be in the district for some meetings and parcel day."
Her face goes white.
"What?" He exclaims with dread like I've never heard from her.
"What was I supposed to say?" I ask, "We met at a reception at the President's Mansion and he saw me off on the train. Was I just supposed to act like I didn't know him?" I leave out the crying in his lap, I'm still ashamed of that, it was so unlike me.
"Well." She says, calming her nerves. "I suppose there's no harm in a simple conversation. It's not like he's going to drag you off to live with him in The Capitol."