Chapter 36
(Madge POV)
Drew and I continue working for a couple hours before he's yawning and I suggest he go on to bed. I assure him we can have a movie night another night and tellhim to just leave the work papers and I'll keep going solo for awhile since I'm not tired yet.
"I don't want to have you sitting up all night doing my work. That isn't right." He says as he starts to collect all the papers.
I lean over, putting my hand over the papers to stop him and then lay a kiss on him. "If you let me keep working on this, then we can have some actual time alone tomorrow night. Time to do more of this." I say as I kiss him again, trying desperately to tempt him into leaving the work.
He kisses me back and I feel his hand come off the stack of papers and rest on my cheek. "I can't believe you like doing this work so much. It's so boring."
"Maybe I just like freeing up your time so you can spend it with me." I flirt. I can tell I'm doing a good job of persuading him.
"I can always just tell my father I wasn't able to get the work finished." He tells me, his hands going to my waist now and he pulls me closer to him, kissing me a little longer this time.
I pull back. "And have him think you can't handle a little work? Nonsense, we can't let that happen. You're going to go to bed. I'm going to work a little longer since I'm not tired and then tomorrow we will have more spare time for more of this." I say firmly in my flirtiest voice as loop my arms around his neck.
"Okay, you win. But please don't stay up all night doing work that should be mine."
"I promise I won't." I say, kissing him again just to seal the deal for good.
Finally he leaves and goes to bed and I can start looking for the heir who was in room 234. I notice the lodging invoices are on a stiffer kind of paper so I start going stack by stack trying to look only at those. After about an hour of looking, I finally find it. And I'm stunned when my eyes search upwards from the room number to see who the invoice belongs too. It's Martin. Martin was his roommate. That's why he didn't want to tell me who it was. How in the world did I manage to match first and second with heirs who were roommates? Those have to be incredible odds.
As I continue to look through the rest of the papers just to see what's there, I also find the invoice for charges from Martin's procedure to become an Avox. They literally billed District 4 for cutting out Martin's tongue and forcing him into a life of forced servitude. And apparently they charge a pretty penny for such a thing. I had no idea they did that or how much it cost. I wish the invoice had details about what exactly he was caught doing but it doesn't. I do actual work for awhile, not wanting it to look like I did nothing while Drew went to bed. I don't see much else of value as I work but I do go to bed with my mind still reeling over the fact that Martin was Drew's roommate and he never told me. I don't know yet if I want to mention it to him or not.
The next morning, I go downstairs to find Drew isn't at the table eating breakfast like I assumed he would be. I go up to his room but he's not in there either. I'm about to go ask Bethany if she's seen him but then I hear him on the phone in my Father's home office. I go to the door and wave. He waves back and I can tell he's finishing up his call. I wait while he wraps things up.
"Good morning. What are you doing in here? I've been looking all over for you."
"My father called and wanted me to take care of something that I needed the computer for. I had to call him from in here so I could get the login information to access the computer." He tells me with a quick kiss good morning.
I sit on the arm of his chair, curious about seeing what he's looking at on the computer. "The day is just getting started and he's already piling more work on you?" I ask.
"Welcome to my life." He jokes.
"Did you get logged in okay?" I ask.
"Doing it now." He says as he keys something into the computer then wads up the slip of paper in his hands and tosses it in the wastebasket under the desk. "I've got a little work to do here and then I'll come get the rest of the work we were doing last night."
"Can I stay and keep you company?" I ask, not wanting to leave yet so that I can see what he's doing on the computer.
"Better not. I already feel incredibly guilty about letting you help with my work yesterday. I really shouldn't have done that."
"I enjoyed helping you. It was fine, really."
"No, it wasn't. It was hypocritical of me to lecture you about fulfilling your role and then allow you to help me fulfill mine because it served me well."
"Well, technically isn't part of my role to be a supportive future wife to you and your work?"
"Supportive yes, involved no."
"I see." I say, standing up and getting off his chair and smoothing my hands over my dress.
"I'm sorry. For what it's worth, I really enjoyed having your help. I just know it isn't what I should have done."
"It's okay. I had fun but I understand. I'll let you get to your work." I tell him with a smile.
"I don't think I can meet you for lunch today. I've actually got a meeting scheduled that I can't miss. I probably won't see you until the viewing. But tonight, we're watching a movie and picking up where we left off lest night." He says with a hint of flirting there at the end.
"I'll leave your papers from last night in your room and see you later then." I flirt back giving him a kiss, keeping up the charade I started last night.
I go to my room and collect all our work from last night and arrange it in a neat stack so that he can see where we left off then take it to his room to leave it for him. I notice he has a journal on his bedside table and my curiosity sparks like fire at the sight of it. I know better than to try and look at it now since he could come in any minute but I am definetly coming back to read that later. I know it's an invasion of his privacy but I have to know who it is that I'm spending the rest of my life with.
I leave the house and go to find Gale. If Drew is busy all day with work, I'm going to spend some time with Gale. I get to Gale's house and see his mother outside hanging laundry on the line with Posey. I hesitate but decide to approach her anyway.
"Good morning, is Gale home by chance?"
"Mommy, it's that princess girl!" Posey tells her mother as she urgently tugs at her mom's apron.
Her mother shushes her and then looks back up to me. "Good morning Miss Undersee. I believe Gale is inside." She tells me and then turns back to Posey. "Posey, run and get your brother please."
I smile at her and she smiles back but there's definetly an awkward silence between us. I'm sure she's wondering why I'm here. Thankfully, Gale comes out in just seconds so we don't have to wait long.
"Hi." He says looking at me like he isn't sure what to say.
"Hi. I'm sorry to bother you but I wanted to speak to you about helping on a possible project I have coming up. I was told you sometimes take odd jobs. Do you have some free time now for me to go over it with you?" I ask faking my reason for being here for his mother's sake.
"Oh sure." He says, walking towards me but standing at a little bit of a distance from me.
I'm not sure where we should go but we obviously can't stand here talking in front of his mother. "Wonderful, let's go take a look at some things and I'll explain more as we go. Shall we?" I ask.
He nods and we head off in a random direction. When we're far enough away, I turn to him. "Sorry, I wasn't sure what to say in front of your mother."
"It's okay. I'm sure she bought your story."
"Is there somewhere we can go and talk. I have things to tell you but I still don't want everyone to see us together."
"We can go to the Everdeens. I need to check on their place anyway while they're gone." He suggests.
"Oh, that's one of the things I wanted to tell you actually. They aren't in any trouble. It was a standard interview thing that they called them to the Capitol for."
Relief floods his face and I wish I could've told him sooner. We get to the Everdeens and go inside. I feel a little awkward being here with them out of town but I trust Gale and if he thinks it's okay, it must be. As soon as the door shuts, I kiss him.
"You missed me, huh?" He says with a grin.
"More than you know." I say as I steal one more kiss before I start telling him what I've found out about Drew and Martin.
"Okay, I really do have things to share with you. I found out that Martin was Drew's roommate at the Matching of Heirs week and also that Martin was from District 4 just like Drew. To be an heir, his father has to be in a position of leadership. Drew's father is the mayor so that only leaves the position of head peacekeeper in that district."
"How does a Head Peacekeeper's kid get caught breaking the rules?" Gale asks with a puzzled look on his face.
"Right? That's exactly what I was thinking. It doesn't make sense at all."
"How did you find all this out?"
"I spent yesterday afternoon pretending to be interested in his work so I could get my hands on some billing info then I sort of pieced together that much of the puzzle. I still don't know what it means though. Like what exactly their connection is and what Martin could've known about Drew that made him feel like I needed to be warned about him."
"So your guy never told you that your original match was his roommate? Or that he even knew him?"
"Not a word. And when Martin was our Avox on the train, Drew pretended not to know Martin, didn't even look at him."
"Well I'd say he's intentionally hiding it for some reason. I mean, why hide it if there's something about it that he doesn't want you to know."
"I noticed earlier that Drew has a journal. I'm going to try and sneak a peek at it later."
"Be careful. If he catches you it probably won't go over so well."
"He's working all day today and has an actual meeting at lunch so I should be fine." I assure him. "Do you know what else I found out? The Capitol charges the districts for the Avox procedure! There was literally a bill for Martin's procedure and it was not cheap either. I had no idea."
"Doesn't surprise me. Hey, how'd he get caught any way? Do you know?"
"I have no idea. I heard it was something about him getting caught giving food to an Avox and then there were rumors of him having a relationship with one that worked in his house. But all that's really just rumor, I don't know for sure."
"Is there a way to find out? Records somewhere or something?"
"I'm sure there is but I don't know if I could find it. It'd be on the computer database somewhere but I have very little computer experience so I'm not sure I'd know how to find it on my father's computer."
"Can you try without getting caught?"
"Maybe. It's a long shot though."
"I want you to try. I feel like that's where the answers are."
"Well then I need to get home and do it now while he's at work." I tell him with an apologetic look for having to leave already.
"Okay. I'll be home all day if you need me again, if you find anything out and can come tell me about it. Otherwise, I'll see you at the viewing, though I'm sure you won;t be able to talk to me there."
"If I have a red dress on, it means I found something and if I have a blue dress on it means I came up empty handed." I tell him, creating a sort of code for us to communicate.
He smiles. "I like how you think." Then he kisses me, pulling me against him and making my heart beat faster.
"I have to go but you're making me not want to." I tell him as my fist tightens around his shirt.
He responds by running his hands down my back and letting them come to a rest on my hips as he kisses me again. "Well don't let me keep you." He says with a wink when the kiss ends.
"You're so mean." I breathe out, craving more of him and this than I have time for right now.
"I know. I'm the worst." He says with one more kiss. "Now go, see what you can find out but be careful."
I smile all the way back home. I love how just a few minutes with Gale leaves me feeling so much happier than anything else in my life. When I get back to the house, I check to make sure that Drew is gone to the Justice Center and then I slip into my father's office.
I dig in the wastebasket to find the login information that he threw in there this morning. I un-crumple the paper and take a deep breath in as I look at my father's computer. I switch it on and then with shaky hands, I enter the login and password. The screen changes and reveals dozens of portals. I'm not even sure where to start. My eyes skim the portals and I decide to go to one labeled Registry. When I click on it, a new window opens and it has a whole slew of other portals. None of them say Avox on them. One says Penalties so I try that. It turns out to be nothing of use to me though. I click through so many other things that it's hard to even remember what I've looked through and what I haven't. I really, really wish I had more knowledge about computers and how they work. I'm about to give up when I spot a little eyeglass in the bottom corner of the home screen. I click on it and type in the word Avox just to see what happens. And I'm instantly glad I did because the screen pulls up exactly what I'm looking for. A list of every Avox in Panem. I scroll through pages and pages until I get to his name and then click the hyperlink. It pulls up Martin's picture and a full profile. I quickly print it out so that I can read it later in my room. I know I've been in here far too long anyway. I grab the pages off the printer and then close out everything I was looking at on the computer and switch it off. I get up and slip out of the office, looking back to make sure you can't tell that I was in there.
I hurry down the hall to my room and lock the door behind me. I sit down on my bed and start reading the papers. The first part of the profile just tells me a little about who he was before he was an Avox. I was right about him being the son of a Head Peacekeeper. He had an excellent academic record. Did volunteer work. Has 3 younger siblings. Was set to be a Head Peacekeeper himself one day. The next part of his profile tells me his crime and penalty. His official charge is stealing food from the cafeteria with the intent to give it to an Avox girl who was working housekeeping in the dorms. There is also mention of a conversation he had with another heir about him being romantically involved with one of the Avox that worked in his house. It says an heir is the one who brought the entire matter to the attention of the Peacekeepers and that his testimony helped convict him without need for additional evidence. Another heir reported him? I hurriedly flip to the next page to see who it was that reported him and when I do, I let out an audible gasp as all the air is sucked from my lungs. It was Drew. Drew reported him! How could he do that to him?
I fold the pages up and slip them into my pocket and then go to see if I can read the journal in Drew's room. I have to find out more about why he did that to Martin and I have to find out now. In his room, the journal still sits on the bedside table where I saw it this morning. I glance at the clock and know that I have just a limited amount of time before Drew will likely be back but I go to read it anyway.
I pick it up and flip through the pages, scanning page by page and trying to make sense of all of it. It's not written like a diary in a narrative but in random little half sentences.
Celebrated birthday at home, no special festivities
Traveled to the Capitol, stayed at the hotel, ordered room service
Didn't attend funeral services, said to be handling it fine
Scored well in academic testing, instructors describe as good student
Spilled a bottle of blue ink on Mayor Ediston's new white rug, child travel policy up for review at next board meeting
I stop reading, realizing what this is. It's a record of me, of moments in my life. I was the one who was playing in Mayor Ediston's office and knocked over a full bottle of blue ink, ruining a very expensive rug. But how does Drew know that? He wasn't there. It happened in another district. And why does he have all this stuff written down? Is this what he meant when he said he's been watching me for years? I thought he meant something completely different but from the look of this book, he literally meant he was watching me. I flip forward more pages, wanting to see if he's still doing the same thing.
Had way too much to drink, out of character, kissed me and didn't remember, passed out early
Hungover but apologetic about it, butted heads with August immediately
Withdrawals every time I show affection to her and to Ellison
Quick to shut me out when angry, almost lost her over a conversation with August
Seems to hate the things that make up our future, I think she'd bail if she had the option
Hated that I got her a stylist, doesn't seem to understand her role has an image to uphold
Said she thinks it's important to have things in common with one another, need to find better ways to show her we are compatible
Never invites me to stay with her, not sure if it's because she's not interested or if it's because of all her manners.
Kissed me a lot. Actually seems happy because I let her do some of my work. Can't let her do that again though, too risky.
I look up, my mouth hanging open, as Drew walks in. I stare at him and he stares back, his eyes wide, face filled with guilt.
"What are you doing?" He asks, looking like he already knows. It's obvious anyway. I'm sitting on the edge of his bed, his journal open and in my hands.
"What is this? A record of my life or something? Going all the way back to my childhood?" I ask, horror evident in my voice.
"It's nothing. Just a journal so I can remember a few things about my day is all." He says as he reaches for the book.
I yank it closer to me, not wanting to give it back yet. "It's not things about your day though, it's things about my days. At least the majority of it anyway."
"It's just me trying to learn all about you so that I can make you happy. It's not a bad thing." He argues weakly.
I open it and flip to a random page and start reading aloud from it so he can hear how crazy this is. I want him to hear what an insane record this is that's he's keeping of me.
She's here but doesn't seem to remember me. Stood right by her in cafeteria and she never even spoke to me.
Her roommate complains about her a lot. Others say she's standoffish. She's not making the best impression on others this week.
She matched with a perfect score to him. No one ever matches with a perfect score. I didn't prepare properly and now I have to fix this.
I stop and look up at him after reading the last sentences. "How did you know I got a perfect score on my match with Martin? They don't tell us our scores." My hands shake and tears fill my eyes as I start to realize what this means, as I realize what he must have done. I take a step backward as he steps forward, not wanting him to come any closer to me.