Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
I can feel my lips turn upward into a smile as Peeta leads the Careers back to their camp. He's protecting her and she doesn't even know it. It's just like those romance novels that I love to read. I let out a sigh and let myself get lost in the fictional love story that exists only in my head.
Eventually I remember that there will be only one winner and my smile quickly disappears. I wonder if he will go the entirety of the Games trying to protect her. But if they end up being the last two left, will he be willing to die just to let her come home alive? I don't know. Katniss saved my life by putting her life in jeopardy but that's because she loves me and although Peeta says he loves Katniss, would he really die for her?
I rub my temples as a headache starts to form from thinking about everything. My body aches as I get up from the couch to grab a cup of water for my headache. As I drink the water I check the time and see that school starts in two hours and let out a groan. At school I will have to go through the day like normal and the only time that I will get any updates on Katniss will be at lunch. So if she is killed I won't know until lunch.
I remember when I was about nine years old I had a friend who's brother was reaped. When the Games started, every day at lunch the teachers would pull her away from the other kids and show her some updates on a small screen. At the time I didn't know what she was looking at and was curious as to why nobody else was being pulled to the side. One day at lunch she went to look at the screen and then she came back into the lunchroom sobbing uncontrollably and the teachers were practically carrying her out of the room. By this time everyone wanted to know what happened so when we got back to class we asked the teacher what had happened to her. She told us that her brother has been killed in the Games and then she went into a whole lecture about how he had to die because we owe it to the Capitol.
My friend was not at school the next few days for his funeral and just because the family needed some time to mourn. When she came back she was pretty much the shell of the person she once was. I remember everyone trying to talk to her but she just ignored them. When I went to talk to her during lunch I expected her to ignore me like everyone else, but she actually talked to me. She told me about how much she missed her brother and while she was talking she started crying. I had just hugged her and let her cry into my shirt without saying a word.
My mom interrupts my memory by telling me that I should get ready for school. I nod and go into the bedroom to grab some clothes. After I get in the outfit and do my hair, I watch some more of the Games on the television. I'm about to leave when there is a knock on the door. I open the door and grin when I see Rory standing in front of me holding a small loaf of bread. He smiles when he sees me and hands me the bread.
"It was by your door when I got here," he says.
"Thank you," I respond while going back inside to give the bread to my mom.
"Oh, it's from Christopher," she says with a small smile after reading the note that came with the bread.
"That's nice, can I have some?" I ask, eager to eat some of it.
"Yes, and you can give some to Rory too," my mom says.
"Okay," I respond while slicing the bread.
As I give Rory a slice of bread to Rory I think about how much this bread has changed my mother and I. I know that the bakery is losing money from giving us the bread, yet he is still doing it. Without his generosity my mother and I would most likely be starving because Katniss isn't here to hunt for food. I haven't even worried about starving since Katniss was reaped which makes me feel even guiltier about Christopher feeding us.
Suddenly I hear Rory say something to me but I don't know what he said so I ask him about it.
He chuckles and says, "I asked if you were ready to go."
"Oh, yeah I am," I say with a small smile.
The walk to school is pretty uneventful. Rory tries to keep me from thinking about the Games by talking about other topics like how Posy claims that she has a boyfriend and how Vick has a huge crush on a girl but is too shy to talk to her. By the time we get to school I'm feeling much better than I was in the morning, but when Rory and I split up to go to our classes and I'm no longer standing next to him I can feel my good mood fading. It's funny how one person can make you so happy just by standing next to you but once they leave, you are left feeling so alone.
When I walk into my first class of the day I'm greeted by stares from every kid in my class. It makes me feel very uncomfortable and I walk stiffly to a seat in the back of the classroom. As the class goes on my mind refuses to pay attention to what the teacher is saying and is instead thinking about Katniss. I might find it annoying about how much I'm thinking about Katniss but in some weird way thinking about Katniss makes me feel closer to her. But for all I know she could be dead.
I'm brought back to my senses by a soft tap on my shoulder. I quickly turn my head to see who it is and I'm greeted by my friend Amana. She swipes some of her very light brown hair out of her eyes before asking if I'm okay.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I say, "why do you ask?"
"Well class is over and we are the last ones left," she says while motioning to the empty classroom.
I quickly grab my things and leave the classroom with Amana. Together we walk to the next class of the day which we have together. In this class I'm able to focus on something other than Katniss. Amana and I work on a project together for the whole class. Afterwards I have lunch which is the time I've been equally dreading and looking forward to.
On the way I run into Rory and together we walk hand-in-hand to lunch. As we near the door to the lunchroom I get more and more anxious. Rory notices my nerves so he squeezes my hand and tells me that Katniss is probably fine. I give him a small smile and walk into the lunchroom.
We walk over to a lunch table where our friends are sitting. I take a seat in between Charity and Amana while Rory sits by his friend Asher. Rory and Asher immediately start joking about some weird thing that happened earlier and my friends try to keep my mind off of the Games by talking about clothing. I don't pay attention to anything they say because I'm focused only on the teachers that are walking towards the table with a tablet that should have updates on Katniss. It takes all my strength not to just run over to the teachers and snatch the tablet out of their hands.
After what seems like an eternity they finally make it to our table. They tell me to come with them so I get up and walk with them to an empty room. When we get in there a teacher hands me the tablet and I press the play button with shaky fingers.
The clip is only a few minutes long but it shows everything that I need to know. Katniss is still alive. She has only hunted and hiked since the last time I saw her. Nobody else has died since the girl from District 8 who was killed in the morning.
I let out a sigh of relief and the teacher standing closest to me smiles. She tells me that I can go back to lunch and I thank her before running back to my friends.
"She is still alive and well," I tell them excitedly.
"That's great!"my friends exclaim.
Rory smiles at me over my friends heads and I can feel my face stretch, trying to contain my grin that must be going from ear to ear. I take a seat next to Rory instead of going back to my original spot and I take his hand in mine.
The rest of the day seems to go by in a blur and before I know it I'm walking home with Rory once again. My happy mood from hearing that Katniss is still alive, is still consuming me and I let myself enjoy my little bubble of happiness before it's ripped away from me.
When we reach my house I stop and look at Rory. Some warm and fuzzy feeling takes over my body and I have no clue what it is. I'm still confused when I let the warm feeling take over my senses and impulsively I stand on my tip toes and kiss him on the cheek. Before either of us can comprehend what just happened I quickly run into my house and close the door behind me.
I run over to a window and watch him stare at the front door with his mouth agape. He then smiles and touches his cheek where I kissed him and walks away towards his house.
My feet bring me back to the door and I slide down until I'm sitting on the floor with my back to the door. My head spins as I try to make sense of what just happened. I remember feeling really happy and then I felt all warm and fuzzy then I kissed Rory. I let out a sigh of relief when I realize that it was only on the cheek, so it could have been a lot worse. He probably thought it was just a friendly kiss on the cheek and not anything more. But was it just a friendly thing to me?
Someone clears their throat and I look up to find my mother helping someone who looks pretty badly burned. I quickly get out of my little trance and wash my hands so I can help my mother with the patient. When I reach my mother she is looking very concentrated like she always does when she is working. I ask what happened and my mother simply replies with "mine fire" and that's all I need to know. Lot's of miners come to my mother with burns from fires inside the mines and some of them are really bad but most of the time it's only on their arm or leg which is easier to treat than full body burns.
My mother quickly tells me that only the man's arms were burned so she already did most of the stuff that she usually does for these burns.
"Have you used the aloe vera from District 4 yet?" I ask her while going to the cabinet just to check.
"No, but we probably should," she responds.
I grab the leaf from the cabinet, a sharp knife, and a small jar. On the counter I cut the sides and top off of the plant and then scoop out all of the gel from the inside. I put all of the gel in the jar and go over to the man who is sitting at our table. I take some of the gel out and apply it directly to his burn and he hisses in pain when I first touch the burn but then he sighs when the gel cools his arm.
After some more home remedies that my mother teaches me and we use on the patient he is good to go and he gives my mother some money and leaves. My mother and I start to clean up and as we clean she asks me about what happened earlier.
I debate lying to her and just saying that nothing happened but I tell her the truth anyways.
"I kissed Rory."
She stops cleaning and just stares at me with her mouth open slightly.
"Well not kissed kissed, I just kissed him on the cheek," I say, my cheeks heating up.
She is quiet for a little longer before she smiles and says, "I should have seen it coming."
"What do you mean?"
"Well most friends don't hold hands and hug each other nearly as much as you two do," she says with a chuckle.
"But I don't even know how I feel," I say with a frown.
"It's okay, Prim. You don't have to know just yet, you have years to figure it out," she says with a pat on my cheek.
We stop talking and go back to cleaning. As I clean I try to sort out what my mother said. What she said about us holding hands and stuff more than most friends do is true, but I'm still confused on exactly how I feel. Feelings are confusing.
After we finish cleaning I turn on the television and find Katniss still hiking through the woods, but she's struggling. From what I can tell she is pretty dehydrated which is not good at all. I can guess that she hasn't had any water within the two days that she has been in the arena. She keeps walking until she has to stop in a tree because she is tripping over her own two feet.
"If she doesn't get water soon, she will die," I state to my mother.
"I know," she says with a sad sigh.
After we say this I try to focus on the good stuff, Katniss is still alive. The cameras have shown one little pond that Katniss could get to in the morning if she really tried. She is pretty far from the nearest tribute, meaning she has some time before anyone finds her. I put all my confidence into the fact that Katniss will find the water tomorrow because I can't stand to believe anything else.
After I surprise myself with such confidence that Katniss won't die from dehydration I start to think about my feelings towards Rory. I know that when I'm around him I feel happy. I know that when I hold his hand I feel all warm inside. I know that I like the feeling of his arms around me. I know that I like him more than a friend.
"Oh my goodness, I like Rory Hawthorne."
So I'm doing all the notes down here now :). I really wanted to have a somewhat happy chapter for Prim so this is kind of it. I hope you all are okay with her and Rory. Sorry for the slight delay and shorter chapter. Thank you for reading. Please leave a review if you can! Stay safe and healthy! :)