Chapter Four
"Hi Katniss! Hi Madge!" Delly Cartwright set her tray down on the table. "Hello." Madge replied quietly. "Hey." I shared a glance with Madge. We had been sitting with Gale and Thom for the last few days. I wondered how they would react to Delly. We'd find out soon enough. They were in the lunch line. "Wouldn't it be fun to play house at recess? Peeta and I can be the brother and sister!" Delly smiled brightly at us. "Wouldn't it be better for him to play the father?" Madge raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, well...I guess so. But we look alike so we should be the brother and sister!" Delly obviously wasn't going to be swayed in the manner. "So who would we be?" Madge tore her bread in half and handed me a piece. I narrowed my eyes at her but accepted the bread anyway. "You can be the mother Madge, and Katniss could be the baby since she's so small!" Delly was so excited she was swaying back and forth.
"What's this about Katniss being a baby?" Gale sat down at the table. "You know, that makes a lot of sense." Thom smirked at me as he sat down as well. I stuck my tongue out at him. "I was just saying that Katniss should be the baby since she's so small!" Delly grinned at Gale. "Who are you?" Thom have Delly a not so subtle look of mistrust. He was still wary of town kids. Madge was the exception. "Delly Cartwright! It's a pleasure to meet you!" She stuck her hand out across the table. Thom just stared at her hand for a few moments before Gale elbowed him. "Nice...To meet you. I'm Thom." He finally took her hand.
"Gale Hawthorne." Gale offered his hand to her. "Wonderful to meet you!" What was good about Delly was that she was kind to everyone. Seam or otherwise. A lot of town kids turned their nose up at us from the Seam. "So you all must be playing house if Katniss is going to the be the baby." Gale slurped up some of his soup as he said this. Madge wrinkled her nose at his bad manners. "That's right! Do you want to play! We need a father!" Delly replied.
Thom let out a guffaw at her question. "Sure. And I bet Thom would be happy to be that family dog." Thom looked at Gale in horror. "You can't be-" Gale silenced Thom with a look. Delly clapped cheerfully, missing the tension between the two. It would be nice to be as innocent as Delly. Even at the age of 11 I had to be more grown up in the Seam. I figured Madge was so grown up because her father was the mayor and she had to make sure not to do anything that would tarnish his name. I did not envy her in that case.
"I'll get Peeta and then we can go out to recess together!" Delly dashed off giggling happily. "Doesn't she realize we just sat down to eat?" Thom grumbled and began downing his soup quickly. I hurried to finish and began sopping up the last of my soup with my bread. "She one of your friends Katniss?" Gale asked me between bites of food. "Yes." I hesitated slightly before answering. Was Delly my friend? I didn't know. I wouldn't mind if she was. "We just started playing with her at recess." Madge stood up from the table.
"I'll take your tray for you Katniss." She grabbed my tray without waiting for my response and started to walk away from the table. "Look at that, the Mayor's daughter lifting a finger for once in her life." Bristol sneered as block Madge's way. She slapped the trays out of her hand before slinking away. "I can't believe Bristol's turned into such a-" Thom held his tongue once he saw that Delly was coming within earshot. "What happened?" She bent down to help me and Madge pick up the trays and the dishes. "I dropped them. I'm clumbsy." Madge said quietly. "It's okay Madge, so am I!" Delly smiled. Trust Madge to not even awknowledge Bristol. She tried to never let things that bothered her have her attention.
We quickly had everything picked up. "Where's Peeta?" I looked around for the blonde boy. "Oh he's already outside." Delly jumped around excitedly. Gale and Thom chuckled and went to go get rid of their trays. Soon enough we were of the building. "Where'd Peeta run off to?" Delly looked around in confusion. "He said he'd be waiting under the tree by the door." Delly put her hands on her hips. "Maybe he went to the bathroom Delly." I said. "Oh well I guess we can just start playing without him!" Delly grabbed Thom by the arm. "We need to find a leash for you! We could use a jumprope!" She skipped off.
"Gale I swear I will make you pay for this." Thom glared as the smirking boy. "At least you aren't the baby." I crossed my arms and sighed. "Coochie coochie coo! Pretty baby boo! " Gale snickered and waggled a finger at me. I blew at raspberry at him. "You're only making yourself look worse Katniss." Madge sat down primly on a stump under the tree. Thom settled himself at her feet. "I guess if I'm the dog..." He sighed deeply. Madge patted his head and we all laughed.
Gale and sat at the base of the tree. "It sure is taking Delly a long time." I glanced at Gale. "Maybe she's having trouble getting the jump rope from the other girls." Gale shrugged. "No, she'd just let them have it and figure something else at. Delly isn't selfish." I threw the stick I had been fiddling with at Thom. "Grrr." He bared his teeth at me. "Peeta isn't back either. It doesn't take that long to use the restroom." Madge brushed a leaf off her dress. "What if they decided not to play with us?" Thom crossed his arms.
"They wouldn't just leave us like that." Madge replied. "Oh really? How long have you been playing with them?" Thom scowled up at her. "Four days. Long enough to know they aren't mean." She met his gaze steadily. "Well whatever the reason is, I'm not gonna sit here and waste my recess." Gale got up and brushed himself off. "You coming Catnip?" He held his hand out to me. "Might as well." I grabbed his hand and let him haul me up.
"Where're you going?" Thom stood up and cocked his head. "Going to look for them of course." Gale started off across the yard."Hello girls." He smiled at the five jumping rope. The older two blushed while the younger three frowned at Gale for interupting their game. "Have you seen Delly Cartwright at all?" Gale smiled at the blushing girls. It was obvious they had crushes on him. Thirteen year olds were so dumb
. "She went to the shed to look for another jump rope." The tallest one replied. "Thank you ladies." He winked at them. I locked gazes with Madge and rolled my eyes. She smirked back. After Gale flirted with the two girls for couple of moments we were back on our way. "Is Delly always like this?" Thom asked. "She's quite determined. Always has been." Madge grabbed my hand and began swinging our arms back and forth. "Skip skip skip to the lou, skip to the lou my darling!" I started singing as we began skipping.
"Didn't peg you for a singer Catnip." Gale tugged on my braid gently as we skipped in front of him. "She's the best in our music class." Madge said proudly. "The whole class? WOW!" Thom snickered. "What about you? You sound like a dying cat when you talk so I wouldn't expect you to sound much better singing." Madge came to my rescue once again. Gale laughed loudly. Madge and I stopped our game once we reach the toys shed. "Delly isn't here-" Thom started then stopped. "HELP!" Banging was heard from inside the shed, as well as crying.
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. It's school yard drama time! =P Thank you for all your nice reviews! They really make my day! And just remember, even though Katniss thinks she and Madge are really grown up, they're not. Every kid thinks they're like an adult. Just wanted to let you know in case you thought it was out of character for them to be skipping and playing house. Yes, both are a bit more mature than the average kid due to circumstance, but they're still kids through and through.
Also: I apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I am editing this myself and no matter how many times I go over my stories, I always miss something.
-Beaky
