A/N - Ok, I think this is my last set up chapter before I get to the actual story that I want to tell. I'm trying to keep with ages and timelines of the book, but just remember, personalities and things have changed. Basically I'm making all this up, only thing HG is names of characters for which I do not own. It's a little long, but hopefully I've done enough ground work for the actual good stuff to start flowing. Let me know what you think :)

Chapter 3

The next morning was Sunday. It was devoted to going out with her mother and sister for back to school shopping. It was a good day, they'd had brunch and then shopped basically all day. Haymitch was sulky as only a man who had never had to shop with girls can possibly be, but over all they'd had a good time with him, poking fun of him where they could. He'd been a good sport. Katniss was glad he was with her mother and that she'd found someone to make her happy again.

They'd barely come in the door when the door bell rang. Haymitch returned moments later.

"Katniss, there's a boy here for you."

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you just invite him in?" She asked as she walked passed him. Usually Marvel called or texted before he just showed up.

Katniss stopped short at the door. It wasn't Marvel, it was Peeta standing I the door way. She wasn't sure what to do.

"Sweetheart, I'm new to this whole teenager thing, but I know not to make a habit of inviting strange boys into the house."

Just then Prim walked into the room. "Peeta?" She asked incredulously.

"Hey, Prim." Peeta greeted her. When Katniss and Peeta had been together for that brief time in the eighth grade Peeta had come to the Everdeen house to hang out with Katniss while she babysat. Prim had been nine then, and she loved Peeta, Prim had asked for a while when he was coming back to hang out with them until she realized it made her sister either sad or irritated when she brought up the subject so she eventually dropped it.

Prim, being the gracious host that Katniss and Haymitch were not, invited him in and offered him a drink, all before Katniss could collect her thoughts enough to figure out what to do.

"Um, Haymitch, this is Peeta Mellark, my friend from school. We'll go hang out in the den so we don't bother you here." Katniss explained, effectively communicating to Haymitch that she did not want to be interrupted.

Peeta took a step towards Haymitch and introduced himself to Haymitch more formally and politely, he handed Haymitch the wrapped package from his family's bakery. Haymitch immediately opened it and ate one of the apple pastries from inside. As he walked away he leaned over and whispered to Katniss "Keep this one, he actually comes into the house and brings food. I kinda like this boy."

As soon as they were in the den she turned on him. "What are you doing here at my house?" She demanded.

Peeta laughed, sat down and made himself at home on the big comfortable sectional sofa. "You kissed me back last night." He stated simply.

She wasn't expecting him to be so forward about. "Yeah, well you surprised me." She sighed. "And it's not like it was terrible or anything." She awkwardly shrugged and looked at her feet. "I'll even admit, it was somewhat pleasant, but that doesn't change anything. I'm not breaking up with Marvel, I'm still in love with him."

Peeta stood up and walked toward her. He looked deep into her grey eyes. "I told you, I don't care. You can keep playing your game all you want. No one has to know about this but us," he raised his hand to her face and held it against her cheek gently. She could feel the spark between them, she was losing it again. This thing that she felt when Peeta touched or looked at her, she lost herself in those dazzling blue eyes. He kissed her again, and again she kissed him back. In this moment she realized that she had a weakness for Peeta Mellark and lost herself in his way with words as he spoke to her between kisses. Everything he said made sense and convinced her that they could do this together. They made their way to the sofa together and continued their kissing.

After a while she came to her senses and pushed him away gently, trying to collect her thoughts. "I'm not playing any game. I do love him."

"Ok, there's no game, and you love him. That's fine, but you like being with me too, I'm offering a way to do both."

"What's in this for you? Marvel is like, your best friend. Why would you do this to him? Betray him. It doesn't make sense."

"I have my reasons. And besides, if he never finds out, we won't be betraying him. You like me, I like you. If you love him, and you're not playing a game with him and everything is good that's great, fine, I'm happy for you. But there's something about you Katniss Everdeen that makes me think we could be good together, we have this electricity," Peeta said excitedly, "and even if everything you say is real, can't we just have this too? One secret to ourselves, no one will know, and you and I can work through this thing until we get bored, this gets old and everything goes back to normal. No one hurt and we can wipe our hands clean."

It was ridiculous, and the most bizarre thing anyone had ever said to her. "You need to leave now."

Peeta looked at Katniss. "You're kicking me out?" He asked.

"Yes, besides. I was supposed to be at Madge's place like ten minutes ago. And as appealing as your offer is to cheat on my boyfriend, I think it's going to be a polite pass for me." Katniss replied, her words dripping with sarcasm. "Besides, you forgot one thing, I love him. And I wouldn't hurt him that way, even if he never found out, I would know. I can't do that to him."

Peeta shrugged his shoulders and stood. "Remember what I said. If you ever change your mind I'm willing to take you back all the same." He smiled his mischievous grin, and he and Katniss left the den and she saw him out of her home after he said his goodbyes to Prim and Haymitch.

When he was gone Hamitch looked at her with a smile and said half jokingly "you know, you are awfully young to be tied down to one guy."

Katniss was embarrassed, "Were you eavesdropping on me?"

"Like I said, I'm new to this teenage thing, but I know enough to know not to leave my step daughter downstairs with a boy unsupervised. Your mom
would kill me."

"She never really cared before." Katniss muttered bitterly as she walked passed him. For as little as she used to be home before she could have had anyone over for any length of time and she never would have known. If it hadn't been for her lack of a social life she probably would have.

Katniss went to her room and grabbed her beach bag with her bathing suit and other necessities and headed for Madge's house. She only lived two blocks away and Katniss was thankful for the opportunity to think.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, she was flattered. After years of keeping to herself she definitely was enjoying it and appreciating the life she currently had. She had crushed on Peeta for years, so it was nice to have his attention now, but she had also seen him evolve into a person that she generally didn't like. He was different from her Marvel. Sure, both were popular and good looking and knew it, both could get any girl they wanted. Ok, so there weren't that many differences, but still. Marvel had changed for her, and cared for her, and they loved each other.

She arrived at Madge's house still confused. Madge lived in the biggest house in their district neighbourhood. The city of Panem was quite large, it centered around the downtown district that people referred to as the Capital. Everything was there: Capital General Hospital where her mom and Haymitch worked, Capital High School, and The Capital Mall. Surrounding the Capital was the residential neighbourhoods which were conveniently separated into twelve districts. Katniss of course was from district 12, each district was big enough to have their own school systems them that ran until junior high, and then starting with high school everyone was bused to the Capital High unless you were lucky enough to have a car and could drive yourself. Most people who had to commute to The Capital for work did so by commuter train that passed through each district. District 12 was the oldest neighbourhood and was built long before the Capital was a thing, so it was the furthest away, but they did have some homes that were either incredibly old and made with beautiful architecture as Madge's was, or was just old enough to for it to not quite fit in with the surrounding homes like Katniss' and not new enough to be considered modern. She didn't care, she loved her home, they had been a real family in that home before her dad had passed away.

Katniss walked up to the house and spent the afternoon by the pool with Madge and Johanna. It was a perfect way to finish out the afternoon before school started the next day. Katniss forgot all about her Peeta problems for the moment.

Marvel had text Katniss and asked if she and the other girls wanted to meet up with the guys at the pizza place and they were about to get dressed and head out when a tall dark and obviously older guy came walking out from Madge's house began walking over to them.

"Who is that?" Johanna asked appreciatively.

"That's my cousin Gale. He went to our school, don't you remember?" Madge replied. "He graduated two years ago."

"That's Gale Hawthorne? No way, how did he get even better looking, he's delicious." Johanna practically drooled.

Katniss remembered him; he didn't live too far from Katniss. They were both quiet reserved people at the time. He was nice to Katniss. Her only friend, her best friend for a while, both were kind of loners and she enjoyed his company. She had missed him after he left for college but hadn't heard anything at all after he left. She wasn't even aware that he was Madge's cousin.

He walked up to the girls and he and Madge exchanged some words, Johanna sat up and turned her body in ways that showed off her bikini clad body. Katniss laughed and realized that she wasn't wearing much more than her friend. She quickly covered herself with her sundress that she had worn to Madge's.

"Catnip?" Gale asked incredulously.

"Hey Gale." Katniss smiled at him and was slightly embarrassed, thinking of the times that she and Gale has mocked the "cool" kids. Surely he knew that his cousin was part of that crowed and she wondered what he must think of her being here at Madge's.

"I haven't seen you in years." He came to Katniss and gave her a friendly hug. They had the world's quickest polite conversation where she asked how college was and he asked how she and Prim were doing. It was enough for Madge and Johanna to recognize that these two who knew each other well had not spoken in a while and raise their eyebrows in surprise. When he left the two demanded answers, they all dressed quickly and got into Madge's car.

Madge drive the girls to the pizza place while she and Johanna bombarded Katniss with questions. Katniss did her best to dodge them, or ignore them, all the girls were laughing and giggling until Johanna said something that completely surprised Katniss.

"Seriously Katniss, you can't expect us to believe that was the first time you saw Gale in like, two years. You didn't keep in contact with him or anything after he left? I hadn't even heard that you two officially broke up. We just assumed you were still dating him until you starting hanging out with us and Marvel staked his claim on you." Johanna finished with a laugh.

Katniss was confused, "Um, excuse me? What? I've never dated Gale."

There was silence in the car for a moment. Madge glanced in the rearview mirror at Johanna and exchanged a meaningful look. Madge cleared her throat, "I know you try to be a private person Katniss, and whatever you tell us we won't tell Marvel what happened between the two of you, but Katniss, the whole school knows that you two dated for like two years."

Katniss let out a disbelieved gasp, "No, we did not. We were friends, that's all, barely even that. We sat together on the bus to school and hung out during lunch, it's not like I ever saw him after school or whatever."

"No way, he's completely your type. You went from tall, dark, and handsome Gale to tall, dark, handsome and popular Marvel." Johanna said in disbelief.

"Yeah, do you know how much Cashmere hated you for that? She had been working her magic on him for years until he met you and shut her out completely. He even talked about you once in a while to me, telling me how nice you were and how he thought we could be really good friends. I just assumed for a while that you were the kind of girl who only liked to concentrate on her boyfriend." Madge chimed in.

Cashmere was Glimmer's older sister, who was also a twin of Gloss, Glimmer's older brother. Cashmere and Gloss were high school royalty. Katniss had known them growing up as well but never really saw them all that much and they always seemed rather self-absorbed and never really all that nice to Katniss. She was always thankful when Glimmer's mom left them at home so she could just play with Glimmer. They set the trail in high school for Glimmer. Glimmer was set to inherit the legend that family had left to her at that school, that is, until Katniss had come in and started to give her a run for her money. If Cashmere blamed Katniss for "stealing" Gale, and Glimmer blamed Katniss for "stealing" Marvel, then Katniss could see a pattern of misunderstanding that had led to why it seemed Glimmer had it out for Katniss.

They arrived at the pizza place and got out of the car and went into the restaurant. It seemed that everyone was taking the last evening before school to hang out here. Marvel, Cato, Peeta and Thresh were here with Glimmer, Delly and Clove already at a large table with seats waiting for Katniss, Johanna and Madge. Katniss wished she was imagining things when she saw that it appeared Glimmer intentionally looked at her and took her hand off of Marvel's shoulder and moved over a few seats. It sent a bolt of doubt and anger through her that she wished she could ignore.

Katniss slid into her seat next to Marvel who kissed her immediately and put his arm around her. She took a sip from his drink and allowed herself to sink into his familiar comfort, trying to shake off what she had just seen. They were friends after all, and Katniss had said she wanted things to be normal. She had to trust Marvel she told herself.

"Guess what we found out about our little Katniss today?" Johanna teased.

Katniss immediately felt herself sit a little taller, her back stiff from momentary panic.

"We saw Gale Hawthorne today and Katniss revealed that she managed to have him wrapped around her little finger, but nothing was ever even going on between them!" Johanna laughed.

Everyone looked to Katniss; her cheeks flamed red from embarrassment. "So much for not telling anyone my private business." She muttered sarcastically.

"Hey, Madge said that. I, however, promised no such thing. Besides, according to you there is no business." Johanna replied.

"Is that true? You were never dating him?" Peeta asked surprised.

"Um, this is the first that I'm hearing that people even thought that. I don't know why people would even think that. We were just friends, we rode the bus to school together, and that's pretty much it. I mean, I considered him my best friend for a while, but honestly, nothing like that ever happened between us."

The guys all looked at each other, then at Marvel and Peeta looked at each other. "Gale heard us talking about you in the guy's dressing room one day when we were freshman after gym class." Marvel began, "we were talking about how hot you were and," Marvel cleared his throat awkwardly "we may have said one or two things that may not have been the most appropriate things to say about you." Marvel revealed. "Well…that part is not important I guess, but, just so you know, it was mostly respectful and stuff…"

"Oh gosh you are whipped man," Peeta interrupted somewhat angrily. "anyway, Gale came thundering towards us, made us take it all back and told us that if he ever heard us talking about 'his girl' again that he would pound us into dust." Peeta finished the story for Marvel.

Katniss played with the end of her braid, a little angry, but not really knowing what she could do about it. "I don't know why he did that, but I was never 'his girl', especially then, I barely knew the guy! I just don't understand."

"Katniss Everdeen, you have no idea the effect you can have on people." Peeta told her sincerely, but it appeared to be funny to everyone else, except maybe Glimmer who Katniss noticed was seething at Peeta's comment.

Marvel looked at Katniss. "If I had known that you weren't his girl, I would have asked you out a long time ago."

"There's never been anyone else for me but you, babe" Katniss said looking deeply into his eyes. She felt he was about to kiss her when Delly interrupted.

"Uh…what about Peeta?"

Katniss immediately felt all the colour drain from her face. A million thoughts when though her mind all at once; that maybe she had seen Katniss and Peeta's stolen kiss the night before, Delly lived in their district, what if she recognized her car in front of Katniss' house earlier that day. Katniss looked to Peeta and even he seemed to have a look of surprise and fear in his eyes.

"Excuse me? What about Peeta?" Marvel asked looking between the Katniss and Peeta.

"They were only like, the cutest couple ever! In the last year of junior high they were inseparable." Delly gushed. Delly had attended the same junior high as Katniss, Peeta, and Madge, but had not hung around in the same circle of friends until they replaced her in Katniss' spot in high school.

"No way! You two dated?" Cato indicated between the two of them.

"Well…not really. We were thirteen, how much can a thirteen year old really date." Katniss downplayed quickly, relieved that their secret hadn't come out before Katniss had found a way to explain what had happened between her and Peeta to Marvel.

"Ouch, Katniss that hurts. We dated for a glorious three months until she got tired of me and dropped me. It took months for my young heart to recover," Peeta played it up sarcastically, earning several laughs, "and you're welcome by the way." He said to Marvel.

"For what?" Marvel asked, laughing at Katniss' reaction to everyone laughing at what she felt like was her expense.

"Teaching her how to kiss a guy properly of course, now that we know Hawthorne was never in the picture we know that she got all of her skills from me. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have the same mind blowing Katniss Everdeen you have now. She's been the only one able to lock you down, man; she must be doing something right." Peeta continued cockily.

"Ok, ok, can we talk about something else?" Katniss tried to redirect the conversation.

There was a bit more teasing, but eventually the conversation turned away from Katniss and she was having fun again with her friends. She excused herself to the washroom, when she was at the sink washing her hands and freshening up before heading out again Glimmer walked into the bathroom. She was angry, Katniss could tell.

"Ok Everdeen, I'm getting really sick of this innocent little girl game you are playing here." Glimmer spoke angrily.

"What? What game? I'm not playing a game."

"Oh please, 'Gale and I were never a thing', you were doing something with him. Luckily my sister saw through it and ended things with him before you turned him into that embarrassing mess, in fact, that was probably why he was so obsessed with you. And Peeta 'oh Katniss, you have no idea the effect you have on people', ugh, it makes me sick that they are all falling for it. Did you forget Katniss? My parents have a beach house too, I was there when all the guys were and Marvel was at my place more than he was at his own! You know, if it weren't for you acting all hurt and innocent he'd be with me right now, yeah, he told me that himself." Glimmer said the last part triumphantly with a sinister sneer in her normally beautiful controlled face. "I'm going to humiliate you this year Katniss, I'm going to expose you for the fake that you are. You don't love Marvel, you love not being the sad invisible girl anymore who had to stay home and dream of all the fun that we were having."

Katniss' head was reeling from this information. Had Marvel really cheated on her again? Was Glimmer really saying all this to her, right now, here in the bathroom of all places? Rage burned deep within Katniss, she thought fast, knew that she couldn't lose it. She looked to Glimmer with determination on her face in her voice and said the first things that came to her mind. "Do you really want to play this game with me Glimmer, you will lose. Keep trying to come after Marvel all you want, you may even get him to be with you behind my back, but he will never leave me for you. The fact is, I seem to have more influence on people than you do, and you could have had me as an ally, but you just chose enemy. Girls like you, well there's a million who do it the way you do, looking as innocent as possible to get what they want. That's not going to be me, that way is too easy. So you can count on this year being different, cause I'm not going to play it your way, I will burn the old way down and set a new path that girls like you will never be able to walk. If you can get him to be with you that's fine, but I've got him where I want him now, and that's not with you." Katniss said this last part in a low voice with ice in her voice and fire in her grey eyes, "Anything you have with him will only ever be secret, and I won't even feel bad about keeping you apart, you want to be me, you're jealous, you don't love him, not like I do, I will take him back every time just to keep you down where you belong."