*The Next Day*
Cato's POV:
In the morning, Brooke starts talking about going to the town today.
"Brooke, slow down, we haven't even had breakfast." I say.
She comes over and pats my head playfully,"We're gonna get some at the bakery." she says.
"Oh." I say, feeling stupid.
We go outside. I have on jeans and a black shirt. Shes basically wearing the same thing she wore yesterday, but today, she put her hair in a messy bun.
Not that I paid that much attention.
We walk for a long time.
"We're here." she says. We walk in.
Theres a boy about her age at the counter. He was blonde, stocky, short-ish.
"Hi Peeta." she says.
"Hey Brooke. The usual?" he replies, smiling.
"Yeah," she says sheepishly,"And Cato, what do you want?"
I shrug.
"He'll get what I'm getting."
"Okay, that'll be right up." he says.
Then, an older man comes out. I'd guess he was in his late forties, he was kinda on the chunky side, but he looked pretty happy.
"Hey Brooke, got any squirrels for me?" he says, smiling.
"Not today. But I think I'm gonna start hunting again tomorrow."
"Sounds great." he says. She laughs.
"Cato, this is Mr. Mellark, and the boy you just saw was Peeta. Peeta has two brothers. Adam and James."
"Got it." I reply.
Then, Peeta comes out with two bags, Brooke grabs them, and hands Peeta a handful of money. Peeta looks at her questioningly, and she nods.
"Bye." she says, they wave, and we walk out.
"What is 'the usual'"
"Cheese buns." she says, smiling. She hands me a bag. They are so good. Fluffy and soft and cheesy.
"Where to next?" I ask.
"Community home."
"Why?"
"Because I used to live there, and the kids there are sweet." she replies.
A little more walking, and we're there.
She just walks through the door, no knocking.A lady, probably forty to fifty comes in.
"About time, thought that you were gonna bail, because you were too good for us." the lady says sharply and cooly.
"No," says Brooke steadily,"I'm not like you." I see the lady slap Brooke, hard, but Brooke doesn't even flinch.
"I came to drop off some money. For Them. Because if you spend it on yourself, I promise I will hunt you down and-"
"Okay Brooke, we get it, just drop off the money and let's get out." I say.
Brooke looks at me, and walks up the stairs. About five minutes later, she comes back down.
"What were you doing?" the lady spats at her.
"I was talking to the kids, and I gave the money to Mary-Anne to hold on to, because she is responsible, and I trust her."
She says and we walk out. I follow behind her, very confused, I might add.
"Why did we go?"
"Because if I didn't, those kids would die. That's the way it works in twelve. That lady, was Ms. Hearn. She is only capable of taking care of herself."
I nod. We walk back to the house.
"I'm tired, I'm gonna take a nap, you can watch TV." she says, and walks up to the second floor, to her room.
*1 hour later*
I hear screaming, coming from upstairs.
I bolt up to her room, and when I get there, she is sobbing and screaming on the floor.
"It's okay," I say trying to soothe her.
"No, you're gonna kill me!" she screams through her tears.
She had a dream that I killed her.
"I wouldn't kill you." I yell. I know, great way to calm her down.
"But you did." she screams."you wanna kill everyone, you're a heartless career." she spats at me.
"I'm not. You know that."
"Then why'd you try to kill me?" she asks, in a small voice.
"I had to. So did you."
"Whatever. Just go."
"Where? Where would I go?" I yell.
"Not my problem. I gave you a chance."
"It was a dream." I shoot back.
"And I know that it's not real now, but why would you yell at me? Haven't I been through enough?" she says, weakly, her voice cracking on the last few words.
"You have." I say.
"Whatever. You're right, stay here, I'll be back tomorrow. She says, and walks away.
Brooke's POV:
I ran out. I know, I overreacted, but can you blame me? I just turned fourteen the day before the reaping(I know, crappy birthday, right?) had a traumatizing experience, and I haven't been quite right since.
I run, I don't where, but I run. I run until I'm out of breath and I have a terrible stitch in my side, but when I finish, I'm in front of Katniss's house. I knock. Katniss answers it.
"Did he drive you out of your house?"
I nod, sadly.
"Well, come on in." she says, and leads me in.
Prim comes and hugs me, I ruffle her hair.
"Stop it, do you know how long it took me to do that?" she whines, referring to her sidebraid, like her older sister's.
"I dunno. A minute."
"Two minutes." she corrects angrily.
"Oh, my bad." I say mockingly.
I look around. Katniss says,"Let's go to my room."
So we go. It's about ten o'clock.
"I gotta go hunting tomorrow, and you have school, so we should get to sleep." I declare.
"Fine with me."
So we sleep.
*Brooke's Dream*
I'm in the arena, running from mutts that are at my tail. They look like the dogs that were in my games. One comes and tackles me. I'm on the hot metal ground. It's burning my skin. The mutt morphs into Cato. The others come and tear my flesh. aai scream and cry. Cato just laughs the whole time.
*End of Dream*
I wake up, screaming and crying. I'm so sweaty, it's not even funny. Katniss is in her bed, snoring softly. She is such a hard sleeper. I cry. I am sobbing, and my body is shaking. Prim walks in. Sweet, eleven year old Prim.
"W-w-what's wrong." she stutters nervously.
"Nothing. I am just...sad."
She looks at me, she doesn't believe me, I can tell.
"ok?" she says.
"Go back to sleep Prim." I say softly.
"You too."
"I'll try."
I go to sleep. Well, pretty much.
Cato's POV:
I feel bad. She ran away from her own home.
I don't know where she would've gone. I don't know where anything is!
Where would she have gone if she needed help and somewhere to stay?
Katniss's House.
I run to the general direction that Katniss's house was. Then, I hear a scream. I run into the house that the scream is coming from. All the houses look the same, so it was just a wild guess. When I walk in, I see a hallway, it's not long at all, only a few feet, but it leads to a door. i open it, and lying on the ground is Brooke, crying and screaming.
"Brooke!" I say.
She looks up at me.
"I'm so sorry-"
"I'm so sorry!" We both say at the exact same time.
"Well, I guess that it's okay." I say.
She goes over to Katniss. She flicks her forehead.
"Ow." Katniss complains.
"I'm going home. Are you gonna hunt tomorrow?"
"No."
"Then bye." Brooke says then she leads me out the door.
Brooke's POV:
Cato and I walk home.
"Can I ask you a question?" he asks.
"Sure."
"Okay, how many?"
"However many."
"Okay, well, we need to know more about eachother, so we could both ask eachother questions." he says, awkwardly.
"Uh, okay, you can start...I guess." I say, a little unsure.
"Okay, er, You grew up in twelve, right, so, um, well, your district is starving, so how did you live?"
"I hunted-"
"Isn't that illegal?" he cuts me off.
"Yeah, but, it's either starve to death slowly, or get shot in the head, and I'd much rather be shot. It'd be quicker."
"Okay, now you ask me a question."
"Okay, um, do you have any siblings, or parents?"
"Yeah, I have a mom, dad, four brothers, and one sister. But, my two oldest brothers died in the games, they did well though, final two each time, and I have another older brother, but he didn't get chosen to volunteer, and a little brother and sister. They are both training for the games."
"Names?" I ask.
"The two that died were Mark and Trent. The one that didn't volunteer is Jared. My little brother is Jason and my little sister is Grace."
"Okay, so that's Mark, Trent, Jared, Jason, Grace, and Cato."
"Yup," he replies.
"Your turn."
"Uh, okay," he says,"what's your talent for the victory tour?"
"I don't know, you?"
"That doesn't answer my question." he states.
"Well, I really don't know, and I need to go hunting. You can come if you like." I add.
""Nah, I'm good. You go."
So I do.
I sprint to the fence, and check to see if it's on. It's not. I slide under the hole and once I get to the other side, I stop to catch my breath. I go to get my bow, and sling the quiver over my shoulder.
I scale a tree and wait. I see a group of squirrels waddle by and shoot them all down, five in a row! All in the eye. Just the way Mr. Mellark likes them. I see a few birds go by and right when I'm about to shoot them down, I hear a loud, "Hey!"
I'd like to say I was all graceful and pretty and stuff, but in reality, I fell out of the tree, onto my stomach.
I inhale sharply.
"Woah, Brooke, It's just me, Gale, your hunting partner, well one of them. Did career boy make you forget me already?"
"Gale, REALLY! I just fell out of a twenty foot tree, onto my stomach! Are you really gonna bring that up now?!"
He sighs,"I'm sorry Brooke, I just worry about you."
"Well now would be a good tome to worry about me!" I exclaim, trying to stand up.
"Brooke, watch out, you're bleeding!" he yells.
I look down at my stomach, theres a hole, I see a bloody arrow on the ground next to me.
"Oh crap." I whisper.
Gale picks me up, game bag, bow and all, and carries me to the log where I put my bow and arrows away.
We go under the fence, and he picks me back up. He carries me to the seam. I'm starting to get extremely light-headed. We walk into Katniss's house, and immediatly, Ms. Everdeen rushes over to me.
"What happened?" she asks Gale.
He answers her, but he makes sure to add,'It isn't anybody's fault' at the end.
She stitches me up, and I'm fine. "I gotta go." I say., and walk out the door. But, I'm pretty sure I heard Ms. Everdeen mutter,"That girl is so stubborn." before I shut the door.
I walk to the town, a little unsteadily I might add, and go into the bakery.
I see Mr, Mellark.
"What'd you got for me today-"he says, but stops when he sees the blood on my shirt.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Ms. Everdeen stitched me up." I say, and I could've sworn that when I said Ms. Everdeen's name, his eyes lit up, but it was gone too fast to tell.
"Good, did you get anything?" he asks.
'You bet. Wouldn't be here if I didn't." I say teasingly.
I pull out my game bag."Take your pick." I say. He looks through it, and takes two birds and all of the squirrels.
"That translates to ten cheese buns." he says.
I smile sheepishly, those are my favorite, and he knows it.
I walk back into Victor's Village, and into my house.
Cato sees me, and the blood on my shirt.
Dang it, I should've borrowed one of Katniss's shirts!
"Are you okay?" he asks, running over.
"I'm fine, like, a million people have already asked me, yes, I'm okay, Ms. Everdeen stitched me up."
"Okay, what do you have in the bag?" he asks.
"Two dead birds, and nine cheese buns. It was ten but, I ate one." I say, laughing
