Hey Guys! I'm back!This story is dedicated to Courtney, and my cherished sister Holly...Thank you.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, nor do I own any of the wonderful characters she created. Enjoy!
Cato was walking around town, when he heard two voices harmonizing, sounding wondrous together. He recognized them immediately as Finnick's and Katniss's voices. He looked on as he saw their friends, and a bunch of children, cancer patients, Cato could tell, having a baby sister with cancer had obviously helped him to recognize this. When they were done, he saw a little girl run up to Katniss and say, "I love you. When I grow up, I wanna be just like you."
He saw Katniss smile sadly, "I love you too." He noticed she left the second statement the small child, Julia, had made uncommented. However, after the girl had left Katniss's lap, he saw her whisper, "No. You don't want to be like me. Never."
He didn't know why, maybe her voice, full of pain triggered something in him, but he spoke up, he said over casually, "I don't know, you seem like a good role model to be."
Katniss whirled around, instinctively holding up a fist. That fist didn't relax when she saw who it was. "What do you want?" she looked tired. She had ill concealed bags under her eyes, just enough so that the kids wouldn't worry. "I'm not in the mood, so spit it out already, don't play games with me."
Finnick noticed them, and strode over. With a similar forced smile, like Katniss's, since they didn't want the children noticing, he asked, "What do you want?" he turned to Katniss, "Did he do something to you?"
She simply shook her head wordlessly, and Finnick wrapped an arm around her. Cato found himself wanting to smack that arm off. He told himself it was just because she saved his sister's life, and he just felt over protective. "I'm tired," she told Finnick. Then she eyed Cato, "You never answered my question. What. Do. You. Want."
Cato felt himself stumbling for words, something that was a new experience to him. "I, uh…" then he blurted, "How much time? How much time do you have left?"
He felt the atmosphere change. From tired, exhausted, annoyed, to sad. Yes, it was one syllable, one word, yet it had so much meaning, so much…pain…
Finnick leaned down to her, and whispered something in her ear. She shook her head, and lifted her chin.
"Nine months, you inconsiderate bastard!" then she fled, and ran away.
Cato started to chase after her, to tell her that's not what he was trying to say, but Finnick held him back. Gale came up to them, face murderous, "What happened?" he growled.
Finnick jerked his head towards Cato, obviously too mad to form coherent words.
"Listen, I don't know what you're playing at, but you are not going to mess with Katniss. I already told you, you mess with one of us, you mess with us all," Gale said menacingly.
Peeta joined in, "So stay away, you jerk. If you even think of harming her,"
"You will regret everything you have done," Thresh interjected.
"Why would you even do that?" Finnick interjected, obviously distraught. "She gave up her life for your sister's, and you do this to her? What kind of repayment is that? You know what you deserve, you deserve-"
Just then, Katniss's voice came again, "Guys, stop." She had obviously been crying. "You're scaring the kids. We're fortunate that Darius actually kept his head, and kept them distracted."
"When will you ever think for yourself instead of everyone else, Katniss?" Gale asked annoyed.
"Hello? I just said, 'you inconsiderate bastard' in front of five to eight year olds?" Katniss snorted.
"And that inconsiderate-"
"Don't say it!" Katniss warned.
"But, how come you get to say it? And he is a-"
Katniss sighed, "Look, I'm over it. Just leave him be. And if I'm over it, maybe you should be too. I'm not saying that him being…well, what he is, wasn't bad, but for goodness's sake, we are in front of kids! What type of example are we setting?"
Just then, a little boy, Jake, came and tugged on Katniss's sleeve, "Can you play hide-and-go-seek with us?"
Katniss sighed, Cato thought that she should sleep, or something, she looked terrible, only kids couldn't notice that she was tired enough to pass out as soon as she could put her head on a pillow.
"How about I play with you guys?" Peeta suggested, trying to help Katniss out.
"You're no fun! Katniss is fun!" the little 1st graders always told the truth, didn't they.
Katniss smiled gently, "Of course I'll play with you!" she turned to Peeta, and with a bit of the old Katniss, "Booyah! In your face! You got REJECTION! How does it feel to be rejected by a FIVE YEAR OLD!" albeit a bit tiredly.
Soon, Gale and Finnick joined in the taunting, while Katniss and Darius played Hide-and-go-seek with the little kids. Cato almost thought that he had been forgotten…
But then, Thresh said in a low undertone, "You leave her alone. She's going through enough right now. She doesn't need you adding on to her pile of problems right now."
Cato sighed, "You don't understand! I'm not trying to hurt her! I'm her friend!"
Thresh raised an eyebrow, "A friend who's friends with her enemies? A friend who always stands on the enemy's side when confronted? A friend who spills her secret to the entire school? A friend who ends up rubbing in the fact that she's going to die, when she's at one of the few places she's happy? Cause to me, that sounds like you're a really crappy friend."
Cato ran a hand through his hair, frustrated, "I know I've been a crappy friend. I want to fix it. I just hope I'm not too late."
On Saturday, Katniss called all her friends over to her house, and had Thom join them. They were all in the living room, chatting, joking, and hanging out. Thom asked, "So, Katniss, what is your ulterior motive for bringing us all together here?"
Katniss cleared her throat, "I'm making a bucket list."
Her friends sobered up immediately. "And I want you to help me," she added.
"All right…Let's do this," Thom said.
"Right!" Katniss wrote down, 'Bucket List', and wrote 'Number 1:".
Peeta raised his hand. "Geez, Peeta, we're not in school you know," Gale said, trying to lighten up the mood.
Peeta rolled his eyes, "Perform publicly."
"No!" Finnick and Katniss said together.
"Yes!" the rest of the group said.
"Honestly, I don't know what's holding you back! You guys sound great, and you should share your talents with the world! You guys don't nearly sound as good by yourselves than how you sound together. You need to do it know before," Thresh faltered. "Before you can't do it anymore."
Katniss and Finnick exchanged a look. They were communicating by their eyes. Somehow, Katniss and Finnick had clicked together before anyone else, they understood each other better.
Then Finnick took a deep breath and said, "Ok." while Katniss nodded. The room let out a cheer. Finnick and Katniss had been obstinate at the prospect of performing for so long. None of them knew why, although many wanted to know, Katniss and Finnick refused to discuss it, or do the action.
But, now, at last they would perform. "Details!" Gale called out. "When, where, and all the rest of that trash."
Peeta rolled his eyes, "Of course, they should do it in the Panem High Choir Recital. Duh!"
Katniss and Finnick exchanged a look. "We turned that down two days ago," Katniss revealed.
"You what!" Darius looked shocked. "You turned down the PANEM HIGH CHOIR RECITAL?"
"Umm…Yes?" Finnick tried.
"You idiots! How did I ever become friends with such idiots!" Darius burst.
Thom groaned, "Oh yeah? Tell me how I'm related to one!"
Katniss and Finnick looked at a loss for words. "Umm…If you don't mind explaining, what did we do wrong?" Katniss immediately suffered the consequences for her ill chosen words, and cringed at the din her ears suffered.
"YOU TURN DOWN THE PANEM HIGH CHOIR RECITAL AND YOU ASK WHAT YOU DID WRONG?" Gale shouted.
"IDIOTS, YOU IDIOTS!" Darius moaned.
"HOW AM I EVEN RELATED TO YOU?" Thom looked at the ceiling.
Before Peeta could scream something, Katniss said, "A part of me just died. Most likely my ears. Please stop," she begged.
"Ugh!" Their friends flopped on the couch.
Suddenly, Peeta perked up, "So, can you revoke what you said and still go to the Recital?"
"Maybe if they cried about how they were idiots, maybe ten times more than what I did," Darius commented.
After a lot of thought, they finally finished the bucket list.
Do a Panem High Choir Recital with Finnick.
2. Find out a random person's half birthday, and throw a party for them.
Peeta said, "I always wanted a half birthday party."
Katniss smirked, "No way am I throwing one for you...I can only cook squirrel."
"Same here," Gale affirmed.
"How about we find someone else's half birthday, and throw a party for them?" Finnick suggested.
Katniss grinned, "They won't know what hit them, when they walk in, and see a party for them."
3. Destroy Glimmer's perfect nails
"Honestly," Katniss sighed. "I always used to stare at Glimmer's nails. They were so...annoying. She used to wave them in my face, and whenever she talked, all I could see was bright neon colors."
"Ooh, let's destroy them!" Gale clapped happily.
It was at times like this that you could see Katniss and Gale were closer than anyone else in this room. They wore identical troublemaking smiles, "Hell Yeah!" Katniss high fives Gale.
4. Watch Thom become what he really wants to be.
"I want to see you become what you really want to be."
Thom sighed, "No."
"Yes. A friend once told me," Katniss smiled at the memory of that friend, "that she'd rather die happy than live an unhappy life. I want you to be happy when i die."
Everyone in the room winced, but Thom sighed, again, and whispered, "Ok."
5. Watch my step father's purple vein burst out when 5. happens.
Katniss wrote this down as soon as Thom agreed to Number four. No one argued but Thom silently raised his hand for a high-five, and Katniss grinned.
6. Act in a movie.
"We're such great actors," Finnick said. "We should put our acts to use, you know, before we can't anymore."
Katniss chewed her lip, "I don't know."
"C'mon, Catnip!" Gale said. "You're a great actor, Finnick too, you guys should act in a movie."
"No choice." Finnick said and wrote down, 'Act in a movie.'
7. Die at home.
"I want to die at home," Katniss said. "I don't want to die in a hospital, looking at those terrible white rooms. I want to die at home."
No one argued.
8. Have 'If I Die Young' and "Here's to Never Growing Up' recorded by me and Finnick, and play it at my funeral.
"We should record a song," Finnick said.
"Let's play it at my funeral," Katniss suggested.
Finnick sighed, "I really don't want to think about it, but what song?"
"If I Die Young," Peeta suggested.
"Here's To Never Growing Up," Thresh put in.
Katniss grinned, "Both of them...Ha, you'll all get old and cranky, but I won't!"
Darius whined, "No Fair!"
9. Give out free hugs for a day.
"Let's give out free hugs for a day," Katniss suggested.
Everyone stared at her, "What brought that on?" Peeta asked, incredulous.
"I just want to," was all Katniss replied.
Thom shrugged, "Ok."
10. Punch Cato (Inconsiderate Bastard)
Katniss said, "And we need to save the best for last."
"What is it?" Gale asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'm gonna punch Cato, gosh, I wanted to punch him at the Cancer Home, but with all those kids there," Katniss trailed off.
"I told you, you are way too thoughtful," Gale chided.
"Shuddup."
"Ooh, remind me to get you a book of comebacks."
Katniss sighed, "You always steal my best lines."
(After Katniss wrote down 'Punch Cato' Gale put in parentheses, (Inconsiderate Bastard))
The last fleeting thought Katniss had possession of before she drifted off to sleep was, 'Such a beautiful place…To be with friends."