Disclaimer: I'm quite flattered that anyone could think that I'm that smart, but, unfortunately… No. I'm not.

Chapter 9

Meeting

I wake up to a pounding on the door.

Again.

Maybe I should just get Peeta to sleep in my room. Who cares if Mother and Prim are in there? They know I sleep with Peeta anyway. And having Prim Wake me is much more enjoyable than Haymitch. Anyone is more enjoyable than Haymitch in the morning. Since when was Haymitch a morning person?

"Peeta! Get up! Now! You too, Katniss! I know you're in there."

"Finally caught on, have you?" I groaned.

"Nope, I tried your room first. Now, Get up!"

I heard him stomp off down the hall, probably to try and wake up Finnick. Haymitch seems to have taken it upon himself to become the Victor's alarm clock.

Peeta sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Morning."

"Morning," He grinned. "Don't you just love to wake up to the sound of our beloved mentor's voice? Nicest wake up call I've ever had." I rolled my eyes, and hopped out of bed.

"I better go get changed before breakfast. Wonder why we had to get up today?"

"Probably Mockingjay stuff? Didn't Haymitch say we had an important meeting this morning?"

Did he? Oh yes, that's right.

"It better had be important. I don't want to have woken up at –" I glanced at the clock "-four in the-" I paused, looking at the clock again. "Four in the morning? I am going to kill him!"

"I'm sure it's very important. He wouldn't has risked the wrath of Katniss if it wasn't Now, go on, go get changed."

"Alright then. See you at breakfast."

~~0~~

"Katniss, Peeta, late again."

"Well, sorry, but we had to wait a bit to get our breakfast! Fair enough, I reckon, cause who wants to be awake at-" Peeta motioned me to be silent.

"Remember what we said last night?" He muttered, just loud enough for me to hear. I nodded stiffly. Then he spoke up a bit. "What Katniss means to say is, we're very sorry. We'll wake up a bit earlier next time, and wait until after the meeting to eat."

Coin opened her mouth to reply, but then Finnick walked in.

"Sorry I'm late," He announced, "Had a bit of a run in with the cooks. Apparently, they don't like to be woken up at ten past for in the morning, especially if they have just got back into bed after some-one else woke them up." He winked at me.

"Right well. Now that everyone's-"

"Sorry I'm late!" Beetee came hurrying in the door. "Haymitch only came to wake me up about five minutes ago, and then the cook-"

"Alright, alright! I get the picture! Now can we start on our meeting?"

No sooner had she said that, than Haymitch sprinted in, huffing like he'd just run a marathon.

"Sorry, sorry. It's not easy waking up everyone at four in the morning you know! Then, when I went to get breakfast-"

"Be quiet!" roared Coin. Haymitch jumped back, unsure of what he did wrong. "If I hear one more person talk about how the cooks don't like being woken up at this hour, they will be out of the room before you can say 'rebellion'! I don't care if you're all hungry! This isn't a picnic! If we want to destroy the Capitol, we have to put the cause before our stomachs! Understand?"

I was about to say that it's hard to think when you're starving – I know that from experience – but I thought better of it. I was surprised no-one else said anything though. Even Haymitch nodded glumly with the rest of us.

Then again, when I saw the murderous expression etched across Coin's features, I wasn't so surprised anymore.

"So, is there anybody else we have to wait for, or can we start?"

"No, I think that's it." Said Boggs.

"Right then." She turned to my, still angry, but she seemed like she was trying to get back into professional mode. "Katniss."

"Yes?"

"I saw the footage Cressida got of you yesterday. Plutarch was right, it is pretty good. But…"

I cringed, waiting for the onslaught.

"It was not what we asked of you. It seemed like every time you tried to say the lines that we had thought up for you, you made mistakes, again and again and again. So, we need to come up with a different way of getting our footage. Any proposals?" She looked at my old mentor, who had raised his hand. "Haymitch?"

"Well, as I have known Katniss the longest out everyone here, excluding Peeta, and I have tried to get her to act convincingly before, I know the trick to getting her to be perfect. I also know what we need to do."

"Go on," said Coin, intrigued. Her previous anger at Haymitch disappeared.

"Okay, I'll get straight to the point." Said Haymitch. "Everybody here knows that Katniss is a horrible actor." Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, while Peeta chuckled behind me. I scowled. "So I have come up with a plan. But, I have a feeling that not many people here will except my proposal; rather, you would chuck it out the window before I could even explain it. So, I would like to explain it first." He walked over to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk, then turned to Coin. "If I may?" She nodded.

"Right then. I want everybody to think long and hard. Think about a moment when Katniss genuinely moved you. Not when Cinna made her beautiful. Not when Peeta made you like her. Not when you were awed by her archery. I want you to give me a list of moments when Katniss herself did something amazing." He looked at the group expectantly.

Everyone was silent.

My heart fell a little. Did everyone really hate me that much? Could no-one think of one good thing about me?

Then Peeta spoke. Well, of course he had something nice to say about me.

"When she sang Rue to her death. And then when she covered her in flowers. That was one of the most amazing and moving things I've ever seen."

I looked up, and saw Peeta smiling sadly down at me. I smiled back.

"Right. Sang to Rue, and covered her in flowers," said Haymitch, writing it on the board.

"When she tried her hardest to carry Mags through that mist in Quell." Said Finnick, his eyes a little red as he relived the memory.

"Tried to carry Mags." Muttered Haymitch.

"When she volunteered for Prim." There was a lot of muttering in agreement at Peeta's words.

"Perfect. What else?" Haymitch seemed excited, as if this was just what he wanted to happen.

"When she tried to fight the Jabberjays pretending to be her sister!"

"When she drugged Peeta so she could go get the medicine!"

"How she seemed sad when she found out Thresh was dead!"

"How she said she wouldn't let Peeta die for her after he gave her the locket!"

"How kept her family alive all those years."

"How she never let Peeta give up when she was healing his leg!"

People started mentioning loads of times now, and Haymitch was writing on the board like crazy. There were many moments with Peeta, Prim, a heaps from the Games, the Quell, the Victory Tour, and the berries. The Nightlock Berries, and the different things people thought they stood for. Freedom, the rebellion, love. Haymitch's board was soon full, and he held up a hand for silence.

"Now, I want every body to look at these moments. Tell me. What do they have in common?"

The room went silent. Then Finnick spoke up.

"They're Katniss'." He said. "They're all Katniss'. No one told her what to do or what to say."

"And there you have it." Said Haymitch, grinning triumphantly, walking back toward his spot.

"So.. you want to just let Katniss do her own thing?" asked Boggs.

"Pretty much."

Coin just stared at him in disbelief.

"Look, how about this. We send her to one of the districts. One of the ones where we are doing a recovery mission, rather than an attack. That way, she won't get hurt, but she can talk to the injured, show them she is fighting. Get some footage of her just talking to average people. We don't want to seem like Snow, who only talks to his highest officials, and ignores everybody else, unless they do something wrong. Show people that we care. This way, you get good footage for propos, Katniss won't be murdering us with her bad acting skills. A win-win situation, I might say."

"It's too dangerous! She could be killed! Then where will that lead us?"

"Katniss survived the Hunger Games," Peeta pointed out. Haymitch sighed as Coin turned her attention to Peeta.

"And what makes you think this is anything like the Hunger Games?" Peeta started to reply, but Coin cut him off. "This is not an arena filled with 24 frightened children. This is a country filled with thousands of murderous soldiers, ruled by the most evil man in the world. In the Hunger Games, the best weapon you could hope for is a flame thrower or a bow, and even then you need to know how to use them, and they are quite rare. In a war, people have guns. People have grenades. People have bombs. Planes. Missiles. What makes you think this will be anything like the Hunger Games?" Peeta didn't reply. "I thought so."

Coin turned back to Haymitch, continuing her previous argument.

"What if she did die? Where would that leave us, with no Mockingjay?"

"Well, you're Mockingjay is pretty useless sitting here doing nothing! She can't act! She's not like Peeta! Unless you want the entire nation accusing you of fraud, maybe you should get her to do something real!"

Coin turned to look at me. I stared right back. How dare she think I was a weak little puppet? I wanted to get out there and do stuff! And not just because I'm bored with the whole make-up-and-camera thing. Haymitch was right. The people need me to do something.

Coin turned back to Haymitch.

"Alright then. But we are starting small. Maybe District Eight; she can visit the hospital." She turned, and finally, for the first time since I walked in, she actually addressed me. Not nicely, mind.

"Katniss, you must do everything that you are told. Obey every order. Do not step a toe out of line. Be kind to the people. Talk to them. Don't think yourself better than them. Bring yourself down to their level. Katniss, you are not better than them anyways, you are just a young girl that got lucky in a deadly game of chance. One mistake and you'll be carted back here, never be allowed out again, and the deal is off. Understood?"

I nodded. I hardly heard all of the insults and conditions in her words. She was letting me out.

Of course I had known that if I were to leave, I would be under strict supervision. But I didn't think she would let me leave.

"Okay then." Said Coin. "Now that's decided, this meeting is done. Katniss, you will meet back here at 5 o'clock this afternoon for further instructions from your mission leader. Understood?"

I nodded again.

"Good. That is all. Any questions regarding anything to do with this meeting?"

Peeta raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Can I go with Katniss?"

"Yes, you will go with her. You also need to attend the meeting. As do you, Odair." Finnick nodded. "Anything else?"

"Yes actually," said Finnick, raising his hand. "Why did we have to get here at four in the morning? Some of us need our beauty sleep you know." He glanced at me, and I scowled at him. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. "Couldn't we have at the meeting at, say, eight?"

Coin glared at him, muttered something about 'possible eavesdroppers' and stormed out. Finnick grinned.

"Right then, who's for sleep?"

Yeah, so this was short and boring, but it had to happen. Wrote it in school when I was bored, so sorry if it's a bit bad. Ah well. Yay, exciting chapter next! Finally!