Bahh stupid me living in an old town in the middle of nowhere, I lost power for a bit so I couldn't update for a while. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, ALERTS, FAVORITES, WATCHES, EXT! I love all of them! So anyways I found out that I was supposed to be the same day as Josh Hutcherson WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN FREAKING AMAZING! But alas, I was not oh well. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let's try to get 50 reviews by March 23rd!
All the sons and all the daughters stop to take it in, and hopefully the hate subsides. ~Come Home, Faith Hill.
Denver's POV (Monday afternoon):
I wait by the gate leaning against the fence. I hope he's okay, god I hope he's okay. My mind worries as I wait for Gale. He didn't ask me to wait for him, but hey, I have nothing to do. Why not wait for the boy I love? I look over to the foreman's office at the sound of a door closing and boots.
"Rowsell! What are you doing? When you coming back to work?" the foreman demands.
"I'm waiting for Hawthorne sir, and I can come back Friday." I say harshly as I stand up straighter.
"Good, you aren't a bad miner at all. Anyways, get home right when they come out, mandatory viewing tonight." I nod my thanks. I hate mandatory viewing; I wonder what it could be? Most likely, something on Katniss. I scoff aloud, she must hate all the attention she gets, I would. The sound of the shaft brings my attention back to the mines. I wait eagerly as the first group of miners comes up, some nod their hello's to me. I nod back as I wait for my crew, for my friend. After about five minutes I recognize my crew and can't help the grin that spreads across my face. Of course they don't notice me and go right to get their jackets, I let out a huff and go walk behind Gale. I tap him on the shoulder softly.
"God what the fuck do you want?" he demands sharply, okay, thanks there.
"Geez sorry" I grumble, my voice causes him to spin around, his grimace turns into a smile as he engulfs me in a hug.
"Sorry, I didn't know it was you." He laughs. Wow, he laughed, inside the fence, that's like, never been done before. NEVER. The rest of our crew notices this too and they stop and stare at us. Gale notices the silence and looks up from me at everyone else; they stand with their mouths open. "What?" he demands.
"Never heard you laugh before Hawthorne." Gary says as he shakes his head, with that everyone else goes back to their own business. Dalton and Lucas walk by and Dalton nudge me in the hips with his and Lucas leans over to my ear.
"I think he likes ya girly." He smirks at me.
"I know he does." I grin and Lucas and Dalton walk off laughing.
"What did they say?" Gale asks as we follow them and turn towards our homes.
"Nothing at all."
"Okay?"
"Oh, mandatory viewing tonight." I remind him, he stiffens right away.
"I know that" he grumbles between clenched teeth. It takes a few minutes but then he relaxes. "Want to watch it at my house?" he asks. I look up and raise my eyebrows at him.
"Really?"
"Yeah sure, not like you have anyone else to watch it with." He shrugs.
"True, very true. Well, I could watch it with Haymitch."
"Ya, you'd rather watch with me."
"Okay, I guess you're better than drunkie"
I follow Gale into his house and give Posy a hug as we walk in. I sit on the couch next to Vick as I wait for Gale to change and the viewing to stop. "Are you staying to eat?" Hazelle calls to me from the kitchen.
"No ma'am, I was going to eat at home when the viewing is over." I say politely.
"Okay" I can hear the smile in her voice. Gale walks in just as the television turns on automatically. He stands in front of the couch and glares at Vick until he gets up and Gale sits next to me.
"Not like I was gunna steal your girl Gale" Vick rolls his eyes. I let out a small laugh.
"One, she's not really my girls, and two, don't roll your eyes at me!" Gale grins at Vick and Posy laughs at her brothers, I scoot closer to Gale and put my head on his shoulder as President Snow appears on screen. Gale and I simultaneously growl in disgust at the prick. Snow explains that we will be shown Katniss's wedding dresses and then people in the Capital can vote on their favorite. I roll my eyes, I hate dresses really, but Posy and Hazelle immediately lock their eyes on the screen. While the dresses are shown Posy and Hazelle go over how they love each one, Rory even voices his opinion on some. When he says which one is his favorite I know I've found something to tease him about for a few months. "Which one did you like?" Gale whispers in my ear.
"If I have to pick, I like the third one." The third dress is a long white gown and pearls. Pearls everywhere.
"So do I." Gale smirks. I'm about to taunt him when Snow is back on screen, with a boy next to him talking about the Quell.
"For the third Quarter Quell, as a reminder to the Districts that even the strongest of the strong cannot defeat the Capital, this year's tributes will be reaped from the Districts existing pool of victors." My heart stops at his words, and by everyone's confused faces I'm the first to understand. I stand up and I'm dragging Gale with him and shoving him out the door.
"GO TO HER! NOW! GALE GO COMFORT HER!" I'm commanding him to leave. She may have Peeta, but Gale is her best friend too, she'll need him. Gale looks at me confused, not understanding yet. "She's going back in the arena go now!" I give him another shove and it clicks.
"Thank you" he tells me before I watch him sprint down the road towards Victor's Village. Then I break down crying for Katniss. Vick and Rory help me to the couch where I put my head in my hands, the broadcast is over now. After a few minutes I look up from my hands and glare at the television.
"It's not fair! Nothing they do is fair! They don't fuckin' care about us!" I yell, Rory slams his hand over my mouth. My eyes narrow at him but he points to Posy with his free hand, who is staring at me, eyes the size of saucers. Whoops. I slowly move Rory's hand. "Sorry Posy, don't say that word. Ugh, I'll leave now." I get up and walk briskly to the door before I turn to Hazelle. "Sorry Hazelle, thank you for letting me watch with you." I nod to her.
"No problem Denver" she smiles sadly at me. I go in my house and stand there for about ten seconds before taking my pick axe and hurling it at the wall. There's a loud ripping noise as my almost healed skin rips open.
"FUCK! FUCK THEM ALL!" I scream outraged as I feel the pain sharply come all at once to my back. The axe weighed too much for my new skin. At least it's only a little bit, not my whole back, I'll still go back on Friday, I'll be fine, hopefully. I ignore the pain for now and proceed to break anything in my reach, hurling it at the wall, pretending its Snow's fucking face. By the end of my rampage I have about two plates left out of the ten I did have, I only have three out of eight cups I had before too. Dammit. I don't even pick up the mess, I go and sit at the table and slouch over. My shirt is drenched in blood from the reopened skin, whatever, the ripe itself isn't bleeding, I can feel that. Soon I just fall asleep at the table.
;;;;::::;;;;;
I wake up to someone shaking me lightly. I lift my head and look to see Gale; he stares into my eyes worried. "What happened?" he asks a bit surprised. I throw my hands up dramatically in the air.
"Ask the Capital! Wait, no, on second thought, they won't care!" I spit out harshly Gale narrows his eyes.
"No really!" he demands getting angry at me now.
"I through my pick axe," I motion to the thing that is stuck in the wall, "and it ripped my skin a bit," I motion to my red back, "then for good measure I broke some stuff pretending it was that asshole's face"
"Really? I thought I was the one with anger issues here." He grumbles as he lifts up the back of my shirt to look at it, I don't even object.
"How is she?" I asks genuinely worried.
"She's okay; she went to Haymitch and got drunk. She was with her mom and Prim when I left. Peeta is going to have them start to train like Careers until the reaping." I flinch as he touches my cut.
"Great"
"Ya, I gotta go, you should clean this up you know. If a peacekeeper comes and asks what happened don't tell them what you told me."
"Maybe they'll like my opinion" Gale sighs deeply.
"You're insane" he mumbles just loud enough for me to hear.
"Love you too Gale" I grin; I didn't realize what I said until he looks at me and raises his eyebrows. I haven't said that since I did when I was hurt. I raise mine back and widen my grin into a smile.
"Bye Denver"
;;;;;::::;;;;;;
Over the next few days I continue to meet Gale at the mines every day after the mines close, I even walk with him there in the mornings. During the day I help Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch train. Peeta has turned into a no-nonsense hard core trainer; he has good reason to be though. On Friday I return to the mines. The work is harder than usual because I haven't worked in a while. Gary lets me break for lunch early though and when everyone else comes over Gale sits beside me and he puts his arm around my shoulders. We're teased the whole time but it's nice. By the end of the day I'm exhausted and ready to fall down dead. But I make it home.
Gradually work gets easier and easier until it's nothing again. We work our asses off for little to nothing, on Sundays I go with Gale, Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch into the woods and watch as Gale teaches them all he knows about snares. The day before the reaping I wait outside for Gale. It's warmer now, the snow has melted and it's nice out, I no longer need my coat. Our backs are fully healed, but the scars are prominent on us both, we'll never be allowed to forget what happened. I hop off my porch as Gale comes out, he hugs Posy and so do I. After he greets me with a smile and we start walking down towards the mines. My free hand swings back and forth as we walk side by side. It goes and hits Gale's; instead of ignoring it Gale takes my hand in his and intertwines our fingers. I look up at him with a confused face. He smiles and squeezes my hand with his.
Did you like it? I hope so, well, I always hope you like it. I don't really write it and think damn I hope they hate every single word that I write. No, that wouldn't be good. ANYWAYS thought I'd share what someone at school called me that made my day: Mellark. I was like OMG YES I LOVE YOU YOU CAN SO CALL ME THAT! It was awesome, I guess it's cause I only talk about the HG at school and stuff, but still it made me the happiest person in the world! Also I'm on the school newspaper staff and I get to write a review on the hunger games book AND movie! YAAA I GET TO SAY WHATEVER I WANT TO TOO! I should so just be like President Snow is a total bitch so yeah don't like him. Lol jk I'd probably get suspended or get detention for that or something. So yeah, please REVIEW! Next chapter is the reaping and games! So it will be pretty long!
Mocking Verse