GALE'S POV
Katniss and I are sitting on a high branch in the tree, waiting for the bobcat to walk away. Katniss is sleeping, her head on my shoulder, and my arm is around her waist so she won't fall. The moon is shining through the branches, illuminating Katniss's face. She's so pretty. Even though her curls are almost flattened, her eyes are swollen from crying, and her dress is ripped and soiled, she's still beautiful. In fact, my mom could probably repair her dress… I look down. The bobcat is finally walking away. But we better wait a while to be sure it's gone.
TIME PASSES
"Katniss… Katniss, wake up," I nudge her. She blinks groggily, and looks down. "It's gone?" she asks. I nod, and climb down to the next branch to help Katniss down the tree. Several times her dress got caught on the branches.
Once we were finally on the ground, Katniss exclaimed, "Freaking dress!" Then I see her start to take her dress off, so I turn around, blushing. I hear Katniss laughing. "It's fine… You can turn around," she says.
I turn around, nervous, but see that she's wearing green shorts and a white strapless shirt. The dress is over her arm. "I got tired of tripping and getting stuck in it," she laughs. I smile, put my hand on the small of her back, and walk her through the woods. Katniss looks over her shoulder, often, though.
On her porch, her mother opens the door and asks, "Where were you?!"
Katniss explained everything, but I'm happy she didn't say much about the fight. That would have been embarrassing. I just couldn't help it; I mean, it's Katniss. I couldn't let Peeta have her. Blech.
Katniss's mom sees my injuries on my face and winces. She waves me inside. "We have something for that," her mom assures. Her mother reaches in a cabinet and gets a bowl of something and hands it to Katniss. "Put that on Gale, would you? Prim and I are going to sleep."
Katniss grabs my hand and pulls me to the couch. She opens the lid to reveal an almost transparent-type goo. She takes a scoop on her finger, sticks her tongue out in concentration, and wipes it on a cut. Katniss rubs it in. I almost wince, but I'm determined to look strong in front of Katniss.
When she's done, Katniss gets up to put away the bowl, then when she's walking back, I pull her into my lap. She looks at me in confusion, but she's smiling. I kiss her.
"Thanks," I say, "You know, my mom could fix up your dress." Katniss looks at the dress, then back at me, her eyebrows raised.
"That would be a big job," she laughs. I chuckle.
"She could do it," I offer. Katniss bites her lip.
"I'd feel like I owe her something," Katniss hesitates. I sigh, but I understand that Katniss absolutely detests owing anybody anything. But then I get an idea.
"You could give me a tiny jar of that medicine for later…" I say. Katniss nods, and gets me the medicine. I stand up with the medicine and the dress. Katniss walks me to the door, where I kiss her on the cheek. She blushes.
TIME PASSES
I arrive at Katniss's house the next day with her dress. She opens the door, and hugs me tightly. She breaks apart, a huge smile on her face.
"How'd she finish it?" Katniss gushes, feeling the dress. I shrug.
"Last night when I got home, she told me she was having trouble sleeping, so when I told her about your dress, she was happy for the project and finished it," I say, handing Katniss the dress. She invites me in.
"Did you know that Emily and Emerson Edenhart found a waterfall?" Katniss asks me, draping the dress over a chair. I shake my head.
"A waterfall? Where?" I ask.
Katniss waves her hand to her right, "Somewhere by the lake, upriver. Emily and Emerson are having a bunch of us from school meet by the trail to the lake so we can all go swimming. Wanna come?" she asks.
"Sure! When are we meeting?" I ask.
"Uh, like right now," Katniss smiles, "I was just going to change into my swim suit. Wait here?" And with that, Katniss runs into her room and shuts the door. I sit on the couch to wait.
In a couple minutes, Katniss comes out with a large shirt presumably over her swim suit. "Ready?" I nod and we walk to my house. After I'm in my trunks with a shirt on too, we walk to the trail to the lake. Wow. A bunch of people from school are here. Katniss and I split up to talk to our friends. My friends, Jake and Sam, see me watching Katniss.
"Excited to see Katniss in her swim suit for the first time?" Jake asks, reading my mind. I just kind of chuckle.
"I guess," I say truthfully. Jake and Sam both know I've had a crush on Katniss for the longest time.
"HEY!" yells Emily to get attention. But a couple guys trying to act funny shout back "heyyy", and everybody laughs. Emily taps her foot. "READY FOR SWIMMING?" Everybody cheers. "THIS WAY!" And everybody starts to follow Emily and Emerson.
Jake, Sam, and I talk about girls, school, and our families for the whole ½ hour it takes us to walk there. When we get to a curtain of vines, Emerson shouts, "READY TO SEE THE WATERFALL?" And everybody cheers again. Emily and Emerson take the vines and pull them aside.
A misting waterfall pours from a cliff, churning into crystal-clear waters. Tiny fish swim in the water, none of the fish over just an inch or two long. Boulders heat up in the sun, and on the other side of the waterfall is a huge cliff, most likely to be used for cliff-jumping. A large cave sits between the waterfall and the cliff, with a couple more vines hanging over the entrance.
"Better yet, the water is 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, and 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, so it's always the perfect temperature for a swim!" Emerson announces. Everybody runs for the blissful clearing, and me and my friends claim a boulder by the water. We peel off our shirts as I watch Katniss with her friends. Katniss takes her shirt off to reveal a bleach-white bikini that shows off her tanned skin. A thousand thoughts run through my head, namely inappropriate ones. Katniss looks at me and smiles. I smile back. Jake and Sam start nudging me and laughing, so I jokingly shove them away and dive in the water.
After swimming for a couple hours, me and my friends sat on our huge boulder and laid in the sun, watching some people swimming. Often times girls swam by, trying to flirt, but we ignored them. We all had our eyes on another girl, namely all of Katniss's friends, which was kind of weird, but was kind of cool. I like Katniss, Jake likes Katniss's friend Hanna, and Sam likes Katniss's friend Amber.
"READY?" shouts a girl from the top of the cliff. It's Amber. She's holding hands with Hanna and Katniss. All the girls run for the edge of the cliff, and me and my friends stand up in worry. The girls jump, screaming, and plummet for the water. Splash! They reappear on the surface, giggling and laughing. My friends nudge me, motioning to the cliff, and we run up there to jump off, too. We're standing by the edge of the woods so we will have lots of room to run and jump when we hear some people walking up behind us.