It's when I hear a rustle in the grass that I leap to my feet, bow in hand. Rue stands up too, and I lightly nudge her behind me with my arm. I look around, unsure of from where the rustle was coming, and I suddenly see a girl with a familiar thin face and red hair.
I lower my bow.
"Katniss?"
It's Foxface.
"Foxface?" She looks confused when I call her that. I forget that's not her real name sometimes.
"I'm not going to hurt you," she says. "My name is Finch."
Finch. It's nice knowing her name.
I nod. "What do you want?" I feel Rue peeking out from behind me.
"You can stop hiding," I whisper. She grabs the back of my arm as she walks around to my side. When she does this, she reminds me so much of Prim on the reaping day, when I held her hand as we walked. The memories of her, of home, of District 12 overwhelm me.
I gulp.
"We'd work well together, you know," Finch states. "And Rue, too."
She nods towards Rue, and despite the smile on her face, Rue clutches my arm even tighter.
"How do you know our names?" I ask.
"Well, everybody knows your name, Girl on Fire," she smiles. I smile back at her, even though I don't like that everyone knows my name now.
"And for Rue? I heard the boy from 11 mention her. I think his name is Th-" Rue cuts her off.
"Thresh," she whispers. "His name is Thresh."
I decide to get back to the point. "So you're asking to form an alliance?"
Finch slowly walks towards me. "I guess you could say that."
"We actually could work well together," she continues. "I know how you are with that bow and arrow. Everyone in the arena does. I know a lot about plants. That could help us – or you – a lot. Rue's small, and I've seen her in trees. I could gather berries, you could hunt, and Rue could keep watch in a tree – maybe warn us if there's any danger."
"You've thought about this a lot."
"I have," she grins. "Is this a yes or a no?"
I look down at Rue, and she looks back up at me with wide eyes and slowly nods.
"I guess it's a yes."