A/N: Well, I'm still on Spring Break and have nothing better to do than UPDATE! So here's your next chapter. It's a bit shorter than usual, but lots happens!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. I'm just playing around in her sandbox for a while.

I walk into the room, which smells of grime and guts and human misery. I shudder as I walk past a drain.

I do not want to know what was going on here.

I take Venia's cold hands. "Venia." I say, "Venia, what happened?"

"They…took us," she explains slowly.

"Who took you?"

"People," she answers vaguely, "the night you broke out."

Plutarch, Fulvia, and the guard have all appeared by now, the guard massaging an already brilliantly colored bruise on his left eye.

"You!" I snarl at them, "Why are they here?"

"I—I honestly don't know, Katniss," and for once I actually believe him.

"They were being punished," the guard says, staring at me.

"Why?"

"They had been stealing food from the kitchens."

"And so you chain them up like this?"

"There was more than one infraction," says the guard.

Behind me, Octavia whimpers. "It was only one slice of bread, and we were so hungry."

My poor prep team. I can't help but think how when I had won my first Games, Octavia snuck me a roll under the table because she couldn't bear to see my suffering.

"Well, release them now." I say.

"I can't." replies the guard, "they're supposed to stay here."

"Let them out on my authority," says Plutarch.

I glance over at Plutarch and Fulvia. The latter looks like she might barf or pass out or something.

For someone working for a Gamemaker, she has a very weak stomach.

As we walk back to the elevator with my prep team in tow, Plutarch speaks into a tech-y thing and then tells us, "Coin has put off Mockingjay duties until tomorrow, so we can train your prep team and give them a tour. We're headed to the cafeteria now."

So five minutes later, we arrive at a larger table than usual. Prim and Rye are deep in discussion already when we get there, and I saw Chris and Mr. Mellark working in the kitchen. My mother's probably eating in the hospital.

Even though while we've gotten here, the food has gotten slowly worse every day, I devour my turnip soup.

Gale sits next to me.

We haven't been this close since we fought, nearly three weeks ago.

I try not to look at his turnips too pathetically. But it doesn't work.

A blob of turnips makes its home in my bowl.

I glance over at Gale. "I'm sorry too." I say.

Gale doesn't speak much here. So I can tell he means it by the look on his face. I've hunted with him too long for is face to be unreadable to me.

"Who are they?" He nods to my prep team.

"My prep team, from the Capitol."

He nods slowly, taking in Venia's tattoos, Octavia's green skin, and Flavius's orange curls.

"I see."

And that's all we say. I chat more with my prep team, but we really don't have much to talk about.

Yet it's Posy who helps the most. She scoots over to Octavia and lightly touches her arm.

"You're green. Are you sick?"

I can see Octavia starting to shake a little, so I say, "It's a fashion thing, Posy. Like lipstick."

"Oh." Posy considers this. "I think you'd be pretty in any color."

I see the tiniest gleam of happiness in Octavia's eyes before it's gone and she says, "Thank you."

Posy also inspects Venia's tattoos, tracing designs in her arm and asks Flavius if she could come and style his hair one day.

Flavius accepts. I think all three are happy to have someone to talk fashion and beauty with. Even if she's only six.

The four make plans to have a tea party on Tuesday.

Later that day, I walk down to the hospital again to visit Peeta.

Finnick's already there.

"Oh, hi, Katniss," he says, still knotting his rope. "Have you seen Annie?"

"Uh—no, actually," I say. "Isn't she here in 13 though?"

"That's what I thought!" says Finnick, "But I can't find her."

"Okay, Finnick, well, I'll find her, don't worry."

"Would you?" asks Finnick. "That's—thank you, Katniss!"

"Why don't you go back to your compartment, and then I'll send her to you when I see her?"

"Okay!" Finnick's nearly out of the door already.

Even later than that, I visit Johanna, with something I picked up in the woods.

"Can I come in?"

"NO!"

I go in anyways.

"I brought you something," I say, holding it up.

Johanna's bad mood seems to be gone, but I know better. She should have been a redhead, then we would understand where her fiery temper comes from.

She crosses over and picks it up. Smells it.

"Smells like home," she says.

"Yeah," I say, "I got it while I was hunting. Thought you might like to have something to remind you of home."

"Thanks," she says, setting it on the table.

"You're welcome," I say, and before I can stop it, "Would you like to come to my compartment?"

She shrugs. "Whatever."

So she follows me back to our compartment.

I sit on the bed and let her look around. She pulls out the drawers. "Can I have this?" It's one of my shirts, a gray one.

"Sure," I say. I didn't love it that much anyways.

It's nearly dinnertime and she has to go. "Maybe we should make this a regular thing," she laughs. "Come over someday."

On my way to the cafeteria, again, a thought crosses me. I made a friend. Peeta would be proud.

Katniss goes people-hunting, Annie plays hide-and-go-seek, Finnick visits an unconscious therapist, Katniss makes a friend, and Posy and the Prep Team prepare a party.

I know there's been a lack of Peeta, but remember, people, he's in a COMA. He's not conscious.

And now, my invisible readers, I speak directly to you. I know you're there, so please, please review! I really do want to know what you think! Also, shoutout to TJ Jordan and Taylor Huston, who have been faithfull reviewing each chapter. You're AWESOME. So be like them. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!

Oh! One more thing: I've created a forum for this story! I'll be sporadically posting challenges, contests, and quite possibly spoilers...or they could be red herrings...so do check it out! (The link is on the very bottom of this chapter, under my signature.)

Man, that was a long A/N. If you read the entire thing, you deserve a Peeta-Mellark-official-frosted-cookie.

Until next update!

~~FuzzySocksAndWriting

P.S. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE FORUM: myforums/fuzzysocksandwriting/4342456/