Chapter 5
Madhouse
Peeta's P.O.V
"Hello Baker boy." Gale greets. I glare at him as he got off the train. He wore his smug face and fancy 'boss clothes.' I sigh. In the past two days I had tried so hard to convince Katniss to tell Gale that he couldn't come over this week but to no avail. He was here. And may I say he was as annoying as always.
"Hi, Gale!" Katniss says. Her face lightened up which made me sick. Why was she so happy to see this – this idiot?
"Catnip!" Gale exclaims. He took her into a big hug. I grit my teeth to keep from saying or doing anything Katniss would not be happy with later. After a minute I found myself prying Katniss away from that thing.
"Let's go home, I'm sure it's tired – oops, I mean Gale." Gale glared at me.
"Right, I'm sure Lover Boy is too weak to sit up too long." He countered. I smiled mockingly and for some reason I could see Katniss start to get uncomfortable.
"Yeah," she says. "Let's go." The ride to our house was filled with silence and the occasional glare Gale and I would throw at each other. Katniss was sitting in the middle of both of us and I could see she was getting annoyed.
"So," Katniss says after a while. "Have you heard that Effie and Haymitch are married?" She must be desperate because Haymitch threatened that if we mentioned this to anyone, he would torture us somehow. That doesn't really matter anymore though. In the past two days word had gotten out that Annie was pregnant and that Haymitch was married. It had caused a lot of commotion too but it was a good kind of commotion. It seemed to bring the Districts and the Capitol closer now that two people with such different backgrounds were married. President Paylor was so please by it all that she had even made Effie and Haymitch swear not to get a Divorce until the attention went away. It wouldn't be good if they got a divorce saying they had inconsolable differences. Imagine what that would do to the Capitol and Districts. It annoyed Katniss to think that they still couldn't do anything without disrupting the peace.
"Yes," Gale says. "There's not a soul who hasn't."
"Oh, you have a soul?" I mocked. He glared.
"Yes, peeta, I do, I thought that blondes were the soulless ones." He says. Katniss laughs nervously.
"I think that's redhead's, Gale, but you know that's not true. All humans have souls." She mutters. Gale smiled at Katniss.
"Right." he says. "So where do you guys live now? I heard you moved out of the Victors Village house."
"Yeah, we moved into the house Peeta designed and built." Katniss says. "It's amazing. There's a huge kitchen, a backyard that leads to the forest – and we own about five acres of the forest behind it."
"Really?" Gale says. He was still glaring at me.
"Yeah, we just moved in to it yesterday so it's still a bit messy so if you'd rather go to the other house –" Katniss starts.
"No, no, it's fine." He says. "I kind of want to see what lover boy came up with." We arrived home soon after that and was gale surprised. The house did look pretty good if I say so myself. It had an earthy feel to it. The floors were a dark wood and the wall the fireplace stood on was all stone. As soon as Katniss opened the door I heard a yell.
"You are so stupid!" Effie yelled. Katniss flinched as something was thrown. Gale looked alarmed.
"What was that?" he asks. Katniss sighed as we heard something else break.
"The happy couple." She says.
"Katniss! Oh thank goodness your home!" Prim ran out of the kitchen covered in a red liquid that looked similar to one of my paints.
"Prim!" Katniss gasped. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Fine, it's just Peeta's red sunset paint." I gasp. It had taken me forever to make that paint! Do they realize how many colors I had to mix to come up with that? "Haymitch and Effie are at it again!" Prim said. Katniss groaned.
"What happened this time?" I ask. I sit down on one of the chairs by the doorway amusing myself with Gale's terrified expression that appears whenever we hear a scream or something else break.
"Haymitch walked in on Effie naked." She says.
"Oh is that all." I say. "Didn't they see each other naked on their wedding night?"
"I was drunk then, Peeta!" Effie says as she walks in the room. A towel is wrapped around her body.
"Oh please!" Haymitch says. "There's nothing to see anyway." He face turns as pink as her hair. She grabs a vase from one of the tables.
"No, no, no," I say. "I made that." I take it from her grasp and hand her the picture frame of Gale surrounded by some of his crew in District 2 instead. "Here, this is worthless." Effie's about to throw it when Katniss pries it from her grasp.
"Prim, call Paylor." She says. "We need to do something about –"
"Katniss!" Finnick calls as he walks through the door in nothing but a robe. Did I mention that Annie and Finnick live just ten houses down the street? "Johanna is here!" Katniss groans.
"This is a madhouse." I hear Gale mutter.
"Then leave." I say. "If you don't like it then leave. No one wants you here."
"Peeta!" Katniss scolds.
"Katniss!" Johanna greets as she walks in. She suddenly stops. I know she's seeing Effie trying to scratch Haymitch's eyes out, Finnick in bathrobe, Prim covered in red, and Katniss and me just standing here. Watching. Oh yeah, and that clown, Gale dressed in a monkey suit. God we must look like idiots to her.
"Well, well, well. This is a circus." She says. Katniss blushes. "Hi, Gale."
"See what you did?" Effie scolds. "Now she thinks we're crazy!" I think Haymitch has had enough of Effie because his face reddens in anger.
"Shut up, you crazy old bat!" he sounds on the verge of tears. "Leave me alone! You're ruining my life!" He stomps up the stairs and we hear a door slam shut. Effie gives a small shriek of what I believe is anger and stomps up the stairs too.
"Well. . ." Finnick says.
"What are you doing here, Finnick?" Katniss demands. "Please tell me you have clothes under there." He smiles and shakes his head.
"Nope!" he says. Katniss groans.
"Annie won't be pleased. I wouldn't be surprised if she decides to rip your throat out – you know she's pregnant and pregnant woman are known to do a lot of crazy things due to the raging hormones." Johanna smirks. She looks out the window and her eyes widen. "oh and here she comes now."
"Finnick!" She yells. "Get back home!" The door bursts open. Annie comes in, takes Finnick by the ear, waves goodbye, and leaves.
"Time for you to go, monkey suit guy." I say referring to Gale. He glares.
"I'm more of a man than you are!" he says. "I mean, what kind of man likes to cook, decorate, and paint!"
"This is going to be a long week." Katniss groans.
"A man that Katniss loves!" I say with a smirk. His face turns red. Idiot monkey.
"I'm hungry." Johanna says.
"I'm sticky." Prim says. "By the way, Peeta, there was a slight fire in the kitchen. You might want to go check –" I turn to glare at Prim.
"I didn't do it!" She says. "Effie wanted to make one of those fiery cakes and . . . yeah, I'm going to take a bath." Prim hurriedly walks upstairs.
"I'll go check on Finnick, make sure he's still alive." Johanna says.
"Me too. Bye Catnip!" Gale and Johanna leave together. Now it's just me and Katniss. I know we're both thinking the same thing.
Gale is going to be here for who know how long, Haymitch and Effie are going to be together for some time, Johanna is going to be here until Annie gives birth to help her around the house, Annie is going to be pregnant for eight more months, Finnick will be getting in trouble until Annie has the baby . . . it's going to be a madhouse.
Why do I feel like I'm babysitting seven disobedient kids?
"It's going to be a long year." I sigh.
"I know." Katniss groans.
"We can get rid of them, you know?"
"How?" Katniss asks. I smile.
"Take Gale, Haymitch, Finnick, and Effie into the forest and leave them." I smile. Katniss pretends to think about it.
"No." she says.
"How about just Gale?" I ask. She throws a pillow at my face. "Just for a week? We can give him a blanket and food. . ." She picks up the vase Effie was going to throw at Haymitch. "Fine."
She miles.
"Good boy."
Here's the other chapter! I really enjoyed writing this. All of my favorite characters are in this chapter which made it fun to write.
Please tell me what you think! Review please!