Chapter 5
As Katniss sits on her couch waiting for Gale to get off work, she starts crying again. She can handle puking every morning, she can handle hardly being able to keep anything down these days, she can handle the stares she gets at school, and she can even handle being away from Gale for hours at a time. But not being able to hunt is something she's never had to be able to handle, and it saddens her.

She begins devising plans to cut the wires in the fence and hunt anyway, but she knows this is a bad idea. Gale doesn't want her to hunt anyway, and Rory is easily aggravated having to wait for her all the time.

Gale is working hard in the bakery, as he always does. He doesn't frost the cakes or mix anything together. His job is putting pans in and out of the oven and all the heavy lifting Mr. Mellark can't do. It leaves him tired at the end of every day, but he gains muscle mass and the works becomes easier as the months go by.

He usually catches Rory and Katniss coming back from the Hob, looking to swap squirrels for bread with the baker. But today Rory is by himself—fear courses through Gale. He wonders where Katniss and his child are before Rory sees him in the window and smiles. Rory wouldn't smile if Katniss was in danger, so he called to the baker and Rory traded like normal.

As soon as the bakery closes, he walks out the door, finding Rory waiting patiently on the steps. "Hey, Rory. I saw your game bag earlier. Nice haul today."

"Yeah, it was. But that's kind of why I came to talk to you. I did it all by myself today," he beamed, thoroughly impressed with himself. "Katniss has finally gotten too big to fit through. So I walked her home. She cried for a long time. I just wanted to warn you."

Gale smiled and mussed his little brother's hair. He took the Everdeen half of the meat and sent his brother home.

He rustled the bag in the pocket of his hunter's jacket (the only thing heavy enough to keep him warm on crisp March days), and smiled to himself. After Rory stopped by, Gale had wanted to surprise Katniss and told the baker. The baker pointed to a shelf of cookies, saying, "Half price. Tell your brother to bring an extra squirrel tomorrow and we're square." Gale hated handouts, but he figured it was a fair trade and took the frosted cookie home.

As he entered the door, Prim's excited face was the first he saw. She looked behind him, disappointed when she didn't see Rory. But she hugged Gale and he whispered to her that he would bring Rory tomorrow. He handed the rabbits to Mrs. Everdeen so she could start supper and headed down the hall to Katniss's room.

He opened the door and saw her curled in the bed, asleep. Her cheeks were red and the remnants of tears were on her face. He crawled in the bed beside her and kissed her till she woke. "Hello there, sleepy head. I brought you something to cure your bad day."

She smiled as he gave her the little bag with the frosted cookie inside. She gasped, how long had it been since she'd had a cookie? Five, six years? "Gale, honey. This is amazing, but you have to share it with me."

They shook on it and halved the cookie, savoring the sweet, sugary goodness before Mrs. Everdeen called for supper.

The more Katniss and her baby grew, the harder it became to do tedious little things, like sitting in a desk or tying her shoes. Katniss would never take being independent for granted ever again. Gale and Katniss were spending every night together, either at the Everdeen or Hawthorne residence. Gale would help her dress in the mornings, help her put on her shoes, and walk her to school before going to his own job.

The whispers around school had stopped, and the stares began. Not only was Katniss Everdeen, the only girl in school who no one thought would have sex, pregnant, but she was carrying the child of heartthrob Gale Hawthorne, meaning he was finally officially off the market.

Not that any of those girls knew he wasn't really on the market to begin with, but seeing her swell up with his child put the jealousy in full force. Katniss was basically ignored at school by girls who were too jealous to speak and by boys who were too afraid of Gale. The only people in town or at school who would bother to talk to her were Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter, and Peeta, when he was actually in town.

Madge ignored her pregnancy for a long time until it was blatantly obvious and people were staring daggers into Katniss's back. Madge walked down the hall to her, slipped an arm around Katniss's back and began rubbing her tummy. Katniss had never been more thankful to have a friend.

Prim, Rory, Vick, and Posy were also at Katniss's side through most of the taunting. Rory's months of hunting and lifting heavy game had really filled him out, and Gale had often remarked that looking at Rory was like looking into a mirror.

In the middle of April, Katniss's size was getting to be very uncomfortable. School was over in three weeks, and her mother had predicted she would be delivering in five. She couldn't wait to get her precious baby out of her and into Gale's arms. She often fell asleep with him thinking of the way their child would look in the arms of its father.

She was thinking of this very thing when she almost tripped over her own feet on the way home from school one day. Rory caught her and held her up as she righted herself. "Sorry, Rory. This thing kind of happens all the time now that I can't see my own feet." He had chuckled and said it wasn't a problem.

But one of the merchant's kids had seen the entire thing. He began to taunt Katniss, calling her a whore and a slut, saying it wasn't a wonder that Hawthorne hadn't knocked her or anyone else up sooner, given how easily he'd give it to anybody who opened their legs.

This threw Katniss and Rory over the edge. Prim and Vick used all their strength to hold Katniss back, and fortunately, couldn't hold Rory. He charged the merchant boy and hit him harder than Katniss had ever seen someone hit in her life. When Vick finally pulled him off, the merchant boy resembled a battered tomato. Katniss was proud of Rory for taking up for her, and she thanked him. "Maybe we should go by the bakery and tell your big brother all about it!" He laughed, and the four of them walked arm in arm to tell a proud Gale what his little brother had done.