A/N: Wow! Two updates in one day!
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Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Hunger Games!
I stepped off the train and into the train station in district twelve the next day. There was a huge crowd there to greet me. I smiled and waved or at least tried to. My mind and eyes were searching the crowd for Prim and my mother. Surprisingly, it was easy to spot Prim, for she was sitting atop my best friends shoulders. She had the biggest grin on her face and she was waving both of her hands wildly in the air at me.
I looked down at Gale and he was smirking. On one side he had my mother and the other his mother with his father standing beside her. I couldn't see the boys. As Prim was on Gale's, Posy was perched on her father's shoulders. Although she was far away and I couldn't hear her over the roar of the crowd, I knew she was screaming my name.
A voice came over the speaker of the train station. "All non-family members of Katniss Everdeen, please return to the town square or your homes at this time! All non-family members of Katniss Everdeen, please return to the town square or your homes at this time!"
The crowd quickly dispersed but not before most of them came to wish me congratulations. Darius, the peacekeeper, and Greasy Sae were the only ones that I actually knew really well.
Soon it was just Haymitch and Effie at my side. My sister and mother and the Hawthorne's were standing at the back of the station waiting for me to come down. I looked at Haymitch for permission and when he nodded I jumped from the landing and went running to my family. Prim all but jumped off of Gale's shoulders and came running to me.
"Katniss!" she exclaimed when we finally met in the middle. "I knew you could do it! I knew it!"
"Oh, I missed you so much Prim," I sighed. We broke out of our embrace and I kissed her forehead.
I glanced up as the others approached. "Mother!"
She enveloped me in her arms. Her breathing was shaky as were the arms that were around me.
I let go of her. Placing my hands on her shoulders I said,"I'm okay."
"I know," she replies, then pulls me back into her arms. I pull Prim into our hug and then we are a family again.
But one thing was missing. Dad.
I step back frowning. "Where's dad?" I ask. "He should be here by now."
"Some peacekeepers from the Capitol came to the house," my mother said. I felt my face go pale.
"They said he will be returning with the other fathers tomorrow," Prim finishes.
I sigh in relief. "Oh thank goodness."
I glance up and find the Hawthorne's still standing behind my mother and Prim.
"They let you all stay?" I ask.
"Yes. Why wouldn't they?" Hazelle asks.
"Well, it's not like I'm not glad to see you all," I joke. "It's just... you're not family. Only family was allowed to stay."
My mother and Prim and the Hawthorne's all glance at each other but stay silent. I can feel the sudden uneasiness in the room. Gale hasn't made eye contact at all with me since everyone left the station. Something's wrong.
When the Peacekeepers came to film the families of the final eight they started asking around for my friends. Everyone pointed them to Gale. Apparently though, Gale wouldn't work as my best friend. He was too handsome and male. They thought it would ruin my chances of becoming a sex symbol if I won the games. Not to mention Peeta Mellark confessed his undying love for me in his interview the night before the games started. I was supposed to be grieving his death, but I didn't know that. How was I supposed to grieve someone's death when I only had one memory of him anyway?
To fix the so called problem, President Snow came up with the idea of making Hazelle and John my aunt and uncle and my cousins Posy, Vick, Rory, and worst of all, Gale.
It was early the next morning and John, Gale, and I were waiting for day to break. We were sitting in the meadow in our woods. I loved the sound of that. "Our woods." I was finally home. After the horrors of the games it was nice to go back to reality for a while.
"So," Gale says suddenly. "How was it?"
"How was what? The Capitol? Or the arena?" I ask.
"Both?" he says it as a question.
"The Capitol? Fake. I've never seen so many fake body parts, and eyelashes in my life. You think Effie Trinket is bad? You should go to the Capitol-"
"I don't want to go to the Capitol! Ever!" he exclaims.
I look at him, shocked. He sighs and places his head in his hands. "I'm sorry," he whispers.
"It's okay," I whisper back.
John has been silent the whole time. "And the arena, Katniss?"
"Hell. That's the only way I can explain it. Never knowing what horror awaits you. When you wake up, sometimes you don't know where you are. Everyday when I woke, I thought I had just fallen asleep in our woods. Then I realize I'm in a tree and that the bow that is laying in my lap is not my father's but some Capitol bow that they made specifically for me to kill people with." I snort, "People. Some of them weren't even people. The way they thirsted for the death of others. They were more like animals."
I can't stop the tears that begin streaming down my face.
"And after," I continue. "After I got out of the arena, that's when the nightmares came and they haven't stopped since. Sometimes I don't even have to be asleep to see one of the dead tributes lying in front of me."
John reached behind me and rubbed my back while Gale wiped the tears from my face then took my hand.
We were silent for at least half an hour. The sun had just peeked above the trees when Gale broke the silence.
"Did you love him?" he asks.
"Who? Peeta?" I ask. He nods and I snort. "No. I hardly knew him. How could I love him?"
"He hardly knew you and he still loved you," John replied.
"I don't think he really lo-"
"He loved you!" Gale exclaimed again.
"And how do you know?" I ask my voice rising.
He scoffs,"You're so blind. You don't see how they look at you."
"Who's they?"
"The entire male population of Panem," he answers.
"And how do they look at me?" I ask, beginning to become frustrated.
"Most of them? Like you're a piece of meat that they can't wait to chow down on," he mutters.
"You think I would honestly sleep with a-"
"And then," he interrupts again. "There are the rare few. The-the rare ones that actually care about you and are in love with you."
"No one is in love with me," I whisper.
He jolts from his spot on the ground and disappears into the woods.
"I just don't get it," I say to John as we walk back from the meadow. We stayed there for a couple of hours not saying anything before he decided that we needed to get back to the district.
"Get what?" he asks.
"Why Gale is acting the way he is. He's never yelled at me like that before. Honestly, we've never even fought before. Do you know why he's suddenly snapping at me?"
"I do," he sighs. "But it's not my place to tell you. Gale will tell you when he is ready and when he believes you are ready."
We walk a few feet in silence and then a thought enters my head.
I smile. "I get to see my dad today."
"Yes you do. Your father is a wonderful man. We worked the same mine shift before I was taken." John responded.
"Really? I didn't know that."
"Yeah, we did. Small world isn't it?"
"More like small district," I reply.
It was half an hour prior to noon when I got back to the Victor's Village where my mother, Prim, and I are staying. The train is supposed to come at noon with the fathers of district twelve.
Prim was already dresses in a beautiful pink silk dress, a gift she got yesterday from Effie. My mother and Prim met me at the front door as I walked in. I walked right back out the door when I saw that they were coming with me. We would get to the train station right on time if we left now.
We got to the station just as the big clock struck twelve. And when it struck we heard the whistle of the train slowing down on the tracks. As soon as the train stopped everyone gathered around the doors. When they opened cries of relief and happiness filled the station.
It wasn't until an hour later when that same relief filled my mother, Prim, and me. Stepping through the crowd was the most important man in my life.
"Dad!" Prim and I exclaimed.