A/N: Thanks for the recent reviews, follows, and favorites! I just noticed that I haven't done a disclaimer since the first chapter soooo...
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games!
It wasn't but a few days later that they all agreed. They understood the peril we were in. Everyday I would gather different things for our trip. Haymitch had decided to come with us. He had an old map of Panem that had District Thirteen on it before it was supposedly destroyed. Haymitch, Gale, John, Jacob, and I sat around my kitchen table last night discussing the route that we would take. We concluded that it would take about two months to get to Thirteen on foot. And then it was finished. We were set to leave in one week and two days. Two days before I was supposed to leave for my Victory Tour.
We decided not to tell the kids until the night that we left. My family and Haymitch stayed at Gale's house that night.
Before we had left my house to go to the Hawthorne's I asked my sister, "What are the three most important things that you can not live without?"
She looked at me quizzically. "Hmmm," she thought. "The locket that dad gave me when I was born." That'll be easy. I thought. She will already have it on. "Buttercup," she continued. "And you, mom, and dad. And of course the Hawthorne's," she smiles.
I smiled back and nodded. "Okay. I was just wondering."
She walked from the room. This was going to be difficult. We couldn't bring Buttercup. He was just another mouth to feed.
I knocked on the mayor's back door half an hour later. Mayor Undersee opened the door groggily as if he had just woken from a deep sleep.
His eyes lit up when he saw me. "Oh! Hello, Katniss," he said. Then his features turned from happiness to confusion. "Did you go hunting today?" he asked.
"No," I reply. "I wanted to talk to you and Madge about something."
"Of course," he replied. "Come on in and I will call her down."
"Actually, I would rather have the conversation out here if you don't mind."
"Course not. Be right back," he said.
A minute later he returned with his only daughter, Madge, by his side.
"Hello, Katniss," she greeted.
"Hi," I reply.
"So, what is it that you wanted to speak to us about?" Mayor Undersee asked.
"Well," I begin. "My mother is making us get rid of our cat. Apparently he is too messy to be living in the Victors Village with us. So... I was just wondering if you were willing to take in a cat. You're the only people in town that I trust to take care of him, and my sister would be crushed if she knew that he went to a bad home."
Madge's eyes brightened excessively. "Oh yes, Katniss. We would love to take him in! I've always wanted a cat," she exclaims.
"Why not?" Mayor Undersee says.
So the cat goes to the Undersee's and I hope that my sister doesn't hate me for it.
That night we ate dinner together and went to bed early. Gale woke me at eleven. We woke our parents and the children and brought them to the living room. We decided that Gale would be the one to explain to the children why we couldn't stay anymore.
There were tears. Lots and lots of tears. All Posy could ask was "why". She didn't understand what was happening.
Forty-five minutes later we began pulling coats and backpacks on. Gale had played the same "game" with his siblings and placed each thing that they could not live without into a bag along with their clothing.
I pulled Posy's jacket on and zipped it up. Standing, I noticed Gale, John, and my father in an intense discussion in the kitchen.
"I can't let you do this," John said as I approached.
"Do what?" I ask.
My father gives me a sympathetic look while Gale and John ignore me.
"Take the women and children and get as far away from here as possible. Go to the cabin. If I'm not there in a couple of hours, leave without me," Gale says.
"You're not leaving with us?" I ask.
"No, I have to make it look like we died. Make it look like an accident. But it may not turn out well," he says.
"What do you mean 'it may not turn out well'?" I ask.
"It's midnight," Hazelle says from the living room. We nod and turn back to our conversation.
"You all have to go now," Gale says.
"Let me stay with you. They can handle it without me," I say.
"No! You need to go, Katniss," Gale exclaims. "I can't risk losing you, too." The family walks up. "I love you all. You need to go now. Hopefully I'll catch up with you."
"But Gale-" I protest. My father takes my arm.
"We need to go honey," he says.
My mother, Prim, Haymitch, and the Hawthornes are already out the door. Gale holds up his hand to my father and he releases me. Suddenly, Gale takes my face in his hands and places his lips on mine for a brief moment and I'm frozen in my place.
"I'm in love with you," he says when he pulls away. "And if I die tonight, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
My stunned silence and frozen stature is enough for John and my father to pull me from the room.
Sorry it's kind of short! Review!