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DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Game s or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Chapter 8: The Three C's

It was now or never.

There were several things in life that Peeta wanted to do. Once, when he was bored, he made two long lists. One was a list of things he wanted to do, and the other was a list of things he really wanted to do. For example, one of the items on the list of things he wanted to do was to finally win a hot dog eating contest against Gale, which he doubts will ever happen seeing as Gale always eats like he's never seen food in his life. Another item on that list is to train for the reality competition show where teens compete against each other to see who can survive in the wilderness (because lets be honest, he wouldn't survive in the wilderness and would probably hurt his leg or something on the first day).

On his list of things that Peeta really wanted to do were more rebellious and outgoing things like getting a tattoo, go sky diving, learn how to ride a motorcycle, and (much to the dismay of the whole female population at Panem High) shaving his precious blonde locks of curls.

Peeta was obsessed with trying to get everything completed on the list of things he really wanted to do, which was why at this exact moment, he couldn't begin to fathom the thrill and exhilaration he was getting by just standing in the same room with the deadly Katniss Everdeen. Sure, she hadn't seen him and sure she probably didn't hear him, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that Peeta was finally going to get his chance to finally complete the first thing on his list of things he really wanted to do: Talk to Katniss Everdeen.

He held his breath as he slowly started to make his way towards the girl who sat like a statue. He began to nervously scratch the back of his neck as he walked closer and closer to her. When he noticed that he was mere inches away from her, he stopped and shifted his weight from one leg to another.

'Get it together Mellark!' he thought to himself, 'She's just a suicidal girl who you can't seem to get off your mind.'

He took another step forward as he silently let out a breath.

'That's right, just breathe. What was that thing dad told me before the championship game last year? Oh yea, the three C's.'

He took another step forward.

'Always stay Calm, Cool, and Collected.'

He took yet another step forward.

'Calm, cool, and collected. Calm cool, and collected.'

By this time, Peeta turned his body so that he had a profile view of the sickly, yet somewhat beautiful girl in front of him. He stepped a little closer and inhaled another deep breath.

'Calm, cool, and collected.'

He couldn't take it anymore. He quickly let out the breath that he had been holding in.

It was now or never.

"HI!" he suddenly yelled.

'So much for being calm, cool, and collected.'

He looked at the girl up and down and noticed that she hadn't moved an inch. He let out a sigh before slowly making his way towards her so that he could stand in front of her.

"I-I-mean hi," he said a little more softly, "D-Do you remember me?"

Nothing.

"I'm Peeta, Peeta Mellark. I go to your school."

More nothing.

"We have homeroom and math together. You let me borrow a pencil once…remember?"

"…"

'This is gonna be harder than I thought.'

"Finnick, have you seen Effie?" asked Annie as she walked into a break room down the hall from her office.

Finnick closed the Sports Illustrated magazine he was reading and shook his head.

"No why?" he asked as he got up to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"I can't seem to find her anywhere and I need her to call Katniss' old social worker."

"You mean Jane Doe's social worker?"

Annie rolled her eyes at her friend's comment, "Would you please stop calling her that?"

"Why? Isn't that what you call unidentified people?"

"Yes, but social services gave her that name for a reason and until we find out that reason, we'll keep calling her Katniss."

Finnick rolled his eyes as he sat down again with his cup of coffee in his hands, "Fine."

Annie stifled a laugh as she sat down across from Finnick, "Where have you been anyway?"

"Here."

"The whole day?"

"Well…yea."

"Finnick," she whined, "you were supposed to be watching Katniss!"

"I know but I needed a rest. Watching and waiting for someone to move can take a lot out of you."

Annie shook her head and sat back against the soft couch.

"What about you?" he asked, "What have you been up to?"

"Katniss' foster mom finally came today."

"Really?" he asked as he took a sip from his coffee.

"Yea. I think she was more relieved to see me than I was to see her."

"Yea? And why's that?"

Annie shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. She seemed worried and anxious, like she wanted to just go in and out as fast as possible. Like if she did it any faster then she could leave this whole thing behind her and finally move on."

"You call that being relieved to see you?"

"Well…she kind of told me some stuff. I think it took a lot of weight off of her shoulders."

"What kind of stuff?"

Annia sighed as she looked down at her hands, "I-I can't tell you. I promised her I wouldn't."

"Oh, c'mon Annie! I'm your best friend. You know you could tell me anything."

"I know but I promised her I wouldn't say a word."

"Annie, be reasonable. You promised a woman who abandoned the girl she voluntarily took in and calimed that she loved her as her own?"

Annie arched her eyebrow, "Finnick, were you listening to our conversation?"

"Uh…no"

Annie glared at her friend as he looked at everything else but at her. She clenched her hands into tiny balls and sat up straight, making it seem as if she would hit him in any moment. When he saw the deadly look in her eyes, he finally looked down at his hands and sighed.

"Ok," he said, "I might have heard just a little, but that's it. I swear!"

"Finnick!"

"I know, I know and I'm sorry! But I swear I didn't hear anything about what you don't want to tell me."

"What exactly did you hear?"

Finnick was about to speak when a very flustered looking Effie suddenly entered the room.

"Effie!" exclaimed Annie as she stood up, "I've been looking all over for you! Where were you?"

"I was down on the third floor. Dr. Aurelius asked me to pick up some stuff for him."

"Well, it's a good thing you're here now," said Finnick, "Annie was about to flip a shit on me."

Annie rolled her eyes.

"What would you like me to do?" asked Effie.

"I need you to get in contact with this man," she said as she handed Effie the social workers card.

"Cinna Parker?" asked Effie.

"He was Katniss' social worker. Anyway, her foster mom finally came today and handed me this along with a snow globe."

"A snow globe?" asked Finnick.

"Yea, apparently it was one of Katniss' most valuable possessions."

Finnick and Effie both nodded their heads.

"I'll get right on it," said Effie, just as she was about to walk out the door.

"Speaking of getting right on it," said Finnick, "are you gonna tell us why you came running in here?"

Effie's eyes widened as she looked around the room.

"Have you guys seen Peeta?"

"What do you mean, have we seen him?" asked Annie.

"I umm…I seem to have misplaced him."

"How can you misplace our janitor?" asked Finnick with an amused look at his face.

"I don't know! I was watching him but then Dr. Aurelius wanted me to go down ASAP. So I figured me not watching him for a couple of minutes wouldn't do any harm. I-mean he hasn't been trouble at all so I figured what the hell!"

"Oh God!" said Annie as she rubbed her temples, "I'm going to be so dead when Dr. Aurelius finds out we just let a possibly dangerous juvenile delinquent run around free in a fucking hospital."

"Now, now, Annie lets stay calm," said Finnick as he stood up and started to pace around the room, "If I were a juvenile delinquent who was forced to work in a hospital as a janitor and who constantly gets unwanted attention from all the patients, where would I be?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

As the three adults stood there silently pondering over where Peeta could be, a sudden bang was heard in the room. All three looked towards the sink on the far wall and noticed that the small shelf above it had completely given away and its contents were now scattered around the sink as well as the floor.

Bang.

Annie looked back at the other two as a sudden realization came over her.

"Katniss," she said as she quickly walked out of the room with the other two at her heels.

Peeta took another deep breath as he stood there looking at the girl in front of him. It seemed as if he had been standing there for hours when in fact it was only mere seconds ago that he accidentally yelled at her and made a complete ass of himself when he asked her if she remembered that one time she had so kindly lent him a pencil.

He let a small sigh escape his lips as he sat down on a chair that he assumed Dr. Cresta used during one of their sessions.

"L-Look," he said softly, "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting your wall watching. But I…I just wanted to talk to you. You know, because that's what people do when they have a voice, although some voices should be less heard of like Delly's, hers is kind of annoying."

"…"

Katniss did nothing but stare back at the wall. She gave no hint or indication that she knew he was sitting right in front of her, which he had to admit, saddened him a bit. Nevertheless, he didn't give up…not yet anyway.

"So…" continued Peeta, "do you…like…cheese?"

'Cheese? Oh, real smooth Mellark.'

"No? I'm not a big fan of cheese either. Nope, I'm a totally cheese-less person."

'Where the fuck is all this coming from!'

"Speaking of cheese…do you like to watch cartoons?"

'Fuck.'

"I-I don't exactly know how cheese relates to cartoons…unless you talk about Spongebob because…umm…he's yellow…and cheese is yellow too…most of the time."

'Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck!'

"You know…like that stringy cheese is white and the spaghetti cheese is also white…not that I have a preference because…you know…I'm not a very cheesy guy…unless people tell me that I am then I'll stop but other than that I'm not cheesy at all. But, don't take my word for it; I heard cheese was good for you…or something like that."

'Please just shoot me now!'

Peeta let out another sigh as he scratched the back of his neck again. He was usually so good with words and was known to charm his way out of anything. He suddenly looked down at his uniform and stood up.

"D-Do you like my uniform?" he asked as he slowly spun around, "it makes me look kind of…umm…rebellious…don't you think?"

The girl didn't even blink.

'Note to self: Never, ever hang out with Gale again.'

He finally dropped his head and gave a loud sigh. Who was he kidding? She was obviously not interested. He looked down at her and then towards the door where a huge Give Up sign flashed in his mind.

"Look," he said, "I'm sorry if I made a total ass of myself. I'll just let you go back to…whatever it is that you're doing."

He began to walk away from her with frustration and embarrassment written all over his face. How could he be so stupid? Of course she wouldn't pay any attention to him.

"You want what they want."

Peeta suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

'Could it be?'

He slowly turned back around to face the girls back.

"W-What did you say?" he asked as he made his way to her, but suddenly stopped a foot or two away from her.

"You want what they want" the soft, raspy and somewhat deadly voice said again.

Peeta's eyes widened as she suddenly turned back to look at him. There they were again, those dead gray eyes that haunted Peeta everywhere he went. He quickly took a deep breath as he walked a few inches closer to her, never once breaking eye contact.

"W-What who wants?" asked Peeta.

She slowly turned her head to look at the transparent wall as if she were looking for something. He looked towards the wall and realized what she was talking about.

"N-No. They just want to make sure you're ok."

She looked back at him as he felt his breath get caught in his throat.

"L-Look," he began as he walked over to the wall and started knocking on it, "there's no one there right now."

Katniss did nothing but shake her head, "You want what they want."

"What who wants?" he asked again.

She was about to open her mouth to speak again when they suddenly heard the door open with a loud bang against the wall. They both suddenly looked towards the door and saw a flustered and somewhat relieved looking Effie, an amused Dr. Odair, and a very angry and deadly looking Dr. Cresta.

'Shit.'

I hope you guys enjoyed it! Thank you for reading :)