Hello, hope your having a good day today. So, here is chapter 4 of Peeta's story.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the hunger games.
We stand there for what feels like a few minutes staring at Haymitch. I glance up at Katniss and she glances up at me at the same time. We lock eyes for a few second before she looks back at Haymitch. I drop my gaze after she does. I realize what she's doing a second after she leans down and grabs one of Haymitch's arms. I grab the other. We manage to pull him to his feet.
"I tripped?" he asks. "Smells bad." Of course it smells bad; he just vomited and fell into it. He wipes his nose, smearing his face with vomit.
"Let's get you back to your room," I say. "Clean you up a bit."
Katniss and I each position ourselves on either side of Haymitch and half-lead half-carry him back to his room. Haymitch is too dirty to place on the clean bedding, so pull into the bathroom and Katniss turns on the water. He doesn't resist anything. In fact I don't think notices what we're doing. I glance up at Katniss and see that she has the look of disgust on her face. This might be my only chance to talk to Haymitch alone and I don't really want Katniss to suffer through this. Taking him a bath I mean.
"It's okay," I tell her. "I'll take it from here." She hesitates before she stands up.
"All right, "she says a little relieved. "I can send one of the Capitol people to help you. "
"No. I don't want them," I admit. I glance up and watch her leave the room and notice that she glances back at me for a second before shutting the door. I look back down at Haymitch. Now I have to deal with this mess. Actually having a Capitol attendant clean him up would be a small victory of revenge for sending us to our deaths, but I have to see if I can talk to him first. He has started dozing off inside the bathtub, so I splash his face with the running water. That wakes him up for a while I hope.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" he yells. I guess he got into old school swearing too. He swings at the air around him, before he stares at me angrily. "What are you doing to me? Why am I in the tub? Were you gonna….?" He gives me a weird look.
"I wasn't. I just want to talk to you," I reassure him. He stares me down for a few moments.
"Alright boy, what do you want?"
"I want to make a deal." I tell him firmly. I want to make sure that he knows I mean business; that I'm not bullshitting.
"What deal could you possibly want?" he asks narrowing his eyes.
"I want…to make it clear who should, no who will come out of these games alive."
"Look boy, I can only help you live so far in these games, you'll have to rely on yourself to live-"
"I don't want to win. I want Katniss to win." I cut him off. He looks at me in shock.
"What?! None of you tributes every ask to help the other one," he tells me. I sigh. How thick is his skull? I stare him down until he speaks up. "Why do you want to help the girl?"
"She's….my friend and…. I know that she has….something special to come home to…..while I don't." I drop my gaze and stare at the floor. I think he picks up on my hesitation because he drops the conversation right there. After a while he asks me the question I hope he had the answer to.
"And what do you want me to do to help? Hmm." He asks. I don't know I guess he can make sure that all the sponsors go to her and give her the best guidance through these. I don't know.
"I don't know. I was hoping that you knew. All I can say is that I want you to do everything you can to make sure she wins." I say. He puts his hand on his chin and rubs it for a what feels like three minutes.
"Alright I'll do it. Help me up." he says extending his hand to me.
"No, you are going to stay here and wash up. Goodnight Haymitch." I say turning around and leaving. Before I leave I turn back around and say, "I'll send over a Capitol attendant to help you." Then I shut the door behind me. As I do, I hear him say damn kid along with a few other things. Down the hallway, I find two Capitol attendants and inform them that Haymitch needs help and if he protests ignore it.
I walk into my room and prepare myself for sleep. Once asleep I dream of Katniss at school. In the dream, I'm standing in a group of my friends and instead of listening to what they're saying I'm watching Katniss. Here she looks about fourteen. She's waiting for passing period to be over. My best friend Calum asks me what I'm staring at and I of course tell him nothing. Nomen then asks me to recall the last thing they said. Damn, they got me there. I just stay quiet.
"Alright who is it?" Calum asks. He looks around the groups of kids walking through the hallways. "Is it her…" I shake my head. "Her…" I shake my head again. "How about her…" he says pointing at the mayor's daughter, whose name I think is Madge. She stands near Katniss. I shake my head again. They all go around pointing out all the girls who don't live in the Seam. Thank God. "Alright, we went through every merchant girl that passed by. Either you lied to us or you were looking at a Seam girl." I look around the group and see disapproving looks on their faces.
"I was…," I hesitate. Delly raises her eyebrows questionly. In this time period Delly already knows about Katniss. Luckily she saves me.
"Oh, I think I know what he was staring at. Look." she points at a poster that stands on the wall by Katniss. "He must have been studying the sign because we have a quiz on coal byproducts today in our next class." I look back at the sign and it lists some of the coal byproducts with their purposes printed next to them.
"Yeah. That was exactly what I was looking at." I say. A chorus 'Oh' circles through the group.
"Good. I thought you were staring at the Seam girl over there." Nomen says pointing directly at Katniss. They look at me waiting for me to say something. I open my mouth and before I say something the bell rings. Saved by the bell, literally. We all head to class and they don't bring it up again. This isn't the first time, I got caught staring at Katniss. I've gotten caught dozens of times, but I could always talk myself out of it. That time Delly had to save me.
I wake up to Effie knocking on my door. I get up and change into a simple dull dark blue shirt and blue pants. I walk to the dining car and see nobody, but Effie and the Capitol attendants are there. Effie tells me to sit down and the attendants will serve me. I do as she says and immediately I'm served an enormous plate of food. As, I begin to eat, Haymitch walks in. A little off balance, but not like yesterday.
"Morning, boy." he tells me sliding into his chair across from me.
"You know, my name is Peeta." I inform in.
"Good to know boy." he says. He begins to scuff down his eggs. "So, did I imagine what happened last night or was that real."
"What was real?" I play dumb. I just want to make sure that he remembers what we discussed. Effie then walks out to get Katniss.
"That you want the girl to win." he says watching the door Effie just went through. I guess to make sure the coast is clear or something.
"Um…yeah. That really happened." I clarify.
"Why? What you said yesterday doesn't count as a reason." he yells me. Here it goes. He wants to know the real reason. He should know anyway, especially if I want his help in this. I take a deep breathe and side glance at the door to make sure they're not coming.
"I….I've…I've been in love with her for the past eleven years." I admit to him. I quickly grab a roll from the bowl in front of me and begin picking at it. I don't dare look up. I feel Haymitch staring at me. It's as if he's seeing right through me into my soul.
"I knew it. You two didn't look like you guys were friends. Of course, it could have just been me. I don't know if you knew or not. I was drinking a little bit yesterday." he begins to laugh then stops and looks at me. I have now looked up at him and then I look back down at my roll. "You know what. You and her actually would look nice together." he admits to me. I blush really red, I can feel it. He chuckles at me while I just stare at my roll feeling embarrassed. Just at that second Katniss walks in with Effie in front of her. I don't dare look up, but Haymitch does.
"Sit down! Sit down!" He tells her and even waves her over. She sits down and gets served a plate. I glance up at Katniss, who seems to be confused over the cup of hot chocolate. I don't think she knows what it is.
"They call it hot chocolate. It's good," I reassure her. She looks back down at her cup and takes a sip. Then she continues drinking it until she finishes. Then she eats her plate. I have finished my plate already and Haymitch hasn't touched his plate since he took out a bottle and started pouring it in his red juice. I have been dunking pieces of roll into my hot chocolate for the past half hour. When, Katniss is done eating she takes a side glance at me and what I'm doing. She then does the same. In my head I grin like a little boy who has just received candy.
"So, you're supposed to give us advice," she says after a while of silence.
"Here's some advice. Stay alive," he says and then he starts laughing. I look over to see Katniss's reaction to find her looking at me. I turn back to Haymitch. That bastard is suppose to help her, I mean help us.
"That's very funny," I say. Then I reach out to take the glass in his hands. It shatters on the floor spilling the red liquid over the floor. "Only not to us." He studies me and then just as I expected he punches me in the jaw and I fall to the floor. Then I hear something drive through the table. I see Haymitch sit back in his chair and glance back and forth between me and Katniss.
"Well, what's this?" he asks. "Did I actually get a pair of fighters this year?" I rise from the floor and get a handful of ice from the fruit tureen and raise it to my jaw.
"No. Let the bruise show. The audience will think you've mixed it up with another tribute before you've even made it to the arena." Isn't that against the rules.
"That's against the rules," I say.
"Only if they catch you. That bruise will say you fought, you weren't caught, even better," he tells me. Is he helping me or is he trying to get me in trouble. He turns to Katniss and says, "Can you hit anything with that knife besides a table?" I watch Katniss as she grabs the blade and throws it. It gets lodged between two panels. This girl never fails to amaze me. "Stand over here. Both of you." he said nodding toward the middle of the room. We both do as he says and he cirlces us. He pokes us occasionally and examines us. Finally he tells us that we're not completely hopeless and that with the stylists' help we'll be attractive enough. He has a point to that. Usually, the best looking tributes pull more sponsors. "All right, I'll make a deal with you. You don't interfere with my drinking, and I'll stay sober enough to help you. But you have to do exactly what I say."
"Fine," I say. At least he's gonna help us now.
"So help us," Katniss says. "When we get to the arena, what's the best strategy at the Cornucopia for someone-"
"One thing at a time. In a few minutes, we'll be pulling into the station. You'll be put in the hands of your stylists. You're not going to like what they do to you. But no matter what it is, don't resist," he says interrupting Katniss. I guess everything they're going to do to me here I won't like. But if it's to save Katniss, it's worth it. Katniss tries to object, but Haymitch makes it clear not to resist. He grabs a bottle of spirits from the table and leaves us alone in the compartment. Suddenly it goes dark and at that I realize that we're through a tunnel. We stand in silence. I wish I could think of something to say, but I can't. The train slows down and the compartment begins to light up. We both run over to the window like kids to get a view of the city. It looks so much better in person than on the television. People begin pointing at the train. These people are so different than the people at home. When you see a tribute train you flee in fear that it might take you. Here, the people rush to get front row seats to see the tributes arrive. Since they never are at risk of being tributes they don't fear the train. I side glance at Katniss. She has backing away from the window. If she won't play friendly with possible sponsors than I guess I have to. I wave to them and smile the whole time. I stop when we're blocked from their view. I turn around to see Katniss staring at me with a questionable look on her face.
"Who knows? One of them may be rich." I tell her. I was hoping to lighten the mood, but instead she we lock eyes for a second before she glances down then back at the window and then back at me with an unreadable expression. I wonder what she's thinking about. I know what I'm thinking about. I'm wondering how the hell am I suppose to protect her from such serious competition.
Yay! I'm done. I type so slow sometimes. Anyway happy new year. I am so ready for 2013. Well half ready. I'm not ready to see the catching fire movie yet because I don't want to be disappointed with how it comes out. Catching fire was my favorite out of all of them. Tell me which one was your favorite in a review.
~ secretTHGluver ~