Haymitch tells me to relax and not think about the games, which I think is ironic considering he became an alcoholic because of the games. But I don't say anything, because he knows how it feels, since he actually had to play the horrifying game, watching people around him die. Haymitch leaves, leaving me alone.
I look at the time and it is about 3 in the morning. I wish I would have turned off that TV as soon as I realized what it was. I was too tired to walk up the stairs and maybe I was afraid the ghost of Cato was up there waiting for me to slice my leg. I fall asleep quickly when I sit back down on the couch.
I had a nightmare but I don't remember it much. But I think I was mom, I was running yelling "Get away Cato!" but when I turned my head to see the boy running, it wasn't Cato, it was the familiar pair of gray eyes staring at me as he ran after me. It was Nick, Gale's son. I don't remember much after that, except Nick throwing a spear through Will. I must being screaming in my sleep because the next thing I see is mom at my side calling my name. My eyes shoot open and my first though is what if I yelled Cato's name out loud and mom heard.
But I don't think she does, because she is asking me why I'm screaming. She has a worrying face on and looks at me cautiously. She has protectiveness in her eyes, I can't help but realize it's the look she gave Rue.
It takes a while for me to calm down in my head for me to talk. "Mom I'm fine, I promise, just a nightmare, it happens sometimes, it was nothing." But I'm scared the nightmares will never stop, and I will be forever afraid of closing my eyes.
"Alright, I'm just making sure." Mom says stills looking at me cautiously. Normally to avoid more conversation I would turn on the television, but now I'm not too sure what would be on.
"Oh Hailey, we really need more meat, but I can't go hunting. I've got to talk to Haymitch about last night's mishap. Do you mind going by yourself today?"
Part of me wants to go into the forest, climb up a tree and clear my mind, but the other part of me thinks being up in a tree will just remind me of mom sitting in the arena worrying that herself, or people she cares about will die. But I can't say no anyway, what would I say?
"Sure, I'll go now." She thanks me and gives me a smile. I go up to my room, changing my clothes and grabbing my knife and bow. Leaving my room I see dad coming out of his room, seeing his face reminds me of the boy who laid in the muddy mess, helplessly hoping for mom to find him. He smiles at me and I smile back like nothing's wrong. We walk down the stairs together and I say goodbye.
Coming out of the door of our house, immediately the cool wind covers my face. I run down the steps to my house trying to warm up. Coming out of victor's village, I head towards the fence surrounding District 12. In order to get there I of course had to past the bakery and Gale's house. I walk fast since I am not in the mood to have an awkward chat with Gale. I'm almost passed Gale's house when I hear
"Hey, Hailey, wait up!" It's not Gale but Nick. When I turn my head and see his attractive face, I flinch, picturing him running towards me in my dream as Cato. When I stop to let him catch up, he smiles.
"Where you going?" he asks me when he catches up.
"Hunting" I answered simply keeping my eyes forward. Nick walks in front of me stopping me short, his gray eyes reminds me of Gale.
"Mind if I come?" I snort at his remark.
"Do you even know how to hunt?" He rolls his eyes. "My dad taught me when I was young, I could hunt with my eyes closed." At this point I really wish he would close his eyes, because his eyes were distracting, but I figure being with someone this distracting won't let me think of the games.
"Alright come." I start walking again and he follows. It turns out he brought his knife, which he was supposedly great at, I don't say out loud, but I'm pretty sure I am better than him with a knife.
Nick was great with knives, our skill was almost matched. He was good at hunting like he said and I did have a good time. He turned out to be quite a funny guy. I've never had this much hunting, and I even learned something about him
We were sitting in the tree in silence There was no rabbits in sight so I turned to him, "You know, I'm already sitting very close to you in a tree, but I barley know who you are." He laughs, revealing a dimple above the corner of his lips.
"My name is Nicholas Rory Hawthorne, I am sixteen, I was born and raised in District 2, and I am the son of Gale and Fawna Hawthorne. My dad always wanted to move back to district 12…" He pauses taking a breath, he then puts out his hand to me, "And you are?" I laugh and shake his hand.
"My name is Hailey Primrose Mellark, I'm sixteen, the daughter of Peeta and Katniss Mellark, I was born and raised in District 12 and I'm pretty sure our dads want to kill each other." We both laugh having a great time and I could care less that we're scaring away all the rabbits in the forest.
"Do you know enough about me Hailey?" he asks with one eyebrow raised. I smile, but I shake my head no. I feel like I need to be able to hear him say something he wouldn't tell anyone else. "Tell me a secret." I say. He sits in silence for a few seconds.
"When I first saw you in the forest for the first time, I knew who you were." He said sheepishly. I kind of feel disappointed, so I knew him as the mysterious boy from the forest, but he knew who I was? There was no mystery girl with the good throwing skill?
"Well I didn't know you name, but I knew you were Katniss Everdeen's daughter." He pauses for a moment and continues. "My dad, when I was around 13, I had feelings for a girl and I needed help. He sat me down, talking about this girl. At first I thought she was a fictional character, everything he described, long brown hair that ran down her shoulder in a braid." He glanced at my brown hair in the braid it was in. "Her stance was confident and she was great at everything she did." I look at Nick. "My dad said he was in love with her ever since they met in the forest, he never told her, and she ended up with some baker. So I guess the lesson I learned was to always tell a girl how you feel, and I think it was a great lesson." He finished and smirks at me.
I sit there thinking, but not for long, because I wanted to come up with a remark, "Nicholas Rory Hawthorne, are you hitting on me?" I say with a smile in my voice. He laughs and at that moment I know that I trust Nicholas Hawthorne. I want to tell him about the horrifying thing I saw on TV last night. Sure, he probably already knows about it, but he didn't see what I saw.
"Want to know my secret?" I say softly, not promiscuously or sexy, just softly. Nick's face perks up and he says "Yes!" sarcastically over excited, but I can tell he actually wants to know. All of a sudden Nick is falling down the tree I just remembered we were in. I laughed, I haven't laughed like this in a while. My voice is so filled with joy; I can't even tell it's my own voice. I looked down to see if he is alright and he looks up at my face, giving me thumbs up notifying he was alright. He is laughing now too, but probably at my reaction. I grab my bow and I'm climbed down the tree.
So hunting with nick was fun, even though we didn't even get anything, I knew mom would be angry. Nick said that we would hunt together again, I can't even begin to picture my father's reaction when he finds out I'm hunting with Gale's son. We're walking past the Hob which is oddly empty . We're still laughing about Nick's little fall
"Yea, you're really good at hunting! You can barely hunt with your eyes open, let alone clos-"We're joking around when my words are cut off by a scream, A shriek that reminds me of the girl in the arena.
"This is completely unfair!" she is yelling. The yelling seems to be coming from the square, I look at Nick and we immediately run towards the yelling. When we get there, I figure out where the hole District 12 is. I immediately spot my mom being pulled by dad away from a girl with bubble gum pink hair. Peacekeepers are trying to get to mom but dad is keeping them off. Nick looks at me, but I can't look back, because I know what's going on.
"Katniss, darling, I'm so very sorry, it seems as though all these years, Snow had a secret family, and his grandson assassinated the old president. He took over as leader and his first order was to reinforce the Hunger Games. "