Hey guys! Finally finished this chapter! There are going to be three parts to the court and this is part one. I hope you all enjoy it! Also: I am going to start picking a story to advertise every update and this update the story is "Uncovering Love" by Mikey Jacquez! It has two chapters but is brilliant! If you were a fan of "Search All of the Alaskan Sky for You" I can guarantee you'll love this! Please go check it out!

MiaBelles: I'm glad you like the twist. I wanted to add them in. I thought that would be fun :)

TARDISRose: Thanks! I love writing sad stuff and have been excited to show you all Peeta for a while now.

Catching Fireflies : That's alright! I was an emotional wreck writing this.

hungergamesgirl999: So awful!

She Was Born Lucky: Oh gosh yeah! I would hate if that happened to me or anyone I knew...

FallenPetals712: Feeling the love, Mini... :)

MewWinx96: I cannot wait to show you the plan, but that is still a few chapters away.

Addicted2-Your-Story: Oh my gosh! I felt so awkward writing that! XD

RunnergirlI: The rival school for my school actually has a Co-Ed dressing room... We had to use it once...

TheWomanWhoCodesAndWrites: I cannot wait to show you the plan. Aren't his brothers amazing? Parents are crazy and we will see what happens to Coin.

HP-LotR-SW-HG: Lol it's an awesome name although I know next to nothing about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings... I am a proud Hufflepuff though and I proudly represent District 4!

TributeAndProud: Aww thank you! That means a lot to me!

axes tridents and snares: Nah you're not a bad person! Nervous laughing is natural in a stressful situation.

nolengthoftime98: I wish I could've put her in the oven, but I couldn't :(

DramioneForever123: Aww that is so sweet! Yeah you're pretty much right on target for everything and I modeled the characters after people I know in real life as well as the actual characters. Annie is pretty much a reflection of me in this. We will see Finnick's plan in a few chapters but I hope you aren't disappointed with it :)

nolengthoftime98: LEs Mis will happen after the court chapters and during those scenes Finnick will reveal his plan... mwahahahahaha! Who has the worst mother though? Gale? Finnick? Peeta? Everyone? I'm curious to see your thoughts. :)

MeaganOneDirection: I'm glad you liked the costume scene! It was fun to write :) The Peeta scene was so sad :(

pumpkinking5: I'm glad you liked the costume scene! It was fun to write :) Peeta's mom is such a bad word! It is awful to have her :(

Buttons301: Thanks! :D

Buttons301: Heck yeah!

Buttons301: :)

Buttons301: At my local Sonic they have those.

Buttons301" Poor guy... :(

MahoganyMagic12: Lol I would kill her with a spoon. More pain that way. Sex jokes make me feel dirty so I usually stay clear of those, but now and again XD

Alexandra Jackson rocks Hades: She's such a jerk! :(

Chapter 20- The Court (Part One)

Johanna

I look over at Gale, who is sitting opposite of me at the table in the dining room. Finnick and Annie are sitting opposite of one another, each of us have four cards in our hands. We all pass around glaring looks at one another as we look at our cards. Annie switches out an ace for a four and adds the four to her deck. She then lets out a cough. "Peanut Butter." Finnick says and a smile crosses Annie's face.

I look at them. "Your signal for you had four of a kind was a cough? What if you actually had to cough?"

Annie lets out a laugh. "That wasn't our signal, Jo." I look at Gale then look back at the two of them, confused. I hate this game. It is called Peanut Butter and Jelly and the goal of the game is to get four cards of a kind. Everyone sits around a table and receive four cards. There are four cards in the middle everyone can choose from. Everyone keeps swapping cards until no one swaps and then the four cards in the middle are replaced with ones in the remaining deck and it starts over. Your partner has to guess when you get four cards by giving a signal.

"Then what the heck was your signal?" Annie started to laugh once again and Gale and I just looked at her confused.

Finnick is the one who speaks up. "We didn't have one." He then looks at Annie, reaches across the table to rub noses with her and sits back down, making me somewhat sick at the way they decide to express their love. Gross.

I can hear the clicking of Effie's heels as she makes her way down the hall over to the dining room table. "Kids, what are you doing up so early?"

I look out the window and see the beginnings of the sun rising over the ocean horizon. We have been up since four in the morning. I was sleeping lightly, as was Gale, I assume, because when we heard Annie screaming in her nightmares for the first time, it was a shock. It didn't even faze Finnick. I heard him running down the hall to the room next door and when it was silent, I realized Annie was calm. I walked into the room, to see Annie cradled in Finnick's arms. Gale came into the room shortly after I did. We decided to come downstairs and play Peanut Butter and Jelly to pass the time. I look at Effie and shrug. "We've been up since four. I guess we were all nervous about today."

Effie nods in understanding and smiles. "Well, we have to be at the court in an hour and a half. Why don't you four go wake up Peeta and Katniss and tell them to get ready? I'm going to do the same for the younger kids." We nod and head up the stairs.

Finnick and Annie give one another a quick peck before they split off, while Gale and I full on kissed. He leans down to where his lips are right next to my ear. "You'll look stunning, Jo."

He backs off with Finnick and Annie and I go to wake up Katniss. "What?" She says and throws a pillow at Annie and I when we attempt to wake her up.

"Katniss, please get up. We have to get ready for the court. We have to be up there at eight." Annie begs sweetly. In response, she gets a pillow to the face and ignored.

Annie motions for me to have a go. I grab the pillow from underneath Katniss' head and stuff it in her face until she is screaming. "Alright! Alright! I'll get up! Why do we have to look so nice, anyway?"

I shrug but a smile crosses Annie's face. She loves to dress up and get into nice clothes. She feels like it is the only time she is pretty. I roll my eyes because we all think she is gorgeous. She runs to our closet and starts pulling out dresses for us to wear. She pulls a red dress with long red lace sleeves and a short, slightly puffed out, lacey red skirt, a green simple dress with straps like on a tank top and a yellow ruffled dress with spaghetti strap sleeves. "Jo, you wear the green dress, Kat you are in the red and I'll wear the yellow." She then rummages around until she finds our strapless bra's and tosses them at us. We then proceed to get changed.

We all do our makeup today, not just Annie, and we do our hair, Katniss having to help Annie curl her straight locks with a curling iron and the pull it into a high ponytail while she does an elaborate braid to herself. I smile. The benefits of having short hair. After what seems like hours, but was probably only thirty minutes, I speak up over the music we have playing in the bathroom, One Direction because Annie was the DJ, and call out to them. "Are we ready to go?"

They look at one another and nod and we head out, seeing none of the boys and go down the stairs, where we see them playing on their phones until they see us come down the last flight of stairs. Finnick looks up first and smiles when he takes in Annie. He runs to her and scoops her up and twirls her around and kisses her. Peeta goes to Katniss and has what appears to be a little more than casual conversation with her and Gale comes up to me slowly, lastly. "Wow, Jo. You look amazing."

I smile and look him over. "Not so bad yourself, Handsome."

Finnick grabs the keys to an eight seater car Graceland owns. "Why aren't we taking the vans with everyone else?" I ask.

He shrugs. "They left already. We were told to take the other car." I nod and we all file out the door, Annie riding shot gun, Katniss and Peeta getting the back bench and Gale and I getting the front bench. The tension rises as we rise. It just hit us that the fate of Graceland is riding in this car.

Gale

I take a deep breath as we exit the court and Johanna weaves her hand into mine. I can only assume it is because she is nervous. I know I am. We sit down in fourth row for the audience. Effie is sitting on the first row behind Haymitch with Hunter in her lap. On her sides are Louis and Posy and Daliah is sitting beside Posy. Behind them Vick, Thea, Daniel and Toby sit side by side, the four of them whispering nervously to one another. Rory and Prim, hand in hand, Rue, Eloise and Daisy all sit shoulder to shoulder by one another in the row behind that. I have perfect view of all this with Johanna on my right, Finnick on my left. We sit there stiffly, not even glancing to the side. The only motion is coming from Annie, who is shaking slightly. "All rise for Judge Cobos." We rise to our feet quickly, the other inhabitants of Graceland rising slower.

When he takes his seat, we all sit down. For most of the first part of the trial, it is banter between the lawyers, trying to make their clients seem right. As soon as I think our lawyer has the upper hand, the other one makes a statement that causes the cycle to start all over. It is annoying. Eventually we all get a break for lunch though. Effie passes us seventy dollars in cash. "Be back here in an hour and a half." I nod and we head out.

Everyone is silent on the way up there. We are all nervous. Finnick, at the edge of the parking lot, asks us what we want for lunch and we all just shrug. He ends up choosing and finds a small seafood place. The four of us sitting in the back don't have enough spunk or energy to argue against his decision. I'm certain I won't even taste the food. We place our orders for drinks, Diet Coke for Katniss, Sweet Tea for Peeta, Coke for Finnick, Lemonade for Annie, Dr. Pepper for Jo and a Coke for me. We all sit there stiffly until Johanna starts to laugh. "What's up?"

She laughs harder. "Did anyone else notice the judge's mustache?" Annie then starts to laugh as hard as Jo and Katniss is suppressing giggles.

Finnick, Peeta and I all exchange looks. "What's wrong with it?" Finnick asks.

Suddenly, Peeta starts to laugh too and then Finnick and then myself. There wasn't anything wrong with the man's mustache, but it felt good to laugh. After hours of seriousness, we could finally let ourselves go.

Suddenly we look around see something we cannot believe we missed entering the restaurant. There is a dance floor and fifties style music, perfect for dancing, is playing. Finnick leads the way by offering his hand to Annie and leads her to the floor where they do elaborate twirls and dancing. Jo and I quickly follow their lead and we dance, letting ourselves get consumed in the Jitterbug and other dances. We dance and let ourselves be consumed in a little bit of happiness and fun and I truly see Johanna. I see her when she is just smiling and laughing, not joking or pretending. She is perfect and I cannot help myself, my lips crash into hers and we are dancing and kissing and the world seems to ignite in flames. It is perfect.

When we look up at our table, we see our food has arrived. We eat slowly and dance until it is time to pay and leave, not wanting to spend a second longer in court than we have to. Still, all good things must come to an end.

We get back and are the last ones from Graceland to arrive. We take our seats and let ourselves drone out the monotone voices taking our case or condemning us to separation. Then they started calling witnesses. Of course, I was first. "We would like to call Gale Hawthorne to the stand."

I nod, stand up, and walk stiffly over to the chair. "Mr. Hawthorne, do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"

I nod. "Yes sir."

"You may be seated." I take my seat and look at the man questioning me.

"Gale, how much attention do you personally get at your home here?" The man asks me.

I shrug. "I get enough. I get more than I ever did when I was at home. Mr. Abernathy and Ms. Trinket's attention mostly go to the little kids and the ones who ask for attention because we can take care of ourselves in the older room. Often, we get to help out kids too."

They are taking notes over everything I say. I wrestle my hands under the table. "Can you tell us the worst thing you have experienced since you have moved down here?" He asks me.

I think about it and let out one word. "School." I receive a chuckle from the people gathered. "You have to remember, what teenager doesn't like school? I enjoy my last class because I have my second family there, but many people there come home with me, like Katniss, Johanna, Finnick, Annie, Peeta, Thea, Rory and Vick, just to name a few. I just don't like the having to wake up early and go home to do homework side of it. It's crazy."

They ask me a few more questions: What do you do in your free time? What relationship do you have with the others you like with? What is it like compared to your home life? Can you give us the story of why you came to the house? Stuff like that. I answered it all and got to go back to my seat. I could tell from the way we were eyed that we were all going to get called up. Sure enough, Peeta was next and he was asked similar questions to me and had to share his story. I hope we don't scare any of the younger kids and pray they don't have to go up to the front.

Again guys, please check out "Uncovering Love" by Mikey Jacquez! I promise you will not regret it!

Thanks to: MeaganOneDirection, MiaBelles, Mikey Jacquez, Natura Nature, SecretsandSugarCubes, SibunaChika1227, StarBright18, StayAlways, axes tridents and snares, Anarchy Girl, Catching Fireflies, TARDISRose, Alexandra Jackson rocks Hades, Kyranoel, Fire Kitty 12, MewWinx96, babymcflurry, ThaliaFairbain, cutegirlems, Y.O.L.O So do it right, lole12312, Cinna's Bird, MahoganyMagic12, Random person in wonderland, RiderArya103, SparksFly'SkyHigh, Addicted2-Your-Story, AnotherDawnLikeOurFlag, TurtleThompson, messygreenroom, PerfectionIsFlawed, come burn with me, hyllia14, Lizzie6410, Steven Garrett, Kirihito Mai, RunnergirlI, hungergamesgirl999, UntilTheCannonSounds, Yasie, Purplespartan, HungerGamesAddict3, Amitytribute, DomiHearts1497, likelife, sarah. , ExplodingAaron, gomez-girl, 1DandBobsyouruncle, Wolfie-V, nolengthoftime98, Naanal, eadricson, kittybelltheory, smileywiley, Peetagorean Theoerem Is Here, DaughterFromApollo, RedandCalico, Justseeingyou, dogpawz, DramioneForever123, .Love0103, neverendingme, Laura2810 and tris divergent x for adding this to their favorites! You all rock!

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-Juliet