Notes: Missing scene between Katniss and Peeta. Goes between "The Pan-American High School Scholarship Pageant Competition" chapters 12 and 13.
"I heard Peeta sat with you and Madge at lunch today," Gale says as he sits down at his and my table during shop.
"Is it expensive to pay your invisible army of spies?" I grouse, shoving his materials for the day in front of him with more force than necessary.
"Hey, whoa, sorry, Catnip." Gale puts his hands up in front of him, half in self-protection and half in an expression of harmlessness.
"No, sorry," I say. "Lunch was . . . weird. I'm still . . ." I shrug, not finding the words.
"Because of Peeta?" Gale asks. I shrug again, to avoid mentioning Madge—Gale gets weird about her, sometimes—and Gale asks, "Why was he there, anyway?"
That's something I want to talk about even less.
"He was worried," I say reluctantly.
"About you?" Gale asks.
"Yesterday at practice . . . look, can we not talk about this?"
"Sure," Gale says.
Probably he means it. But he keeps glancing over at me during class, and by the time the bell rings, I'm ready to talk. Which I'm pretty sure Gale expected.
"Haymitch made us practice getting interviewed yesterday after school," I tell him as we pull away from the school.
"Yeah?" he asks.
"He asked about my parents."
"I get it," he says, and I know he does. But I feel like I need to say it out loud anyway.
"It made me think of New York," I say quietly. Gale grabs my hand and squeezes it across the front seat.
Gale is the only person I've ever told about my family—about my mother, about where we were before we came here.
I hadn't meant to. There'd been a substitute one Wednesday last semester in shop class, so Gale and I had skipped, and hung out in the woods past the football field all period instead. He'd been talking about his family, about his brothers, and his mom, and it had just—come out.
Gale's dad passed away, too. He knows what it's like to have to be responsible for your family instead of them being responsible for you. But even he doesn't understand, not really. Because he's always had his mom. He's always had someone that he could depend on.
"Did you give you a hard time about it?" There's steel in his voice. It's nice. To know he'd stick up for me. Even if I don't need it.
"No. He was . . . sweet."
Gale relaxes, and nudges me with a slight smile. "Sounds horrible."
I fight my own smile, relaxing back into the seat and reaching to turn on the radio. "It totally was."