Chapter three

Willow's POV

We get to the beach and I instantly head to the water with Finn and Rory and start swimming. It's my favourite thing to do when we come to district four and my mom taught me to swim when I was younger in a lake deep in the woods. There is a single concrete house there and my mothers eyes always well up with tears when we go in there to light the fire after we've gone fishing or swimming. I don't know why, she doesn't tell me or my brothers anything about her past really. On that note, my dad doesn't either. I'm not stupid, I know something went on, something that seriously changed their lives. Well, I know they were in The Hunger Games because we learnt about it in history at school and my parents names come up frequently, but it doesn't go into detail about it until we're 17 and I don't think my parents will let me learn history then unless they decide that they are okay with me knowing about it all... I'm soon distracted from these thoughts though by some hands grabbing me from behind and a splash of water in my face. "Rory!" I giggle. I'm met with a reply of "What? I didn't splash you, Finn did!" from Rory. I giggle again and lean round to give him a kiss. I love the feel of his soft lips on mine, he makes me feel safe, like no one could ever hurt me. Apart from my parents, he's one of the only people who makes me feel like that...

When we get out of the water, my dad's face says it all. Even though we've been dating for almost a year now, mine and Rory's relationship is still a major problem for my dad. He's looking angry but he's distracted with Rye at the moment so I lay down on the beach and watch Rory as he plays volleyball with Finn. " so, what do you like most about Rory?" Cressida says from behind. I jump a little. "I don't know really," I reply "He's just so easy to talk to and he's always there for me... Plus he has great abs." Cressida giggles. "Do you want to go play volleyball with them?" She asks. "Sure!" I reply.

"Great!" Cressida says "It'll give me a chance to stare at Rory's abs!" We both run off laughing our heads off and leave Annie and Maggie to sunbathe.

Rye's POV

As I watch Willow and Cressida run off, I decide to ask my dad about his flashback. "Dad, you know it's not your fault that you attacked me right?"

Dad stops flipping the burgers and let's out a long sigh and said "Rye, of course it is..."

"No, it's not dad! I don't know why you have these flashbacks but I know it's not your fault! And that means it's not your fault that you attacked me!" I cry. My mum can see that I'm getting upset and excuses herself from Annie and Johanna to walk over to me and dad. "Peeta," she says calmly, "he's right you know. Your life changed forever when they did that to you and nothing is going to change that. But it's not your fault! Come on, let's go back to the house and talk about this, yeah?"

My dad walks away subdued so Gale and Finnick take over the barbecue. I want to help but now a few questions are troubling me again that I desperately want to know the answers to. Who's they? And what did they do to my dad?

Rory's POV

"Looks like lunch is ready." I tell my friends. My dad says my sense of smell is amazing-something that comes in handy when he takes me hunting. We have enough food but my dad still loves to hunt, it's one of his favourite past times. He told me that he used to go hunting with Katniss when they were younger. When he met her in the woods that used to be forbidden to enter, mine and Willows grandfathers had just been killed in a mine explosion and my dad had to feed his family at the age of just 14. Katniss was 11 and her mother was still grieving so my dad taught her more about hunting and they soon became more than just hunting partners, they became best friends. Finn knows about my hunting skills but he's a joker and says I can just smell food because I'm greedy-which is probably part of the reason, I could eat a whole turkey, my dads specialty, for dinner if I wanted to.

When we get back to where the adults are, I sit round the table with my arm round Willow and dig in to my steak. I whisper in her ear "Do you want to sneak off after lunch so we can be on our own? Finn knows somewhere we can go..."

"Sure," she whispers back flirtily "Where do you have in mind?"

"It's an island about ten minutes away, Finn says we can take his jet ski." I reply.

"Ok then, I'll go get my stuff" she says while getting down from the bar stool she was sitting on.

Joseph's POV

"How many chips do you think I can fit in my mouth at once?" I asked Landon and Tyson.

"I dunno but it'd be awesome to see!" Tyson says, "Come on!" He grabs the plate of chips and pours half of them onto my plate. I start stuffing chips into my mouth and in about a minute, there are many chips hanging out of my mouth and Gale dragging me by my collar towards the bin.

"Spit them out Joseph." He says with a sigh. I do so willingly and spot Landon and Tyson trying to stifle their hysterics as I walk back over to them.

" Man, Gales such a fun killer!" Tyson moans, but he soon shuts up when we hear Gale shout from the barbecue " I heard that Tyson! And so did your dad!"

Tyson just collapses onto the table and it's my turn to go into hysterics. Gale hates us wasting food because he knows what it's like to be starving. He doesn't like to talk much about his past. He always gets close to tears if he does, especially when he's with his brothers and sister. Rory mentioned something about Gale having to feed his family when he was younger or something like that...

Finnick's POV

"Gale, where's Rory?"

"Probably with Finn somewhere, why?" Gale replies.

"Just cause I haven't seen Finn, Rory or Willow for around two hours or so now." I say casually, "Wait, Finn knows an island, he might have gone there."

"If he has and he's taken those two with him, I'm gonna kill him..." Gale says through gritted teeth, "No offence."

"Doesn't matter," I laugh, "I would too..."