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Chapter 9

Since the first discussion between Katniss and Cato, Katniss was juggling with her busy schedules. She needed to practice her performance for the alumni dinner and prepared her assignments through multiple discussions with Cato. Despite the many encounters with Cato, Katniss tried to keep herself distance from him. Every time Cato wanted to create conversation besides the assignment; she would just brush them off.

Also, she was selected in the athlete team along with Gale, Cato, Johanna, Glimmer and two of Cato's cliques which she saw them briefly during in the academic writing class. With the selection, she dedicated her spare time on every weekday evening to train her stamina and agility with Coach Thresh and the rest of the team mates.

It was two days before the alumni dinner, and Katniss started to feel nervous. She was practising her vocal in front of her room's mirror but she somehow couldn't get the rhythm right.

"Katniss, you can do this. It's something you've been doing in the bathroom, in the car, when you are jogging, when you are strolling and this alumni dinner performance, should be peanuts," Katniss looked at the mirror, trying to convince herself but she did not sound optimistic.

She continued to practise and stopped after few seconds as she felt out of tune. She slumped herself onto her bed and pulled her hair, "Argh, I can't do this."

Feeling stress from her failure attempt to reach the perfect note, she changed her shorts to long sweat pants and grabbed her black sports jacket to go for a walk. Before she headed out, she took her iPod as music relaxed her.

She was strolling at the park near her campus and the song "Valerie" by The Zutton was playing in her iPod. She felt cheery when the song was playing. Her blood was rushing and her limbs were starting to move subconsciously. She was happily singing and dancing to the song. Unbeknownst to her, Peeta was lying on the grass while watching her quietly. Katniss was kicking her leg back and forth when the song reached the chorus. She was swirling around and caught a familiar pair of glistening blue eyes was watching her.

Mortified, she gasped and her whole body froze. Peeta realized she noticed him and he quickly got up from his position. He brushed the grass which were sticking on his clothes and started to approach her.

Katniss tried to cover up her embarrassment, started to turn away from Peeta and tried to pretend nothing had happened.

"Hey, Katniss, wait," Peeta was calling her from the back.

She started to speed walk and ignored him. Peeta ran towards her and caught up with her.

"Please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just lying on the grass till you came. And urm, I saw you looked happy. I didn't want to take it away from you, so I tried to remain stealth," Peeta looked sorry.

Katniss did not meet his gaze as she still felt embarrassed, "It's fine."

Peeta leaned in closer to her and his hand automatically reached her chin and started to turn her head in order for her to look at him, "Katniss, you sang and danced really well. And hey, I was getting free entertainment by watching you secretly."

He let go off her chin without giving her time to react to his sudden gesture but she chuckled lightly because of his last sentence.

"How much did you watch?" she asked.

"Hmm, let's see probably I think the entire thing," he took a step back and folded his firmed arms.

"Hey, then you'd better be paying me a lot," Katniss joked with him.

Peeta was looking at her up and down and stopped, "Okay, pass me your iPod."

Katniss looked slightly confused but she still handed him her iPod. He was fiddling with her iPod and started to scroll for songs. He unplugged the earphones from the iPod and placed the iPod on the grass.

As the music started, Katniss recognised the song and it was "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Suddenly, Peeta ran far away from Katniss and his head was facing down. Almost immediately, he looked up at her while trying to give her a terrifying zombie eyes. He started to shake his head to the left and centre while his left shoulder was twitching as if he was evolving into a zombie. When Michael Jackson started to sing in the background, he turned his body sideway and lifted his right hand on the air while the left is at the bottom which looked as it was a downward trend line. He wiggled his hips forward and back while stepping nearer to her. He stepped out with his right foot and did a fan motion with his arms and again moved in nearer to her. He then flipped around 180 degrees and did the fan motion by stepping out his left foot. He then made a move as if he broke his back and did a robot dance. He jumped around 180 degrees again and started to do a pelvic rest dance. Followed by him shaking his butt left and right vigorously towards the left side with his head shaking and ended with a clap on air. He repeated the step by leaning from left to the right side and clapped. Then he used his left leg as a support and placed his right hand on his right thigh and slowly motioned to his back. Before he moved further away from her, he placed both of his hands on his thigh and looked back at her while giving her a wink. With his hands were still intact on his thighs, he moved further away from her. He turned to her again, and started to walk nearer to her while doing a diva dance and snapping his fingers.

Katniss was laughing hard and she had to use the tree beside her as a support because her stomach hurts badly. She was amused with his dance and she knew the chorus was coming in. She felt that it was her cue for her to join him and started to stand side by side with him. She turned her body sideways and started to lift both of her hands while making a gesture as if she was clawing onto something. She started to move and dance sideways with her imaginary claws, switching left and right while grooving to the song.

They repeatedly moved their hips, hands, heads and any parts of their body. They were smiling all the way while dancing to the song. When the song finished, Katniss accidentally tripped on a fallen tree trunk and Peeta automatically pulled her into his arms to avoid her from falling the ground.

There was an awkward moment when she stumbled into his arms. They were looking at each other, breathing heavily due to the dance they shared earlier. Despite the sky was dark, his deep blue eyes were penetrating into her eyes with a look of concern. Katniss felt the same warmth when he touched her during the nightmare where he tried to wake her up.

Her eyes bulged and she dropped her hands from his arms, "Urm, I can actually balance myself even though you did not save me."

Peeta smiled as he knew Katniss was always the tough girl and did not want to perceive herself as a weakling, "I know you could, but I just wanted to be the hero."

Initially Katniss felt strange when she felt his touch was rather comforting, but her thoughts were distracted by Peeta's sense of humour to light up the atmosphere.

" I'm grateful," suddenly Katniss had spoken up.

"Hey, I thought you just said that…" Peeta's words got cut off when Katniss shook her head.

"No, it's not because you saved me from falling, like I said, I could have managed it. It's just that I was feeling stress out before I decided to come here a walk," she paused for a while when she thought she heard some rustling sound behind her.

"You heard that?" Katniss was pointing at the bushes where she felt the source of the rustling sound came from there.

"Maybe it's just some cats," Peeta assured her.

He continued, "So you were saying that you were feeling stress?"

"Yeah, about that… I was. But I felt a whole lot better when you suddenly appeared and started to do the dance out of the blue. And man, you were a pretty good dancer," Katniss chuckled.

Peeta blushed when Katniss complimented him, "Nah, I am not as good as you think. It's just that I am like you. Besides painting, I find myself de-stressing when I dance."

"Oh, you paint?" Katniss' voice was surprised.

"Yeah, why not?" Peeta asked with much curiosity.

Katniss giggled a little and shook her head lightly, "I just thought that you have some Vincent Van Gogh's talent in you."

Peeta playfully showed her the look as if he was hurt by her statement, "Ouch, but may I ask why?"

"Nah, cause you have those big biceps and pretty boy look, so I thought that you are the type of guy who probably enjoys body building and a little narcissistic," Katniss answered him.

Peeta's raised on oh his eyebrows, looking almost serious, "So you like this biceps and the pretty look?"

Katniss regretted that she said too much. She was thinking on what she was supposed to say in order for him not get any funny idea, "No…it's just that…"

Peeta burst out into laughter, "Take a chill pill, Katniss. I was just pulling your legs."

Katniss punched his stomach a little, "Don't you dare pull that stunt on me again, Mister!"

"All for a good laugh," Peeta's bright smile made Katniss' anger swept away.

"C'mon, let's go, it's getting late already and I'm pretty tired after that dance," Katniss suggested.

Both of them walked back to the campus and continued their little conversation. When they reached the campus, both of them stopped at their track.

"So, I shall see you around?" Peeta smiled shyly at Katniss.

She nodded, "Good night, Peeta. Thanks for the night."

"I had a lot of fun, good night Katniss," Peeta beamed.

As Katniss walked to her room, she realized her iPod wasn't in her pocket. She stopped and started to search in her pocket but to no avail. She thought that probably Peeta took it accidentally. As and when she was about to turn around to go to Peeta's room, she heard someone's footsteps. Katniss was smiling to herself as she thought it was Peeta, but when she turned around she saw it was Cato.

"Looking for something?" Cato smirked.

"None of your business," Katniss answered him abruptly.

Cato walked nearer to her and now they were like one foot apart, "Why are you acting so cold? Aren't we a partner?

She did not move back, she just stood at her position, "That doesn't mean we are close."

Her stingy words made Cato felt a little agitated, "Are you trying to tell me, the amount of time we have spent with each other means nothing to you? At least you can see me as a friend?"

"Friend? You must be kidding me. You are not even close to acquaintance to me," Katniss hissed while trying to shove Cato aside as she wanted to see Peeta to retrieve her iPod.

Cato blocked her way, "Where do you think you are going?"

Katniss did not answer him and was trying to move away from his tall muscular body. Cato was still trying to block her whenever she tried to move away from him which made Katniss' boiling point started to build up. She glared at him with so much fire in her eyes, "What's your problem?"

Cato took something from his left side pocket and at the same time, he held her hand which made Katniss startled. She began to fight back and tried to move her hand away but Cato was too strong. He handed her iPod.

Katniss was confused and as much she was really curious to know how he found them, she did not want to create any further conversation with him. She turned away from him and started to walk away from him. Cato held her shoulder to refrain her from leaving and turned her to face him once again.

"I handed your iPod, aren't you suppose to show your gratitude?" Cato gave her a cocky stare.

Katniss felt disgusted, "Maybe you stole it from Peeta and pretended as if you found it."

Her accusing words made Cato's blood pumped and he started clenching his fist. Katniss saw it, "So what now, you are trying to punch and hurt me like how you did last time?"

"What? Punched you? Hurt you?" Cato's voice was breaking and he let go of his own fists.

Katniss tried to move away to avoid spilling too much but yet again Cato stopped her from doing so. With his persistent action, she snapped, "Oh yes, Cato Ludwig. You heard me. Have you forgotten how many times you punched me, kicked me, tormented my childhood life. How much more you want to haunt me?"

Cato's face turned sad and he started to lean in closer to her, "Katniss, I…"

She felt mixed emotions. She felt angry because he seemed oblivious after what he had done to her. She felt hurt because she was thinking of the times he abused her despite her not doing anything to him till she deserved to be treated like a thrash when she was young. She was scared because she was traumatised with the constant abuse when she was young. She was relieved as though her burden had left her chest. Her body started to shake a little. Her tears were about to spill over and she tried to avoid looking at him. She was trying to hold back the tears but she started to think all the awful things she had to go through when she was young. The fact that the person who abused her was standing in front of her, she could not help it but to feel so much hurt he had imprinted on her.

Cato's hand tried to reach her cheek as he saw a tear rolled from her eyes but she moved back and wiped the tear on her own, "Just stay out of my life."

After she uttered the last statement, she just dashed out from him. Cato did not make any chase as he was too shocked at the intense confrontation. He just stood still while watching Katniss disappearing from his sight.

"Katniss…" Cato whispered to himself.