After the door closes I take Katniss by the hand and enjoy the warmth of her hand in mine. I expect her to pull way, but she knows we must be presented as a united front even if she is mad at me. We do not speak as the elevator takes us down and we are defiantly not the last tributes there. Enobaria is a vicious looking woman from District 2, who has each of her teeth filed into points. Brutus is also from District 2 and from what I hear he loves to fight.
Atala, the woman in charge of training, begins right at ten o'clock, even though only about half of us have shown up. She reminds us of all the stations, both survival and combat, and releases us to begin. I figure we will do like we did last year, me following Katniss to the stations that interest her, but instead she tells me she thinks we would cover more people by splitting up. I agree with her, mainly because I am still trying to make her happy since making her so angry last night.
I walk over to the spear station and watch Brutus and Chaff throw spears for a while. They are both extremely good and can make a clean kill within a good twenty feet. Brutus moves on pretty quickly after I begin throwing spears, but Chaff stay and gives me a few pointers on how to throw straighter, faster. I am amazed his accuracy on the dummies. I still manage to get in kill shot, but the kind that will have your victim bleeding for hours waiting to die, whereas he is able to do a straight kill shot. We do not talk much at first, but eventually he starts giving me a few one line jokes that has us cracking up in a matter of minutes. Most of them are horribly bad, pointed at himself and his stub, but he thinks they are funny and I love to see people happy, so laugh along.
After a while we both decide to go on to something else. I choose the knife station and Chaff decides to join me. After about thirty minutes of just us two we are joined by the tributes from District 7 and 8. I cannot remember their names, but after spending some time with them I am not sure I would have them on a team. In fact, even though I am really beginning to like some of these people on a personal level, I really do not want to have any of them on a team, just to have to turn around and kill them in the end and if I am going to get Katniss out alive, I know I will have to kill at least some of them. I take this moment and glance around the rest of the arena. I see Katniss with the District 3 tributes at the fire building station, Johanna Mason, nude again, is beginning a wrestling match with an attendant. The District 6 tributes, or the morphlings, as they are called because of their love of morphling, are at the camouflage station painting each other in vivid pink. I decided to move on and I spot Seeder at the knot-tying station.
Seeder ends up being a very nice woman. She is extremely thoughtful and her words are full of wisdom. I find being around her ends up feeling like a learning experience, which is something I truly enjoy. We are joined after a while buy just about everyone I have worked with today, along with Johanna, thankfully dressed again, and Finnick, and I begin to realize that everyone seems to be arranging themselves around me and that leaves me flattered, but a bit confused. I always had a bunch of friends at home, before the games, that is, so maybe I am just likable? I don't see that. They must want to know what I am good at, what Katniss is good at, so they can kill us faster. We are the youngest and possibly the fittest in the group.
Lunch is called and I see Katniss walking in with Beetee and Wiress, the District 3 tributes whom Johanna lovingly calls Nuts and Volts. They are so kind of joke to the rest of the tributes, but I haven't personally talked to them. When we walk in to the lunch room I notice that a few of the group I was just in begins to pull all the tables together so we are all eating together. This is so extremely different, but I guess, since most of them are friends, this is the way they rebel? I decide to help them arrange the rest of the tables and catch up with Katniss as she is getting stew. "How's it going?"
"Good. Fine. I like the District 3 victors. Wiress and Beetee," she says, paying attention to the food.
This really doesn't surprise me, Kantiss seems to like people who keep to themselves, but I want to let her know what I have heard about them so far. "Really? They're something of a joke to the others."
"Why does that not surprise me?" she says, clearly still in a bad mood.
"Johanna nicknamed them Nuts and Volts. I think she's Nuts and he's Volts," I pass along. I will team up with whoever she wants and since she likes them I will try to get to know them as well.
"And I'm so stupid for thinking they might be useful. Because of something Johanna Mason said while she was oiling up her breasts for wrestling," she snaps at me. Yep, still mad about the picking last night.
"Actually I think the nickname's been around for years. And I didn't mean that as an insult. I'm just sharing information," I say, trying to make peace.
"Well, Wiress and Beetee are smart. They invent things. They could tell by sight that a force field had been put up between us and the Gamemakers. And if we have to have allies, I want them," she says, forcefully, throwing the ladle back into the stew, which splatters us with the food.
"What are you so angry about?" I ask, cleaning the front of my shirt off. "Because I teased you on the elevator? I'm sorry. I thought you would just laugh about it," I say.
She shakes her head and replies, "Forget it. It's a lot of things."
She must still be feeling guilty about Darius as well, so I say, "Darius."
"Darius. The Games. Haymitch making us team up with others," she rattles off. We are slowly walking towards the table.
"It can just be you and me, you know," I tell her. I am fine with that.
"I know. But maybe Haymitch is right. Don't tell him I said so, but he usually is, where the Games are concerned," she says. I am surprised to hear her say this, but she is probably right.
"Well, you can have final say about our allies. But right now, I'm leaning toward Chaff and Seeder," I explain. They are the two I feel like I could trust the most.
"I'm okay with Seeder, not Chaff," she says, making a face. "Not yet, anyway." I smile, this is because he kissed her last night.
"Come on and eat with him. I promise, I won't let me kiss you again," I say. She follows me and we sit in between Chaff, who is on my right and Seeder, who is on her left. Lunch is actually nice. The table is full of conversation and all Katniss and I do is sit back, eat and listen. Katniss seems to get a bit more comfortable with the group at large.
After lunch I decide to hit the weight station and I see Katniss doing the edible-insect station with District 8. I love lifting the weights in this station and throwing them across the room, makes me feel like I really have a fighting chance to keep her alive. I do not spend much time at the station because no one joins me and we are supposed to be making friends. I decide to take do the hand to hand combat station with the victors of District 1, Cashmere and Gloss. They are both extremely good fighters and teach me a few things, but I have a feeling we will not be teaming up. They move on to the hammock station and invite Katniss to join them. I keep practicing hand to hand with Johanna and Finnick. It's not long before I am done with all their sexual innuendos and head over to the fire starting station, leaving them to finish their own hand to hand combat. While I am there trying to start a fire with flint, I hear everyone growing quiet. I quickly look up to see what the problem is and see everyone looking toward the archery station. I know it must be Katniss, she has to be the only one to make the room grow quiet like this. This is one of her effects she has no idea about. I walk over and stand with Finnick and Mags, the eighty year old woman from District 4 who volunteered in the place of the hysterical girl.
Katniss is clearly in her element. Having pierced all the immobile statues with deadly accuracy, the trainer has begun to throw fake birds into the air. As I watch her face, I see the scowl disappear and it is replaced by sheer peace. And she is glorious. She takes down bird after bird, multiple at a time, some with one arrow, and I am just in awe. Can I really be falling in love with her again? I find myself watching her targets less and studying her face. I recognize the concentration in her eyes, it is the same look her mother gets while working on her patients. I cannot explain the range of emotions in my mind, envy, I wish I was as talented as her at anything; pride, because I always knew she was amazing and this is just a portion of what I mean, but mainly admiration, knowing she basically taught herself in the woods beyond our district, so her family could survive. Watching her magnificence makes me want to save her even more, no one like that should die in an arena for the entertainment of spoiled people. She takes down five birds in one round and we all hear the thud as each one drops to the ground. Katniss suddenly turns and looks at her audience. Her cheeks flush and she immediately drops her bow to her side, he eyes ranging the faces of us all.
Atala calls time for the day right when her eyes meet mine and everyone thaws out and heads for the elevators. I hang back, going to her side and taking her hand. I know she would not want me to talk about what we all just seen, but I am still amazed. Once we get back into our quarters Katniss and I just hang around waiting for Effie and Haymitch to call us for dinner. Once they arrive Haymitch starts immediately, "So at least half the victors have instructed their mentors to request you as an ally," he begins. I slowly fill my plate while listening. "I know it can't be your sunny personality."
Of course they do, she is amazing at archery. She will make a deadly ally. "They saw her shoot," I offer with a smile, when I realize she wasn't going to say anything. "Actually, I saw her shoot, for real, for the first time." Pride fills my chest. "I'm about to put in a formal request myself."
"You're that good?" Haymitch asks. "So good that Brutus wants you?" His tone takes me for a minute, does he doubt her ability or just trying to get her to answer?
She does answer, with a shrug, "But I don't want Brutus. I want Mags and District 3." I smile again, I knew about District 3, but Mags? Of course she wants the old lady, the one who gave her life for that hysterical looking girl. So in character. Haymitch is thinking along the lines with me because he says, "Of course you do," with a roll of his eyes, "I'll tell everybody you're still making up your mind."
The next few days of training go without much incident, except Katniss actually trying to give everyone a fair chance. She lets the morphlings and I paint her into a field of flowers, something that I loved. Finnick and her trade trident and archery lessons, and she even spends time with Johanna Mason at the knife throwing station. I can tell that getting to know them, possibly even liking some of them, is taking a toll on her, since she knows she will probably have to kill a few of them in the arena. Ideally most of them will kill each other and Katniss and I will be left with a choice few, but still, taking a life is taking a life.
When the final day comes I am actually anxious. I am not sure what I am going to do to impress the judges this year. Last year I just threw around some of the weights, but this year I want them to remember me. I want them to think of what they are doing to people, usually innocent children.
Finally Katniss and I are left alone. I take her hands and ponder what I am going to do in a few minutes.
"Decided what to do for the Gamemakers yet?" I ask her.
"I can't really use them for target practice this year, with the force field up and all," she says, shaking her head. "Maybe make some fish hooks. What about you?"
"Not a clue," I reply. "I keep wishing I could bake a cake or something." That is the only things I am really good at, baking. Such a great quality in this situation.
"Do some more camouflage," she suggests. That's any idea, if there is anything left.
"If the morphlings have left me anything to work with. They've been glued to that station since training started." We are both silent for a while and I am about to ask her a question when she blurts out, "How are we going to kill these people, Peeta?" I am amazed because I was going to ask the same thing just now. I put my head down on our hands and answer honestly, "I don't know."
"I don't want them as allies. Why did Haymitch want us to get to know them? It'll make it so much harder than last time. Except for Rue maybe." Rue, little Rue. "But I guess I never really could've killed her, anyway. She was just too much like Prim," Kantiss says. I look up at her, thinking about the little girl from our last games, remember what she looked like after Katniss covered her in flowers.
"Her death was the most despicable, wasn't it?"
"None of them were very pretty," she says. Yeah, I guess she is right. I hold her hands until my name is called and walk into the Training Room. I finally know what I am going to do.
"Fifteen minutes, Mr. Mallark," I hear one of the Gamemakers remind me. I do not acknowledge them, but go straight to the dyes. The station is a mess, but there is still plenty left for me to use. I gather up a bunch of colors and head to the center of the room. I work fast and steady, so when time is called, I step back from my work and hear a few gasps. Right there I painted a picture of Rue, just like I remember seeing her after Katniss covered her body in flowers. I take a small bow and head out the doors. I want them to realize what they are actually doing to us. I know there will be hell to pay for this, but I think I have made my statement.
I got straight to my room once I am back on our floor. I strip off my training uniform and get into the shower. I try to scrub the colors from my hands, but the dyes have stained my hands, like they hopefully have stained the floor in the training room. I wonder if the Gamemakers will make my days in the arena horrible. I really hope they do not take it out on Katniss as well, since I have vowed to myself to get her home.
Dinner is called and we all sit. Haymitch waits until the soup is served to ask, "All right, so how did your private sessions go?"
Katniss and I look at each other. She must have done something shocking agin this year, because she says, "You first. It must have been really special. I had to wait forty minutes to go in."
I really do not want to admit what I did, not that I regret it, I just think it is going to make everyone upset. "Well, I….I," I stutter. "I did the camouflage thing, like you suggested, Katniss." I stop and look around. I should come clean. "Not exactly camouflage. I mean, I used the dyes."
"To do what?" Portia asks. I do not answer immediately and Kantiss says,
"You painted something, didn't you? A picture?" Did they leave it for her to see? I doubt that.
"Did you see it?" I ask her.
"No. But they'd made a real point of covering it up," she answers.
"Well, that would be standard. They can't let one tribute know what another did," Effie says. "What did you paint, Peeta? Was it a picture of Katniss?"
"Why would he paint a picture of me, Effie?" Katniss asks, annoyed. Why would that thought annoy her?
"To show he's going to do everything he can to defend you. That's what everyone in the Capitol's expecting, anyway. Didn't he volunteer to go with you?" Effie offers. I might as well tell the truth.
"Actually, I painted a picture of Rue. How she looked after Katniss had covered her in flowers," I say quickly. Everyone falls silent, everyone stops eating. Finally Haymitch says, his voice just in check,
"And what exactly were you trying to accomplish?"
"I'm not sure," I answer truthfully. "I just wanted to hold them accountable, if only for a moment. For killing that little girl."
Effie speaks next, her voice shaking as she is about to cry. "This is dreadful. That sort of thinking…..it's forbidden, Peeta. Absolutely. You'll only bring down more trouble on yourself and Katniss." I frown. I do not care what happens to me, but I have to keep her alive.
"I have to agree with Effie on this one," Haymitch says. Everyone else stays quiet, but are very serious. I look down, shame feeling my mind.
"I guess this is a bad time to mention I hung a dummy and painted Seneca Crane's name on it," Katniss says, trying to get the attention away from what I have done. I wonder if she really did that. Knowing Kantiss, she did. Everyone stays quiet for a few moments.
"You…hung….Seneca Crane?" Cinna chokes out.
"Yes. Was showing off my new knot-tying skills, and he somehow ended up at the end of the noose," she says, matter-a-factly.
"Oh, Katniss. How do you even know about that?" Effie asks quietly.
"Is it a secret? President Snow didn't act like it was. In fact, he seemed eager for me to know," she says. Effie gets up, clearly upset and leaves the room. "Now I've upset Effie. I should have lied and said I shot some arrows."
"You'd have thought we planned it," I say, smiling just a bit a Katniss.
"Didn't you?" Portia asks, her eyes closed, trying to make sense of all the information.
"No," Katniss says, looking at me with an appreciative look in her eyes, "Neither of us even knew what we were going to do before we went in."
"And Haymitch?" I say, deciding this is a good time to let him know everything. "We decided we don't want any other allies in the arena."
"Good. Then I won't be responsible for you killing off any of my friends with your stupidity," is his answer.
"That's just what we were thinking," Katniss chimes back to him. Whew, she has been spending too much time with him to be able to get these come backs she has lately. We eat the remainder of our meal in silence and when we are done we go to the sitting room to get our training scores. I see Cinna take Katniss in a hug and tell her something. We all settle down and watch the scores. Of course Gloss, Cashmere, Brutus, Finnick and Enobaria score high. Everyone else is okay or low.
"Have they ever given a zero?" Katniss asks.
"No, but there's a first time for everything," Cinna says.
When they flash our scores we find out he is right. We both get perfect scores. Hunger Games history. It's not like last year when Katniss got an 11, where everyone is surprised and happy. Everyone just sits there, looking at the screen.
"Why did they do that?" Kantiss asks.
"So that the others will have no choice but to target you," Haymitch explains. "Go to bed. I can't stand to look at either of you."
Katniss and I walk to her room and I am just about to tell her goodnight when she surprises me by wrapping her arms around my waist. I love it, so I run my hands up her back and leans my cheek against her head.
"I'm sorry if I made things worse," she says.
"No worse than I did," I answer. "Why did you do it anyway?"
"I don't know. To show them that I'm more than just apiece in their Games?" she says, almost like it's a question. Of course it rings a bell, I said the same thing to her before the last games.
"Me too," I say. "And I'm not saying I'm not going to try. To get you home, I mean. But if I'm perfectly honest about it…," I say, not wanting to say what I really think.
"If you're perfectly honest about it, you think President Snow has probably given them direct orders to make sure we die in the arena anyway," she finishes my thought.
"It's crossed my mind," I admit. "But even if that happens, everyone will know we've gone out fighting, right?"
"Everyone will," she agrees. "So what should we do with our last few days?"
"I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you," I tell her. What else did she think I would want to do?
"Come on, then," she says, pulling me into her room.
It is amazing to be sleeping in the same room with Katniss again. I love the feeling of her wrapped in my arms, her head on my chest. My breathing matches hers after a while and I drift off into sleep. When my eyes open I see daylight coming through the windows. Such a nice feeling. Sleeping next to the girl you love and having a goodnights sleep at that. I stay still for a while, just basking in the moment. Katniss begins to stir after a good bit and I smile. She looks up at me and I say, "No nightmares."
"No nightmares," she confirms. "You?" I smile even bigger.
"None. I'd forgotten what areal night's sleep feels like."
I could stay this way forever. Neither of us want to get up and start the day, but tomorrow is the televised interview and today will be coaching from Haymitch and Effie. I wonder what our angle will be this year? We lay in bed until the red headed Avox girl comes in with a note from Effie. Apparently, since we are fresh off our tour, coaching is not needed.
"Really?" I ask, taking the note and reading it for myself. So, Katniss and I are left with a whole day with nothing to do. "Do you know what this means? We'll have the whole day to ourselves."
Katniss looks out the window, somewhat wistfully and says, "It's too bad we can't go somewhere." That gives me an idea. The roof, a perfect get away here.
"Who says we can't?" I ask, raising my eyebrows. She smile and I know she is thinking the same thing I am. We grab a few blankets, order a bunch of food and head off to the roof. We eat, get our fill of the sunlight, I sketch, mainly Katniss, but some of the plants hanging around, Kantiss practices some weaving. We even start game by throwing things into the force field and trying to catch it. This is the kind of life I wish we could have forever.
Noone comes up looking for us and late in the afternoon I sit playing with Katniss's hair as she lays with her head in my lap. I wish this moment could last forever. The feeling is so strong that my hands freeze in her hair and she asks, "What?" I wonder if telling her the truth would make her uncomfortable, but I cannot help myself.
"I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever."
"Okay," she says, surprising me. Really? She would want that? I smile and ask, "Then you'll allow it?"
"I'll allow it," she confirms. I begin playing with her hair and realize that she has, in her own way and finally, confirmed that she has a small amount of feeling for me as well. Why else would she let me freeze this moment and live in it with me?
Katniss dozes off, and I stay still so she will not wake up, but once the sun starts to set, I rouse her. The sky is an amazing mix of yellow, pink and, my favorite, orange. "I didn't think you'd want to miss it," I murmur to her.
She gives me a smile and says, "Thanks." We both know that at least one of our sunsets are limited, so we sit back and watch the whole thing. We do not join the others for dinner and, again, no one comes to find us, so we just stay up on the roof until bedtime and then we slip quietly into Katniss's room to sleep. We see no one and hear nothing from anyone, so we just get ready for bed and settle in for, what we hope is, another good nights sleep.