6: Victory Party
Gale POV
The train continues towards District 5. Today has been mainly boring so far, which is good. No men being shot, no having to worry about stirring up a rebellion. I'm not sure whether or not I want to meet Aravis's family or not. On one hand, we gave her a good death so there should be no reason for them to hate us. On the other hand, it'll bring back the grief of her dying.
I remember Aravis describing her District before. District 5 is also one of the bigger Districts, not as big as 11, but still quite large. Five borders the coast and Aravis was right- it does look like a good place to grow up. Of all the Districts that I've seen, District 12 seems like the worst to live in.
The train comes to a stop and I take a look at Katniss. We are dressed in the mourning outfits, but even so she looks beautiful. "Can we not make the same speech this time?" she asks me. "It seems disrespectful to Aravis's memory." She is right. After the Capitol sent a mutt to kill Aravis because she wasn't as popular as us, describing how much we love the Capitol is likely to sound very fake and is disrespectful to Aravis.
The train doors open and we walk onto the stage that District 5 prepared for us. The crowd here seems especially sad, Aravis was probably very well liked in the Games. I look to the side of the crowd, to the tributes family section. I see a woman who looks almost exactly like Aravis and a man with dark hair and piercing green eyes. My heart clenches as I see Aravis's younger sister. Tessa.
Tessa looks around twelve years old. She has the same striking, red hair as Aravis did. She sees me looking and smiles sadly, trying to put on a brave face. I'm sorry, I mouth to her. Katniss starts off a speech that I think that she just made up on the spot. That's a good thing, speeches like this from Katniss are usually stirring and heartfelt. My mind flashes back to the interview before the Games when she talked about Prim.
Katniss describes what Aravis did for us in the Games and what we did for her, finally concluding that we had a bond that went beyond the regular alliances in the Games and that we didn't want Aravis to die. I guess that that could be seen as rebellion, but to be honest it would take an idiot not to have seen that. I doubt that the people from Five will be stupid enough to start a riot after seeing what happened in Eight yesterday on TV. If the Capitol showed it, that is. But I think that they might have because it showed the Capitol killing the rebels.
I end up nodding at the end. "I'm sorry," I say to Aravis's family, who have tears in their eyes. The speech is over now, and Katniss and I exit the stage to where our families are waiting for us. I looks around back to Aravis's family and hesitate. I want to talk to them, just to them before leaving.
"I'm going to talk to Aravis's family now," I state. "Do you want to come with me?" I ask. My mother shakes her head. She has been very on-edge since yesterday in District 8 and wants to keep strictly to the Capitol schedule of coming, giving a speech, then leaving. Rory nods, but Posy wants to stay with mum.
I steer Rory around the edge of the crowds to where the tributes families are. I don't think I ever saw the boy District 5 tribute in the Games, he was one of those average tributes that either gets killed off in the Bloodbath or in the first few days by the career pack. I think that one was a Bloodbath.
"Hi," I say to them awkwardly. They give me a small nod and Tessa looks at me with tears held back in her eyes. I do feel guilty about Aravis's death, even if I didn't actually kill her and it was essential to my survival. I imagine Posy would be a bit like this if I had died in the Games.
"You're Gale," Tessa says, wiping away some water from her eye. "You were in an alliance with Aravis," she states. I nod, wondering where this is going. Is she angry at me for being indirectly responsible for her sister's death? "You helped her- you gave her food on the third day of the Games and you helped protect her at the feast."
I think back to the Games. Tessa is right, it was on the third day that I gave Aravis food and I shot Cato when he tried to run out at her to kill her. Tessa has a good memory, though it's probably normal if you were watching a loved one fight for their life. "I did- Aravis helped me, so I helped her."
As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I mentally kick myself. Me saying that made it sound like the alliance was just one of mutual benefit, that I didn't help her because I cared but because I wanted to get something back. Luckily, Tessa doesn't seem angry or react to my statement much.
"You gave her the loaf of bread before she helped you," Tessa says. "And you let her leave without her promising an alliance or anything. You let her take the bread because you didn't want her to starve to death." She reminds me of Aravis a lot, she's not overly emotional and is straight to the point and intelligent. She can analyse situations, just like Aravis used to in the Games.
"True," I say, grateful for the chance to explain what I said. "I couldn't let her starve to death, and Aravis was very clever. She saved my life when we were running from Cato and Clove- she paid me back for the bread." Well that was a bit better than before, still makes it sound like I just helped her so that she would help me. Which sort of was the arrangement at the beginning.
"Look, I'm not mad at you for winning, OK?" Tessa asks. "Aravis was trying to do the same and would have killed you if you had the chance, every tribute was trying to win. You did your best to help Aravis, therefore I like you. You were just trying to get back to your own brother and sister."
I nod, satisfied. Her saying that she doesn't resent me for winning was one of the main reasons for me coming. "Thanks for being decent about it," I say. "I have to go now, the train leaves soon. But hopefully we'll see you again some time?" I ask. I'm not sure how that will work before a rebellion starts, but I do want to see Tessa again, even if she does remind me a lot of Aravis.
"That sounds good," Tessa responds. "If you ever come back to District 5, I guess." I nod and turn around to go back to the train, dragging Rory with me as he waves to Tessa. Katniss is waiting for me in the compartment with her mum and Prim and my mum and Posy.
Districts Four, Three and Two all go quite smoothly. We do the rehearsed speech, sound a bit sorry in Three, neutral-ish in Four and gloating in Two. Seeing the families of Cato and Clove do nothing about my hatred of them. They were both only children, it seems common in Two and their parents looked more disappointed than anything.
I guess it takes a certain type of person to volunteer for the Games like they did, and it's not generally the sort of person with a loving family that will cry over their death. Most of Districts One and Two are probably quite normal, minus the Capitol lapdogs thing, but they have enough people that are insane to make them seem awful. District Four, I know is fairly normal. Judging by the Victors they have: an old lady named Mags, Finnick Odair and his girlfriend, mad Annie Cresta.
On the way to District One for the victory party, Katniss and I practise the proposal again and again. It's quite difficult to get it to look perfect and display exactly the emotions that the Capitol want, but after about an hour of practice, Cinna and Portia pronounce it passable.
I can feel the train slowing down, and soon it comes to a stop in District One. District One is probably the most unusual District that I've seen so far. Many people are dressed in a Capitol fashion with dyed hair and bright, impractical clothes. Those who aren't mainly look like Glimmer and Marvel did. Blonde, muscular and wearing subtle make-up to make themselves look even more beautiful. I don't think that I can see one ugly person in the whole crowd.
Katniss and I walk out onto the stage. We are dressed up in the first outfits we tried on, dark with fiery veins running through. Out of the corner of my eye, I glance at Katniss. She looks brilliant in her dress, much better than any of the District One girls. Less is more I guess, judging by the clear effort that went into most people here's outfits.
"Hello, people of District One!" I call into a microphone. My voice booms out over the District. Whispers snake through the crowd about us and I narrow my eyes. Keeping my temper through this will probably be harder than I originally thought. "I'm very glad to be here, and I know that you all want to party." I pause and inhale slowly, reining in my anger at what I just said. "But I have something to say before we can."
I turn to Katniss, and go down on one knee, just as we practiced. My hand goes to my pocket to pull out the box with the ring in it. "Katniss Everdeen," I say. "I have loved you since the first time I heard your voice. Would you let me have the honour of becoming your husband?"
Katniss does the small gasp that we practiced on the train and takes the ring. She slips it onto her finger. "Gale, thank you," she says. "Of course I will!" I smile slightly. The gasp might have been fake, but the emotions in that sentence were not. Katniss really does love me and I will be able to become her husband. I give a completely real smile as Katniss pulls me up and kisses me.
Her lips are so soft. My heart begins to puns in my chest as her tongue prods mine. I feel my fingers brush through her hair, wondering how it is so silky and smooth. I lean into the kiss, forgetting for a moment the huge audience that we have. It feels exciting to kiss Katniss like this, it just feels right.
We pull apart slowly. "I love you," I whisper in her ear. "Truly." She gives a slight nod and smiles. The kiss seemed to steal away any negative emotions that I had, but now that it is over the lurking anger comes back. My eyes scan the audience. Many of the people are making an irritating aww sound with their hands on their hearts. As if they would know what true love was if it slapped them in the face.
A tall man with long, dark blonde hair comes over to us. "Congratulations from District One and the Capitol," he says. This must be the mayor of One. "And now, I think it is time for us to party," he says, gesturing with both arms to all of the food and decorations around us. I nod stiffly.
Music starts to play and Katniss and I head over to one of the food tables, to get away from the crowds. It doesn't work of course, there are fans and random people with cameras following us there. The food here is at least as extravagant as the meals we received in the Capitol, if not more so.
It is because it's an occasion, but I doubt there are many people begging on the streets in District One. I feel Katniss's hand clenched in mine and I know that she feels the same way as me. It's obvious that we're not going to get any peace tonight, so I resign myself to an evening of photos and signing autographs.
It really is surprising that the reaction is like this, after all, we killed the District 1 tributes. Marvel at least, Rue killed Glimmer. But I guess that there are a lot of Capitol citizens here as well, probably providing the funding for the party. I think that our main fans are from the Capitol, judging by the people approaching us.
Katniss and I pose a few times for the cameras and sign more autographs than I care to count. I can't wait to get back to District 12 and home, but for the rest of this evening I am stuck in District One, partying with a group of people that I would be happy never to see again. Unfortunately, with our popularity there probably will be demands for more events like this. I sigh.
xXx-X-xXx
So what do you think of the rather-late chapter? I have no real excuse for it taking this long, just forgot to write it I guess. Hope you enjoyed and please review, follow or favourite. Thanks.
-MoonOfPluto