Chapter 8—presumption (Gale's Friday)
Gale spent most of the day in a bad mood. He had been irritated—mad, even—with Katniss before. She was a scrawny twelve-year-old when he first met her, checking out his snare lines in the woods. He thought her name was "Catnip" at first. The nickname stuck. Gale showed her how to set snares and traps. Katniss gave him one of her father's bows. They traded their knowledge and secrets about the woods.
But he still didn't like her much. Not at first. She was touchy, defensive and stubborn. Plus, she looked like a half-feral cat. Still, he couldn't deny that she was an incredible hunter. She never missed her target and she was deadly quiet. He never heard her footsteps, in the woods or out.
Even after they became friends and she didn't annoy him anymore, Gale still thought of Katniss like a sister. She was just an underweight little girl who was never getting married and never having kids. She'd first made this pronouncement when she was 13, right before her second Reaping. "Catnip, with your looks, I don't think marriage will ever be a problem for you," he'd teased. She wasn't the least bit insulted. If anything, she took pride in being a scrawny tomboy. For the next couple of years, nothing changed. They bickered, they got on each other's nerves but they were a team. They trusted each other.
But then last summer happened. Katniss had turned 15 in May. There was an abundance of game that year, and good weather meant lots of berries and greens to gather. Maybe it was the extra food but whatever the reason, Katniss had a growth spurt that captivated Gale. He'd spent as much time cataloging the changes in her appearance as he did looking for game trails. He found himself bickering with her less and talking with her more. And looking at her more. And thinking about her more.
By the end of the summer, Katniss was flat-out gorgeous and Gale had formulated a plan. She didn't want to get married or have kids? Good. Neither did he, at least not for a long time. But he DID want to leave District 12. Gale had heard rumblings from some of the coal miners that there was a resistance out there, biding its time. The only way to find out, though, was to escape.
He had one Reaping left. Katniss had three. Once they had their Reapings safely behind them, he would convince Katniss to run away with him. If they found the resistance, they would fight the Capitol. If they didn't, well, they would still have each other. Either way, she would be his. She was his.
Gale wasn't stupid. He and Katniss had witnessed firsthand what the Capitol did to people who tried to escape. A young couple from the Capitol had tried to escape through the woods last fall. A Capitol hovercraft appeared out of nowhere, capturing the girl and killing the boy.
But those kids were Capitol. He and Katniss were Seam. They were hunters and could live off the land if they had to. All he needed to do was bide his time.
Gale felt very secure in his plans. So secure, in fact, that he hadn't discussed them with Katniss. For starters, their siblings were too young to lose the support he and Katniss provided. They needed a few more years to make their families self-sufficient.
Mostly, though, it never occurred to Gale that Katniss could ever be interested in anybody except him. Katniss had no other friends, except for the Mayor's daughter. Not one guy had ever had the courage to talk to her, not that any of them had even noticed her until this past year. Well, he'd seen the youngest Mellark kid moon after her for years, even when she still looked like a half-starved savage. It was almost amusing—Katniss would trade squirrels with the baker and this kid would be trying so hard to act like he wasn't staring at Katniss. It didn't matter, though; she'd never noticed him.
Now Rye Mellark was coming along and putting all of Gale's plans at risk. This band would keep Katniss away from the woods, away from Gale. Worse, she'd be spending time with four guys, all in Gale's year. Cartwright was a twit and a cream-puff; Gale wasn't worried about him. Marsh and Mandor weren't bad guys but they didn't strike Gale as being anything special, either.
Rye, well...Rye worried Gale. Rye was one of the only Merchant kids who actively argued against the Merchant-Seam divide. He was also one of the few boys in the District who could probably hold his own against Gale in a fight. (Rye's kid brother—the one too chicken-shit to talk to Katniss—was one of the others. He'd seen them both wrestle. They were good.)
Gale wasn't sure he liked Rye but had some respect for the guy. Now Katniss was going to be spending a lot of time with him. The thought kept Gale sullen the entire day.
When school got out, Gale collected Rory and Vick and started for home. He was minding his own business when Madge Undersee suddenly appeared. She stood in front of him like she could block his way. She couldn't, of course; he could just walk around her. He was about to do just that when she said, "We need to talk, Gale Hawthorne."
Her voice didn't sound like the mousy girl he was used to. There was a very determined look on her face. Still, as curious as he was about this assertive side of Madge that he'd never seen before, he wasn't about to be bossed around by her. "I don't think we do," he sneered and he started to walk away.
She grabbed his arm and said, "Fine. I'll talk and you'll listen. And when I'm done, you can apologize."
Gale rolled his eyes and said in the most insincere voice he could muster up, "I'm sorry I was rude to you the other night. I should not have said those things. Please forgive me. Good bye."
"That," said Madge, "is the most pathetic thing I've ever heard from a grown man. Now shut your mouth, Gale Hawthorne. I'm going to have my say."
Gale didn't really want to hear what she had to say but if he let Madge give her little townie speech, he could tell Katniss he'd apologized to her little townie friend. He crossed his arms over his chest and made a point of not looking at Madge.
"First things first, Gale. If you ever want to be friends with Katniss again, you are going to have to get over your ridiculous hangups about people from the Merchant class." Gale started to protest but she continued as if he hadn't spoken at all. "Katniss has spent most of this week surrounded by Merchant folk. They've all accepted her with open arms. The only person who keeps telling her she can't be with Merchant kids because she's from the Seam has been you."
Gale ground his teeth but didn't say anything.
"OK, moving along. Katniss isn't cheating on you, so stop acting like she is. You've known her for, what, four years? In all that time, you've never treated her like anything but a kid sister. You don't have any right to be angry that other guys have noticed her. You had your chance and you didn't take it."
Rory and Vick started chortling at this. Crap. He'd forgotten they were there. "Rory! Take Vick home and keep your mouth shut about this to mom." They didn't move, so he pointed in the direction of their house. "Go. Now." Rory and Vick left with giant, shit-eating grins on their faces. Off in the distance, he could see Katniss and Prim taking the long way home. Katniss wasn't looking at him but Prim was. Wonderful.
Gale turned back to Madge. He still wouldn't look at her but his jaw was beginning to twitch. He kept telling his feet to walk away but it was like he was frozen in place. Madge was Katniss' other best friend, and so far, her words were confirming all of Gale's deepest fears. He wanted her to stop talking but she wasn't finished.
"And for god's sake, stop telling her that the only reason those boys want her in the band is so she'll part her legs for them. Most people in this District don't see her as a sex object, they see her as a hunter. Once they hear her sing, they're going to think of her as a singer. More than that, Gale, they are going to love her. She's that good."
Gale looked at her skeptically, which caused Madge to give out a short burst of laughter. She looked at him with a combination of amusement and frustration. Gale realized for the first time that her eyes were brown. It was such a contrast, dark eyes with her blond hair.
"Look, I don't really think she'd let one of those boys do anything-"
"Yes, you do," Madge interrupted.
"No, I don't!" Gale protested.
"Yes. You. Do. Let's be honest, Gale. You do think she'd let some boy charm his way into her life—and her pants—or you wouldn't keep bringing it up. You're not upset that Katniss is hanging out with Merchant kids. You're upset she's hanging out with boys. Tell me—if this band was from the Seam, would you somehow be less upset?"
No, he thought but he just glowered at Madge. It seemed like a much better answer than admitting she was right.
"If nothing else, Gale, Katniss joining this band could be what prevents Prim from ever having to take out tesserae. Katniss has three Reapings left. After that, she won't qualify for tesserae anymore but Prim will have three more Reapings to go. How many tesserae did Katniss take out in her first three years? Twelve? Thirteen?"
Gale nodded, "more, I think. I've taken out over 35. Not that you would know anything about that. You've never even gone hungry." His tone was getting angry again.
Madge sighed. "Gale, if it were up to me, nobody would need to take out tesserae. Ever. But it's not up to me, so I'm going to support my friend while she tries to find a way to keep her family fed. I'll leave it up to you to decide why her other best friend-the one who does know what it is like to go hungry-cares more about his own hurt feelings than he does about her odds in that Reaping Bowl."
Gale stared at his feet. It was like Madge had pricked a hole in his pride and all of the anger was slowly leaking out. He felt ashamed of himself. Madge gently put her hand on his arm and said, "before I go, Gale, one last thing." He looked down at her hand and then into her eyes. Her brown eyes were fierce, intense. She leaned in close to him. His gray eyes were drawn to her mouth as she parted her pink lips. She stood on her toes and whispered right into his ear so nobody could possibly hear:
"You have no idea what it is like living under the thumb of Capitol surveillance 24 hours a day. Most of my home isn't safe for that kind of discussion. Don't discuss the Capitol again on my back porch, OK? If you ever do want to talk about it, I know where we can speak freely in this District and where we can't. Got it?" She tossed her hair and walked away.
Gale felt his heart pounding. She knows where the surveillance is. He'd have bet a summer's supply of strawberries that Madge wasn't supposed to have that kind of information. And she'd practically invited him to ask her about it.
He wondered how he had never noticed that Madge wore old faded dresses to school, just like Seam girls. Her shoes were nothing special. She didn't ever wear jewelry. You'd never know she was the wealthiest kid in the District.
Gale realized he'd been standing in the same spot, staring into space, for several minutes. Shaking the thoughts of blond hair and brown eyes out of his head, he headed back towards the Seam. He needed to make things right with Katniss.
Madge was right. Gale had never told Katniss that he felt differently about her. They'd been talking more but he'd never told her that he was attracted to her. He didn't think he'd ever have to. And he'd assumed she was attracted to him, too. What if she wasn't?
Gale let that thought roll around his head for a bit. What if Katniss would only ever see him as a friend? Did that change how he felt about her? Well...yeah. It did. The idea that she wouldn't want him didn't make him angry, exactly, but he sure wouldn't want to run away with her, either. Cold nights on the run with a girl who was "just friends" would be worse than going alone. His plans for the future, for escaping District 12 and finding the resistance, looked very different without her in them.
He got to the Everdeen's house and knocked on the door. He apologized. He asked her—in his own way—if she had romantic feelings for him. She said no. It didn't break his heart but it didn't feel great, either.
She told him that Peeta Mellark was walking her home. Well, hell. He'd been worried about Rye. Instead, Peeta "please-don't-catch-me-staring" Mellark was going to be walking home the girl he'd been pining after for years. Gale wasn't thrilled, but at least Peeta seemed to like her for who she was and not just because she'd gotten hot.
"Well...I suppose there are worse bodyguards you could have." The relief and gratitude on Katniss' face at this statement was so obvious that Gale felt a rush of affection for her. I still matter to her, he thought. Maybe that's enough.
After discussing whether he should go to Madge's house that night, Gale knew he needed to clear the air on one more thing. "You going hunting tomorrow morning?"
"I'd planned to, yeah."
"Are we still hunting partners?" The woods wouldn't be the same without her. I've missed her these last couple of days, he realized. I've missed my friend.
"Of course, we're still hunting partners." She seemed surprised by the question.
Gale gave her a one-armed hug. "Thank god. I don't want to go back to those woods without my backup. You're still the best hunter I've ever known. And you're the best friend I've ever had." There. He'd friend-zoned her. She probably didn't notice that he'd done that but it made Gale feel better.
"Me, too." Nope. She hadn't noticed. Ah, well.
Gale stood up to leave. "Tell Madge I'm going to stop by around 8:00. And Catnip? Be nice to Peeta. You scare the shit out of him."