Chapter 4

"... I can only appeal to your hearts, my dear viewers; all the cleaning equipment we are showing you today are top-of-the range in practicality, whether it's a floor cleaner to mop your kitchen with, or something fancier to polish your precious parquet…"

Lying on his couch, Haymitch watched the TV program as if he was paralyzed. At last, he knew why his life was a downward spiral; he lacked the optimal household cleaner for true happiness. Sales TV was pure magic. It was impossible to look away, it was like watching a gruesome traffic accident on the highway.

Until now, Haymitch had done very well at his Christmas holidays. He hadn't drunk himself unconscious, nor had he collapsed somewhere in the house. For him, his alcohol consumption over the last two weeks had been very moderate. His inner voice - which he tried to ignore – knew the reason.

Katniss Everdeen.

Each time her name appeared unintentionally in front of his eyes, his blood burned with anger. He wasn't in the mood to see her or even hear her name again, until the very end of the semester break.

Rubbing his burning eyes, he turned the TV off.

While happy families were now setting the table for lunch and Chaff was most likely flirting with some woman in some bar in Bermuda, Haymitch decided to go through the examination papers he'd neglected these past weeks.

With his old, grey bathrobe over his pyjamas, he shuffled into his study and looked ill-temperedly at the tall stack of papers on his desk. He took the first sloppily written exam paper in his hand. Whoever the author was, this student wouldn't be receiving any extra marks for beautiful handwriting. His gaze fell on the name in the top right corner.

Haymitch took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He could hardly suppress the urge to crumple the test paper in his hand and throw it into the corner of his study as he had read her name. Calm down, he told himself, everyone, even the most disliked student should get a fair chance.

Still wrapped in thoughts of vengeance, he fell into his comfortable leather office chair, put his feet on the desk and pulled out one of his countless red correction pens. Revenge was not a nice word, Haymitch knew, but in the end a university professor was just a human being, wasn't he?

Lost in thought, he ran his hand over his stubble. In his right hand, he still held the correction pen and until now he had not written a single note on the poor work. As far as he could see, everything was wrong - apart from her own name, he recognized with a twisted smile.

His student had completely failed.

Why?

He knew how easily a scholarship could be squandered and if, after this desolate performance, another followed, some other penniless pupil would be given the opportunity to study at Richmond. And Katniss Everdeen would be out of the game.

…

Haymitch parked his car in front of a small house in one of the poorest areas of Kentucky. He could easily make out the peeling paint on the window shutters, the missing roof shingles. The other houses on either side of the street didn't look any better. Nothing new for him, he had grown up in similar surroundings.

He was on his way to the young woman to wake her up, to show her that it was worth fighting for her future. His hands were buried deep in his coat pockets as he walked through the snow towards the house. Before Haymitch could even ring the bell, the door was wrenched open by a young girl. A glance into her bright eyes told him that one day she would break many young men's hearts. Probably Katniss Everdeen's younger sister, although, Haymitch couldn't see any resemblance.

"Have you come to see us?" The girl asked with delight.

"Yeah, do you have an older sister, Katn….?"

"Yes, of course." She gave him a smile. "Katniss, you have a visitor." She shouted back into the house.

"Are you a friend from Richmond?" The girl asked with curiosity "My sister never tells me anything about what it's like there and ..."

"Primrose, stop asking people like that, it's rude." Katniss appeared in the doorway, and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw her professor. "What do you want?" She snapped suspiciously.

"Katniss." The girl turned towards her sister, embarrassed. "You're rude!"

Suppressing the hint of a smile, it came to Haymitch's mind that the young girl was the total opposite of her sister. She was likeable.

Katniss took a deep breath and asked her sister, with as much courtesy as she could muster, to go back into the house. After the teenage girl had disappeared, Katniss's cold gaze went back to her college professor.

"Yes?" She asked briskly.

Haymitch cleared his throat. "I have looked at your last exam papers..."

"And?" She folded her arms in front of her chest.

"Everything you wrote is completely wrong. Maybe you could explain to me why you have failed?" He demanded.

A dangerous glitter appeared in Katniss's eyes.

If everything weren't so tragic, Katniss would have laughed out loud. Where should she begin, that she couldn't sleep at night, worried about her little family? That there was a mortgage on the shabby house which she could never pay back, that she worked more in her free time than was good for her studies, that she lived in constant worry that her sick mother would swallow one too many sleeping pills or that the welfare services would take her little sister away?

The dangerous glitter in her eyes changed into a glimpse of despair. If Haymitch had blinked, he would have missed it. But he had not blinked, so he was able to catch that rare moment of vulnerability in her snow-white face.

Katniss lips started trembling with anger and the only word she managed to force was a short "No."

"Didn't understand the topic?" Haymitch probed, unflinching.

"I understood the subject, Professor." She said with a cool voice.

"You will lose your precious scholarship with this kind of behaviour. Do you really want that?"

"Professor Abernathy, it's very nice of you to worry about me - for whatever reason - but I am an adult and I am more than aware of my behaviour."

Haymitch sighed and his expression changed from worry to resignation.

"Do you know what your problem is, Miss Everdeen? Your arrogance. This false pride will one day be your downfall." With those harsh words, he turned on his heel and went back to his car.

Katniss Everdeen stood in the doorway, struggling with herself. Arrogance? She had decided to study to help her family. Out of compassion, out of love.

She took a deep breath and conceded herself beaten for the moment. "You won!" Her own words ached in her ears. "What should I do?"

"Tutoring. This afternoon. Three o'clock at my place." He replied without turning around.

Katniss tried to hide her surprise. "Your address?"

"Ask Google Maps!"

…

Katniss didn't know what she had expected, but certainly not this. Her surprised gaze fell on Haymitch's architecturally outstanding home. It was built on the outskirts of Lynch, on the most beautiful side of the small mining town, with an impressive view over the valley. A bright white wooden fence surrounded the large garden. How many people would live in this mansion? Until now, Katniss hadn't seen her professor as a family man, but this house screamed family.

Katniss walked quietly up the driveway and rang the bell. Footsteps approached the door, and she prepared herself to look into the lovely eyes of Mrs. Abernathy and her brood of children at the next moment.

But instead of a delightful swarm of kids, she found herself looking into the grumpy face of her professor. He looked as if he had just fallen out of bed.

"Miss Everdeen?" He raised his eyebrows questioningly. "What do you want?"

"We have an appointment." Katniss pointed out. "It was your idea!"

"Mine?"

"Yes, yours." Katniss frowned. "You wanted to give me a private tutoring lesson. Did you forget about it?" She added coolly.

After meeting her, he had fallen asleep with a bottle of whiskey on his chest in his beloved TV chair. The last thing he needed now was to teach the basic concepts of economic mathematics to his most stubborn, bad-tempered student.

But she was right, it was his very own glorious idea.

"Okay, come in." Haymitch said, turning and shuffling towards the kitchen.

Katniss entered the hall and her gaze roved around bluntly. Whoever had furnished this house, they had definitively proven taste. Everything was classic, elegant; in a word, timeless. From the bottom of her heart, Katniss could say that this could never have been the accomplishment of the person who had her just opened the door.

As she hung up her coat, her gaze went to the clothes in the wardrobe. She could only see a dark, worn-out men's coat, no funny, colourful children's jackets were to be found, much less a woman's coat. Katniss had to wonder if her professor lived alone in this huge house.

"Would you like a coffee or do you prefer tea?" Haymitch called from the kitchen. "I've got black tea, fruit tea, Christmas tea… no sorry, that one's out-of-date, maybe you…"

"Fruit tea, any kind, I don't care." Katniss shouted back.

She turned around in the hall and her eyes were dazzled by a tasteful modern chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. No, there was no family here, and what was even worse, there had never been anyone. No woman and certainly no children.

…

An hour later, Haymitch wondered self-critically whether he was such a bad teacher, or whether his student simply had no interest in what he was writing on the old chalkboard. So far, he had explained the same calculation to her three times, asking her for a solution, and getting a wrong answer every time.

He felt a strong desire to pull Sleeping Beauty by her long dark locks, and wake her from her reverie.

"Miss Everdeen, are you listening to me?" Haymitch stood next to the board, put his hands on his hips and shooting her a long, annoyed glance.

Guiltily, Katniss looked up from her notes and peered into Haymitch's clear blue eyes.

"Sure," She said slowly, her eyes shifting from her professor to the notes on the board. The figures meant absolutely nothing to her.

"Fine." She could hear the dripping mockery in his voice. "Then please, repeat my last words." An arrogant grin appeared on Haymitch's face. "Here, on the blackboard."

He threw the chalk in her direction, and to his great surprise, Katniss was able to catch it with a quick movement.

Her gaze fell slowly onto the marker in her hand, as if she did not know what to do with it. Finally, she rose from the wooden chair, and rounded the desk to get to the board on the wall.

Haymitch's arrogant smirk was frozen on his face as he watched her. So far, she had stolen an hour of his life. He wasn't in the mood to play this game any longer. She should prove that she was worth his time.

"I'm sorry, what...what was the question?" Her gaze was still aimed straight at her hands.

"Well," He said very slowly, as he leant back against the cold wall of his study and crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes wandered around the room, affectedly, as if he was thinking her question over. "I would say, it was about costing."

She swallowed hard, feeling paralyzed. The numbers started dancing in front of her eyes and her ears roared from his mocking words. Lack of sleep and her constant fear about her small family had finally worn her out.

"Your boyfriend must be incredibly lucky." He poured oil onto the fire. "That you are always thinking of him."

Trembling with rage, her body and soul came back to life. Katniss straightened herself, set her chin and looked defiantly into the glittering, mocking eyes of her professor.

"How dare you! What do you know about my life?" She snapped at him. "Nothing, absolutely nothing!"

"I know what I see, and I see that you don't make any effort!" His harsh voice reflected all the anger and disappointment of the past hour.

"I am doing my best!" Katniss raised her voice threateningly.

Haymitch pushed himself off the wall and took a challenging step toward her. "You are? So tell me, girl, why I haven't noticed it!"

Furiously, Katniss slammed her fists on Haymitch's old desk and leaned in. Both opponents had licked blood and were ready to jump at the other's throat. Her glowing eyes had fixed his, and he realized that if her look could kill, he would already be lying on the floor. Bleeding to death.

"Because…" Katniss's lower lip began to tremble.

"Yes, Miss Everdeen?" Haymitch's voice was adamant, and he noticed that his fingers had begun to twitch. He could hardly suppress the desire to grab her roughly on her arm and bring her to awareness. "I am waiting for your answer!"

Like a wild animal, Katniss had been driven into a corner, and the only thing that came to her mind was to escape. She wanted to run out of this house into the forest and to hide away until she froze to death. Everything, would be over. No worry, no grief, no pain.

At a single blow, her eyes lost their focus and a tear-veil lay over them as the profound hopelessness of the last few years finally broke out. Before Haymitch's eyes, the proud, cool, unapproachable Katniss Everdeen raised her hands before her face and collapsed crying on her knees.

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment, all his arrogant, insulting words, grieved him deeply. Exhaling softly, Haymitch moved to Katniss and dropped to his knees beside her. Very gently, he stroked the long, dark locks of the poor young girl shaken by crying fits.

"Everything will be all right, sweetheart."