7. Back door encounters
"Lately, I've been seeing you more often than my parents." Not that it was particularly hard to achieve that, Madge thinks.
Ignoring her comment, Gale extends a piece of fabric to her. "Here," he says. It was the one she used as a bandage for his hand the night after the reaping. Madge knew enough about Gale to not be surprised that he would come all the way to her house in order to feel like he doesn't owe her anything. Even if it was just a ragged cloth.
"Why didn't you give it to me at school?" she asks, being the obvious choice.
"People see, people talk," he shrugs.
"God forbid someone associates you with the mayor's daughter," she replies bitterly, yanking the fabric out of his hand.
"Despite what your father might have you believing, the world doesn't revolve around your status."
"Oh, really? What is it then?"
"I just don't like you as a person."
"Smooth, Hawthorne." They could both tell his words sounded insincere. It's not like he knows her enough to dislike her, but he used to be certain he would dislike her. Now he couldn't make his mind, and that did not sit well with him.
"Where you always this feisty, Undersee?" Gale asked in between his teeth.
"I wish I could ask you the same, but we both know the answer, don't we?"
They had come close to each other during their banter, and now, with less than a foot between them, Gale really takes in Madge's appearance for the first time since he approached to her.
"Is that coal dust I see in your face?"
The color drains from Madge's face as he speaks.
"Shut up," she mutters.
"Actually, you look like you just came running from the Seam," he says, casting his eyes over her unusual outfit.
"Hawthorne…"
"I really didn't see that one coming. What could the mayor's daughter be doing in the Seam?" A malicious grin starts forming in his face, and Madge hates him for it. Why is it so enjoyable for him to fluster her?
"I was not…"
"Are you running around with some Seam boy?" he interrupts.
"That's… that's not…" she begins, her eyes darting nervously as she searches for an answer. The smug smile painted across his face in combination with the implausibility of the accusation leaves Madge at a loss for words, her brain flooded for a second with the realization that this is the first time she has seen Gale smile. She stares at the floor, trying to gather her thoughts. His words replay in her head, and she can't imagine a single plausible scenario that could explain her looks that isn't the truth or his stupid hypothesis. Her reaction is probably also not helping her case. Taking a deep breath, she figures that as long as he doesn't say anything, it doesn't really matter what he thinks. "Ugh, just keep your mouth shut."
Without looking up again she turns to the stairs, decided to go inside her house. However, when she sets her foot in the first step, a thought comes to mind, making her forget about the humiliation she felt. She glances in his general direction, not daring to meet his eyes, but she notices he hasn't moved from his spot next to the stairs.
"How are Prim and Mrs. Everdeen?" Her question seems to startle him, as if he had forgotten for the briefest of seconds the whole Hunger Games situation. Madge assumes he just wasn't expecting her to sound so concerned. In reality, it was a little bit of both.
He takes some time before he answers, pondering her sincerity. He seems to consider her deserving of an answer after all.
"Prim is talking about the opening ceremony non-stop. Mrs. Everdeen… is trying."
"Can I help?" Gale's features instantly harden.
"They won't want your charity, Undersee." Madge flinches at the way he spits her last name, but presses on.
"Katniss went into the Hunger Games. It's hardly the moment to get defensive," she states in the most objective tone she can manage. Gale remains impassive, and Madge opts for a more conciliatory approach. "Plus, I'm not offering charity. You know I can't. If there's anything I can do…"
"I'm taking care of it," he says, and Madge instantly feels anger bubbling up inside her. She refuses to let him dismiss her so easily when it's Katniss' family on the line.
"Is it enough?" As soon as the words leave her mouth, Madge mentally kicks herself. She basically insulted Gale's survival skills, which would hurt his pride and maybe destroy whichever level of tolerance he was starting to build towards her. Confirming her thoughts, Gale gives her a killer glance and, straightening up, starts walking past her. Madge does not attempt to apologize, but she knows she must try to earn his trust if she wants to help. "I mean… I'm sure you are doing everything you can. But it's a huge thing to do on your own."
Gale looks at her as if he is about to tell her where she can shove her help, but then he refrains himself. They do need help. He promised Katniss to look after her family, but they were already in a difficult situation before Katniss left. Madge is one of the few people in the district who wants and can offer any useful assistance. Besides, he is starting to think she might be a halfway decent person.
"Prim is beginning to make cheese," he says slowly, still hesitant about giving her a chance.
"Can I buy it?" A few days ago, she wouldn't have dared to offer, much less insist on it, assuming Gale would prefer to chop his own hand and eat it than accepting anything from her. However, Madge had become very skeptic of her assumptions since the reaping.
"I'll bring her with me on Sunday," Gale finally says, proving one more time that the odds were completely upside down. With a nod, he turns and leaves a speechless Madge in the doorway.
Once she gathers herself, she goes inside as fast as she can manage without running. In the last ten minutes, Gale had hinted in a weird way he didn't dislike her, laughed in her presence (he was also laughing at her, sure, but somehow it didn't feel as bad as when he scowled at her), and finally accepted her help during a mostly civil conversation. Shaking her head in disbelief, she hurries to the bathroom to take a shower and make sure her wound is still okay.
The next couple of days go with a blur. Madge follows the same routine, going to school and then disguising herself to go to the Seam. She often finds her mind drifting to the least pleasant part of her last conversation with Gale, which makes her cheeks flush and her stomach turn. She kept replaying one single moment in her thoughts. "Are you running around with some Seam boy?", he had said with that smug smile. In the school, she walks through the hallways with terror of seeing him but she doesn't, not once, and though at first, she thinks it's because of a strange strike of good luck, she starts thinking he might not be coming to school at all. It is not strange for people from the Seam to leave the school at some point during the end of the final year. This thought makes Madge uneasy, as pretty much everything that has to do with Gale.
At lunch, the giant screen they use for the Games broadcasts the commentaries of Caesar Flickerman. The Capitol is still excited about Katniss and Peeta, but they are starting to focus on the Careers again, including their possible allies such as that giant boy from 11. Madge tries to tune out the comments about weapons of choice and calculations of strength. It's not the easiest task, in particular when her old lunch partner is not only absent, but with her life on the line due to said choices and calculations.
In the afternoons, she goes to the old warehouse again to train. With ever growing pain, she pushes through Darius routine. She doesn't make it pass the hour, although she notices how the movements become slightly more instinctive for her body. She is still embarrassed that he was right about her endurance level, but all the strength of her desire to prove him wrong is not enough to actually do it.
She welcomes the silence of her own house in the evenings, basking in the last days without mandatory viewings, without being forced to sit through whatever twisted plot the Gamemakers will come up with this year. Her father hasn't been around for dinner, and even though she tells herself it is better not having to conceal her aching muscles and some of the small bruises and cuts she gets from the uneven floor in the warehouse, she feels more alone than ever, probably because it's been a while since she actually noticed the people (or lack thereof) around her.
Thus, Madge stops abruptly in her tracks on Saturday evening, when she finds her father sitting in the dining table. She thanks mentally their old maid, who would never allow her to come to dinner without showering and dressing properly when she was a kid, even when she was alone. Now, if she wanted to eat in the dining room, which didn't happen very often, she would still follow the old routine.
"Madge, darling, are you going to stand there all evening?" the mayor says without looking up from some folders, startling her.
"I, um… No", she says, fidgeting with the hem of her dress before taking her usual seat by his side. "I wasn't expecting you for dinner."
The mayor puts the papers he was studying away and takes off his reading glasses before staring at Madge. He takes her hand and gives her a small smile.
"I'm sorry, dear. I wanted to be around for you, but work has been piling up lately, and…" he suddenly interrupts himself, a frown appearing in his usually expressionless face. He had just brushed one of the scratches in her hand, making her flinch. "Madge, did you get hurt?" he says looking at the hand he was holding.
"Oh, no, it's nothing. I was gardening earlier and I wasn't being careful." The mayor doesn't seem fully convinced, but, maybe because he thinks the real explanation must not be something too worrying, or maybe out of habit of not asking questions, he doesn't press the issue. Madge almost wants to roll her eyes at his gullibility. Then it dawns on her, and she knows she should have realized before, that all of her plan will require a considerable amount of lies to her father on a regular basis. If he asked, where would she say she was spending her afternoons? Maybe she could go with Hawthorne's crazy idea. His father would disapprove, but didn't he said something about her needing to act like a normal teenager the other night? However, she was certain he wouldn't just disapprove, he would never allow it.
They eat mostly in silence, the mayor only interrupting his reading to make some small talk about school. Madge feels an ever-growing pit in her stomach the more she eats, probably related to the thought of Katniss' last day of training. Eventually, she decides she can't eat anymore and stands to go watch the scores.
"One last thing, Madge."
"Yes, Dad?"
"Remember to be more careful," he says without looking up from his papers. Madge stares at him, startled. "In the garden, I mean." He only looks up briefly, but she has the immediate certainty that he knows the cuts have nothing to do with the garden.
"Yes, Dad," she replies, walking into the living room with her heart loudly pounding inside her chest. Even though her father knows she lied, he can't possibly know what she is really doing with her afternoons. He would have done whatever fathers do when they strongly disapprove their children, not that Madge would know what that is, but she was imagining something along the lines of locking her inside the house or yelling at her, definitely not calmly sitting in the dining room. He doesn't know, she reassures herself, and whatever he is guessing is happening, it's not bad enough to make him do something about it. She will have to be more careful if she doesn't want to be caught in the first week, or ever.
The only thing that brings her out of her panicked train of thought is the eleven that pops up in the screen she has been staring past the last few minutes. Katniss scored an eleven. A smile populates Madge's face. Katniss is going all in, and so is she.
"Madge!", Prim greets her brightly as soon as Madge opens the back door.
"Hello, Prim!", she says, returning the girl's wide smile. She is not the same girl Madge saw in the Justice Building. Her expression is filled with hope and determination, full of energy as she swings the basket in her hands. However, the contrast between Prim and Gale, standing by her side as tall and sulky as ever, is striking.
"Did you see Katniss scored an eleven? An eleven!"
"Yeah, Prim. She must have blown their minds."
"I wonder how she did it! I bet it was with a bow…"
"Prim," says Gale in a warning tone.
"Oh, yeah. I mean, I have no idea how she did it. At all," she says intently looking at Gale, who shakes his head. However, Prim seems satisfied with her weak attempt at discretion and turns to Madge again. "Will you watch the interviews tomorrow?". Trick question, Madge thinks. Interviews are mandatory viewing.
"Of course. I bet Katniss will have an amazing dress again." Madge notices how Gale frowns at this. To be accurate, is more like his constant frown was enhanced, she thinks.
"She was so amazing in the opening ceremonies. It's all everyone is talking about!" The look in Gale's face says clearly that it's mostly Prim who is doing the talking. And then, without catching her breath, she continues, "we are watching together. You should come watch with us, if you want."
Madge's eyes widen in surprise, while Gale looks at Prim as if she suddenly had grown a second head.
"Oh! I…"
"Please, Madge. No one else will comment the dress with me. I keep saying it's the final chance to get sponsors, but no one listens!"
"The mayor's daughter probably doesn't want to go to the Seam, Prim. It's not a good place for her," says Gale with a malicious tone. Madge raises her brows, knowing he is making reference to his crazy assumption that she is seeing someone from the Seam. As if anyone her age other than Katniss, Seam or Town, would willingly come more than one meter away from her without some agenda. In any case, it is clear Gale is assuming she will find an excuse to say no, and normally she would.
Madge looks at Prim, whose face has fallen ever so slightly with Gale's comment, but still has some hope over it. What is her alternative, anyway? Going to the square again, where she would stand alone? Staying at home, with nothing but silence surrounding her? And here there is one person who seemed genuinely interested in having her, not out of pity, not with ulterior motives, just because she thought she could enjoy Madge's company. The old Madge would have never accepted, fearing everyone's opinions, knowing she would feel like an outsider because she couldn't possibly fit in anywhere else than in her own loneliness. The new Madge saw no reason to decline.
"I would love to join you, Prim," she says smiling at her, watching from the corner of her eye how Gale's jaw dropped.
"Do you know where my house is?"
After receiving the indications for the Everdeen's house, Madge generously pays for the cheese. Prim and Gale leave, the latter without saying another word.