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She tried to be kind in a cruel world
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I was sitting by myself in the cafeteria for dinner the next day when I heard someone sit down next to me. I had expected it to be one of the boys but was shocked once I saw Katniss. A good looking man sat down next to her.
"Hey," I tell her. "How was visiting twelve?"
"Everything was ruined," she explains. "Capital building, people's homes, bones were everywhere." I watched her shudder. "Everything except mine and Peeta's house."
"Snow left it like that?" She nods.
"On purpose I'm sure. Like I'm the reason twelve got bombed." We all were, everyone in the 75th games. He didn't like that Katniss shot the arrow at the forcefield. That's what started it all, the war. I look at the brown haired man sitting next to Katniss.
"I'm Kat," I say. The man gives me a friendly smile and stretches his hand out to meet mine.
"Gale, nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you." I smile in return, and look at Katniss who was picking at her food.
"Food's awful, isn't it?"
"Better then the bread we ate at home," Katniss says. I forgot how poor twelve was. I felt guilty for saying that now.
"Sorry," I say and look at the food. I take another bite, we could be living in way worse conditions. "I didn't mean for that to sound like I came from two." They both chuckle.
"It's okay, we're used to the best food now that we became victors huh?" I nod and shrug. I hear people sit down on the other side of me.
"What are you doing over here?" Roland asks. Charlie and Aiden both sit down too.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" He looks at Katniss and then nods at Gale.
"Gale, good to see you," Roland says.
"Likewise man, what have you been up too?"
"Training this one," Roland says and motions towards me. "She just joined the guard."
"I didn't know that Kat," Gale says. "You'd be a great addition. You're very talented with knives." I thanked him and looked at the water sitting in my cup. I heard the famous introduction on the television that hung up on the wall.
"Good evening, and welcome," Caesar Flickerman says.
"Wonder what this will be about," I mumble. Nothing's ever good when Caesar comes on screen. It doesn't look like he's in the tribute center anymore either.
"We have a very special guest for you all tonight, to share some light on the harsh times that we are living through," Caesar says. Katniss and I exchange looks, both eyebrows scrunched, a bad feeling in both of our stomachs. "Mr. Peeta Mellark."
"Oh my god," I whisper. I look at Katniss, and she looks like she's in awe as she see's Peeta for the first time in months. I swallow hard as I look back up at the television.
"Peeta, a lot of people feel as though they're left in the dark in these times," Caesar says. I watch as Katniss walks up to the television and just stands underneath it. I think I would've collapsed to my knees if I saw Cato. I do wonder though, since Peeta is still alive if Cato is.
"I can't believe he's still alive," I whisper to Roland. He looks at me and nods.
"I bet that means Cato is too," he says. "Peeta looks fine."
"To our eyes, we have no idea what's going on in there," I tell him. He shrugs and nods.
"Talk us through what happened on that final night in the arena," Caesar says.
"Neither of us knew that there was a bigger plan out there, Katniss didn't know. She didn't know about any of this," Peeta says. Gale was standing next to Katniss at this point, right under the television.
"But Peeta, Katniss was the one that fired the arrow at the arena, you do know that much right?"
"Yes but she was just doing what she thought was right. We had no idea about this plan."
"You had no idea?" Caesar asks like he didn't believe Peeta.
"No." How could Peeta stay so calm?
"It seems as though she was part of this rebel plan, does it not?" Caesar asks. "Her and Katalina both." I roll my eyes. Keep my name out of your mouth blue haired freak.
"Do you think it was part of her plan to be almost killed by Johanna? Or to be paralyzed by lightning? No we had no idea about this plan and I cannot stress that enough! I know Katalina, Cato knows Katalina, they wouldn't do this." I exhaled.
Cato?
"He spoke to Cato?" I ask in disbelief. All the boys look at me. "Is he alive? Roland is he alive?"
"I-I don't know Kat," Roland says to me. I look back at the television.
"I need to know, I'm just sitting here eating this all up Roland," I tell him.
"Maybe he'll come on the screen, you don't know. Just relax Kat." I look back up at the television and see that now the camera is just on Peeta.
"I want everyone who's watching this to stop, and to think about what a war could mean for our country." I heard whispers around us, and dirty looks exchanged with one another. Oh no. "We almost went extinct once before, and now our numbers are even lower. Is this really what we want to do?"
"This isn't good," I say lowly.
"Everyone needs to lay down their weapons immediately," Peeta says.
"Traitor!" Someone yelled. I look at Katniss, as she nervously looked around at all of the people around us were furious.
"Are you calling for a cease fire, Peeta?" Caesar asks.
"Yeah, I am."
Everything sounded like a blur. Everyone was screaming towards the television at Peeta, angry that he seemed like he had sided with the capital. I watch Katniss run out of the cafeteria and I sigh, sitting back down.
