It's A Jungle Out There

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

I run my finger along the spines of the books that sit tightly against one another in the school library. It's strange how I haven't noticed how many actual, well, books there are in our school library. I always knew there were books here, obviously. I just never noticed that there was so many classic novels. I thought it was just a bunch of cheap books that Snow purchased in a possible back alley just to fill the shelves and make us look educated.

Pride and Prejudice; The Great Gatsby; Sense and Sensibility. I think I remember trying to read something similar to these and I couldn't get through it because the writing was too incomprehensible. For my primitive brain anyway. I wonder if Peeta knows what some of this means? Maybe if we ever have some spare time he could give me a hand understanding it.

I pull Pride and Prejudice off the book shelf and wedge it under my arm. I hop to the table Peeta and I study at and wait for him to show up. I wonder if Snow realizes that he hasn't really punished me. It's no secret that he's well aware of the food chain idea that the people at the top created. I don't understand the teachers' desperation to be 'in' with the popular kids but they give them more attention to the middle and the lower dwellers. That's why he thought making me-someone who has spent most of her life at the top-spend my lunch with Peeta-someone who has been said to be at the bottom ever since he started school-was a horrible enough punishment for fighting with Clove. It benefitted me greatly but looking at that system in a subjective point of view, it is completely extortionate. It really hurts me to think that this is a system I have spent my life believing was good and fair.

"Sorry I'm late, Katniss." Peeta swerves around the tables in his way and falls into the seat across from me. His hands disappear into his bag to pull his books out and I capture a splash of blue disappearing into the satchel.

"Is everything alright?" I ask. He's been late to our school sessions more than usual. It's made me worried that me now knowing that he's anorexic is putting him off coming to see me.

"Yeah, I just had to go to the hospital," Peeta says.

My heart lifts. "What for?"

Peeta lifts his hand out of satchel and my heart sinks. "Oh my god, what happened?"

His fore and middle fingers are wrapped together in blue bandage and there's a splint inside the wrapping. "Gale broke it. He said I don't have the right to turn Cato down. He said since all the girls obviously aren't into me I should be grateful that anyone likes me."

I throw my face into my hands. "Oh my God I'm so sorry," I say. "That was my fault. Glimmer has been spreading lies about me and Clove and when we confronted her a lot of things got blurted out. It wasn't me, I promise. Clove knew you had been given a jacket and said it on a whim. If she'd known that Gale was going to . . . to . . ." I've taken his hand into my own and am anxiously stroking the blue bandage. "Be Gale she wouldn't have . . ."

"Hey, Katniss, it's fine," says Peeta. "Katniss, look at me." I'm staring at his fingers, unable to tear my eyes away from the horrifying truth of what has been done to him. A warm hand suddenly touches my face and I inhale sharply at the way my heart stops completely at the sudden touch. Peeta makes me look at him. Not forcefully. He'd never use force. He simply guides my face up so my eyes meet his. "Listen to me, Katniss. None of this is your fault, okay? None of it. I can look after myself. I've handled Gale long before Cato handed me the lettermen jacket and I will probably be handling him long after Cato has moved on to another student he wants to manipulate."

"That doesn't mean breaking your finger is right," I contradict. My hand is still on top of his injured one. I can't believe Gale did that. Well, I can believe it, really. I just don't want to believe it.