The Hunger Games- Prim's Story

Chapter 23

When I wake up, it's early morning and Peeta is sleeping against the wall of the cave. I look around with bleary eyes. My eyes focus on a pile of food laid out prettily on the floor of the cave. I'm just about to shake Peeta awake, but I feel a tingling sensation in my face and leg. I gingerly touch my face and I don't feel the burns that my face has gotten accustomed to.  I smile and am surprised by how easily it comes. I pull up my pant leg to look at my burns and those are almost clear too. The tingling burns but it's not too serious. Still, I take out the Happy Pills. Maybe they double as a painkiller. 

I poke Peeta's cheek to get him to wake up and he blearily opens his eyes. I don't stop poking him though. It's kind of fun and I haven't had any fun in a while. He rolls his eyes at me and begins to poke the side of my head. This goes on silently for a few seconds before Peeta stops and says, "So, you like your new face?" 

I nod and ask, "But I only put it on my leg, did you put it on my face?" 

He nods and smiles at me when I give him a small hug. I hope this is little sisterly enough. He asks, "You hungry? You should eat something." He starts a small fire and heats up the rest of my chili and hands it to me. I get to look closer at the food. There's those beautiful rolls in the shape of roses, goaat cheese, chrisp apples, and those delicious cupcakes we had in the Capitol. 

I take a glance at the cupcakes and muster up the most excited little girl face I can manage. "Look Peeta! They sent the cupcakes! Aren't they so pretty!" I gush. 

He smiles and says, "Here you have one of them. And eat some apple too." I take an apple while he helps himself to an apple and a roll. We eat silently and finish quickly. I'm still hungry, but I don't have any  urge to get more food, but still, I plead, "Can we have more?" I give him my sweetest eyes and he laughs. 

"Yes, we can have more." I smile and begin to cheer when Peeta's voice stops me. "After an hour. We haven't eaten food this nice for a long time. We have to make sure it stays down." I pout, but my mind is elsewhere. It's pretty interesting to try to feel something when all you feel is numbness. 

I wonder what Haymitch is saying about us now. At this time in the Games, they'll drag the mentors out to talk about the tributes. Haymitch will probably try to paint us in the best light possible, after all, I guess we're a pretty special pair of tributes. We're both silent, listening to the rain. I guess I should probably break the silence. "When we get home, our only neighbor will be Haymitch," I say numbly. 

Peeta laughs and says, "Imagine that? Haymitch, you, and me, all in those big fancy houses. We won't have to worry about anything ever again."

I nod. "My mom and sister would live with me too. You would like that," I say, poking his cheek. "Katniss right next-door to you. You'll be in heaven." 

He closes his eyes and smiles. "That sure sounds like heaven." 

I can imagine what it would be like. Katniss will probably have sleepovers at his house. She's had sleepovers with him before, she likes going to his house. And she is always happy when he drops her back at home, but not for the reason people would think. She told me. She's happy because he's very sweet to her. And he doesn't even mention doing anything with her. I know she's very grateful for this, she's confessed to me, under the covers, during our late-night gossiping sessions, that she really has no interest in doing that. And she told me that he said he doesn't mind not doing anything with her, and he just wants to make her happy. 

A question comes to my mind and I gently pull Peeta's hair to get his attention. He looks at me and smiles and I whisper my question in his ear. "Are you and Katniss going to have kids? Ever?"

Peeta looks like he's going to laugh and he says, "We're still only kids, there's plenty of time for that. We don't have to worry about that for years."

"Come on Bread Boy. You must have some idea," I poke him until he rolls his eyes. 

"I really don't know, Buttercup." He grins and I roll my eyes. 

"I don't like when you call me that!" I say, pushing him with my shoulder.

"And I don't like when you call me Bread Boy. So we're even right?"

"Please!" I plead. This is the first time since this morning I've felt a real feeling. Of course, Peeta was wrong. And I was too. Those things don't numb you. 

He ponders for a minute and then whispers, "I don't know Prim. I really wouldn't mind either way. And I don't think Katniss is really into that stuff."

I nod. That makes sense. We eat a little more and I have a roll with goat cheese. The Capitol cheese is so much better than home. We take turns napping and between naps, we talk a little. It's easier to drift off to sleep than muster up enough emotion to make conversation. 

I wake up to the anthem blaring and a face in the sky. Thresh's face. I feel a strange sort of relief. One person closer to District Twelve, right? I look at Peeta and he slumps against the wall of the cave. He's trying so hard to conceal his emotions, but it's laughably easy to see through it. I don't know what to do, so I just pat his shoulder until he manages a smile. 

"He was my ally," he says. I nod. I know a thing or two about seeing your old ally die. "If we weren't going to win, I wanted him to. He was a good friend. A good ally." 

"It was probably Cato. And that means he'll be wounded." I say. "It's us and him. You think they'll let us have another day before the big fight?" 

Peeta takes a deep breath to steady himself and then replies, "I don't know. Hopefully." 

He gives me the blanket and I quickly fall asleep. Peeta wakes me up in the middle of the night and says sheepishly, "I got tired, can you keep watch?" I nod and he lays down and quickly falls asleep. 

I wake him up in the morning, with all my stuff ready. He looks confused and I say, "We should try and find him. Maybe if we find him today, killing him will be easier than whatever the Gamemakers are planning." He nods and we eat a quick breakfast and then he gathers his stuff. We pack some food, but not all of it. No point in having our feast weighing us down. 

The day is sunny and warm. We go walk back to where we left Rue and Thresh after the announcement. It takes a few hours to get there and we see nothing. It feels hopeless. He's nowhere around there. Peeta senses this and says, "Maybe he's near the Cornucopia. With all his supplies he no doubtably has." 

"Good idea," I say, and we make our way over. We hide in the brush again and stay there for a while. But we see nothing. I climb a nearby tree to get a birds-eye view, but I still see nothing. Besides large storm clouds moving overhead. I jump down and Peeta's looking up at the sky too. "I can't see anything but storm clouds." I shrug.

He looks nervous as he stammers, "Prim, those aren't storm clouds."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, annoyed. "Those are storm clouds, look at the color."

Rain starts pouring down, but as it touches my skin, it burns. My eyes widen as I look at Peeta. "Acid rain!" He yells and we begin yelling. It gets into my mouth and it burns me. A sick, acid taste explodes and blazes in my throat. We run, trying to not breathe in deeply, or open our mouths. We make it back to our cave and collapse on the floor. Acid burns my face and I realize it's coming through the cracks of the cave. We find a small corner of the cave that doesn't have any leaks and sit down, panting until we catch our breath.

The rain has made bubbling dents on my exposed flesh. I reach for the burn medicine that was, thankfully, sealed. We spread it on our skin, hoping it will help. The acid has burned some of my hair off, because, unlike Peeta, I didn't have the common sense to put my bag over my head. He has barely any acid on his face either. 

I take a look in our bags and our food is terrible. It's rife with acid and we'll die if we eat even a small bite of it. And the bags over near the entrance, have acid dripping into them. We fall asleep, having no food, injuries, and weaknesses, and soon, we'll have to fight Cato. 

Great.