Aftersun 𖤓 peeta mellark

ii. the capitol's sweetheart

•°. *࿐

ii.  the capitol's sweetheart

          THE NEXT MORNING WHEN AVONLEA ENTERED THE DINING CART, she was surprised to find that Haymitch had kept his promise and met with Peeta. She took a seat at the table beside Haymitch and grabbed herself a breakfast muffin and a glass. Before she had time to choose a drink, Haymitch started pouring lemonade into her cup then some vodka from a flask hidden in his jacket.

Avonlea sat back and enjoyed her chocolate chip muffin as Haymitch explained the do's and don'ts when it comes to basic survival and finding shelter: don't take your chance on mushrooms or unfamiliar plants, watch where you are walking to avoid spider or snake bites, don't find shelter under old, dead or weak trees and do not make a fire, "that's a good way to get killed"

"What's a good way to get killed?" Katniss asks as she walks into the train cart. Both Peeta and Avonlea greet her but she ignores them in favour of staring at Haymitch, who rolled his eyes the second she walked into the room.

"Oh joy, Why don't you join us? I was just giving some life-saving advice" Haymitch sniffles as he gestures to the seat beside him. Katniss does move towards the table but instead sits on the other side of Peeta across the table from where Haymitch pulled out a seat for her. 

"I was just asking about how to find shelter" Peeta informs Katniss when he realises Haymitch was refusing to lead the conversation while she was around. 

"Which would come in handy if, in fact, you were still alive" Haymitch dryly chuckles and takes a swing of his vodka soda. Katniss looked to be making a decision in her head; insult Haymitch and his awful mentoring job or actually use him to get some advice.

"How do you find shelter?" She asks, toning down the hostility in her voice. Haymitch gets out of his seat and grabs two pieces of toast from a chafing dish then returns to his chair. Katniss watches his every move before he looks up and notices her glare.

"Pass the jam" he gestures his knife towards the jar in front of her. Katniss repeats her question, allowing the bitterness to seep its way back into her voice.

"Give me a chance to wake up sweetheart. This mentoring is very taxing stuff" Haymitch groans. He reaches out to grab the jam for himself but Katniss slides her knife off the table and with exact precision, stabs it right between his thumb and pointer finger.

"That is mahogany!" Effie cries out with a gasp. Everyone else seemed too afraid to move or make the situation worse but Avonlea couldn't help herself. Either the vodka soda or her horrible sense of humour could've been to blame as Avonlea bursts out laughing. Haymitch slowly turns his head towards the girl who was supposed to have his back but she couldn't control her laughter enough to apologise for her betrayal.

"That is the best thing i've seen this week!" Avonlea starts to calm down. She reaches across the table and grabs the knife from the placemat Katniss had stabbed it into. She realises Haymitch wasn't going to warm up to either Katniss or Peeta for a while and so it would be her job to instil some hope and advice into the young tributes.

"Do you really want to know how to survive? You have to get the audience to like you. I told Peeta this last night but a sponsor's gift can be the difference between life and death. If the Capitol likes you, they will send you anything to keep you alive. The most important part of the games is to impress and make the Capitol favour you" Avonlea tells them. Haymitch takes this opportunity to refill their glasses and without speaking a word, they both pick them up and finish them in one chug.