Character and plot owned by Suzanne Collins!

Recap:

"It's great that you want to help, but please don't go putting yourself into danger for our families. Just a job at your house after school would already be a ton of help!" I told her shaking my head. I didn't want to be held responsible if we accidentally got caught and sent to a whipping, or to be killed. That was going to stay my problem whenever it happened, which was bound to be soon with the new security. I wasn't going to get Madge mixed up into it.

"You just want a job? I can easily get you that! We could split the work time half and half so you would still have time to hunt, and I would gladly give you this bow and arrow to use if you need it!" She cried getting excited.

"Thanks Madge! It would mean a lot! Let's go back to town now and get some sleep. We can discuss this tomorrow." I told her smiling. Everything was slowly falling into its place.

"Alright!" Madge replied as we headed back into the boundaries of District 12.

***added part to Chapter 12***

Side by side we made our way out of the woods along the familiar path. Well I could call it a familiar path, Madge couldn't. It was easy to notice she was nervous that we would get lost or caught on our way home. Her jittering, uneasy glances to the side and twitching fingers made it pretty obvious.

"Relax Mage! Nobody will catch us! Especially not at this time of day... What were you even doing up so late?" I asked her trying to calm her and start a conversation at the same time. I had a feeling talking would help her relax.

"Are you sure nobody will catch us?" She questioned me shivering at the thought of getting caught... again. I kept forgetting she was probably still worked up about the fact that I had found, and scared her so easily. I bet she's imagining the real peacekeepers five times worse. That would be a pretty understandable explanation of why anyone would act this way.

"I practically live here! I'm sure nobody will be out to harm us, and even if they are I'll just shoot them." I told her making a joke out of it.

"You'll what?" She almost screamed, a paralyzed look coming over her face. I chuckled, only Madge would be capable of believing that. Katniss would have immediately gotten the joke. Oh, how much I missed her.

"We'll hide if they come. I know this part of the woods like the back of my hand. Actually I know most of the woods like the back of my hand." I calmed her covering my joke.

"I thought you said you would shoot them." She whispered. I was about to reply when she cut me off. "Please don't though. I understand that you could tell Katniss things like that just for fun, just to earn a laugh, but I'm not as brave as the two of you. I can't handle thing like that. The second idea might not seem so appealing to you, but I like it better. Let's stick to that one if we get caught." She finished, lowering her gaze. I couldn't believe she thought I was serious about that.

"Madge, I would never shoot a human just so we wouldn't get caught. Nobody would even come out here. I was just joking! If somebody found us I would use the second idea too." I told her remembering the time Katniss and I were almost caught. Our lives were held together by the thin line of luck even then.

******Flashback*********

The boy and girl were running, panicking as the sound of the hovercraft neared. It rumbled so loud that the ground was shaking, whisking our bodies from side to side. Katniss and I watched the boy collapse dead and the red head girl bent down next to him crying. Katniss pressed her body into mine as we watched for protection.

The hovercraft was now directly above us and my instincts told me to hide. Spotting the only body that could protect us from the Capitol -a hollow log- a few feet ahead of us I pushed Katniss into it, following behind her. It was the perfect spot. We could watch was happening and hide at the same time. The only problem was that the helpless girl had spotted us.

"Help me!" She cried; fear overtaking her voice as she used the last amount of energy she had to call out to us, she last hopes. We could have run out to help her. She would have made it into the woods just in time, but we were too selfish. Our lives had meant too much to us back then. Instead of acting we just silently watched as a net dropped from the hovercraft onto the girl and boy. By then even the girl had realized we were not going to help. We hadn't been worth the effort. She stared at us in pure hatred as the net rose, taking her and the boy away from the real world. Forever.

********Flashback ends*******

"I trust you!" She whispered to me as we continued our way throughout the woods in silence. At the sound of this I sadly shook my head. I had a feeling Madge was going to end up like the girl Katniss and I had allowed the Capitol to take. ...Whisked from the real world forever because of the two of us.

"I'll do my best to protect you too. I owe you that much!" I replied to this. It was the least I could do.

Chapter 13

After my conversation with Madge that was the first night since the reaping that I got a good night sleep. It was the first time slept without haunting nightmares, that would come back to freak me out later. As soon as my head hit my pillow I fell into a deep soundless slumber. This night was the first time that I didn't see unknown traps pop out of the blue killing my best friend, tributes snarl and laugh into my face before making my worst fears come true or the forever smiling image of President Snow. It was the first time I was confident everything would work out and turn in the right direction. This was the first time where I truly could admit that I wasn't worried of our future or Katniss' survival.

 Before I fell asleep my thoughts had been confident. No longer did the question of how I was going to find a job burn through my head. Slowly all my problems were being solved. I had been capable of cheering Prim up- and keeping it that way-, talking to a whole crowd of people who wanted to 'help' me and were 'sorry' for my 'loss', I had gotten myself a job- though I still didn't know what it was- and Ms. Everdeen was slowly coming out of her depression. Soon the future would only depend on how much Katniss would feel at home during the games. If she wasn't nervous it could be and easy win. If she let fear take over, she would make it a lot harder for herself, and everyone else watching. 

I just hoped Katniss would remember me throughout the games. That she would keep in mind that we were at home, waiting for her to return. Waiting for her to come back to us, and live a happy life, without the capitol trying to ruin it.

Waking up relaxed for the first time I stared at the ceiling, hoping this feeling would never end. I just wished life could solve all your problems for you. Today I would have to survive another horrible day in school along with watching the opening festival, which would be aired this morning before school. This could be considered as good and bad. The good thing was I would get to see Katniss, the bad thing was I would have to skip hunting. On a normal day this wouldn't have been a very big deal, but this time I was eager to try out my new bow and arrow. It was one from the Capitol, probably also the kind they used in the games, so it was worth a lot. I would also get an idea of what kinds of equipment the tributes were working with.

Slowly I drag myself out of bed pushing my thoughts aside. Those could wait until school, where I would be bored out of my mind listening to information about the Capitol and our district that wasn't even true. Most of the time, the things we learned about were twisted in a way that made them look better than they truly were. 

The Capitol didn't look like the mass murderers they were. They looked like kind people who ran a helpless country, when in truth everyone was suffering while the Capitol lived lives that couldn't get better. Just with the flick of their finger they could get the best medicines on the planet, they could kill 23 people a year just for their entertainment and make the one survivor a saint.

Grabbing a piece of bread for breakfast I propped myself in front of the TV waiting for the electricity to come on and the opening festival to start. I couldn't wait to see Catnip on the screen. It was hard enough for us, being apart but not being able to see her would ruin me.

After what seemed like an hour's time the screen finally crackled like it had the times before, so often we had gotten used to the suddenness of it by now. I didn't even jump anymore though the sight in front of me wanted to make me do more. A scream almost forced its way out of my throat as my mind processed what I was looking at in front of me. President Snow's creepy smile faintly flashed on top of the gray lines that meant the TV and electricity were still just slowly coming on. Was I imagining this? Was I getting this paranoid? Was it really there? My body, brain, my eyes, my lungs... no part of my body could decide if I was hallucinating or not. The only thing that proved it true was my mom's scream and the clanking of dishes as she saw the TV.

"D-d-do y-y-you s-s-see h-h-him t-t-too?" She asked stuttering, and still in the state of shock.

"Yes. I saw him too. Which means we're either both going crazy or President Snow was just on the screen." I answered her nervously.

"Well, as soon as you get to school, ask around to see if other saw it too!" She told me hiding the panic from her voice, though it was still plastered on her face. I swiftly nodded, not wanting to say any more that would scare my mother. I wasn't used to seeing her this way. She was always strong, not letting anything get to her. I could tell President Snow was not going to end up as a good thing.

Leaving this conversation die we both turned back to the TV which now had the Capitols seal fading away on it. With a quick shift of scene Claudius Templesmith the announcer was standing in the middle of a road with a giant grin.

"So today we will be seeing the annual 74th Hunger Games opening festival. Like every other year the tributes will be dressed up according to their Districts and will parade along these streets. To tell you the truth they should be arriving shortly." He told the cameraman, or in this case us, with a chuckle.

Slowly the floats came down in a line.

District 1's tributes were dressed up in just some plain silver dresses with some unidentifiable objects placed around and on them. I wasn't even able to make out what they wanted to represent. My best guess was they were trying to be the luxury goods that we had just learned about in school. Their makeup was horrible. Almost their whole bodies had been painted silver, a typical thing from the Capitol.

District 2's tributes were wearing big brown capes, with silver and black spots all over their bodies. They were probably trying to show off their stone mines, which they were known for, or that's what they teach us in school... Who knew the real truth?

District 3's tributes were dressed up in wires, and all kinds of gadget thingies. Their faces had the same lines painted on them. It looked scary, and something that you could put on in minutes, but it wasn't different from the things their districts tributes wore every year. I wasn't even sure if they had anything on under those uncomfortable looking stuff. 

District 4's tributes were pretty much just a sea of blue. I couldn't tell if they were wearing full body suit or not but they were covered in blue from head to toe with fish painted all over them. Whoever their stylist was had definitely taken the ocean part of their district overboard.

District 5's tributes were dressed in black and white this year, hoping to give off the look of a cow. Little horns were glued to their heads, bells attached to their necks. The two tributes looked ridiculous.

District 6's tributes were some kind of unidentifiable object like it had always been, and Caesar had to come on to tell us we were seeing "The district of scientific research!" I gaped. Since when did they start telling us what each district did? Since when were we allowed to know?

District 7's tributes were logs hoping to show us they were the lumber and paper products districts. Their faces couldn't even be seen from their full body suits, and looked just as ridiculous as ever, but District 12 was almost sure to over pass them in that category.

District 8's and District 9's tributes were unidentifiable, and since we hadn't learned about them yet I couldn't make out what they were representing. The only reason I got any clue was because my mom was muttering "clothing and textiles, hunters" under her breath. All I could to was trust that she was right.

District 10's tributes looked almost exactly like District 5's had, and District 11's were giant crops. None of them had shown any change from the years before. They were still the horrible, embarrassing costumes they had always been. I just hoped Katniss wasn't going to be naked and painted black like some of our tributes had been in the past.

Our district's 'float' pulled up long after the other and everyone sucked in their breath. Katniss and Peeta looked amazing. They wore black full body suits, but unlike anyone had expected parts of the dresses were on fire. I knew they weren't burning because the flames whipped behind them in a line but I couldn't help but think they were on fire. Katniss had become the girl on fire. Peeta had also become a person on fire, but compared to Katniss' who looked dominating, strong, sure and admirable he was just there. The only fact that made his presence very noticeable was the fact that the two of them were holding hands. They were presenting themselves as a pair. As partners, who knows maybe even lovers? The thought of seeing Peeta and Katniss together made my insides boil. My face was probably burning from my anger, but at this moment I couldn't care less. I was the one in love with Katniss not him! I was the one who should be holding her hand and standing next to her.  She was my best friend,  I was the only one who knew her completely and I knew she wouldn't had agreed to this, yet she was standing there so calmly staring into the crowd ahead of her. She wasn't even taking notice of her hand. Hopefully she didn't feel anything special to this gesture... All I could do was hope, and for now, let the anger guide me for a while.

 **************************************************************************************

I hope you like it! Don't forget to ask questions if your confused.

Please vote and comment!

Thanks!