Hi guys. I would first like say I'm sorry for such a long wait. I've been very busy with my junior of high school coming to a close. Also, I found this chapter very hard to write. I changed it multiple times, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Anyways, let me know what you think. And thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my story so far. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games

Chapter 4

I woke up this morning the same as I had fallen asleep last night: happy. Not only is today the last day of school, but tonight is the Victory festival. That boy, Noah Eldritch, he won the Hunger Games yesterday, so tonight it is customary for the home district of the victor to have a celebration in their honor. I've never been to a Victory festival before since District 12's last victor won before I was born, but my mother has. Last night, she told mainly Prim, but I was in the room, all about it. The capitol films parts of the Victory festival to show to the victor during their interview after the games, so the festival has to be capitol appropriate. Apparently the capitol sends in enough food for the entire district and the square is transformed into a grand stage where people dance. There are floating balls called balloons for the children and colorful explosions in the sky called fireworks. According to my mother it was happiest she has ever seen District 12.

She told us about the last Victory festival and how my father had asked her to accompany him; she said that a lot of people went as couples to the festival. It was the first time my mother had talked about my father with us since he died. I was surprised that she could even say his name without crying; maybe she really is trying to change. By the end of the story, Prim was as happy as I've ever seen her and that made me happy. She grabbed both my hand and my mother's hands and pulled us over to the couch.

"Oh Katniss, can we go to the festival tomorrow?"

I looked over at my mother who was smiling down at Prim. She really was trying to fix things. It may be too late for her to be a mother to me anymore, but she can still be one for Prim. Besides I want to go to the festival too, it'll be nice for all of us to go together for Prim.

"Of course, little duck."

Prim squealed with excitement and jumped into my arms, then she turned and hugged our mother. My mother wore a small smile for the rest of the night.

I woke up this morning to a giggling Prim who would not shut up about the festival. Even as we got ready for our last day of school, all she could talk about was tonight. She was happy and so was I. We dressed in our nicer clothes because the capitol will be here to film today, so for me that meant a skirt with a frilly blouse. I hate it, but nothing can dampen my mood today. Prim kisses our mother goodbye and then we are ready to leave. We open our front door to see Gale and Rory Hawthorne standing on our porch. They both wear their reaping clothes and each holds a flower in their hand.

"Ladies" They say in unison.

Gale presents his flower to Prim who giggles shyly.

"Will you accompany us to the festival tonight?" Prim nods.

Then Rory approaches me and grabs my hand. He kisses the back of it and hands me the flower.

"What do you say babe, you, me, the festival, tonight? He wiggles his eyebrows at me, so I roll my eyes at him, but he just winks in response.

"I guess so."

"Ouch" Rory puts a hand over his heart in fake pain. We all laugh at his theatrics and head towards school. Prim and Rory stay slightly ahead. I can hear Prim babbling on about what our mother told us about the festival. Poor Rory I think.

"So what do you think?" I turn my attention back to Gale. I had not heard a single thing he has said.

"Huh?"

"About hunting today. Do you think we should?"

"Oh, yeah we probably should. We'll have to try to finish up before the festival starts though."

"Yeah, maybe we'll just run the snare line."

I nod my head in response. We walk in silence for a while, while I twirl the flower I am still holding through my fingers. Gale notices this.

"Was it too much."

"No, it was sweet. I know it made Prim happy."

"I thought it would."

"So Rory's quite the charmer, huh?" We both start laughing at this.

"I don't know where that boy gets it from." He says shaking his head.

"I know where…from you."

"Me! How?"

"What do you mean how, he is just like you. You guys are like twins."

"Except Rory's the ugly twin." Gale says loud enough for Rory to hear.

"What! I am not ugly." Rory says but his voice cracks on the word "ugly" which makes us laugh all the way to school.

Rory and Prim head to the lower school while Gale and I walk to the upper school. It's now that I remember that this is Gale's last day of school ever which also reminds me that Gale starts in the mines in a few weeks. I can feel myself becoming upset, but I push those thoughts away because I'm determined to not let anything ruin today.

We stop at my locker so I can get all my textbooks to return before school starts.

"Need some help?" Gale says holding his arms out for the heavier books.

"I got it." I say waving him off, but I'm carrying so many books that when I lift my hand to close the door one drops out of my hand and onto the floor. I instantly bend down to pick it up and that's when I hear a whistle from behind me. It's then that I remember I'm wearing a tight skirt. I grab the book and stand back up, my cheeks bright red. This is why I don't wear skirts I think to myself. I look at the two boys who whistled at me, and they are smiling and laughing at me. Gale jerks his head to look at the boys. His jaw is clenched tight, and he starts to take a step towards the boys, but I put my hand on his arm to stop him.

"Gale, don't. It's fine. It's not worth getting into trouble on your last day of school."

"It's not fine Katniss." He says through gritted teeth.

"Yes, it is. You don't want to get detention and miss the festival over some stupid boys."

Gale is silent for a second still glaring at the boys, but eventually he nods his head. He reaches over and grabs all the books out of my hands, and at this point I know better than to protest. We start walking towards my class, but not before Gale knocks into the boy's shoulder as we pass by them. When we reach my class, I go to hold my arms out for the books, but Gale holds the door open for me instead. I walk into my first class and towards my desk. A couple people stop what they're doing to look at us, but most are too excited to even notice. When we reach my desk, Gale puts my books on top of it and turns to me. He exhales loudly before he speaks.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you later then."

"I'll see you later."

He turns and walks out of my class. Now, I only have to survive for five more hours and then I'm free.

When the final school bell rings, the entire class collectively cheers. Everyone gets up and runs out of the class, down the hall, and out the front doors. People are cheering and high fiving and hugging. I feel someone tap on my shoulder and I turn around to face Gale. He picks me up and twirls me around.

"We're free." Gale says beaming at me.

"I know, finally" I say smiling back.

"Ready to hunt?"

"Yep."

"After you."

He gestures for me to go first and I start to walk with him following close behind. We reach the electric fence to find it off thankfully. Gale goes first and then holds the electric lines up for me while looking away on account of my skirt. Once inside we walk the snare line in silence and untangle our game from the wires. We caught three squirrels and a rabbit which is not horrible considering we didn't hunt, but it's ok because there will be plenty to eat tonight. After resetting the snares, we start to head back. The festival should be starting any minute because by now all the miners are off work. As we near the fence we hear people laughing and talking as they walk to the square. I have to admit that I am actually excited about tonight. I glance over at Gale right as he is glancing at me. We look at each other for a second until I scream.

"Race you."

I take off towards the fence, but Gale is ahead of me in seconds even with the game bag slung on his shoulders. I run faster until I'm right on his heels, but then he stops suddenly. It is so abrupt that I don't have time to stop, and I end up smacking my head into his shoulder. I rub my forehead and turn to him angrily, but he looks just about as angry as I am.

"What was that fo-" then I hear it. The electric hum of the fence.

I stand there with my mouth agape. How is this possible? The fence hasn't been on for weeks. Why now? I hear people laughing again and it hits me. The capitol is here and so are dozens of peacekeepers. I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier. I should have known that the fence would be on, and it's probably going to be on all night. We're going to miss the festival. Great.

"What should we do?" I end up saying.

"I don't know. I guess we're stuck out here."

Gale starts to head back into the trees and I follow him. I'm not that worried about staying in the woods all night; that has happened before. I'm more just disappointed about missing the festival. I know Prim will be upset. I just hope she assumes that I'm off with Gale, so she doesn't worry and try to come find me. We have made our way into a small clearing.

"Alright, I'll make the fire, I guess." I nod at Gale.

"Okay I'll skin the meat."

I sit on a large rock and pull out my knife. Then I grab the rabbit and start to skin it. As I do this, I watch Gale gather the wood into a small pile. I can tell by how he sort of throws the wood into a pile and snaps the twigs that he is angry. He is missing the festival with his family just like I am, but at least we are stuck out here together.

I find myself thinking back to this morning when he asked Prim and me to go with him to the festival. For the first time, I let myself consider the possibility that maybe he was meaning something more. My mother did say that couples generally went to the festival together, and when I think about how the festival probably would have gone tonight, I know that I would have been with Gale most of the night. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if the fence was not turned on. When I think about it I feel nervous and my heart starts to beat faster. I feel a sudden stab of pain and I gasp. I look down at my hand where the knife nicked it. There is a small cut running across my finger with a small drop of blood in the corner. I bring the cut to my lips and suck up the blood; then I wipe my finger on the hem of my blouse and continue skinning the rabbit.

Once the rabbit is cleaned and cooked, I cut off a huge hunk and hand the rest to Gale. We eat it quickly until our aching hunger is satisfied, for now at least. I wipe the grease off my fingers and onto my skirt while Gale puts out the fire. I would like to keep it on all night, but we don't want a peacekeeper to see the smoke and come investigate. With the no more light coming from the fire, I see how dark it truly is and it takes my eyes a couple seconds to adjust.

Suddenly, an enormous boom of an explosion is heard, louder than anything that I have ever heard before. I instantly freeze, but Gale runs at me and pulls me down to my knees, putting one arm protectively over his head and the other over mine. After a few seconds a crackling sound is heard above. We both lift our heads and see tiny streaks of blue and red light in the sky through the trees above. I look at Gale in the darkness to see him shrug at me confusedly. Then, another boom. I jump and jerk my head down, but then another crackling sound. This time, green and yellow light is in the sky. The booms and then colorful light keeps coming, at a quicker pace now. Gale and I slowly stand back up as we get used to hearing the booms. Even though I can't really see it, my eyes are glued to the colorful light in the sky. I grab Gale's arm and pull his ear down to my mouth.

"Let's go. I want to see the light!" I yell over the loud boom.

Gale nods and grabs my hand. He pulls me with him as we run through the forest. Our path lit by the light above. I slowly realize that he is taking us to our rock on the cliff. It is the perfect spot. We crash through the trees until we arrive at the rock. I look up to the sky and am mesmerized by what I see. Giant circles of colorful light cover the sky above. Hundreds of booms echo through the valley but my ears are used to them by now. My eyes are wide, staring hypnotically at this display. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I cannot look away. All too soon, the last bit of light disappears and the sky is dark once again. I continue to stare at the empty sky, hoping that one more ball of light will appear, but it doesn't.

It is then that I realize that my face is sore from smiling for so long. Also, I am still holding Gale's hand, squeezing it actually. I try to loosen my grip, but Gale's hand stays firmly locked around mine. I look up at him to see him staring down at me. He wears a small smile as well. Our grins widen as we look at each other, and we both let out an airy laugh.

"Wow." Gale says.

All I can do is nod in return. We are silent for a while until I say, "I think those were fireworks. My mom told me about them last night."

"They were amazing."

"They were the most beautiful things I have ever seen."

Gale starts to pull my hand as he starts to walk. We reenter the forest, but I realize that we are not walking back to the clearing.

"Where are we going?"

"To the fence, let's see if it's still on."

As we approach the town, the sound of music and people get louder. Once the fence is in sight, we run. When we reach it, the electric hum is unmistakable. I exhale audibly.

"Oh well." I say. "It was worth a try."

The sound of fiddles and stomping feet can be heard. Screaming children and people laughing.

"Come on" Gale says suddenly. "Let's dance."

"Here?" I say shocked.

"Why not? Everyone else is having fun, we should too."

Gale offers me his hand, and after a few seconds of deliberation I decide what the heck and grab his hand. Gale pulls me towards him and we start to dance. We follow the rhythm of the quick paced beat. Stomping and spinning, we dance around one another, laughing when one of us missteps. Gale eventually twirls me around so many times that I get dizzy and end up tripping over my own feet and falling to the floor. Since our hands were interlocked, I pulled Gale down with me. We lay in the grass, laughing uncontrollably. I grab my stomach, sore from laughing, and try to catch my breath. Once we are calmed down, we lay in the grass staring into the star-filled sky above. There is no sound but Gale's breathing next to me.

I feel happy, happier than I've been in a long time. I'm suddenly glad that the fence was turned on today, that I got to spend this time with Gale. I know that I would not have had this good a time with anyone other than Gale. I don't know what propelled me to do what I did next, but when we both sat up, I leaned over and kissed Gale on the cheek. Neither of us said anything after it happened, and I'm glad. I like that I could do something like that without it being such a huge deal. Gale just stood up and then pulled me up with him. Then we walked hand in hand back to the clearing.

Gale propped up our hunting bags against a tree and we both lay down. I ended up with my head on Gale's shoulder and his arm wrapped around me. After a while, sleep about to overtake me, Gale turned his head and placed his lips against my temple.

"Goodnight Katniss"

I then slowly drifted off to sleep, a small smile on my lips.