The Third Everdeen

Chapter 21

Mags smiled at me and shook her head, putting her hand on her heart, then she came closer to me and put her hand on my heart; as if to say I was brave.

"Prim is my sister, I couldn't let her or Katniss go through that," I explained. She looked at my sadly and I knew why; there's a chance I might not see either of them again. I gave a soft cough and looked back at her hook, "How about this; if you teach me how to make a fishhook as good as this, I'll teach you how to hunt." I suggested. She smiled widely at me, licked the tips of her fingers and got back to her hook. When she finished we walked over to the knife room, I walked to the weapons and grabbed a knife harness, knife belt and wrist knives. I reached out to give Mags one, "Do you want to try it with me?" I asked and she smiled shaking her head and pointing to me, I smiled, "Okay, I'll go first."

I stepped into the room and punched in the mode and difficulty I wanted; as I stood on the platform lasers materialized around me and started moving around the room; calibrating itself to my requirements. Suddenly I heard running behind me and saw a hologram running in my direction with an ax, with no hesitation I thrust my arm and threw the knife right at its chest. As soon as I let that knife fly I heard an archer up in one of the elevated levels of the room and flung another one at their eye. One by one, the holograms popped up quickly and suddenly. Some of them were a lot more involved than others; while some were simply running at me -wielding their weapons- others were actually throwing some at me which would cause me to dodge before I killed them. Another target was running so quickly I took a little while longer to aim but still hit it. The last target was a hologram with a trident, hiding behind a pillar and when it jumped to attack me i stabbed it in the neck and the pixels exploded around me and the lights brightened to their normal tone. Catching my breath I glanced over to where I had left Mags and saw almost all the other Tributes watching me. Mags was beaming and Wiress was clapping very excited.

~

After training, Peeta and I decided to put on comfortable clothes and relax on the sofa reading a book, every so often I would stroke my stomach and sigh but I was still enjoying myself in his arms, he always made me feel so safe.

"Good news!" A voice interrupted my tranquil state, Haymitch. "At least half of the Tributes want you as an ally."

"Well they saw her throw," Peeta stated matter of factly, "Who wouldn't want her as an ally?" He kissed my temple.

Haymitch chuckled, "Well sweetheart, you got your pick of the litter."

"Wiress and Beetee," I answered  with no hesitation.

"Johanna calls them 'Nuts' and 'Volts'." Peeta chuckled and I scowled at the mention of that woman.

Haymitch however seemed pleased with my decision, "Okay, good. Now, who else?"

"Mags." Peeta looked at me strangely and took his arm off from around my shoulders, I huffed, "Fine, then no one." I snapped.

Haymitch hesitated, "I'll tell them you're still making up your mind." He decided and walked out slowly.

I turned to Peeta, "What is your problem?" 

"My problem is you want to team us up with people who will get us killed!" 

"At least I don't want to team up with someone who could stab me in the back at a moment of weakness!" I shouted.

"So you'd rather us pull all the weight because you want to team up with people who can't do anything?"

"Wiress and Beetee are intelligent! They'll be able to help us out with things that don't necessarily require brute force! And we're going to need brains to figure out how to get through this!" I told him

"We'll do what we did last time! Stick together, and this time we could have strong allies alongside us!"

I was tensing up from all the yelling and could feel my stomach clenching, "I can't argue with you right now." I snapped and tried to walked away but he grabbed my arm.

"So what? You're going to bring this up when it's more convenient for you? News flash Lily, we don't have much time before we go into that arena."

"I'm just trying to not get too upset." I told him, trying to calm down.

"Why? What's been up with you lately?" He looked concerned.

I broke down, I couldn't hold it in anymore. It was hurting me to keep this from him for so long, and he deserved to know. Especially since there is a chance I could die in the arena. I put my hands on my stomach and looked up into his blue eyes, "I'm pregnant."

Peeta froze. It was like time was frozen and he had turned into a statue, the only thing that moved was his eyes looking into mine and down to my stomach. After a moment he brought me into a hug, one hand on my back and the other on the back of my head, stroking me. He let me go and looked into my eyes, there was a mixture of happiness and terror in them before he kissed me.

"We'll get through this." He promised, leaning his forehead onto mine. I nodded and kissed him once more before telling him I was tired and wanted to go to sleep, "Do you want me to tell Effie and Haymitch for you?" He asked me

The fact that he now knew took a large load off my shoulders, I nodded and thanked him, he kissed me once more and said he would be back soon and walked into the other room. I fell asleep before he even got back.