guillotine dreams, peeta mellark

CHAPTER FIVE

       Relief is the only word to describe what Greer feels when dinner is finally over. The entire meal was nothing short of unbearably awkward, with Effie's conversations (is it a conversation if it's one sided?), Greer's visibly deteriorated mood, and the discomfort of the two tributes. Effie, bless her heart, was tone deaf as ever with her bright smiles and Capitol praises. She rambles on and on about the luxurious tribute train and how fast it goes (250 miles per hour), the exquisite meal that Greer can't seem to touch, and how beautiful Katniss and Peeta are going to find The Capitol when they finally arrive the next day.

The two young tributes wouldn't spare a glance at each other - Peeta tried, but Katniss is already perfecting the art of acting like he doesn't exist. Greer can't blame either of them. There is no right way to feel going into the Games, no right answer for what to do, for who to keep by your side.

She's sure that Peeta is looking at Katniss the very way she looked at Dodger - this is going to be my partner, we're going to figure this out together. Even more so, she is sure that Katniss is looking at Peeta the very way Dodger looked at her two years ago on this very train - how the hell am I supposed to win the games with this?

Dodger Pule never had any intentions of forming a district alliance with his partner: a malnourished, teary-eyed, fourteen-year-old girl who barely looked like she would be able to hold a weapon, let alone use one. Greer looked at him and saw the one person who might help her survive even a day in the arena.

It's not until the night of their interviews, the night before they're sent into the games, that the loose responsibility he feels for the young girl roots itself deep in his conscious - he owes it to Haymitch. Yet the two District Twelve tributes see each other only three times during the games: First at the cornucopia. Greer immediately makes for the woods, Dodger rushes straight into the bloodbath. He doesn't know then that her plan is to wait for the tributes to leave the area before scavenging the leftover supplies for herself, but she's nowhere to be seen and he has no choice but to take off on his own and hope she's alive. Second is in the spring quadrant of the arena. Greer is (literally) running for her life when she's grabbed from behind, one arm completely restraining her flailing limbs and another hand clasping over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Dodger all but shoves her to the ground and out of sight as the girl from District Ten barrels past. They separate at the end of the day, but it's the only time in the games when Greer feels just a little less afraid.

The third time he's dead. Strung up in one of the net's the District Four girl was using to catch her victims. His eyes are open and empty. His blood stains the winter snow.

The hovercraft sends her running. She trips over her feet sparing one last glimpse at him before she's passing the tree line into the fall quadrant of the arena and the hovercraft is taking his body away.

She won't find out until she returns home that it's a spear that killed him. Haymitch still hasn't told her that Dodger was looking for her.

Unnerving as they were, memories of Dodger are not the source of Greer's abysmal mood -not entirely, at least. After the girl frantically tried to coerce her former mentor into apologizing to Katniss and Peeta for acting like a complete moron (an embarrassing asshole) to little avail, she nearly worked herself into another frenzy trying to convince him to at least join them all for dinner. She truly did her best not to show just how bothered she was, but she wound up spending the duration of dinner looking at her carrot soup like it kissed the boyfriend she doesn't have.

Her first act after showing her tributes to their respective rooms is to flop face first onto the dutifully made bed in her own room - she's so tired, Greer. It was always harder for her to find sleep around the games. There was such little time to rest, not that the girl could if she even had the chance to try. While she could smile and play for part of mentor and Capitol Seeethesrt for however long necessary, it didn't stop the ache of exhaustion in her head, it didn't quell the strain in her eyes. Just a moment she wants to lay there, to let her eyes close and drift off into a longed for slumber.