4. Go with the Flow

       I heard bustling around me. I tried to tune it out, but it was hard. I felt so exhausted that I should have easily fallen back asleep, but I couldn’t, and that really aggravated me. I tried burrowing under the pillow, trying to tune out the sounds.

            “No time for that,” Gale sang as he lifted the pillow off my head. I gave a groan and turned over, my back facing him. I didn’t want to get up. “Rise and shine. You’ll have some time to sleep when you’re in the Victors’ Village.”

            Victors’ Village…? Oh, right! How could I forget the plan so quickly? It had consumed my thoughts last night.

            “You’re going to have to carry me there,” I whined. “I’m not feeling a morning walk today.”

            “I’m okay with that.”

My brows tightened in confusion.

            I gave a yip as Gale pried me off the bed into his arms. Every part of me felt tired and heavy. I didn’t know what time it was, but it definitely was way too early for my taste. I couldn’t even concentrate. If I couldn’t now, how would I when I had to act like Katniss around Peeta?

            Gale tiptoed with me out his bedroom door and managed to slip out of the house with me in his arms.

My eyelids were very droopy, so I could barely see out of them. My head rested comfortably against Gale’s chest. I could hear his heartbeat and feel the slight bounce with each step he took. I was so tempted to go back to sleep, but like Gale said, I would probably be able to sleep once I dyed my hair—if I managed to stay awake that long. I’d probably sleep on the floor first thing and forget the hair dye. Then Peeta would wonder who I was and why I was there. Then I’d have to make a story up.

Long story short: I could sleep when in the Victors’ Village, not when Gale was carrying me, no matter how tempting the idea was.

            “Carrying me to the Village was supposed to be a joke,” I grumbled groggily as we made our way to the village.

            “Well, if it was, I can just set you down—”

            “No, I’m good.”

            “That’s what I thought.”

            I was too tired to roll my eyes at him. “Got any tips for me while we’re walking there?” I asked sleepily, yawning hugely.

            “Don’t slip up.”

            “That’s kind of a given.”

            “Be convincing. If you seem to act too strange around Peeta, he’ll notice and get suspicious.”

            “Great, so I’ll have to be working. First I’m overtired, and now I’ve got to work. Why did I sign up for this?” I complained.

            “Because you—”

            “I trust you, yada, yada, yada,” I snapped.

            “Wow, you really are tired.”

            “Gee, thanks for finally noticing.”

            I didn’t know how Gale did it, walked to the Victors’ Village all while carrying me in his arms. I knew he was capable of doing a lot, but doing this was not something I expected. Then again, I didn’t expect Katniss to be taken by a hovercraft and look how I was proven wrong.

            I dozed off at one point because one moment we were just heading out for the Village, and the next, Gale was standing right in front of a door, most likely to Katniss and Peeta’s. I could only imagine how nice the inside must be.

            “Ready?” Gale asked me.

            “I think so,” I said uneasily, yawning.

            Gale set me down, and I took a minute to wake myself up. I had to remember my first objective: sneak in, don’t wake up Peeta, find hair dye, and then dye my hair. Then just climb into bed with Peeta.

Wait a second…that last part sounded so wrong.

            “This is where I leave you,” Gale said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

            “Wait.” I looked at him. “You know for a fact I’ll panic if I’m just with Peeta.” I hadn’t been alone with any guy, let alone someone who thought I was somebody else.

            “I’ll sneak out in the middle of the night and talk to you.”

            “How will I know you’re out here?”

            “Just stand outside and wait for me.”

            “What if I’m not here when you are?”

            “I’ll find a way to get your attention. Make sure Peeta doesn’t follow you.”

            “I’m sure he wouldn’t, Gale.” I hope he won’t. “Wish me luck.”

            “Don’t worry.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Once I figure out a plan, I’ll get Katniss, and then we’ll make the switch before Peeta knows the difference. It’ll be over before you know it.”

            “It better be.”

            A little worried that the first day would overwhelm me, I hugged Gale. He hugged me back. I felt like I was taken away from my family and tossed into another without my permission. Even though it’d be only for a week—or so Gale promised—I’d miss him and his family. At least I had Gale visiting me at night.

            I stared at the door, the door that would lead me to my fake life. My heart was thudding painfully, and I hadn’t even become Katniss yet. It was the pressure I felt, it was the easiest explanation.

 I entered the home only to not pay attention to the living room, but immediately seek out the bathroom—that’s where hair dye was usually kept.

            I ended up finding multiple bedrooms and an office. I even went through the kitchen by accident before I found the bathroom. Naturally, the only bathroom in the house was the one in Peeta and Katniss’s bedroom. I poked my head in to see a snoring Peeta hugging the pillow under him—that’s what I could make out from the darkness anyway.

I tiptoed quietly past the bed until I successfully reached the bathroom. I shut the door silently and rummaged through the cabinets and drawers. Come on, where are you? There’s got to be hair dye in here somewhere, I thought feverishly.

If Gale was wrong and there was no dye here, I was screwed.

Drawer after drawer gave me no luck until I thankfully found some in a cabinet that held other hair dyes, shampoos, and conditioners. The dye only took five minutes to put in. I used the mirror in the bathroom to put the dye on, and once it was on, I sat on the toilet seat lid for five minutes and waited patiently. Already I knew this was going to look weird on me.

Once the five minutes were up, I got my hair rinsed out and ruffled it dry with a towel. I threw my hair back and shook my head. I inhaled deeply. Time to see the result. Slowly I turned around on the balls of my feet only to jump back and nearly hit the cabinet I had just dug through.

The girl in the mirror had her mouth open, like me, eyes wide in shock with a hint of curiosity. We both moved closer to each other. I couldn’t believe it for a minute. I had almost convinced myself that Katniss was looking at me through the mirror. I touched the mirror, the girl did the same.

But it wasn’t Katniss in the mirror, it was me.

Gale and Katniss were right, we did look identical, her and me. Was it possible we could have been separated at birth? What if we were twins and nobody told us? Ha, that’s a joke. My name would have been Katrina Everdeen. I’m not an Everdeen, now I temporarily am.

I never really noticed how tired I looked until I glanced at myself closer in the mirror. Nerves and sleep weren’t a good combination; bags were present under my eyes. Well, there was a solution to that: a bed and sleeping.

 Speaking of which, I needed both at the moment, but without Peeta.

Yet…I got the feeling that if Peeta didn’t feel Katniss beside him, he’d get worried. Great, here was the beginning of me becoming Katniss. I’d have to get in bed with her boyfriend. This was something I definitely never pictured myself doing, getting into bed with another woman’s man.  

Sighing quietly, I slunk out of the bathroom and into the bed. The sheets were silky and warm, it felt foreign to me. This was luxury I was feeling, and it was different.

I immediately faced away from Peeta, my back to him. I heard him shift in the sheets. I tried closing my eyes and sleeping. I was so close to doing so…if it hadn’t been for Peeta scaring me to death by coming behind me, slithering an arm around my waist. I almost yipped in fright.

I could feel him snuggle into my back and sigh in content. Already I felt bad, because he was snuggling into me when he thought I was Katniss. I sighed dramatically, but quietly. If Gale taking forever to figure out a plan didn’t drive me insane, Peeta’s confused affection for me would.

 Also, there was another problem: if Peeta continued showing affection to me, I’d get attached and possibly fall in love with him. That was something I knew for a fact that I couldn’t and wouldn’t do. Katniss was his girlfriend, and the last thing I need was to be called a boyfriend-stealing bitch by Katniss for taking Peeta away from her. Nothing makes a girl more pissed off than stealing her boyfriend. And the last thing I wanted was to have an arrow in my head.

*      *      *

I managed to get a powernap despite how nervous I felt. I could tell it was morning, I could hear birds chirping outside. My body felt so comfortable that I know it’d refuse getting out of bed. I constantly kept shifting, because each new position got uncomfortable very quickly.

 I could tell Peeta was up. He had gone to the bathroom once but climbed back into bed, never falling back asleep. I stretched under the sheets. I fluttered my eyes open to try and look over my shoulder. Peeta must’ve noticed that I was awake because he kissed my shoulder.

“You finally got up,” he said.

I figured it would be rude to talk with my back turned to him, so I flipped myself over. No wonder Katniss fell in love with him, I could tell just by looking at him why she fell for him.

His eyes were a dazzling blue, hair a tuft of blond. Of course, the fact that he was shirtless helped a little bit, too. Don’t fantasize about him, he isn’t yours, I had to remind myself.

My mission to keep myself in one piece emotionally just got a little more difficult.

“It’s still morning, right?” I asked.

“Of course.” He grinned. “Where were you last night?”

“Hmm?”

“You didn’t come home even when I went to bed.”

“I came in early in the morning. You were out cold.” It was sort of a lie, but it sort of wasn’t at the same time.

“Were you out hunting all night?”

“Actually…the fence turned back on when I was getting ready to leave, so I had to stay on the other side half the night, waiting. The first chance I got, I slipped through the fence and came back here.”

“It must’ve been cold out there.”

“It was.” I shivered just thinking about being perched ten feet up in a tree, bracing myself against harsh winds and the declining temperature. That was one experience I did not want to go through ever again as long as I lived.

“Do you mind staying home today?” he asked me.

“Sure. Why?” I asked curiously.

“I want to show you something, and I’m going to need your help, too.”

“Oh. Okay.” Clearly this was something he never showed Katniss. I was going to be the first to see it and not her. I was already robbing Katniss of her life. “What do you have to show me?”

“That can wait.” He poked my nose playfully. “And I can’t tell you. What’d be the point in keeping you guessing if I told you?”

“So this is a surprise?”

“I guess you can say that, yes,” Peeta mused. “I’ll show you after breakfast.”

I really hoped that what Peeta had to show me was not something romantic related, because I’d feel really uncomfortable. I didn’t want to blow this operation on day one, so I prayed that what he wanted to show me didn’t involve sexual things.

I really needed to get my mind out of the gutter, because I doubted he’d do something like that.

Peeta offered to make breakfast, so while he was doing that, I dug through Katniss’s wardrobe. It was hard to find something I knew I’d like to be in and wear something that didn’t make Peeta question my fashion sense. Just because Katniss and I looked almost alike didn’t mean we were alike personality wise.

I dressed in a light gray t-shirt and jeans, pulling my hair into the difficult braid Katniss always wore. Of course, those attempts failed miserably. I stood in the bathroom for a half hour trying to figure out the braid, but no matter how hard or how close I came, I couldn’t quite get it.

By the last try, I uttered a hiss of frustration. The one thing Katniss was known well for and I couldn’t make it!

“Katniss,” Peeta said. I jumped and saw him in the doorway. I had almost told him that wasn’t my name,  but thankfully I held my tongue between my teeth so I didn’t slip up. “I called you ten times already. Breakfast is done.” He called me? I had to have been caught up in my frustration, because I never heard him.

“Oh. Sorry.” I blushed. “I didn’t hear you.”

“What are you doing in here?”

“I’m trying to put my hair in a braid.”

“Did you forget how to?”

“Yes.” My voice was barely a whisper. “I guess I’m still trying to wake up.”

“I can take a shot at it, if you want.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Peeta,” I said uneasily. “Unless you’re a hair stylist, then I’d have full faith in you.”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try, would it? What’s the worst I can really do?” He shrugged.

“How about I think about that over breakfast,” I suggested. “I’m kind of hungry.”

We both walked to the kitchen. It was obvious that Peeta’s skills surpassed just baking. He was a good cook overall. I wondered if he always did this, made breakfast for them both.

I had no idea if they had any special routine that they did either, I didn’t get a chance to know much from Gale or Katniss before she got captured. At this point, until later tonight, I was on my own, having to just hope for the best and learn as quickly as possible.

Breakfast was quiet, and after we were both done, I offered to do the dishes. Peeta was a bit curious at my volunteering, but he didn’t get suspicious. Afterwards, we sat in the living room. I reluctantly let Peeta have at it with my hair.

“So you’re still not going to tell me what you want to show me?” I asked, trying to make conversation as Peeta tried to braid my thick hair.

“Do I need to repeat myself?” he chuckled. I could feel my hair being twisted.

“Will I like it?”

“I think so. Do you think you’ll ever meet her?”

“Who?” I asked. Peeta just randomly decided to change the subject.

“Katrina. You said Gale tells you a lot about her all the time.”

So Peeta knew about me, too, from Katniss. Great. Well, at least he hadn’t seen me before.

“Oh, her,” I recalled. I fiddled with my hands. “I think I will. I mean, Gale talks about her a lot. I want to one of these days, you know, to finally meet her.” It felt so weird, talking about how I wanted to meet myself. I never thought I’d hear myself say that.

“What if you were looking into a mirror when you saw her? You told me that Gale told you that you and she look sort of alike.”

You have no idea, Peeta, I thought. We looked so alike that I was managing to pull off being Katniss right now. Again, this is why I was glad Peeta had never seen me.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“There, I think I got it partially right,” Peeta finally said. I peered down to the braid that lolled over my right shoulder. Surprisingly, it looked pretty neat. I guess I shouldn’t have been nervous around Peeta, he did a nice job.

“I think better than partial.” I giggled. I looked over my shoulder at him. “Now are you going to show me?”

“You are impatient today,” he said playfully. “If you really want to see it now, then I’ll show you. But, you have to do something for me first.”

“Okay…”

“Stay right here.”

Peeta abandoned me momentarily to come back with a cloth. My head tilted to the side as I watched him curiously.

“May I ask why you have that?” I asked.

“It’s going to act as your blindfold,” he said.

“Blindfold?”

“Don’t worry, trust me.” He put the cloth over my eyes. I felt him tie the cloth snug into my head. “Can you see anything?”

“Not a thing,” I confirmed, touching the cloth.

“Good.” I flinched when Peeta took my hand, but I didn’t let go. It was probably the only way I’d be led to whatever he wanted to show me. “Now don’t pull that off, and don’t let go of me, got it?”

“Mhm.”

Slowly, Peeta tugged me up and carefully led me around the house. I had no idea where he was taking me since I didn’t know the house that well, so I had to put my faith in him. I heard a door squeak open and a light flicker on.

“Watch your step,” he cautioned me.

Blindly, I tentatively reached down with one foot until I felt a step. I felt for railing on my right. One step at a time, Peeta waited patiently for me until we made it down the flight of stairs. We had to be in the basement, there was no floor above the main floor, and the staircase went downwards, not up. That was the only floor in the house I hadn’t discovered on my own. What could possibly be so great that he wants me to see it in the basement?

“How much further?” I asked.

“Only a few more steps, I promise,” Peeta replied.

Peeta was true to his word, it was only a few more steps before we both stopped.

“What’s so great about the basement?” I asked carefully.

“You’ll see.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

I could hear his steps echo as he went behind me to untie the blindfold. The sight before me was something I would have never guessed to see in a basement. 

**And the test begins! Who's placing bets that Katrina will crack before Katniss comes back safe, if she does? Who's betting that she'll make it? Who's betting on something else that I haven't listed?**