《The Star-Crossed Lovers from District 12 (Wattys Finalist 2013)》Chapter 27

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I feel at home here. Although it’s has been fifteen years here I feel at home. It doesn’t feel the same here as it did in Twelve. I barely remember Twelve. It’s been too long. It has the huge Victor’s Village houses and then there are houses like there are in Twelve but Greenland feels much smaller even though it’s much larger than Twelve. I figured out that I was pregnant after years of Peeta begging and begging. I finally gave in. I’m starting to get a larger stomach also so Peeta isn’t letting me do as much as I like. So I basically just sit in the house all day waiting for the “okay” to go home. It never comes. Dawn Primrose Mellark was born on December 9th and she is perfect in every way. She has dark hair and blue eyes. I think she looked more like Peeta but he thought she looked more like me. We turned our one extra guest room into her nursery which is right across the hall. After the first three weeks she really never cried at night which helped Peeta and I a lot. A couple months after Dawn’s first birthday we figure out I’m pregnant again. That put us in a huge state of happiness. We thought that just raising one child was hard, now we are going to be faced with another. So one day when my dad comes over we tell him about number two and he seemed fine with it. He told us that we are both in our mid-thirties now and that we’ve been raising a child by ourselves for a year now and we’ve been married for almost sixteen years so he puts a lot of confidence in us and that he’s sure that by the time this one is born we would be back in Twelve. When he says that, Peeta and I look at each other. So after my dad leaves Peeta sits me down. He takes Dawn from me and kisses me on the cheek.

“I am so sorry I lied to you. I was sure we’d be home by now. This is the first time I realized how long we’ve been here,” says Peeta. I smile. Peeta tries so hard to make everything perfect, it is alright if he gets things wrong sometimes.

“Don’t be sorry, you didn’t know, you were just trying to make me feel better about living here,” I say.

“You’re not mad that we won’t be in Twelve for a little while?”

“Twelve is just a place, so why would I be mad about not being there? I have a loving husband and beautiful daughter and another on the way. What more could I ask for?” He kisses me.

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“I love you.”

“I love you to.” I give him another kiss. While we’re kissing Dawn starts to cry. Peeta pulls away and starts to bounce her.

“What’s wrong?” he asks her. She keeps on crying. “Are you hungry?” He keeps bouncing her and brings her into the kitchen. Peeta was a natural father from the start, while I’m still learning how to be a mother. It’s like I have to study to change a diaper while Peeta knew how to do it right off the top of his head. Since Peeta was taking care of Dawn I decide to go out on a walk. While I’m walking Gale decides to join me. I give him a hug.

“I haven’t seen you in forever Catnip,” he says. Ever since I’ve been here I have either been in rebel meetings, with Peeta, or in actual combat with this new war that Peeta and I sparked. I haven’t had a lot of time. But since Dawn was born I gave up on doing extra things and became very family oriented.

“I know. Peeta and I have been so busy with Dawn that we only have time to ourselves at night. Dawn sleeps like Peeta. She can fall asleep anywhere and stay asleep until waken by the slightest motion or the quietest sound unless she is really tired,” I say.

“So where is Dawn right now?”

“She’s eating lunch at home with Peeta.”

“I haven’t seen her in at least two weeks. I miss her.”

“Well maybe you and Claudia should come over today,” I insist. All of us have been nest friends since this new war began. We let memories be memories and stared things off from scratch.

“Speaking of Claudia I have some news.”

“So do I,” I say becoming all giddy. Gale doesn’t know that I’m regnant again.

“You go first.” I sit him down on a bench and take a breath.

“I’m pregnant again.” His jaw drops open and he smiles.

“Wow, congratulations.” He gives me a hug. I can tell that he is actually thrilled. When I told him about Dawn he wasn’t as thrilled because he was still little on edge about Peeta, but now they are best friends. I really never saw that coming.

“So what did you have to say?”

“Well, Claudia and I are finally going to get married.” It is about time. They’ve been together for so long and already had a child together.

“Gale! When did this happen?”

“Last night I took her out on a walk and I told her how much I loved her and I proposed and she said yes.”

“Gale that’s so great, I’m so happy for you two. After sixteen years I was wondering when you were going to ask.” I give him a hug. “You know what, meet us in our backyard tonight at six. Peeta and I are going to cook you two some congratulation dinner.”

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“You don’t need to do that, and what about Kiri?”

“Peeta and I will watch her for you.”

“Then what about Dawn?”

“Kiri loves helping Peeta and I take care of her, so be there at six.” Then I run away which is usually how I can persuade him to do anything. When I get home I don’t see Peeta downstairs so I go upstairs into Dawn’s nursery and see him putting her down for a nap. Once he lays her down I go up next to him and he puts his arm around me.

“They grow up so fast,” he says.

“Don’t they?” This past week Dawn has been starting to walk. For a long time she’s been pulling herself up on furniture to stand and now Peeta and I have been holding her up and started walking with her. They usually start walking before their first birthday, but we made sure she didn’t learn for as long as possible. We didn’t want her to grow up too fast. Eventually we set her down on one side of the room and we went to the other side and started calling her and she got up and wobbled her way over to us. Peeta was crying that day. He said it felt like just the other day she was born and now she’s walking. Once Peeta and I leave we go downstairs and we sit on the couch. He really needed to take a load off. I cuddle up next to him and he puts his arm around me.

“Well today I found out that Gale and Claudia are engaged,” I say.

“It took him long enough to finally ask her. With Kiri’s sixth birthday coming up I wondered how much longer they were going to wait,” he says. I’m so glad Kiri was born. The first time Claudia was pregnant she had a miscarriage. They were crying for days. To be safe the decided they wouldn’t try for another kid for a while. And by a while they meant ten years.

“So I told Gale that we would babysit Kiri while they have a romantic dinner in our backyard.”

“You did what now?” he asks. “We are already stressed enough with Dawn, do you really want to babysit a five year old to?”

“Well Gale and Claudia haven’t had alone time with each other since Kiri was born, It’s the least we could do. Plus Kiri loves helping out with Dawn and Dawn really loves her.”

“Where will we go? We can’t really give them that much privacy when they’re in our backyard.”

“We’ll just stay in the basement and then when their dinner is over we’ll have Kiri just spend the night at our house so they’ll have the night to themselves.”

“I don’t know,” he says in a really hesitant voice.

“Peeta, think back about sixteen years ago. What did Gale and Claudia do for our honeymoon?” He looks up at the ceiling.

“Fine, I’m only doing this because they’ve been helping us out lately and because I love you” He gives me a kiss. We both get up and start cooking in the kitchen. We’re cooking for about an hour when we hear Dawn crying. Peeta and I just give each other a look and I just nod my head.

“You’ve been too stressed out right now. I’ve got it,” I say.

“What if she has a dirty diaper?”

“I know how to change a diaper Peeta.”

“Just remember to sing ‘Deep in the Meadow’ to her or else she won’t stop crying.”

“I know Peeta. Just relax she’s my kid to. I think I’d know my own kid.” He just smiles. I give him a kiss on the cheek and start to go upstairs. When I get up there she’s still crying.

“Why are you crying?” I ask in a calm voice. I pick her up out of her crib and start to bounce her. I start singing “Deep in the Meadow” and she eventually calms down but not for long. I decide to change her diaper and after she’s fine. I don’t know how Peeta can change her diaper all the time. It’s absolutely disgusting. I decide to bring her down stairs and I put her in her highchair in the kitchen. I make sure that she’s at a safe distance since we have food so hot that if it touches her fragile little skin that she could get severely hurt. I give her her bottle and I go back to cooking. We decide to make the dinner that we had at our honeymoon. While were cooking the chicken Peeta realizes that we don’t have a certain seasoning. He said he knew where to get some and that he’ll be back in just a few minutes. He gives me and Dawn a good bye kiss then he leaves. I think nothing about it until he’s gone for about twenty minutes. I have no clue what’s going on until the phone rings. It’s Gale. What he tells me makes me drop the phone. I grab Dawn and I run out the door. Peeta is in the hospital.

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Love, Bookjunkie001

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