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up for.<br />
I realize I've never even bothered to ask her about how she's handling the shock of coming here. "So, how<br />
are you liking Thirteen, Prim?" I offer.<br />
"Right now?" she asks. We both laugh. "I miss home badly sometimes. But then I remember there's nothing<br />
left to miss anymore. I feel safer here. We don't have to worry about you. Well, not the same way." She pauses,<br />
and then a shy smile crosses her lips. "I think they're going to train me to be a doctor."<br />
It's the first I've heard of it. "Well, of course, they are. They'd be stupid not to."<br />
"They've been watching me when I help out in the hospital. I'm already taking the medic courses. It's just<br />
beginner's stuff. I know a lot of it from home. Still, there's plenty to learn," she tells me.<br />
"That's great," I say. Prim a doctor. She couldn't even dream of it in 12. Something small and quiet, like a<br />
match being struck, lights up the gloom inside me. This is the sort of future a rebellion could bring.<br />
"What about you, Katniss? How are you managing?" Her fingertip moves in short, gentle strokes between<br />
Buttercup's eyes. "And don't say you're fine."<br />
It's true. Whatever the opposite of fine is, that's what I am. So I go ahead and tell her about Peeta, his<br />
deterioration on-screen, and how I think they must be killing him at this very moment. Buttercup has to rely on<br />
himself for a while, because now Prim turns her attention to me. Pulling me closer, brushing the hair back behind<br />
my ears with her fingers. I've stopped talking because there's really nothing left to say and there's this piercing<br />
sort of pain where my heart is. Maybe I'm even having a heart attack, but it doesn't seem worth mentioning.<br />
"Katniss, I don't think President Snow will kill Peeta," she says. Of course, she says this; it's what she thinks<br />
will calm me. But her next words come as a surprise. "If he does, he won't have anyone left you want. He won't<br />
have any way to hurt you."<br />
Suddenly, I am reminded of another girl, one who had seen all the evil the Capitol had to offer. Johanna<br />
Mason, the tribute from District 7, in the last arena. I was trying to prevent her from going into the jungle where the<br />
jabberjays mimicked the voices of loved ones being tortured, but she brushed me off, saying, "They can't hurt<br />
me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love."<br />
Then I know Prim is right, that Snow cannot afford to waste Peeta's life, especially now, while the<br />
<strong>Mocking</strong>jay causes so much havoc. He's killed Cinna already. Destroyed my home. My family, Gale, and even<br />
Haymitch are out of his reach. Peeta's all he has left.<br />
"So, what do you think they'll do to him?" I ask.<br />
Prim sounds about a thousand years old when she speaks.<br />
"Whatever it takes to break you."