AN: My first THG fanfic! I have been reading fanfics for over a year and a half now and this fandom has my heart forever so I figured why not write a story?! I hope you, my readers, will enjoy this story and though my chapters won't be very long (I still haven't figured out how to make long chapters that do not become boring) I hope that there will be many chapters and that it will be story that I can be proud of.

FIY: English is not my first language, Dutch is. So if I made any grammar mistakes, I am so sorry. I do not have a beta do bear with me.

Disclaimer: I do not own THG, if I did then I would be living the dream. The plot however is mine.

The Golden Boy

Chapter One: Help wanted!

I stare at the picture on the wall. A little girl with a long braid made of raven-coloured hair. She is wearing a little red dress and she looks happy, ecstatic even. I know it's me but I don't recognize myself at all. It's been a long time since I have smiled a genuine smile. Today is not different, I smile, but only because Martha wants me to. I know I should call her mother or mom because she's the only mother figure that I've known but I don't like to call her that so I only do it when we're in public, but it doesn't feel right when I say it.

Martha told me that I was three days old when she found me on her doorstep and that she, being the good person that she is, brought me into her house and raised me as her own. She doesn't know where I came from and she never found out even though she says that she did everything in her power to figure it out. The only thing that she knows is that I was called Katniss, it's the name my parents gave me and she decided that I could keep it when she signed me in.

I guess life has been gentle to me. I could have gotten into a orphanage and I would have been stuck there for the rest of my life because I am not a very likeable person. And Martha has been kind to me, she does not let me go hungry and buys me everything I want in exchange for something; I have to do all the chores in the house. And when I say all I mean all; cooking, cleaning, washing, feeding the animals (we have a farm), and attending the shop when I don't have school. The shop is not much, just a shop with herbs and other organic products for the modern hippies that live around town and I do everything that a shop needs to keep on running; accounting, stocking, attending costumers etcetera. But the farm is huge; we have twenty chickens, ten pigs, two horses, a goat, two cats and a dog. And we share a meadow with fifty cows with our neighbour, Mr Abernathy, he is also my principal but he's never at school. On the official record it says that he is sick but everyone knows that he's drunk half of the time and the other he spends hung over. He has a farm as well but not as big as ours, he only shares the cows with us and he has several geese but I don't know how many.

And that is my life. Waking up, doing chores, going to school, doing chores, homework and off to bed only for it to start all over again the next day and the day after and the day after that. It's getting boring.

Today is the day. It's been 5 months since school has started and now that I'm a senior and since it's now January I will only have a few months left until my 18th birthday. Today, I will ask Martha if we can hire an employee to work with me in the shop and on the farm because I am getting behind in my classes. In the last few months it has seemed like everyone wants to go organic and it's has been so busy that I had to do my homework till midnight and then I still wouldn't have finished it, so I figured that I need help.

"Martha?"

I wait in front of her bedroom where she spends her entire day. I hear a soft voice telling me to come in and so I do exactly that. Her room is dark red with a king size bed in the middle of the room against the wall, her closet which is the length of an entire wall is to my left and a huge window is to my right. It's dark because her blood red curtains block out all of the sunlight. Who wants to spend her entire day watching Sex and the City reruns and the new episode of Teen Mom. The answer to that question is of course, Martha.

"Martha, can I ask you something?"

I come closer and look at her human form lying on the bed and I would swear you would think she was dead and the only reason that I don't think that is because of her answer just a few seconds ago and because I see her body shifting underneath the sheets, her fat wobbling and I could see her struggle until she is finally sitting against her headboard.

"What is it, Katniss?" she asks me, her tone tells me that she is annoyed that I am here and not doing my chores.

"I want help," I start but then quickly correct myself by saying: "I would like some help in the shop and on the farm, so I was wondering if I could hire someone?"

"And what are your motivations for this outrageous question?"

I take a step back and think of a good way to tell her my reasons, I never liked not being good with words but this is a moment that I hate it with all of my heart.

"I am getting behind with school and you know I want to go to college and I really like school but the shop and the farm take so much of the time that I am already lacking. So, I would like to hire someone to help me with my chores in the shop and on the farm and this way I can get back on track with my schoolwork"

I see her think, silence. I wait, more silence. I see her nod her head and I feel a bit of hope inside me.

"Okay, you can hire someone. Just one person though and I do not want him or her to get paid too much."

I nod my head, keeping my happiness inside of me and suppressing a smile. I thank her and ask her whether she would like something. "A cup of camomile tea with half a sugar cube and one and a half spoonful of milk"

I rush downstairs, put on the kettle and turn on my laptop that I had gotten myself two years ago for Christmas. And start a new word document: HELP WANTED! It says in large red letters. I print it and get Martha's tea ready. After I have run back from upstairs I go to the shop and hang the paper on the window.

I spend my next day at the shop, it's Saturday so I do not miss any classes or something like that and I don't have a lot of friends, I'm not a friendly type. I do consider Madge my friend, we spend our lunches together and we talk so that's friendship right?! And I have Gale, he's my best friend but we don't hang out so much lately because of the distance, he's gone off to college in Panem, two hours away from Seam.

I hear the bell, signalling a new costumer but I don't pay attention to it and go back to stocking the store. I only have one shelf left to stock but it's the top one and I am not very tall so I grab a stool to stand on. Newer products have to go on the back of the shelf so I reach out to grab the older products to shove them forward and I do not notice that I am losing my balance until it's already too late to correct myself and I fall from the stool… right into the arms of someone who was luckily standing behind me. The person helps me back on the floor and I turn around to take a good look of the Good Samaritan that probably saved my ankles from spraining. The first things I notice are the fact that he's a boy and his eyes, blue as sky on a clear summer day.

"Thank you for saving me" I say, breaking the silence that was present.

"No problem, I couldn't help myself from being prince charming and saving the damsel in distress" He chuckles almost unnoticeably and I laugh at his joke, he made me smile for real.

I shake his hand and tell him my name, "Katniss Lane". He looks me in the eyes and I see his bright blue eyes turn darker and now they are the colour of the ocean.

"Nice to meet you. Peeta Mellark." Peeta Mellark, it suits him though it's not a name that I have ever heard of but then Katniss isn't a popular name as well.

"How may I help you, Peeta Mellark?" My hands are becoming clammy and is the heater broke because I swear the temperature has risen above 80 degrees. He holds up the sign, I hadn't noticed that it was gone.

He smiles at me and says "I would like a job".

AN: Tell me what you think! What could I improve? What do you want to happen? Do you like the story so far? Are you curious or excited to see what will happen next? See you next time, may the odds be ever in your favor!