Chapter 1: Fear's Light
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
A/N: This is my first fanfic and I hope that you enjoy it! Please review; I would love to know what you guys think of it so far.
Summary: What would happen if the night Peeta handed the bread over to Katniss the bakery burst into flames leaving Peeta homeless, parentless, and for the first time in his life hopeless? Now, Peeta and his brothers must fend for themselves in this dark and frightning world, but can a certain girl of fire be Peeta's flame of hope? PeetaxKatniss
Life is like the onion. When you let the hands of time pull back your frail skin you are always risking the urge to cry. For with every onion there comes a story, and with every story comes is a life to be led, and with every life comes something that goes wrong, and sometimes we aren't always strong enough to fix the things that go wrong, no matter how hard we try.
"Now, that my boy is the daughter of the woman I wanted to marry, but she chose the coal miner over me," my father said as he pointed a delicate finger at a girl in plaited pigtails holding onto her mother's hand.
"Why did she choose him over you daddy?" a six-year-old Peeta asked, as he looked up to his father whose eyes had begun to glow just a bit with the memory.
"Ah, Peeta, that coal miner was something else. When he opened his mouth to sing the birds fell silent and abandoned their own tunes,"
Peeta gave a silent nod, as he took one last, fleeting glance at the petite girl holding her mother's hand, before being ushered into the assembly.
Once the loud chatter had diminished significantly, a lady with long, flowing brown hair stepped to the center of the room with a kind smile plastered on her face.
"Now class, does anyone here know of the valley song?" the music teacher asked kindly to the children in front of her.
All of a sudden, Peeta saw a slender hand pop up from the mob of students sitting criss-cross apple sauce on the blue carpet. The teacher gave a silent nod to the girl, as she stood up with her plaited braids swinging slightly.
And then she sang. In her little red and black checkered dress, the girl of only a mere three foot eight made the birds neglect their tunes, the parents look, and the whole room fill with complete awe.
Peeta swayed slightly as he let the girl's voice overwhelm his senses, until he felt his mind go blank and fill itself with only pleasant memories. His mother raising her voice at his poor father in the middle of the night was placed into the dark recesses of his mind, as he cherished the little girl's song, and then just as soon as it had began it stopped. Peeta looked around him in a daze, as the warm feeling of happiness slowly dripped out of his system.
The little girl gave a bashful look to her audience once she had come out of a stupor of her own, as she gathered her bearings and sank right to the carpet.
"That was simply marvelous," the music teacher said tenderly to the little girl.
The girl with the plaited pigtails gave a curt nod and slowly folded her arms over her chest, as she tried desperately to avoid any eye contact with anyone else in the room. At that very moment the little girl wished that she had stayed in the shadows like she had planned to on her first day of school, as she tried desperately to build up a wall of ice between herself and the rest of the world.
The music teacher slowly crouched down to the little girl's level and asked in a tender voice that reminded the little girl of her own mother's tone when she was reassuring her patients that they would see another day of light and the darkness was never permanent.
"What is your name honey?"
The little girl blinked in surprise at the teacher's tone, as her arms soon found themselves abandoning her chest and falling at her sides, "Katniss. Katniss Everdeen," the little girl said in a voice just above a whisper.
The music teacher gave Katniss a tender smile, as she rose to her feet and resumed her position at the center of the assembly room.
"Now, boys and girls…"
The rest of the teacher's words didn't even register into Peeta's mind, as the rest of his first day of school went by in a blur. The only thing that remained clear to the little boy was the beautifu, pure sound of that little girl's- no Katniss Everdeen's voice. If there was one thing that Peeta was certain of, it was that that girl's voice was magical. It was her voice, and her voice alone, that could penetrate his outer shell and let the true Peeta Mellark shine.
A/N: Well, I hope that you guys enjoyed this fic. I am debating whether I should keep it as a one-shot or continue with it. Please review! Thanks so much for reading! Since I'm new to this site and all, I was hoping if someone could please show me the ropes, like I know to put a disclaimer before each chapter and stuff like that, but I was wondering how long the chapters are usually and etc. Sorry for the bother, but thanks!