Chapter 1- Oh Really Now

When I was four, an angel saved my life. I was playing on a river bank with my Labrador puppy, Helix when I fell in. I couldn't swim so I had no choice but to scream and yell and hope someone could hear me.

Helix was barking loudly and running after me as I floated down the river. He couldn't help. It was a five foot drop into the river and Helix was still a very small puppy, no more than five months old.

There was a lot of water in my lungs now and it was getting hard to breathe. I hit my back against the edge off the bank and gasped, except no air came in, only water. I reached a low area of the bank but I was feeling too weak to try and pull myself onto dry land. It's over, I though, I'm finished. Behind me I heard a tapping sound. It sounded like someone running. I thought it was Helix until I felt someone grab my hand and pull me up onto shore. I looked and the person.

She was a really pretty girl, about my age. She had fair skin with rosy cheeks and a round, babyish face. She had big gray almond shaped eyes that looked very gentle and inviting, even though I could barely see them. Her hair was dark, it might have been black.. She had bangs that stopped just before her eyes and ringlets all around, except the front of course. She was wearing a white cotton dress that went all the way down to her feet with a purple nylon belt in the middle.

She smiled at me and then she just disappeared. She didn't say anything. I didn't even get to learn her name. She just vanished, into thin air. Just like that. But I'll never forget her. However, no one believes me when I tell them.

Now, almost eleven years later, I'm sitting on my bed still thinking about that day. I wanted an answer. Who was that girl?

The day it happened, I had said it was one of my friends, but none of my friends knew anything about that day. When I was eight, I'd said she was the ghost of a girl who had died in the river a long time ago, but the older I got, the less since that made. Finally, when I'd turned thirteen, I'd said it was an angel sent to rescue me, and that idea had satisfied me, until now.

It wasn't that I didn't believe she wasn't an angel; it was just that the word 'angel' just didn't have the same ring to it like it did three years ago. Was there a better word besides 'angel'? The only words I could fine were guardian, bulwark, and cherub; and saying I was saved by a 'bulwark' isn't exactly the noblest thing to say.

"Peeta, stop thinking about the angel that saved you. It's time to go," I heard my mom call to me with a bit of sarcasm on the part about the angel. It was Monday. I had to go to school.

Gosh, I hate Mondays. After a pleasant, fun-filled weekend I'm forced to drag myself out of bed at an ungodly hour and go to the house of horrors they call a school. It's torture. It's cruel and unusual punishment which goes against the Constitution of our country. Or was it the Bill of Rights? Who cares, it was an important document from lord knows how many years ago. Not like I would ever tell anyone that, though.

"Coming Mom," I yelled back and pulled myself into a sitting position. I adjusted my white button down shirt and stood up. We don't have to wear uniforms at my school; I just don't always feel like trying to find something to wear. I grabbed my black jacket and red single strapped backpack and basically fell down the stairs.

"Took you long enough," Shoti said to me. Shoti was my older brother. We look a lot alike: same sandy blonde hair and pale skin however one of the things that made us different was our eyes. Shoti has gray eyes. I have blue eyes. My eyes are really bright. It was like the ocean.

"Whatever," I said to he as I looked at what him had on: a yellow t-shirt over an orange long sleeve shirt, some blue jeans, and orange converse. If you ask me, he looked like an oversized highlight.

"So, have you figured out what to call the 'angel that saved your life'," Natalie said putting air quotes around 'angel that saved your life' as we walked down the street to school.

"No and don't put air quotes around it," I told her as we walked down the street, "It really happened." My voice got quieter, "She really is real." It was about a ten minute walk from our house to our high school, Vero Vista Academy.

Vero Vista Academy, or VVA, is a high school where you have to have to have at least one of three things, the three G's as we call it: grades, gift, and green. It's pretty obvious what the grades are and I would hope you know what I mean by green (if you don't I mean money), but what I mean by gift is you have to have some kind of talent. You know something like singing or drawing or something. I had the gift, painting, and Shoti had the grades

"Man it's cold," Shoti said stuffing his hands in his pocket.

"You should've worn a coat or at least a jacket," I said glaring at him. He may be smart, but sometimes he can be such an idiot. Still, I felt kind of sorry for my older brother, so I gave him my jacket. He took it without saying thanks.

"So about that rescuer girl," he began, "what did she look like?"

"I've told you a million times Shoti, curly black hair and gray eyes."

"Hmm, well, I wish you would've met her when she was a little older, cause there's very little chance she still looks the same," he said putting the hood over his head, "however, if you're lucky, you might just recognize her." He took out a cookie from my jacket pocket and started eating it.

"Hey, wait a minute," I said holding out my hand, "Give that to me." He handed me my own cookie and we ate in silence as we walked.

"Oh how time flies," Shoti said, "We've arrived at our prison."

The two of us walked into school and separated to go to our various homerooms when I realized two things: Shoti still had my jacket.

And it still had some cookies in it.

Mission completion! First Hunger Games fanfic has just begun. Thanks for reading and please leave a review if you'd like. This is SilvChi signing out ^^.