The sun shone down on the pavement, as the tread of children's feet stomp over it like its nothing, but here in Panem nobody is anything. A dandelion sways in the breeze spreading its seeds all across the district, when I was little I thought that the dandelion was made up of lots of little people and that they were going out into the world to make people happy, I know better now. The sky is a grey blue; the sky is beautiful, carefree just like the birds that swim through its flossy clouds. I hear the bell shriek in my ears, it's too early in the morning. At school we learn about how we owe the Capitol so much, we must live in regret for what terrible things another generation has caused. We know that school isn't anything but a capitol based torture, we know that we don't live in a society which is fair or righteous but we are always in the wrong and it gets on my nerves a lot of the time. I'm lucky, I've grown up with a family reasonably strong with economy, not so strong when it comes to love though, and I feel like the only one in the family that feels it. It's hard to complain when there are others out there starving or dying of illness, why should I complain, I'm a baker boy.
There is a girl, her name is Katniss, and she is the most beautiful thing in district twelve. She makes the sky look dull, she makes me smile, it's hard to do in a place like this but she does the impossible. If only she could see it. I saw her for the first time outside the bakery when we were young, she was looking at one of my mothers cakes in the window, her grey eyes were a sight to be seen that day, I couldn't keep my eyes off her, her braid was fraying at the edges but beautiful none the less, a bit like her. She couldn't stop staring at my mothers cakes; I couldn't stop staring at her. I wished from afar that she would notice me.
The old school needs new repairs urgently, but being an outer district there is no hope of that happening, in fact there is hardly any hope left in this place. The grass sways beside me like a snake hissing in the breeze. I see her walk through the yard she has quite a stern look but there are two sides to Katniss that hardly anyone gets to see. She looks up and smiles and skips through the long green grass happy and carefree as she leaps into a long embrace with a small girl with two blonde plaits and a pretty blue dress which is far too big for her. "I miss you Katniss" the little girl says softly, "oh little duck, you don't need to miss me, I'm right here Prim" Katniss chuckled quaintly and the little girl smiled "sing me the meadow song Katniss" she muttered "not today little duck" Katniss replied and prim begged "oh please" Katniss just smiled, knelt down and replied with a voice that was sure to make anyone around her smile too.
"Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place"
She spoke the last few words "where I love you"
When Katniss sang all the birds stopped and listened and if you listened closely you could hear them singing the tune back as if saying "thanks" for her song "run along primrose" Katniss giggled as her little duck skipped away. She had never seemed so perfect, so innocent, and so beautiful to me. I stood up and slowly walked up to Katniss who was sitting facing the sun, I sat down beside her and muttered "you're an amazing singer, you really are" Inside I was shaking and shivering like a stunned rabbit. This was the first time I had ever talked to Katniss Everdeen and I wished with all my heart that it wouldn't be my last. She blushed and looked to the ground "you didn't just hear that did you?" she asked obviously embarrassed "I'm sure glad I did" I replied and felt completely and utterly stupid, what kind of a reply was that? Then again what do you reply to a girl with skin like a porcelain doll and the prettiest hidden smile, I see all these beautiful things in her, and what would she see in a snob baker's boy? "Well prim insisted" she laughed I smiled back as she rose and said "I better get to class, goodbye Peeta" "goodbye Katniss". I talked to Katniss Everdeen and she acknowledged me.
If only she would sing the same song to me.