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FIRST Hunger Games fanfic. Hope you liked it:)


Peeta Mellark

I knead the soft dough, rubbing it carefully and rolling it flat just like the way Dad taught me. I sprinkle some mint leaves and a few bits of left-over goat cheese and knead it again. Flour dusts my fingers and I wipe it on a clean towel, before shaping the dough into a loaf.

My witch of a mother isn't around...It's nice to finally have some peace and quiet. Coston and Plick, my two older brothers, are out. They're probably off buying more ingredients for the bread. We're running dangerously low on the supplies. Dad is delivering bread to the families from the Seam. They give him goat cheese or goat milk or sometimes herbal leaves in exchange for a loaf. Some will even go for a piece of stale bread although Dad is always careful to give them fresh ones although they cannot pay for it.

This is unknown to my mother, of course. If she knew that Dad is giving away bread to people who cannot pay for them, she will go to the Peacemakers. She will take her case to the Capitol and possibly to President Snow himself. In wanting a reason to destroy District 12, the Capitol will probably take her case and kill my brothers and me while Dad is forced to watch. They will probably cut off my father's head or his tongue, if he is lucky. They will use him as an example to the people of Panem.

This is why we do this in secret.

Dad gives everyone in the Seam bread. But there is one family whose house he cannot enter for he will always collapse when he does.

The Everdeen family.

Dad cannot bear to look as his first loves starts to wither before his eyes. Even though it has been five years since that mine explosion, Mrs. Everdeen still looks dead. She's too fragile to take care of her daughters so it's usually up to her eldest child, Katniss, to forage and hunt for their food.

Katniss...

I slide the loaf inside the rickety oven and wait for it to rise. I wonder what Katniss will trade with me today. Maybe a squirrel or two? But Mother would be here later so I would have to settle for some strawberries...If there are any left from her daily rounds to the mayor's.

The bread is ready and I open the oven door to place the loaves onto a tray. I wait for a few minutes before wrapping it with plain brown paper and putting it inside a square of plastic. I have to hurry before Mother gets here. She will want to know who the bread is for and if I do not answer, she will surely burn my face with the coals from the fire under the oven. That is worse than her last punishment when I tripped and sent her precious and only vase crashing to the floor. She poured boiling water all over me, careful to do it when Dad was out.

I hope Katniss is home from hunting today...

But then I remember that she will probably be with Gale Hawthorne, her best friend, and she will probably be in the Hob.

I try to force myself to believe that I don't care about Katniss or who she can be with right now. I want to believe that I don't want to marry a girl from the Seam wherein I can have any merchant's daughter from around here.

But it doesn't work.

I can't force myself to believe that I don't love Katniss.