The day after Peeta's older brother Rye got caught making out with his girlfriend in the backyard, all three Mellark boys (and Bannock's girl) go to school with black eyes. As Peeta's walking down the hall, he stops in his tracks to stare at Jeanie, who's making a point of staying as far away from Rye as possible. Peeta decides that the black eye is from the girl's own mother, not Mrs. Mellark, even though the chances are slim that Mrs. Fresno would ever hit her daughter.
Peeta wishes that Mrs. Fresno were his mother.
The bell rings, and Peeta makes his way to his classroom, sits down at his desk with his name neatly printed against the top, looks around. There she is. Katniss Everdeen. Long dark hair pulled over both shoulders in two neat braids, traditional grey Seam eyes...hollow cheeks, somewhat prominent collar bone.
Sure he hates his mother, but at least he gets fed every day.
Just then, Katniss catches Peeta staring and meets his admiring gaze with narrowed eyes. He quickly turns back to the front of the room.
When they're all at home and around the dinner table, Peeta quietly asks, "Why is Bannock named Bannock? That's not a type of bread, is it?" He has never asked a question like this before, and he doesn't expect the harsh reaction.
"It is to a type of bread, you asshole!" Bannock spits, flicking some corn off of his fork at Peeta.
"Peeta, how could you be so stupid? Of course it's a type of bread! It's our family tradition!"
"You can't break your own family tradition, you retard," Rye, the middle child, exclaims. Peeta's heart stings. He looks to his father for help, but Mr. Mellark just stares down at his plate.
"I didn't know," Peeta comes to his own defense. "I've never heard of that type of bread before." There's a desperate tone to his voice. The blow from his mother comes fast and hard.
"Don't state the obvious!" she shouts. A tear falls from Peeta's eye, and he covers his cheek with his hand as the pain comes.
"May I be excused?" he asks, not wanting to stick around to get another beating for crying. Mrs. Mellark points at Rye, and the young teen moves across the table to punch Peeta hard in the stomach. Peeta gasps for air holds his stomach.
"Now you may go," Mrs. Mellark says. "You're worthless to me."
Peeta can barely make it up the stairs and to the bathroom before retching up his dinner. He lies on his bed and stares at the chipped paint on the ceiling. Rye comes in to go to bed eventually, not saying a word to Peeta about what had happened at dinner. Late at night, there's a light tap on the door, and then Mr. Mellark appears in the room. There's a small paper bag in his hand and he hands it to Peeta. Peeta opens it quietly, his little hands still shaking from when he had vomited. Inside was a small piece of bread. Fresh bread. It smelled delightful. Peeta slowly ate it all, then reached up and gave his father a hug good-night.
"Don't tell me—it was your mom again, wasn't it?" Madge asks, twirling a strand of her blonde locks around her index finger. Peeta watched her do it, momentarily getting too distracted by the repetitive act to answer.
"Oh. Yeah, it was."
"Seems hardly fair," Delly comments, sinking her teeth into her apple, "to punish you like that; I mean, you're only six. At least your brothers are old and strong enough to handle beatings."
Peeta blushed at that comment. "Hey, I'm strong, too!" Delly and Madge go into some kind of laughing fit while Peeta steals the remaining half of Delly's apple. She notices but lets him have it; his mother never packs much of a lunch for him.
"Hey," Madge says when she's finally got her laughing under control. "There's Katniss Everdeen!" Her words are followed by her making a kissy face. Peeta's face gets even redder, if that's even possible.
"Katniss!" Madge calls and then waves. Katniss stares for a moment and then raises a hand in some sort of greeting.
Peeta looks down at the bread that's in his hands; his father had snuck some more fresh bread into his lunch pail. He glances quickly back at Katniss, who is munching on a bit of celery. Peeta debates giving the bread to her, but realizes that he doesn't have the courage. He squeezes the bread in his fist and then shoves it back down into his lunch pail. As he stands and goes to the playground outside, the word coward bounces around in his head. Because that's what he is. A coward.
"Sit 'own," Rye insists, shoving Peeta backwards onto his bed.
"Why?" Peeta asks, rubbing his chest where his brother's hands had been. Both Bannock and Rye sit down on Rye's bed and face Peeta.
"We're supposed to give you 'the talk'," Rye says, giving a dramatic roll of his blue eyes and using air quotes.
"What? What do you mean?"
"We're supposed to explain puberty and stuff to you," Bannock says gently.
"Oh," Peeta replies, blushing.
"Here's how we'll do it," Bannock says. "We'll make it as quick and painless as possible." He holds up one hand in the shape of an "O" and then holds up his index finger on his other hand. He sticks his finger into the "O", and Rye bursts out laughing. Peeta doesn't understand what's so funny.
"This is how babies are made," Bannock says. "So, don't do this until you're a grown up."
"What do the 'O' and the long finger represent?" Peeta asks dumbly.
"Well..." Bannock flushes. "This is the boy," he waves his index finger around. "And this is the girl." The "O" is waved in the air.
"Oh!" Peeta says, understanding. "But...what are they doing?"
"Here, lemme try!" Rye says. "The boy's sticking his-!"
"Rye!" Bannock scolds. "I don't even know what Mom wants us to tell him about. I mean, he's obviously clueless." Peeta doesn't deny it for two reasons. One, it's true. Two, it would just result in him getting punched.
"Yeah," Rye agrees. "He's only nine. It's not like he'll be having sex for a while. He still hasn't gotten over Katniss Everdeen!" The two older Mellark boys laugh. This hits Peeta's soft spot, but he keeps his mouth shut.
"I must say, though, my hand gestures were pretty good," Bannock says cockily.
"No they weren't, you doofus!" Rye announces, hauling off and punching Bannock in the face. The two end up rolling around on Rye's bed, punching, kicking, slapping, and biting each other. Peeta just watches and wonders why every conversation between his brothers ends with one of them in a headlock.
Bannock is on top of Rye, now, and blood runs down Rye's face and onto the sheets. Peeta sneaks down the stairs and out of the bakery door, being careful to mute the bell on the way out. He doesn't want to be blamed for ruining the clean white sheets. He runs the mile and a half to Madge's in record time and is just about to knock when he hears laughter behind him. He turns around. Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne are making their way toward's the house, probably to trade with Madge. Peeta feels butterflies develop in his stomach and tries desperately to get a grip on himself.
He can't.
How will he ever be able to be this close to her without completely breaking down or doing something stupid? A familiar word works its way into his consciousness.
Coward.
A/N: Hey, guys! I'm pretty new to the HG section, but I've been writing Lizzie McGuire fics for about a year now. I'm really excited to start this fic, and I hope you all liked the first chapter! This'll follow Peeta for a good portion of his life and [hopefully] explain why he's the way he is. I've always wanted more insight about what happens in the Mellark household, so I hope this spikes your curiosity as well! Thanks for reading; please review!
*I AM LOOKING FOR A BETA READER. If you're interested, please feel free to PM me!*
-Lucy