Chapter 1

Katniss' POV

"Hey Katniss! We have to go to school!" Prim yelled in my ear. I swatted her head away and moaned into my pillow. My first day at high school, great.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, now get up before I call mom."

"I'm up!" I said loudly and shot up out of my bed. "Now you, get out so I can get ready." I said grumpily.

"Okay. Make sure you put on lots of lip stick for Gale!"

I blushed. "Shut up Prim."

"No!" She yelled playfully.

"Alrighty little duck. Get out or I will throw you down the stairs myself!" I said playfully and she skipped out of my room. Little sisters can be really annoying sometimes, but when you only have her, it's hard to be upset or angry at her. When our dad died in a car accident, our mom lost it. She started drinking and staying out late at night and it really disgusts me when I see her. I have had to get a job at the food market down the street and take care of me and Prim. Ever since dad died, Prim and I have become very close.

I got dressed quickly and braided my hair as I walked down the stairs.

I walked into the kitchen and found Gale sitting at the table and Prim making some toast.

"Hey Catnip!" Gale said happily, and came over and kissed me on the cheek.

"Hey Gale." I said with much less enthusiasm.

"Aren't you excited for high school?" he asked, "Or are you mad at me?" he joked.

"No, I am not mad at you, and I am not excited for school. With all the horrible stuff that happened in middle school, it's just going to turn out just as bad. Or maybe worse." I gasped.

"But you won't know until you go!"

"Gale, I have to go." I said grabbing some toast from Prim.

"Ya, I know," he said happily and gave me another kiss.

"Can we leave now? I don't want to be late." Prim said. We left our house and Prim went in a different direction than us.

"Bye Katniss! Bye Gale!" Prim yelled over her shoulder.

"Bye Prim!" We both yelled back. And we walked to school hand in hand in silence.

Ever since 1st grade, Gale and I have been best friends. We have been dating for a year now, and I have to say, dating isn't as bad as I thought it would have been. When I was little, I didn't want to get married and I didn't want to have kids. And dating Gale made me realize that dating wasn't so bad. I loved Gale and he loved me, which is all that matters in a relationship.

"Hey, Catnip! Earth to Katniss! We're here!" Gale said to me while waving his hand in front of my face.

"Oh, sorry I was thinking."

"About me I hope?" He said with a laugh.

"You wish." I joked and we parted with a quick kiss and I went to my homeroom.

As I walked in, I saw many people from middle school. Like Cato, Foxface, (which wasn't really her name, we just all called her that) Clove, Marvel, and Glimmer. There were a couple more people that I knew, but my eyes stayed locked on a new kid with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He was doodling on the front of his notebook. I sat in the empty seat next to him and put my bag down on the floor.

He noticed me sit down and looked over at me. He smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Peeta Mellark. What's your name?"

"Katniss. Katniss Everdeen." I said and smiled back at him. I have to say, he was really cute.

"As you probably know, I'm new here."

"Ya. I figured it out when I didn't know your name."

"Ya," He started but was interrupted by Mr. Abernathy.

"Hello, fresh meat! Welcome to high school! Which I guarantee will be a living hell for all of you! "He slurred. Is he drunk?

"I would also like to tell you that these are your permanent seats for the rest of the year so I hope you chose them wisely. " Mr. Abernathy said and he went to sit down on his chair behind his desk, but he missed his chair and fell onto the floor. Everybody started laughing really loudly.

"Shit!" He screamed. The room turned completely silent and Mr. Abernathy yelled again, "Someone go get the damn nurse!" Almost all of the class ran out of the room to go get help, except for me and Peeta.

"Are you okay, Mr. A?" Peeta asked him.

"Does it look like I'm okay boy?"

"Sorry."

When the nurse came in, she was followed by Principal Snow and he was followed by the rest of the class.

"What happened?" The nurse asked Mr. Abernathy.

"I was going to sit down in my chair, but I missed it and fell on my ass and I think it's broken." He replied harshly.

"It wasn't her fault Mr. Abernathy, so don't talk to her like that." I said. Everyone in the room looked at me with shocked expressions.

"Look sweetheart, let me say this as nicely as I can. Stay the hell out of it!" He yelled at the end.

"Don't call me that." I said.

"I can call you whatever I want to," he said back. I looked over to Peeta who was looking at Principal Snow.

"Aren't you going to stop this?" Peeta yelled at Principal Snow motioning to Mr. Abernathy and me.

"Well if you can call me whatever you want than I guess I can call you lazy drunk ass-"

"That's quite enough Miss Everdeen." Principal Snow said to me. I sighed in frustration. Great first impression.

Everyone left the room to go to first period and I really just wanted to die. I had no classes with Gale that I knew of and he's really my only friend I have. Well, besides Madge if we counted as friends.

My first period class, which was English, passed on very slowly with Mrs. Trinket blabbering on about some of the projects we would be doing this year. I just wanted to shoot myself. What I did to distract myself was planning on telling her just how bad her makeup was and giving a tutorial on how to do normal makeup and not clown makeup.

My second period class was Social Studies, which I was actually looking forward to. Mr. Cinna was most likely going to be my favorite teacher. This class went by way too fast for me.

Third period was French. I didn't know why we needed to know French in Panem but I can't complain cause I would rather take French than Spanish. Mrs. Portia seemed nice but she wears way too much makeup just like Mrs. Trinket.

My next class was lunch so I was pretty excited. I would finally get to see Gale again after the long three and a half hours of not seeing him.

I walked into the cafeteria and I looked for Gale. I saw him at a table with Madge and another person I didn't know. I walked over to the table and sat down next to Madge.

"Hey Catnip," Gale smiled at me.

"Hey Gale." I said back.

"Did you hear about Mr. Abernathy?" Madge asked me.

"Ya, I'm in his homeroom." I said.

"Oh, I feel bad for you. I heard he's a total drunky." Gale said.

"Ya, he's a drunky with a broken ass." I said and we all laughed.

"Oh, Katniss this is Boggs, he's a senior." Gale introduced.

"Hi, I'm Katniss." I told Boggs. He nodded his head and said a small hi and we ate our lunch.

After about five minutes, a group of people came through the cafeteria doors. They looked like seniors, or maybe juniors.

"Finnick! Annie! Sit over here!" Boggs yelled to the group.

"Hey, Boggs!" I guys said to him. He was holding a girls hand, so maybe that is Annie and he's Finnick.

"Gale, Katniss, and Madge, this is Finnick, Annie, Johanna, Beetee, Wiress, Enobaria, Cashmere, Gloss, and Brutus. " He said pointing to all of them.

Everyone said hi to each other and sat down at the table. Finnick sat next to me.

"Want a sugar cube?" Finnick asked me.

"No thanks." I said laughing. Gale looked at me with an unsure smile. Oh Gale, so overprotective.

"Well, they're for the teachers but unlike them we use them as pleasure and they use it to stay awake." Everybody laughed at what Finnick said.

I looked over my shoulder to see Peeta looking around the cafeteria for a seat. I waved at him so I could catch his attention. When that didn't work, I called out his name.

"Peeta!" I yelled. He looked in my direction for a second before he saw me. When he finally figured out that it was me who called his name, he smiled. He walked over to me and I couldn't help smiling back.

"Do you want to sit here with us?" I asked him. Peeta looked at every person sitting at the table.

"Sure." He said and sat next to Gale.

"Hey guys," I said loudly so the table could hear me. They all looked up from their lunches and I saw that Gale had some ketchup on his face. "Gale you have a little something right here," I motioned towards him.

"Thanks," he said.

"Welcome, oh wait guys this is Peeta Mellark. He's new." I said. Everyone looked at Peeta and said hello. Gale gave me a look that I almost laughed at. It was one of those "really?" looks.

"Hi," Peeta said to everyone.

"You're kinda cute," Cashmere said to Peeta. I couldn't help but glare at her. Wait, why was I glaring at her? I wasn't going out with Peeta and he's not related to me, so why should I care?

"Where you from?" Finnick asked with his mouth full of fries.

"District 1." Peeta replied.

"I've always wanted to go there." Gloss said to him.

"It's really the same as it is here, just a little bit more high-tech." Peeta replied trying to make it seem like District 1 was just like every other District when in all reality, it's where all the rich people live, and where all the movies are made.

The bell rang signaling that lunch was over and we all got up and throw away our trash. Gale walked with me to the trash can and kissed me quickly before following his friends out of the doors. I sighed and walked in the other direction towards my next class.

"Thanks for letting me sit at your table." Peeta said from behind me.

I turned around and waited a minute so he could catch up. "No problem," I said "What's your next class?"

"Math with Miss Mason," Peeta said.

"Same!"

"No way!" Peeta said mocking me.

"Shut up." I laughed.

"Would you mind if I walked you to class?" He asked.

I blushed a little. "Ya, since we're going to the same room." He smiled at this and we walked to class. The bell rang saying that we were now late to class and I practically ran down the hall. Peeta followed but he wasn't as fast as I was.

I waited for him before I went in just so he didn't get yelled at worse than me for coming in later.

"Thanks for waiting." Peeta said panting.

"You're welcome, and you're very out of shape." He laughed and we went into the room.

"I'm guessing you're Katniss and your Peeta, am I correct?" Miss Mason said to us.

"Yes ma'am." Peeta replied.

"You two can sit there. Everyone take out your notebook and copy down these class room rules."

We walked to the only open table and sat down.

"Oh crap, I left my note book in my locker." I said to Peeta.

"Here" He said handing me a piece of paper.

"Thanks." I said and copied down the rules that were on the board.

After school was over, I waited by the big apple tree outside of the school for Gale. He was a few people behind me so I didn't have to wait that long.

"How was your day?" Gale asked me as he pulled me in for a hug.

"Good, how was yours?"

"It was okay, I mean you weren't in any of my classes so it wasn't as good as it could have been."

I smiled at him and we walked hand in hand to the Seam.

When we got to my house, Gale waved goodbye and walked to his house down the street. He was so nice to me. We had to walk past his house to get to my house but he walks me to my house every day.

I walked into my house and saw my mother sitting passed out on the table. I wanted to pour a bucket of water over her, but when I when into the kitchen, I saw that Prim had a friend over.

"Hey Katniss!" Prim said to me.

"Hey little duck," I said back.

"Katniss, this is Rue, Rue this is my older sister Katniss." Prim introduced.

Rue had darker skin and dark brown hair. She was about Prims' height but Prim was a little taller.

"Hey Rue, You guys hungry?" I asked them both.

"We already ate," Prim answered and they ran up stairs to Prim's room.

"Mom get your drunk butt up and go to your room, we have company!" I yelled in her ear. She woke up for a second, looked me in the eyes and fell back to sleep. That's it. I went under the kitchen sink and got a bucket. I filled it up with ice cold water, and dumped it on her.

"What the hell Katniss!" she screeched.

"That's for being drunk!" I yelled back. I was so tired of drunk people today!

She sat up and slapped me across my face. "And that's for talking to your mother like that!"

"You were never a mother to me! You never will be either! Prim has to see you passed out every day and she doesn't like it, I don't like it. I have been supporting your sorry ass for way to long now so if you need anything, DON'T ASK ME!" I screamed and walked out the door and over to Gale's house. If anyone would understand me, it would be him.

I walked with my head down over to his house and only looked up to open the gate. I walked up the steps, but a flicker of movement caught the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw…

To be continued

A/N I decided to end the chapter there so I could be a very mean person! * Evil laugh * what do you think it was? Guess in a review!