CHAPTER 1.
The day started out like any other day. I wake up at around 5:00am like usual. I get changed like usual. I get my usual breakfast. 2 pancakes with syrup, tea with no sugar and a random Capitol news show on the little TV in the kitchen. Caesar Flickerman talking about the 74th hunger games reaping in a week. I eat at the kitchen counter because dad is passed out on the dining room table with a bottle of liquor in his hands like usual.
Dad was the winner of the 50th hunger games and he has been drinking ever since. I've tried to tell him to stop and he would say that he would give up but every morning I find him in the same position. My mother and twin sister, Rosie, both live in the Capitol and I only see them once a year when mum comes over to reap 2 unlucky children for the games. I'm surprised that I haven't been reaped yet, being a child of the only living victor in district 12. Rosie normally stays with me whilst dad goes to the Capitol with the 2 unlucky children and mum.
I finish my breakfast, place the cup and plate in the washing up bowl, switch off the TV and walk to the front door. I pull on my boots and my big leather jacket and walk out the door. Dad knows where I'll be going so there's no need to leave a note any more.
I leave the victors village gates and walk into the seam. Sometimes I don't like walking through here, especially at night because a lot of people watch me go. Everyone in the seam is really poor and I want nothing more than to help them but I can't help them all. Dad doesn't give me enough money a week. He makes me buy his liquor from the hob sometimes. I used to be scared to go in there aswell but now I'm used to it. I walk through the seam quickly with my head down and carry on to the town square.
When I get to the square I walk to the doors of the bakery. I've worked here since I was 12 and I spend most of my time here when I'm not at school.
"Hey Peet! How's Haymitch doing?" I hear Leaven say. Leaven is the bakers oldest son.
"Dads passed out as usual." I say laughing, "Where are Masan and Rye?" I ask.
Rye is Masan's other son. He used to have a daughter called Poppy, she was a year younger than me and had a huge crush on me, even after I agreed to date her not long before the reaping. She died in the Hunger Games last year. The 73rd Hunger Games. Mrs Mellark has hardly talked to anybody since. She spends all her time in her room.
"Dad is upstairs giving mum breakfast and Rye's in the back." Leaven says.
"Ok I'll go and help Rye." I say. I ditch my coat on the hook by the door and pull on my apron before I walk past Leaven into the back.
Before Poppy died, Rye was the kind of person to joke all the time and him and Poppy where like best friends so when she died, he started to be more serious. He does crack a joke now and then but it's not the same without her.
"Hey Rye!" I say when I walk into the room. He turns around with a tray of cookies in his hand.
"Oh, hey Peet! How are you?" He asks, turning around to deal with the cookies again.
"I'm fine. Need some help?"
"Yeah sure, there's some bread in the other oven, can you check on it please?"
"Yeah." There's 3 ovens in the bakery. 2 in the shop kitchen and 1 in the house kitchen. They don't normally use the family oven so I walk over to the other side of the kitchen counter where the other oven is and open the door. The bread is still pale on top which means it isn't cooked yet, it has to be brown on the top to be cooked. "It's not done yet"
I work in the bakery all day as usual until the place closes and I have to go home. Masan tries to give me some money for helping but I don't take it as usual.
When I make it back to the Victors Village, it's dark but I can still see a small person walking towards my door.
"Katniss!" I shout, she spins around. Katniss Everdeen has been trading with me and dad for 3 years now and before that he would come trading with her dad, but he sadly died in a mining explosion.
When I catch up to her I see that her game bag looks a lot fuller than usual. "Looks like you've got a lot today." I say trying to make conversation.
"Yeah, I only just got back into the district so I came through the opening just outside the Village and I came here first." She says looking at the floor.
We get to my door in no time. I ask her if she wants to come in but she doesn't accept, saying that she doesn't have time. I run into the house and see that dad is still passed out. I walk into the kitchen and take some coins out of the money jar.
I pass Katniss 3 gold coins and she gives me 2 squirrels which will be good for mine and dad's dinner tonight.
She doesn't say another word just pockets the money and walks away. I shut the door and take the squirrels to the kitchen.
For tea I make some type of squirrel stew that Poppy taught me to make when we where younger. She taught me to make a lot of things. The stew consists of squirrel, potatoes, carrots and mushroom. With some gravy. Someday I hope to get more people over for dinner, like some of my friends from school or the Mellarks or even Katniss. I've been in love with Katniss since the first day of school and I can never seem to get her out of my head.
Even Poppy thought that I had loved her, she alway knew that I was in love with Katniss. I had agreed to go out with Poppy two months before the reaping and she couldn't have been more happy. After about a week, I realised that I would never have a chance with Katniss and I learnt to love Poppy. The next time she told me she loved me, I replied with 'I love you too' and it was true, she was an amazing girl and I could see myself getting married to her some day. I was still in love Katniss but I started to love Poppy as equally as I did Katniss, if not maybe a little more. Poppy knew this and was ok with it most of the time and then the reaping happened and my world crumbled down. Katniss had been reaped and my heart melted, I didn't think the day could get any worse until Poppy volunteered. I had made Poppy a promise that if she was reaped then I would not volunteer to save her.
I think back to our last conversation. It was in the justice building in the room where we get to say goodbye. The first people to go in the room where of course the Mellarks, then Poppy's best friend, then finally me. I had been outside the room with my head in my hands and I didn't realise I was crying until my hands left my face, wet.
When I had walked in, she was standing at the window in the knee length purple dress with long sleeves that I had bought her for her 14th birthday a couple weeks before. I could hear her lightly sobbing.
"Poppy?" I said quietly and before I knew it she was in my arms and we where both crying.
"It's going to be ok." She said pulling away from me.
"No, it's not. I should have volunteered." I said.
"No you shouldn't have."
"Well why did you, and for Katniss, you've been jealous of her for years." I said loudly.
"I did it for you." She whispered. She had her hands against my chest and was looking at her shoes.
"Why?" I put my hand under her chin so he looks up to me. "Don't you see! You're not doing me any favours by getting yourself killed."
"I did it because I know that you love Katniss and I know that whenever you see her, your face lights up and you can't stop looking at her."
"No! You don't understand!" I grab her by her shoulders. "I LOVE YOU!" I shout.
"I know you do and I love you too, more than anyone but you love her more than you love me and with me out of the picture you can be with her." She said. "Just promise me that you will atleast talk to her for me."
"Only if you promise to come back to me." I said with more tears falling down my face. She reaches up and wipes them off, but they keep coming.
"Ok I promise, I'll do the best I can."
"I promise then." I pulled her towards me and kissed her on top of her head.
The peacekeepers showed up to take me out. "Times up!" One announced.
I pulled away from Poppy and kissed her. Our first kiss. I don't know why we never kissed before but we never thought the need to.
"I love you Poppy Mellark!" I said.
"I love you too Peeta Abernathy!" She shouted back as I was being pulled from the room. "Never forget!"
"I won't!" I shouted. I left the justice building to see Leaven, Masan and Rosie there. That was the first time I saw Rosie since the year before and I had tears rolling down my face by the bucket load, my face was all red and I had to repeatedly wipe the snot that was coming out of my nose. My legs felt week and I didn't even have enough strength to walk over to them.
Leaven and Masan must have told her what happened because as soon as I slid down the wall to the floor, screaming, she ran over to comfort me. She held me there whilst I cried over my broken heart until everyone had gone home and Poppy and been taken to the Capitol.
Katniss came to see us the next day but I had been in my dad's study painting. She had told Rosie to tell me how sorry she was and if she could reverse it she would but I couldn't talk to her after she was the reason Poppy volunteered.
I hadn't kept that against her for long when I realised that I needed to keep the promise and I started to try to talk her at school. She doesn't talk to me that much but still more than she used to.
It seems that I had kept my promise to Poppy by talking to Katniss, but Poppy didn't keep hers. I'm sure I'll see her again, sometime but not yet, not yet. When my time comes I will be with her, but at the moment, something is keeping me on earth.
I'm brought out of the memory by a really loud ringing. Dad stirs but doesn't lift his head off the table.
"Peet get the phone!" He mumbles.
I roll my eyes, "Dad don't go back to sleep, dinners almost ready." I shout, running from the room to get the phone.
"In not hungry!" He says as I pick up the phone.
"I don't care!" I shout to him before putting the phone to my ear. "Hello?"
"Haymitch! It's Effie!" She shouts down the phone. I pull the phone away from my ear quickly.
"Mum! It's Peeta stop shouting!" I reply.
"Oh Peeta! You sound so much like your dad."
"I don't sound anything like dad!" I say defensively.
"Peeta forget it! I need to talk to your dad." She says. "Is he there?"
"Yeh but I think he's gone back to sleep."
"Well wake him up! It's really important."
"Fine!" I roll my eyes. "DAD!" I shout through the house. "Mums on the phone... Says it's important!"
That got him moving. I hear shuffling and he leaves the kitchen with a bottle of liquor still in his hand. "Give me that!" He says and I hand him the phone. I walk back into the kitchen but keep my ear to the door.
"Effie?" I hear dad say. "Yeh it's Haymitch, what's wrong?... WHAT!... He cant do that!... How did he find out ... What's he going to do ... For how long... Forever?... What about you? ... Ok..." He pulls the phone away from his eat. "Peeta! Come here!"
I take a second before walking out. "What's wrong?"
"Effie needs to talk to you!" He hasn't really called her my mum since Rosie moved to the Capitol when I was 5.
"Yes mum?" I ask into the phone as dad walks away.
"Peeta! I need to talk to you. I've just explained all this to your dad and I know that he wouldn't have told you properly." She says.
"Mum what's wrong? Your scaring me." I say.
"Well, the thing is, Rosie is coming to live with you and Haymitch."
"Yeh I know, she does every year." I say.
"No, I mean for good." Mums crying.
"What? Why?"
"Because president snow found out that she was Haymitchs daughter and he was furious. He threatened to have her killed but I bargained with him and he said that she had to come an live in district 12 and I can never see her again, unless of course she is reaped for the hunger games."
"It will be okay mum I promise, will you be able to talk to her on the phone?"
"Yes but I won't be able to see her! I might be able to come and see you before the reaping but only for about 10 minutes."
"I promise mum, I'll keep good care of her."
"I know you will." She says.
"Please can I talk to her?" I ask
"Yeh she's here now!" She says. "Love you."
"Love you too mum bye."
"Peet!" I hear Rosie say. She sounds like she's been crying or she was just screaming about something.
"Rosie are you ok?" I ask. I know full well that she isn't. My mum always used to say that twins are connected and they can tell what the other one is feeling and they do a lot better together than apart. I didnt believe her until Rosie left for the Capitol. I didn't speak to anyone for about 2 months and sometimes id have a random wave of sadness wash over me and i'd ring Rosie and she would be crying. Other times when I would be crying, Rosie would ring me.
"Ok? Ok?" She shouts. "Mum just told me that I have to come and live with you guys and that I can't see her again!"
"Ok Rosie calm down I know she just told me."
I hear her take a breath. "Ok I'm sorry but how can I live without my mum?"
"Look I know it sounds bad but it's not that bad, there are many times I just want to talk to her because I hardly get to talk to dad anymore but I can call her everyday. I haven't talked to mum properly in 7 years." I say. I don't really get to see mum on reaping day. We only get 5 minutes and that's normally to say 'good luck'.
"Yeh you're right, I'm being selfish. You never get to see mum and I get to see dad every year for a month and you have to go to that terrible reaping every year and then there's your girlfriend-"
"Rosie! Can we please not talk about that?" I say looking at my shoes. The only bad thing about Rosie is that she never knows when to shut up.
I remember the day that would have been mine and Poppy's one year anniversary. I spent 3 hours on the phone with Rosie because she kept talking, telling me everything that she knew about Poppy until I was sitting on the floor with my knees up to my chest and head in my hands, crying. The phone lay forgotten on the floor beside me.
"Peeta?" Rosie says. "You ok?"
"Yeh sorry!" I shake my head to clear the memory. "What where you saying?"
"Nothing! I was trying to get you to talk to me."
"Oh ok. So what time you going to get here." I ask.
"Tomorrow around 10:00am" she says. "I'm getting on the train tonight."
"I won't be able to pick you up because I'm at school then, it's Monday tomorrow." I say, a little disappointed.
"Yeh I know, I worked that out myself." She laughs.
"I could persuade dad to pick you up!" I say.
"No it's fine, mums driver, Daniel, is coming and we are going to get a car to school so mum can see you before she gets back on the train and we are going to drop my stuff off at dads. Mum just started packing, I have to go and help her."
"Okay well I'll sort your room out because my art supplies are still in there." I say. "I'll just move into my room or persuade dad to give me the study room upstairs and he can have the one downstairs, not that he uses it though."
She laughs. "Yeh well I'll ring you from the train, tomorrow morning around 7 I'm guessing you'll be at the bakery?" She's had the number for the bakery since I was around 14 and dad got sick of answering the phone. Masan didn't mind so I gave her the number.
"No I'll be here, I'm not needed tomorrow morning."
"Ok I'll ring you at 7 then."
"Ok bye Rosie."
"Bye peet! I love you pebble!" The only reason she called me pebble is because once when we where younger, we where playing out in the victors village, under dad's watchful eye, and she found a pebble and drew a face on it, claiming that it was me and called it Peeta pebble.
I laugh. "I love you too Rosie, I'll see you tomorrow." I hang up the phone and walk back into the kitchen. I didn't tell her but i'm actually really excited that she is coming to live with us.
That night at dinner, I talk to dad who agrees to let me have the study upstairs but I have to share it with Rosie. I agree obviously. I walk upstairs to sort out Rosie's room. When we where younger, me and Rosie shared a room but when she got older, she had to have her own room. At first she was reluctant to sleep in her own room so sometimes when she cant sleep, she comes into my room and sleeps in my bed. A couple years ago dad ordered me a double bed but kept a single bed in Rosie's room because she was hardly ever here and when she was here she would sleep in my room or in dad's room because he was in the Capitol. She said it was because she didn't like her room but I think it was an excuse to sleep in my room.
I walk into her room, there are paintings and paints all over the place. I pick up as many paintings as I can and walk down the hall and drop them all into the office.
I have the whole room free of my stuff in no time. Rosie's room consists of a bed with flowery covers, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, 3 shelves that stretch the length of the wall. 1 and a half full of books, no doubt she will bring more with her. I've never met a girl so obsessed with books.
3 of the walls are yellow but the last one has a big painting that I did for her 2 years ago. When she showed up that year she nearly fainted.
It's a big picture of me, her, mum and dad in the meadow. It was when we where 3. On one side, mum and dad stand. Dad has his arm around mums shoulders and mum is hugging him. They both look down at me and Rosie. We have joined hands and are spinning round in a circle. Rosie is wearing a little purple dress and I'm wearing some black jeans and a white shirt. She loved this picture. Sometimes I'd catch her looking at it an when I asked what's wrong she'd say, "What happened to our family peet?" With tears in her eyes and I'd give her a hug and we would look at the picture, talking until the sun finally went down.
That night it took me hours to get to sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about Rosie. Everytime she comes here, i'm scared that she isn't going to fit in. Of course, she does. She made friends with everyone I hang around. She even made friends with Madge Undersee and is with Katniss sometimes. She comes to the bakery with me a lot an they treat her like a little sister. She also had district 12 clothes along with Capitol clothes. I've got the same because mum always buys me Capitol clothes. I only wear them on reaping day. The rest of the time I wear my district 12 clothes. Rosie says that she hates the Capitol clothes because it's all a little too much for her.
I finally get to sleep at around 2:00am I have to get up at 5:00am so I don't get much sleep. I only get up at 5 because normally i'm needed at the bakery and the days I'm not, I just watch TV or go for a walk after eating breakfast.
I'm woke up by ringing sound. I look at the clock. 7:07am how did I sleep so late. I grab the phone on my bed side table. It has a different number than the downstairs one, "Hello?" I mumble, rubbing my eyes.
"Hi Peet!" I hear Rosie say. "I called the house phone but nobody answered so I rang your bedroom phone."
"Oh yeh sorry, I didn't get to sleep till late last night so I slept in." I reply.
"Yeh I guessed!" She laughs. "Peet listen, the train was early last night and I know I said I would ring you at 7 which I am, but I thought it would be better if you could see me instead!"
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Duh! Peet I'm outside, talking on the car phone, mums here, I tried the door but it was locked so come downstairs and open it! Lazy!"
"Right I'm coming!" I say happily. I can't believe she is here early. I slam the phone down on the receiver and jump out of bed. I pull on a plain white shirt and some jeans, lying at the end of my bed.
I run out of my door and down the hall practically jumping down the stairs to get to the door. I look towards the victors village gates to see a long black car. I walk back into the house and pull on my shoes that sit next to the door and step outside again, shutting the door behind me.
I walk down the steps, keeping my eye on the car. The door opens and Rosie steps out. Mum gets out the other side. They both have massive smiles on their faces. I run to meet Rosie and she runs to me. I meet her halfway and she throws her arms around me.
"I've missed you Pebble!" She says.
"I've missed you too Rosie so much!" I say. I push her away and grab her shoulders. "You look different." It's true, her face looks older, she's wearing a tiny bit of make up and her hair is longer. She hasn't grown though, she is barely up to my shoulders.
Mum walks over and gives me a hug. "It's great to see you Peeta!" She says with a smile.
"You too mum!" I say. "Do you want to come inside? Dads still asleep." Dan (mums driver) walks over and puts down Rosie's cases.
"No I've got to get back to the train station, but I'll try and come and see you next week at the reaping." She says, gives us both a hug and walks back to the car. "I love you both" she shouts.
"Love you too mum." We both shout back.
"Nice to see you again Peet!" Dan days, extending his hand to me.
"You too Dan." I take his hand and give it a little shake before dropping it.
"Sad circumstances though." He replies. "It's been a pleasure driving you around everywhere miss trinket."
"It's Miss Abernathy in district 12 Dan." Rosie smiles.
"Right well it's been a pleasure either way." He smiles.
"Thanks Dan, that means a lot." She walks over and gives him a hug. "I'll miss you talking to me every morning whilst mums working." I can see tears on her cheeks. I had no idea these two where that close.
"Me too, I'll see you next week anyway." He says pulling away and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Good bye, Miss Abernathy."
"Bye Dan." She says, he gives me a little wave and runs off to the car again. I pick up 2 of Rosie's cases and she takes the other one and we walk to my house.
When we get inside, dads sat at the bottom of the stairs without a drink for once. He looks almost sober too, he must have really tried. "Where Effie?" He asks as I place down Rosie's cases.
"She had to go back to the train station to catch the train." I say. He nods, then looks at Rosie.
"It's great to see you Rosalyn." He say and extends his hand towards her. I don't think dad has hugged anyone for about 7 years when Rosie hugged him before leaving and he hugged her back.
"Dad, it's Rosie not Rosalyn." She says laughing.
"Okay... Rosie..." He says with an awkward smile.
"Well... Anyway... Rosie come on, we can drop your stuff off upstairs then we can set off for school." Rosie normally starts school the day after she arrives but this time she's here early so she can come today. Everybody at school just thinks she used to live across town and was home schooled and she didn't visit us very much.
"Yeh sounds good I can't wait to see everyone again." She smiles.
"Come on then." I take 2 of her cases whilst she takes the other one and we walk to her room.
We eventually get to school around 7:55am. With 5 minutes to spare before class starts, we sit in the cafeteria. It's a very small cafeteria and it only has around 8 tables in it. Me and Rosie sit at one of the smaller ones in the back corner and try not to draw attention to ourselves. Of course that doesn't work, being children of the only victor in the district, people always find us.
My friends find us in no time. "ROSIE!" I hear from the cafeteria door. Delly Cartwright, my closest friend, comes running over and pulls Rosie into a hug. "Peeta didn't tell me you where coming early."
"Well neither of us actually knew until last night, the people who looked after me sent me back to live with dad last night, I got here about an hour ago."
"That's amazing but why did they send you back?" Delly asks.
"Because I asked them too. I wanted to see Peet." She smiles and wraps her arms around my middle.
"I understand. Peeta is an amazing guy." Delly says, giving me a wink. I laugh at her.
"I know." Rosie replies.
"Ok girls, come on we better be getting to class."
In class, Rosie sits next to me, in Delly's usual place. Delly sits with her friend River, on the table infront of Katniss. River is in mine and Delly's group of friends. He's been my friend since we where 9 and he's been Delly's since we where 12.
Miss Phelps, our teacher, walks in, carrying an armful of books and paper. "Hello class!" She says, with a smile.
She places down her books and paper and turns to is all, whilst sitting on her desk. "Now, the first thing we need to discuss today is..." She trails off, then looks at me and Rosie, before carrying on. "Now you all know, that this time of year, we have a new student. Normally it is a week from now, after the reaping, but this year she's here a week early and I believe that she will be staying for good now?" I nod to her. "Good, so let us all welcome back, Rosalyn Abernathy." A few people clap. "Peeta, I expect you to catch Rosie up on what she doesn't know?"
"Will do, Miss Phelps." I smile.
"Thank you Peeta!"
I spend most of that hour, filling in Rosie on what she has missed. I've hardly payed any attention to Miss Phelps and I think someone is going to have to fill me in aswell.
When the lesson finishes, Me, Delly and Rosie go down the hall to the next class. We are pretty much in the same seating arrangement and we have the same students in our class. The only difference is our teacher, Mr Beech. He seems to hate us all. He's a little smaller then me, pretty chubby and has black hair that reaches his chin with a few grey strands and bright grey eyes. He's probably around 50 and lives in The Seam.
"About time you all showed up!" He says as well all walk through the door.
We all take our usual seats and Mr Beech begins talking about the history of Panem. Eventually the topic of my father comes up. "So as you all know, there has been 2 victors from District 12 but only one lives today. Haymitch Abernathy. He won the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the second Quarter Quell where the twist was that double the amount of people went into the arena. It came as a surprise to everyone when a 16 year old boy from the seam was able to make it out of the arena alive... I knew Haymitch when he was a kid, I babysat for him a couple of times whilst his parents where at work... He was a nice boy, always playful." He looks towards me. "Of course he didn't do too bad for himself, he may not talk to anyone anymore but he has two children. Peeta and Rosalyn."
The lesson drags on as Mr Beech talks. I let my mind wonder to the bakery. I'm going there after school today. Maybe I can take Rosie with me too. I still haven't told them about her being here and i'm sure they'll be really happy. I think that maybe Rye has a little crush on her because everytime he sees her, he can't stop smiling. Last year it was different though because he had just lost his sister. I haven't talked to him yet though because -
"Peeta Abernathy! Are you paying attention in my class or are you going to leave?" Mr Beech says, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Anything you want to share with the class? Want to tell us what you where thinking about."
"Nothing sir." I reply. "Just what I'm doing later."
"Well don't think about that in my classroom." He says and goes back to the lesson.
Eventually the lesson ends and we all go for a break. Every day for school, we start at 9 and have 2 hours of lessons then at 11:05 we have a 15 minute break until 20 past then we have an hour lesson, at 12:20 we have half an hour dinner until 12:50. Then two hours of lessons again and then we finally get to go home at 2:50. Every 2 years have a different dinner. Us and the year above us have a dinner at 12:50 then the two below us have half an hour earlier than us. It's only because the cafeteria is too small for more than 2 years. Even then some people don't actually get to sit in it but on a sunny day like this, most people sit outside in the school yard so their should be enough room.
Me and Rosie decided to spend our break time outside with half of the school. I don't understand why people would want to stay inside on a day like this. It's almost all the town's people that stay inside, all the seams people are outside. Me, Rosie and Delly are the only ones outside at the moment from town. Well sort of. Me and Rosie are officially from the Victors Village but we hang around with towns people so everyone just classes us as towns people. Plus we also look like towns people with the blonde hair and blue eyes which we both get from our mother. Dad has black hair and grey eyes. He used to be from the seam. I suppose this is the reason that most of the seam people are tanned and the town's people are pale. Seam people aren't stupid and see that when it's sunny you should go outside.
All three of us take a seat on one if the benches at the back of the school yard, next to an oak tree. Delly in the middle, Rosie on her left and me on her right. As usual, Delly turns to Rosie and starts talking to her. I lean back against the back of the bench and watch the seams people. Black haired people running around everywhere. All having fun. It makes me smile. The fact that people who are so poor can have so much fun, makes me happy. One day I hope to help them all. Everyone should live the same. I catch sight of a certain girl, standing next a smaller blonde girl. Her black braid is swinging from side to side in the wind and she's smiling. The smile on my face grows wider. Everything seems to slow down as she starts laughing. The sun gleaming down and the black of her hair hardly noticeable against the black wall behind her. Her grey hair shining in the sun as she looks down to her little sister. In my head I can hear the sound of her laughing. It's beautiful and one day I wish to make her laugh so much that she can't stop. I want to make her laugh everyday for the rest of my laugh.
I'm broken out of my thoughts by a hand. A hand waving in front of my obviously trying to get my attention. "Peeta? Hello? Are you in there?" I turn around to see Rosie and Delly staring at me. "Could you be any more In love with her?" Delly asks with a smile on her face.
"I probably could!" I say but still laugh.
"Just talk to her." Rosie says.
"You know I can't." I reply.
"So what? You're just going to break a promise? Is that who you really are?" Rosie says, with a hard look on her face.
"I don't want to break a promise, I'll talk to her eventually, just not today." I say and Rosie shrugs her shoulders.
"Fine! Just don't leave it too long or I'm gonna talk to her." Rosie says. "It's the reaping next week, for all you know, you might not even get a chance to talk to her, and no way are you telling her during the goodbyes! I don't think that would be something that she would want to hear when she's going to almost certain death."
"Ok fine! I'll talk to her but what do I say?" I ask, trying to find the courage to actually stand up and walk over.
"The truth. Nothing but the truth." Rosie says. "I can't believe you're actually gonna go up to the girl you've been in love with for 10 years I didn't think this would happen."
"Very funny Rosie, right I'm gonna do this because I need to." I say and pull myself to my feet. My brain is telling me to sit back down and not be foolish but my heart is telling me to walk over there and talk to her. I lock my eyes on her, as if to calm myself down. It works part of the way until she turns towards me and locks her eyes with mine. She looks confused. I expected that but I still need to talk to her. Out of the corner of my eye I see Primrose turn to me and look back at Katniss with a smile on her face. Primrose knows of my affections towards her big sister because she comes by the bakery a lot and must have seen the way look at Katniss because one day she decided to come in and ask me about it. I told her and she promised not to say anything to Katniss. That was 2 years ago. Neither one of us have broken eye contact yet and a smile has crept up on my face. She smiles back at me awkwardly.
When I'm about 2 metres away from Katniss, someone grabs my arm and pulls me away. "Peeta, I need to talk to you." Rye stands there with a smile on his face. I take a second to look back over to Katniss but she's gone. "Sorry did I interrupt something?" Rye asks.
"Not really, I was just about to talk to Katniss." I say, looking back towards him.
"Oh God, I'm sorry." Rye says laughing. He knows that I've never had the courage to talk to Katniss so he knows that him interrupting me was annoying.
"What do you want Rye?" I ask.
"I was wondering if you could work tonight. Leaven was sick this morning so Dad told him to stay In bed for the day, at the moment it's just him and mum working but we need your help tonight because we normally have a lot of customers after school." He says.
"Yeh sure, I was gonna come by anyway because I was gonna bring someone along with me." I say smiling.
"Who?" He asks, rather confused.
"Well it was meant to be a surprise but Rosie got here this morning, something happened with mum and now she lives with us permanently. You finally have a shot with her!"I say slapping him on the arm.
"Yeh right!" He says laughing. "I have about as much of a shot with her as you do with Katniss, as if I'd have a shot with someone from the capitol." I laugh.
"I'll see you later Rye, lesson starts in a minute." I say
"Yeh I'll see you and Rosie later." He walks away smiling.
I hear the school bell ring through the school yard, signalling that it's time to go back to lesson. The school yard empties within seconds until it's just me standing there. I feel someone tap me on the shoulder and I spin around. Delly and Rosie are standing there with smiles on their faces. "What happened?" Rosie asks.
"Nothing I didn't talk to her." I say walking away.
"What? Why?" Delly replies, sounding surprised as they hurry along behind me.
"Well I almost got to her and I was confident to talk to her but then Rye pulled me away from her, he asked me to work at the bakery later because Leaven is Ill and when I turned around again, Katniss was gone." I say with a hint of sadness in my voice.
"Well that's Rye's fault, you can talk to her at dinner." Rosie says. I turn around to face her and they both stop.
"No Rosie I don't think that I can." I reply.
"Why not?" She asks.
"Because I Already got my hopes up today and had the courage to do it. I don't think I can get my hopes up twice. Something will happening it always does." I say to her.
"Peet it will be fine I promise." Rosie says hugging me.
"Thanks Rosie." I reply hugging her back. "What would I do without you." I laugh.
"You wouldn't do anything pebble." She replied laughing.
"Please don't call me that in the school grounds." I say.
"I think it's cute." Delly says over Rosie's shoulder. I smile at her but I'm still shaking my head.
"It's embarrassing." I reply. Rosie pulls away from me with a smile on her face. She turns to Delly and starts laughing. "What's funny." I ask even though I'm laughing too.
"Nothing doesn't matter now let's get to lesson. Mrs Myers is going to kill us." Delly says.
Mrs Myers is a 40 year old woman. She's got blonde and grey hairs on her head, I believe stress has caused her to have more grey hairs than any other normal human being in the district. She has blue eyes. Wrinkles everywhere. A really long nose and is just about the meanest person you would ever come across in your life. Her husband died a few years ago and ever since, she has been horrible to just about everyone. When you walk into her lesson more than 10 minutes late, it's worse than signing your own death warrant. When me Delly and Rosie walk into her lesson 15 minutes late though she surprises us by not being that horrible.
"Peeta Abernathy, care to tell the class why you, Miss Abernathy and Miss Cartwright are late to my lesson." She doesn't even look angry.
"Well we had some... Erm..." her niceness has caught me off guard and I have no idea what to say.
"We had to go to the cafeteria to let cook know that Rosie was here so she needed to make food for her at lunch." Delly says. I turn around and smile at her.
"And why did that take 3 of you?" Mrs Myers asks.
"Well we were just walking together." Rosie says.
"That is no excuse for you all to be late." She replied. "Anyway, because of your incapability to show up to my lesson on time, you have lost your seating privileges for the rest of the year in my classroom." She turns towards the class as if she's deciding where we are going to sit. "Rosalyn, you will be sitting in your usual place at the back of the class. Delly, you will be sitting next to Miss Stratser," Delly gives me a look of disgust before walking away from me to sit next to Gina Stratser. Gina lives up above the clothes shop in town with her parents and her older brother, Eric who's in Rye's year. It's next door to Dell's house, which is the district shoe shop a couple shops down from the Bakery. She's always had a very serious crush on me and hates Delly because she thinks Delly fancies me but Delly actually sees me as more of a brother or a cousin. When we where younger she used to refer to me as her cousin because we could actually pass as cousin, she said she would call me her brother If I didn't already have a sister.I'd hate to see what Gina would do to Katniss if she found out about how I feel. "Mr Abernathy-" she starts before I cut her off.
"Please don't call me Mr Abernathy. Mr Abernathy is my father and I hate being compared to my father." I say to her. She gives me an evil look.
"I will call you whatever I want in my classroom Mr Abernathy, your father is a good man and I don't know why you wouldn't want to be compared to him-" I cut her off again, I know I'm probably gonna get in trouble but the words just come out.
"My father is a drunk I am nothing like my father." I say even though it's not actually true, I am more like my father than I care to admit. The main reason being that he is my dad and I can't help being like him. Last year the day Poppy died, I went into dad's drink collection that he leaves in the basement and drunk half of it. I can't remember any of that night I just remember waking up the next morning and finding Rosie sitting In a chair in the corner, looking at me. She told me that she woke up late at night to noise downstairs and then came down and found me 'drunk on the kitchen floor in a puddle of my own tears', apparently I was more drunk than dad but I doubt that. I was obviously extremely ill the next day but we didn't tell school we just told them that I was too sad to come into school which was partly true. I had told Rosie what happened and she understood why i was drunk but told me that I needed to stop because poppy wouldn't want me to and I stopped. Dad on the other hand would not stop drinking for anyone, that's the big difference between us. I can stop something and he can't.
"Yeh okay..." Mrs Myers says obviously not believing it. "Anyway, you will be sitting next to Miss Everdeen." She says and my eyes grow wide. I turn towards Delly who smiles then I look at Rosie who is laughing. I move my feet and hesitantly take a seat next to Katniss. She looks at me and smiles awkwardly again before shuffling her chair away from mine and carrying on drawing what looks looks like a flower in the corner of her notebook. She's not very good at drawing. I smile quickly before turning back to Mrs Myers. "Also, for being late and for Mr Abernathy speaking back to me, you three are too see me after school for an hour." The smile drops from my face.
"But I have to work at the bakery after school and Delly has to work at the shoe shop." I say leaning quite far over the table, as if it's going to make her change her mind.
"You will have to tell them you can't then explain to them Why, I don't think they will be to thrilled to learn that one of their employees has detention." She says.
"I am their only employee and Leaven is Ill so they need me." I say to her.
"I do not care Mr Abernathy, you will meet me after school in this room, no exceptions." She says and goes back to the lesson. Katniss looks at me giving me a knowing look with a small smile. She is always getting shouted at by Mrs Myers because she doesn't pay attention to the lesson. I can understand why, this lesson is very boring.
Whilst Mrs Myers goes on about fractions, I turn to my notebook and flip to the back where I do all my doodling. I carry on drawing a tree that I started this morning. I look over at Katniss' hand as I see it moving, she appears to be trying to draw a flower. She groans in frustration. I turn to a new page in my notebook and start to draw. Within 15 minutes I've drawn a Katniss Tuber and a Primrose flower, I scribble my initials along the bottom of the page to show that I drew it and then I silently rip it out of my notepad and slide it along the table to her. She looks down at it before looking at me and narrowing her eyes as if I laced the picture with some kind of poison. I hold up one finger and pull the picture back. I turn it over and pick up my pen. I decide to write her a note, 'I saw that you where having some trouble drawing a flower so I thought you'd appreciate it. X Peeta Abernathy.' I slide it back over to her. This time she pics it up and reads it, a smile appears on her face and she turns it over to look at the drawing. She puts it down and rips a piece of paper out of her own notepad. She scribbles something down on it and hands me the piece of paper. 'Thank you it means a lot that you would draw this for me but why did you?'
I take my own pen and scribble something back. 'Because I wanted to and I saw that you where having trouble drawing one so I drew one for you.'
'Well thank you it's beautiful.' She writes.
'I could draw you another if you want, what's your favourite flower?'
'No please don't, you don't need to.'
'But I want to, what's your favourite flower?'
'Dandelion, it was my Dads favourite flower and its also mine.'
'Dandelions are beautiful, they grow in places you wouldn't expect them too and I think that's beautiful.'
When I hand her the piece of paper back, she doesn't reply, she just smiles up at me as I check to see if Mrs Myers is still teaching. She's got her back towards us as she writes something on the black board so I turn back to Katniss and hold one finger up before reached down and silently ripping one of the pieces of paper out of my actual drawing pad. It's got really thick paper in it. I don't even have to take the lead out of my bag to get a piece of paper out of. I also take my pencil cases with my colours in, our of my bag and take out 3 different greens, 2 different yellows and 4 blues.
It takes me 30 minutes but eventually I finish the picture. I hand it to her and she looks at it. I see a smile light up on her face and a tear falls from her eye. "I'll see you tomorrow class." Mrs Myers says and I start to pack up my things.
"This really is beautiful Peeta, thank you." Katniss says still holding my drawing in her right hand. She now stands on the other side of me - I don't remember her walking behind my chair to get out - she has her bag slung over her right shoulder and has a smile on her face. I look up to her fully.
"Well it was a pleasure drawing it for you, maybe tomorrow I can draw something else for you." I say smiling. She lets out the tiniest laugh and I smile at her. That's the first time I have ever made Katniss Everdeen laugh. I can see now that the rest of the class have gone except Delly and Rosie who wait for me at the door.
"Well thank you." She smiles and turns around, walking away to the door. She pushes past Delly and Rosie, mumbling 'excuse me' and disappears out the door.
"So you finally talked to her then?" Delly says when we are in the hallway, walking to lunch.
"Not really, I drew her a picture or two but that's it." I say to her.
"Really?" Rosie asks, I nod. "You didn't tell her anything about the way you feel?"
"No... did you really think that the first thing I would say to her was 'I love you'?" I ask.
"Well, no but I thought you would have done something more interesting than that." Rosie says.
"Well sorry to disappoint you." I reply. "Now can we please eat? I'm hungry."
"Most definitely!" Delly says and we walk into the cafeteria.
I grab a tray from the pile and walk over to the cook. She puts some kind of meat on my tray with some peas and mash. It's an extremely small amount of food and after I'm done eating it I want some more. But nobody is allowed more than one helping of it. Rye walks over just as I finish reading my food. "Why are you on this lunch?" I ask him. He's not meant to be on this lunch, his lunch doesn't start for 20 minutes.
"Dad rang up school and told them that he needed me in the Bakery so I'm going home." He says with a smile on his face. "I just thought I'd come to say goodbye."
"Rye!" Rosie says as if she's just noticing him for the the first time. "It's great to see you!" What she doesn't realise is that this cafeteria is extremely small and most of the people in it have begun to turn their heads towards us. Some of them just glance over and then go back to their food but other stop to look.
"It's great to see you too, I believe that you are coming to the bakery after school?" Rye says.
Rosie opens her mouth to speak but instead I say something before she has a chance too. "About that..." Rye looks at me. "Me, Rosie and Delly have detention after school." I say.
"Why?" He asks, a little surprised, I don't normally get detention, Delly gets detention more than me but not all the time, Rosie seems to get detention every time she's here.
"It was my fault... I had to explain to them Why I didn't talk to Katniss in the school yard... so I guess that was your fault." He laughs, "so we where late to lesson and then she told us that we had to come back after school and I started back talking which was definitely my fault."
"Peeta Abernathy? Back talking? What's up with you today?" He asks laughing.
"Well to start with she compared me to my dad which you know I hate because I don't like being like my dad... then she told me that he was a good man which I said no he isn't he's a drunk. Then she told us that we had to stay behind and I said I was needed at the bakery because Leaven was ill but she didn't care. So your gonna have to tell Masan that I'm gonna be an hour late." I say.
"Wow! I never knew you could argue with anyone other than Me, Rosie, Dell or your dad!" He says still laughing.
"Yeh well Mrs Myers is annoying!" I reply.
"And guess what Rye?" Rosie says rather loudly and enthusiastically.
"What?" Rye asks turning back to Rosie, matching her enthusiasm as a joke.
"He finally talked to Katniss!" She says, even louder. I quickly spin around to check wether she is in the room and she isn't. I let out a breath.
"That's great, did he tell her about his feeling?" Rye asks.
"No, he drew her a picture." Rosie says, disappointed.
"Peet, girls draw each other pictures, you need to tell her how you feel." He says laughing.
"Well I'm doing this my way, I'll tell her eventually." I say catching sight of Katniss walking through the door into the cafeteria.
Rosie turns around and notices her too, she turns back around to me with a mischievous grin on her face. "If you won't talk to her then I will." She says and sets of for katniss. Rye starts laughing.
"Rosie!" I shout, she doesn't turn around though, she just keeps walking towards katniss.
"Katniss!" Rosie shouts and katniss spins around. "I need to talk to you." She doesn't even make it to Katniss when I set off running for her. "You know Peeta?" I see katniss nod. "He lov-" I catch her around the waist and carry her over my shoulder out into the school yard.
"What are you doing?" I hiss.
"What do you mean, 'what am I doing', I'm talking to Katniss for you, what do you think I was doing." She shouts back.
"Well don't! I'm fine with the way things are." I shout back to her.
"Stop shouting at me! I was just trying to make things better for you because you're too scared to do it yourself." She shouts
"Hey! I am not scared, I just don't have much confidence. Remember what happened with my last girlfriend? I can't have that happen to Katniss, you don't understand, you've never been this in love with someone this much!"
"I don't care Peeta! I know that you couldn't do yourself so I tried, now I'll make you a deal." She says quieter. I nod. "Either you talk to her before Sunday or I do. The reaping is on Monday, talk to her before that. What happened to poppy should be a lesson to you, if you love someone then tell them before the reaping because they can be taken away from quicker than you can say 'hunger games'."
"Fine! Deal!" We shake on it and then walk back inside.
The rest of the day goes by slowly with a lot of not paying attention. The rest of the lessons I can sit next to Rosie again so I don't get to sit next to Katniss, if she asked me too then I would but she hasn't asked me and I can't just walk over and sit down next to someone who doesn't actually know me. Rosie decides to talk about it for the rest of the day. By the end of the day I'm surprised that katniss hasn't found out about it but I don't think Rosie told anyone she just kept talking to me about it.
At 10 to 3 we walk down to Mrs Myers classroom. Surprisingly we find Katniss outside the classroom. She stands there with her sister, whispering to her as she bends over to look in Prim's face. "Tell mum I'll be home later, then I'll go hunting for tea. I've asked Gale to walk you home." I catch her say. Prim nods and runs off.
"What are you doing here?" Rosie asks.
"Detention." She replied, looking at the floor.
"What did you do?" Delly asks, pushing past me to stand with Rosie in front of katniss. I hang back and lean against the wall.
"Just before you came in, I wasn't paying attention so she gave me detention." Katniss says, still looking towards the floor.
"Well I guess you'll be joining us." Delly says laughing.
"Yep." Katniss replies.
"I heard that Peeta drew you a picture?" Rosie says. I'm about to say something to shut Rosie up, until katniss speaks, cutting me off.
"Yeh." She mumbles. Her face is beginning to go red.
"Can I see it?" Rosie says.
Katniss slowly nods and pulls her bag around her front, routing in it before bringing out her notebook. She opens it and pulls out both pictures I drew for her this morning. She hesitantly hands them over to Rosie. She looks over them for about 10 seconds before handing them back to Katniss who places them back in her bag. "They are beautiful Peeta." Rosie says. "How come you never drew me a picture like that?" She asks, looking shocked.
"I painted your wall remember, the picture of me, you, mum and dad." I say.
"That doesn't count, I want little pictures like that!" She demands.
"Yeh me too." Delly says. They look at me for a couple of seconds whilst I'm speechless. I have no idea why I have never drawn them any pictures, I've drawn pictures of them but I've never actually drawn them pictures.
"Well... I... Erm..." I spit out, trying to come up with a reason.
Delly and Rosie burst out laugh and I let out a breath. "We're joking Peeta, we don't care." Rosie says still laughing. Suddenly Katniss starts laughing too. I forget about Rosie and Delly momentarily and look at Katniss. "Come on let's get in there before Mrs Myers gives us a longer detention.
"Hi you four, nice to see you could show up." Mrs Myers says. She sitting at her desk marking work from today when she looks up at us.
"Sorry we're late." I say.
"Is fine, your hour detention starts now." She says. We all walk through the classroom ready to sit down when Mrs Myers stops us. "Before you sit down, I have jobs for you all." She stands up and faces us all. "Peeta you are to clean the black board and clean the tables properly then put all the chairs up in the classroom after you've finished. Katniss, seen as you are intent on looking out the window, you are to clean them fully, inside and outside. There's a large window at the back of the classroom that I'm sure Peeta will be more than happy to help you through to clean the Windows outside. Delly and Rosie, you two have some errands for me. There is a lot of paper work that has to be taken to other teachers." She beckons Rosie and Delly over whilst me and Katniss stand there silently. She hands them both a huge stack of papers and takes one herself. She then turns to us. "There are cleaning supplies in the janitors room next door, just tell him you have detention and need some supplies then you can get started. I want this room pristine when we get back. We should be back in 45 minutes. I don't want any messing around. No-one leaves until I get back, if I find that you have left before the hour is up then I will make it 2 hours tomorrow for all of you and I don't think any of you want that." She gives us the slightest nod and then leaves the room with Delly and Rosie. I turn to Katniss who stands there with an awkward look on her face.
"I guess we need to get some cleaning supplies." I say. She looks at her shoes and nods. "I'll get them for you, you just wait here."
She looks up at me. "No it's fine, I'll get them." She says and sets of for the door.
"I'll come too, I'm gonna see if he has anything to clean the tables with." I say and follow her.
Within seconds we are standing outside the janitors office. The door says Mr Cole on it. His name is Collis Cole and he prefers to be known as Collis but he has to have Mr Cole printed on his door. He answers the door with a smile on his face. "Hi kids how can I help you today?" His black hair is all messed up and his blue eyes are shining. He beckons us into his office. His office is tiny and if he was fat, I'd be surprised at how he moved around the place but he's just a little bit thinner than me. "What do you need?" He asks us. "It must be important if you came after school."
"Erm... we have detention with Mrs Myers and we need a bucket of water and a sponge for the Windows and I was wondering if you had anything to clean the tables with?" I ask, he looks at us for a second as if trying to figure out who we are.
"I have just what you need." He says. He turns around and picks up two buckets. "Mr Abernathy, Miss Everdeen, could you please fill up these buckets in the sink over there?" He asks, handing us the buckets and pointing towards the sink in the corner. "I shall get you a couple of sponge's and a secret ingredient we use for cleaning tables." He winks at us and starts talking through the drawers behind him.
Me and katniss take our buckets and fill them up on the sink. There's only one sink so I have to wait for her to fill her's up. When she's finished, I stick my bucket under the tap and wait for the bucket to fill up with hot water whilst Collis mumbles on about something. I catch myself watching the room. "This is heavy!" Katniss whispers to me as I wait for mine to fill up.
I let out a little laugh and hold out my hand. "Here I'll take it." I say to her. She resists and wraps both her arms around the bucket. She has to bring up her knee to push the bucket up to stop it from falling. She still waves my hand away with a smile.
"No it's fine I got it." She says. "You've done to much for me already Peeta."
"Katniss, you're struggling, I can tell, now hand it here." I say trying to grab hold of the bucket handle. She pushes my hand away and hold onto the bucket tighter.
"Peeta, I'm totally fine..." She says. She brings her leg up again to push the bucket back up. I notice that my bucket is full and overflowing, I reach over to switch the tap off. I'm about to pick up my bucket when I hear a loud crash and spin around quickly, expecting to see that Collis has dropped something. Instead I see katniss falling to the floor. The bucket flies up and I reach over to catch it but not before the contents of the bucket falls out and onto katniss, drenching her from head to toe and the bottom half of my legs. I drop the bucket on the floor behind me and reach out a hand to Katniss, she takes it and I pull her up. When she's back on her feet, she slaps me really hard on my right arm. "What was that for?" I say rather loudly, rubbing my arm.
"That was your fault!" She says slapping me again.
"How was it my fault?" I ask, laughing slightly.
"You put me off my concentration when you tried to grab the bucket!" She shouts, trying to wipe away some of the water on her clothes. I grab the towel next to the sink and hand it to her. "Thanks..." She mumbles and starts to wipe her face down.
"Sorry about the floor Collis." I say.
"Oh no it's fine, I'll clean it up when you're gone, are you okay Miss Everdeen?" He asks, looking at Katniss.
"Yeh I'm fine, think I hit my back but other than that Yeh I'm totally fine." She reaches down to wipe her legs but groans when she gets so far.
"I guess that means you're not totally fine." Collis replies. He walks over with a grey bottle in his hands and pours a couple drops of it into my bucket before handing me 2 sponge's. "This should clean the tables." He says. "I'll just fill Miss Everdeen's bucket up for you and you can be on your way." It takes him 3 minutes to fill up Katniss' bucket. I drop a sponge into each bucket and pick them both up. Katniss opens the doors for me and before I know it, we are both back in the classroom. I carry katniss' bucket over to the back window and walk back over to mine. I clean every table and stay quiet whilst doing so. Katniss doesn't want to speak so I shouldn't force her too. If she doesn't want to speak then she shouldn't have too.
When I've finished the tables, I move onto the black board and start erasing every last number, word, shape and Mark made by the chalk. I scrub and scrub until the board looks clean again. That's when I hear a noise from the back of the classroom. I turn around to see katniss attempting to get out of the back window onto the field below. I walk over. "Do you need some help?" I ask her.
"No I got it." She says and sticks one foot through the window. She keeps going until her whole right leg is out of the window, that's when she gets stuck. The Windows that small that she can't seem to get her other leg out of the window whilst her body is in it. I let out a small laugh and grab her arms. I pull as hard as I can and her body turns back into the room. She's able to slide her other leg out of the window and she shimmies down until her feet are planted on the ground but she still has hold of my arms. "Thanks." She says looking at me. I smile at her and she smiles back mischeviously.
"Pay back." She says and pulls on my arms as hard as she can. My whole body slides through the open window quickly and I land on my front in the grass by her feet. She's stronger than she looks. I turn around onto my back and look up to her. She's laughing so much she has to hold her stomach. I smile at her and take in the moment. This is the second time I have made katniss laugh today. Yeh maybe it's because she just pulled me out of a window and now my head hurts like hell but I don't care, I made Katniss Everdeen laugh and that's all that matters to me.
"Does this mean we are even for the whole bucket thing?" I ask. She's laughing so much that she can't even speak to me so she just nods. I pull myself up to my feet and deposit my jacket through the still open window.
When Katniss stops laughing, we get to work on the Windows. When we have finished, the Windows are so clean that they don't even look like Windows anymore but holes in the wall. I smile at Katniss and she smiled back. "You did good." I say, I can't think of anything else to stay.
"You did good too." She says smiling. Her eyes focus on something inside before she looks at me again. "It's half 3, Mrs Myers will be back soon and we need to get the chairs up." I nod and we walk back up to the open window. I slide the bucket through and place it on the floor. It's still almost half full. Then I pull myself up and roll through the window head first, I lean down and roll along the floor until I'm back on my feet. I pull katniss back through the window and we start on the chairs. We have the chairs up in 5 minutes, except from 2 chairs that me and Katniss are going to sit on. As soon as all the chairs are up on the tables, I collapse on one of the still down chairs. She stands there though as if waiting for something. "What's wrong?" I ask her.
"Nothing, I just can't sit down when I'm still wet..." She says and I'm about to tell her to sit down when she speaks again. "It's fine, I need to take the buckets back anyway." I don't even have time to say anything because she's picked up the buckets and left the room within seconds.
She returns a couple minutes later without her jacket on. She must have taken it off in the janitors office. She walks over and collapses in the chair next to mine. She leans her head back on the chair and sighs. Her wet braid hanging over the back of the chair, all I want to do is reach over and touch it. I want to feel what her hair feels like in my hands. "When do you think we will get to leave?" She asks.
"Don't know." I reply. I lean my head on the desk and close my eyes. All I can hear is mine and Katniss breathing. Mine a lot heavier and deaper than hers.
Mrs Myers doesn't return until 10 to 4 and that's only to tell us we did a good job and that we can go. We grab our bags and coats and meet Delly and Rosie outside the classroom. We walk with Katniss too the school yard. She smiles and mumbles something that sounds like a goodbye then she leaves in direction of the seam.
"So explain to us everything that happened in detention, why was she wet and why are you happy?" Delly asks as we walk to the town square.
I hope you liked the first chapter for my new story. Please review and tell me what you though of it. Personally I am very proud of this chapter and everything else I have planned for this story but please review and let me know what you would like to happen?
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