(consider reading this story with ADAGIO FOR STRINGS by Samuel Barber playing in the background. It paints a perfect picture)
I squinted at the blinding sun above my head as I walked with my father to school. It was the first day of kindergarden, and I was a nervous reck, I had no idea how to make new friends, and I was sure I was going to end school as a loser. As we turned the corner, I saw the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen. I had seen her father around, and he always came and traded some meat with my father. She had on a red dress, and her hair was picked up into two braids. She was angelic, and I couldn't stop looking at her.
"What's the matter son? Got a little crush on the Everdeen girl?" - my father said with a smirk on his face.
"She's beautiful dad"- I responded. There was no point in lying, he had already saw me staring at her. Although I did wish my vocabulary was larger. Beautiful didn't even begin to cover how pretty she was.
"Not as beautiful as her mother my dear Peeta, not nearly as beautiful."- my father said to me with a lost expression in his face.
"What's the matter dad? Got a little crush on ?"- I quoted with a smile on my face.
"I wanted to marry her. Then she ran off with a coal miner."- my father said to me with an ashen expression in his face.
"A coal miner? Why would she want a coal miner when she had you dad?"
"Because when he sings, even the birds fall silent"-my father said with the same sad expression in his face.
"Go ahead Peeta, I'll watch you from here"-my father said trying to reconstruct a smile on his face.
"Okay dad, see you at three"- I said to my dad. I felt bad for my dad. He was a great man.
Later that day, I discovered Katniss and I were in the same grade level and had all our classes together. After lunch we had music appreciation together, and the teacher asked us who knew the valley song, and my Katniss's hand shot up, and the teacher picked her.
"We don't see the ocean, not ever, but in July and August
when the worst heat seems to rise from the hard clay
of this valley, you could be walking through a fig orchard
when suddenly the wind cools and for a moment
you get a whiff of salt, and in that moment you can almost
believe something is waiting beyond the Pacheco Pass,
something massive, irrational, and so powerful even
the mountains that rise east of here have no word for it.
You probably think I'm nuts saying the mountains
have no word for ocean, but if you live here
you begin to believe they know everything.
They maintain that huge silence we think of as divine,
a silence that grows in autumn when snow falls
slowly among the pines and the wind dies
to less than a whisper and you can barely catch
your breath because you're thrilled and terrified.
You have to remember this isn't your land.
It belongs to no one, like the sea you once lived beside
and thought was yours. Remember the small boats
that bobbed out as the waves rode in, and the men
who carved a living from it only to find themselves
carved down to nothing. Now you say this is home,
so go ahead, worship the mountains as they dissolve in dust,
wait on the wind, catch a scent of salt, call it our life."
I knew right then that I wasn't going to let her get away, that, for once, I didn't want to be like my father. I knew that she was my Katniss, that she would be mother of my children, my wife, and that I was in love with her.
_"Well Peeta, it looks like you have a pretty good grip on whats 'real' or 'not real'"- said doctor Aurelius. You could hear the laughter in his voice.
"I couldn't of done it without you Doc"- I said. Most people don't understand ' humor, but I knew he ment no harm.
"It was my pleasure Peeta. But can you help me out with something please?"
"Sure Doc, what's up?"- I was a little worried when I said this. What could he want that he couldn't get in the capitol? What could he want in the ashes that are left of District 12?
"Could you please tell Katniss to call me? She hasn't talked to me since she went back to District 12, and the court is already doubting that I'm actually talking to her."
Of course it would have something to do with Katniss. I think she and I are the only things money can't buy. I shoud have known this day was coming. But Katniss and I hadn't talked since the day little Prim died. How can I face her now? How can I tell her everything's going to be alright when it isn't?
"I'll try Doc"- As the words escaped my mouth I realized how true these words where. I really was going to try, I missed her so much. All I can think of was the quarter quell. How much she freaked out when she thought I was dead, how she was willing to die so that I could get out alive, but mostly about the night on the beach. The way she kissed me, how her legs where wrapped around me. I always wondered what would've happened if Finnick hadn't woken up that night. Would I still be a virgin today?
"Thanks Peeta. I'll talk to you on wednesday?"
"Sure thing Doc"- I said as I hung up. Right now I had bigger problems than looking thru my schedule. I had to figure out how to talk to Katniss.
"Hey Peeta, what brings you here today?"- Daniel said to me with sarcasm is in voice. I've been visiting the florist alot lately.
"Hey Daniel, I'm just looking for some Primrose bushes. Do you have any?"
"Well, your in luck. Just had them delivered from the Capitol today."
"I'll take 4"
"Alrighty"