So, there's quite a few of these on the interweb, and I thought maybe I could have a go. Although it is AU, I am attempting to keep characters as real as possible. So Katniss has no one (except Gale and Madge) and Peeta is the popular boy.
Sorry, no spontaneous singing either. Because that would be stealing someone else's story…
So yes, enjoy! I do not own any of the characters nor the story. They all belong to Suzanne Collins, and possibly Lionsgate.
MM
I guess you don't really ever decide to be unpopular in this world.
Watching Glimmer, Marvel, Cato and Clove all laughing at some poor innocent nerd, while pelting each other flirtatiously with pieces of bread, was not how I wanted to spend my lunch break. But I did, as did the rest of the school. The Careers all were brainy, bitchy and beautiful. They all drove expensive cars and wore designer clothes, and the way they dated within the group was almost broaching on incestuous.
But no one dared question it, and in all honesty, it was going to stay that way. So I sat in silence, Madge seated beside me playing with her food, and decided that this was going to be how high school was for me, whether I liked it or not. I didn't even want to join their stupid club anyway. I had my own friends. Madge was always there for me to be sad about my father with, and Gale was there to play computer games, and talk about how we were all oppressed in this world. So I was happy I wasn't sitting at a table throwing food with attractive people.
I looked up at the clock and noticed it was almost the end of lunch. I nudged Madge gently and she suddenly sat up straight, thoughts retracted from whatever world she was in, smiled kindly at me, and went off to her next class. I groaned internally. I hated Thursday afternoons. We had English, then Math and then, worst of all, Art. I could not paint to save my life, apart from a bunny rabbit I drew in kindergarten that mom insisted on pinning up on the fridge. I swear it's still up there, in all its glory. But I still got up, and started ambling toward English, when I felt someone tug my braid.
"Walking to English without saying hello are we Catnip?" I groan exaggeratedly, turning round to face my best friend.
"Yes, Gale, you just aren't cool enough to suit my tastes in friends." Gale feigns anguish at my words, placing his hand over his heart. I roll my eyes and supress a laugh. Just at that moment, the Careers push past us, placing their trays on the conveyor belt and walking off to their classes, calling sentiments of love to each other. I watch them bemused, then look back at Gale, who fakes throwing up.
"God, aren't they horrendous? All this 'I love you!' and 'call you later!' I even think I heard the word 'babe' come from Cato's mouth at lunch today." I shove him and begin walking to class. His legs are far longer than mine, and he quickly catches up. "Hit a nerve Kat?"
"Yes!" I turn on him, taking him by surprise. "Gale you are my best friend, right? So why don't you sit with me at lunch? I watch you with those bimbos and their boyfriends, looking like you're watching paint dry. Why suffer, just to sit with the popular group?" He groans, running his hand through his hair.
"Look, Kat, I really need to get to class…" He begins to walk away from me, so I glare at him. "Don't give me that look. Ok, I know. It's stupid. Just, I've known them for years now. So I feel some sort of…" I give him a look and he rolls his eyes, "fine. That's bull. I'll… I'll talk to you after school, okay?" And he runs, before I can pummel him for being a wimp.
Just as I'm about to walk off to Chemistry, I see him. Peeta Mellark. One of the most popular boys in the school, and said to be one of the nicest. I have never spoken a word to him in my entire life, and yet he gives me butterflies like no boy ever has. His blonde hair and his blue eyes would make any girl week at the knees, and I've seen girls run into doors just to see his smile or hear his laugh. I would expect that behaviour of normal teenagers. And yet my behaviour around him is so unlike 'normal' Katniss that I worry for my sanity.
I begin walking briskly to English, conscious that he is directly behind me, as he is in my English class. Lowering my head, I almost run into the classroom, and take my seat at the front, next to a large, scary looking boy called Thresh. I get on ok with him, but only because his friend's sister, Rue, is best friends with my sister, Primrose. Although he can never remember names, and therefore calls us by numbers. I am number twelve.
"You alright, twelve? You look as if you've seen a ghost." I give a non-committal shrug of the shoulders, and keep my eyes lowered as Peeta and his friends enter the room, taking sudden interest in my English folder. Miss Trinket, our overly excited English teacher, bounds into the room, her hair a pale shade of pink and her clothes matching in sweet tones. I feel like vomiting.
"Good afternoon class! What a lovely afternoon it is today," the whole room is silent, the feeling of utter discontent filling the room, "anyway, I decided, to celebrate the first day of spring, that we would have a new seating plan!" My palms automatically begin to sweat. I dislike most of my English class, and had really only got on well with Thresh because he is as anti-social as I am. Miss Trinket skips around the desks, handing out seating plans like they're invitations. One lands on my desk, and my eyes search for my name.
My desk has stayed the same. But my partner certainly has not.
Thresh looks at me in a slightly sad way, and gets up to sit at his desk on the other side of the room, and Mr Blonde Hair Blue Eyes dumps his stuff beside me.
"Hi," he says, grinning, "I'm Peeta. You're Katniss right?"
Oh dear Lord. I want to die.
Ok, so I may or may not finish this. It may stay just like this, as a rubbish one shot. But I may add some more. I will end up finishing this. I think. No. Yes. Depends on my exams and my revision blah blah blah blah…
Anyway, reviews would be much appreciated.
Tah! CC