It's reaping day. Me and every other child from District 12 are waiting for one girl and one boy to be reaped to represent our District in the 74th annual Hunger Games. Effie Trinket, District 12's escort from the capitol is on the stage. She's wearing a pink wig and her face looks like she's been attacked by a clown. In fact, she looks like a clown.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!" she says into the microphone. "Ladies first" she says. She always starts with the girls. She walks to the glass ball filled with slips of paper all with girls names on them. She puts her hand in the ball and scrabbles around for a few seconds before snatching out a slip of paper and crossing back over to the microphone. She smooths the paper out and reads out in a clear voice.

"Primrose Everdeen"

Oh god.

I think I slip into a state of complete shock and just black out, because before I know it, Katniss Everdeen is screaming Primrose's name. Katniss is Primrose's older sister, she's 16, like me. Primrose is only 12.

"I VOLUNTEER" Katniss screams. "I volunteer as tribute!"

What? NO!

I want to scream and cry, but I don't. Because I know Katniss Everdeen. I've had a crush on her for years. It all started on my first ever day at school.

I was wearing a baggy white shirt, grey trousers that had to be taken in around the waist, black polished shoes that had to be stuffed with socks in order to fit and a black jacket with loads of pockets and buttons up the front. All hand-me-downs from my dad. Dad held my hand as he walked me across the dusty track to the only pre-school in District 12.

When we arrived there was a large metal gate. I was too small to reach the handle on it so my dad pushed it open and inside was a large yard made of mostly dried mud but with the odd grass patch and a few flower beds around the edges.

I saw a line of children outside the vast, grey, bricked building that was the school. It looked terrifying. I was terrified.

My eyes stung and my lip wobbled and I turned to my dad who gave me a friendly smile and rested his hands on my shoulders.

"Hey, buddy, don't be worried. Your school years will be the best years of your life!" he told me, so I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. My dad pointed towards the line of first years. "You see that girl at the front, wearing the red dress?" he asked. I looked where he was pointing and I saw a brunette girl wearing a red dress. Her hair was in two braids, one on each side of her head and she was clutching a book to her chest. Yes, I definitely saw her. I turned back to my dad.

"I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran away with a coal miner" he said. I turned back towards the girl, she was facing in my general direction now. Her eyes were grey and her skin olive. She was on her own, independent. She wasn't pretty. She wasn't beautiful. She was as radiant as the sun.

"A coal miner?" I started. "But dad, why would she want a coal miner if she could've had you?" I asked. He sighed a big sigh and stared into the distance.

"Because when he sings... even the birds stop to listen" he replied, sadly. Then there was a bell and he gave me a hug and said "you had better go and line up with your class. I'll meet you here after school, have a nice day!" I waved goodbye then joined the end of the line.

When we got into the small classroom, an old, friendly looking man with jaw-length grey hair, blue eyes, round glasses and a few wrinkles made us stand at the back of the room.

"Hello everyone, I'm Mr. Granger and I will be your teacher for your first year of school." he said. "Now, when I call your name I want you to say 'yes sir' and then I will assign you a seat." I looked around the classroom and saw that there was 3 rows of desks all separate from each other with 2 seats per desk.

Mr. Granger started calling out names. I heard "Vinnie Allen", "Abigail Barker", "Delly Cartwright" and a few other names before "Katniss Everdeen". She sat at the desk at the front left of the classroom. For some reason I really hoped I could sit with her.

"Peeta Mellark" I head Mr. Granger call.

"Yes, sir" I answered. He pointed towards a desk that the girl, Delly Cartwright, was sitting at. She turned around and beamed at me, I smiled and waved back. She was pale and a bit chubby and her hair was a murky yellow kind of colour, like a banana going off.

"You smell nice!" she giggled. "Like bread and cakes!"

"Thanks, I live at the bakery" I replied. "My dad owns it, me and my brothers help sometimes"

Me and Delly got to know each other better. She was extremely friendly and she sat with me at lunch, then after lunch we walked to music assembly together. We sat in the small, cramped hall and sung a few songs. Some I knew, some I didn't. Then, around 10 minutes before the end of the assembly, the music teacher asked a question.

"Who knows the valley song?" she asked. I didn't, but Katniss Everdeen clearly did as her hand shot up and she stood and went to the front of the hall. She took a deep breath then the music teacher started playing the piano and Katniss Everdeen begun to sing.

Wow. That girl had one of the most beautiful voices I had ever heard. She had obviously inherited it from her father, because when I listened, I swear that every bird outside fell silent.

That afternoon when I got home and I was baking with my dad, I saw her walk past the front of the bakery.

"What was she like?" my dad murmured.

I told him about music assembly, every single detail. He sighed and told me that he had work to do, then he walked upstairs. I put the dough in the oven then followed him.

Me and Delly Cartwright became good friends and I continued to watch Katniss walk home every day. This continued for five years. I never spoke to her, just watched her. I wasn't even sure if she knew my name. Within those five years her little sister joined the school. Her name was Primrose. Katniss and Primrose Everdeen, the flower girls, walked past the bakery every day. Sometimes Katniss was singing to Primrose when I saw them. It was beautiful. Katniss was always happy. Until year six, our last year at pre-school.

We were in maths class and our teacher was Mrs. Beasley, who was a strict old bat who always stunk of sweat and smoke, when the alarms sounded. We all knew what it meant, and there hadn't been a drill scheduled for that day. There had been an explosion in the mines.

I saw Katniss looking panicked. Of course, her father worked in the mines. She ran out the classroom, much to Mrs. Beasley's annoyance, and when I looked out the window I saw that she had met Primrose in the school yard and then were running out the gate. After that I didn't see Katniss Everdeen for weeks. I then knew that her father didn't survive.

The first time I saw her again was 3 months after the explosion. She was looking through my bins... what? Then I realised, she was starving. Her cheekbones were a lot more prominent than usual, she had bags under her eyes and she looked so sick.

She picked up a scrap of burnt toast and her face lit up with happiness, but because she could leave with it, my mother- a strict, rude woman- came out the back door with a wooden stick.

"GET OUT!" she screamed. "Go away! Do you want me to call the peacekeepers?"

Katniss dropped the scraps and looking startled, started to run off.

"I'm sick to death of those brats from the Seam pawing through my rubbish!" my mother screeched. I stood behind her now and for a split second katniss's eyes locked with mine.

My mother shoved me aside, muttering insults under her breath.

I saw that Katniss had fallen against the old apple tree behind the pen that hold our pig. She was weak.

"I have to do something" I thought. I pondered for a minute or so, then an idea came to me.

I went back to the kitchen where mum had laid out six lumps of dough for me to put in the oven. I put four lumps in normally, but when I put the other two in, I pushed them half into the flames at the back of the oven.

Katniss was still in the same place. I watched her for about 20 minutes, then my mum came to check on the bread in the oven. She looked. She took out the two burnt loaves. Then she turned and hit me hard across the face.

She pushed me out the door and Katniss turned and looked at me, I tried my hardest to keep my eyes off her.

"Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burnt bread!" mum cried. Then the bell in the bakery sounded and she went to see what the customer wanted.

I broke a few chunks off of one loaf of bread and threw them to the pig, then I checked around to see that no one was looking, and I threw the bread towards Katniss.

Without turning to look at her, I walked back into the kitchen. When I got in, I looked back out the door and saw Katniss running off clutching the bread in her arms like it was her life. Well, it was I guess.

At the end of that year, we started secondary school. I had Delly and a few other friends, but katniss only had one. I didn't know him personally, but the girls in our year never shut up about Gale Hawthorne, the tall, muscular, handsome boy. But he made Katniss happy, and that was good I guess.

I heard that he hunted with her, in the woods. That's illegal, but I wasn't going to get Katniss into trouble.

A lot of people thought that they were a lot more than friends, but they were wrong. They loved each other, but not like that. Just like best friends. I could tell.

When I was 12, my name was put in the reaping ball for the annual Hunger Games. I didn't need to sign up for tesserae for my family, so my name was only in the once. I wasn't reaped.

When I was 13, my name was in there 2 times. I wasn't reaped.

When I was 14, my name was in there 3 times. I wasn't reaped.

When I was 15, my name was in there 4 times. I wasn't reaped.

Now I'm 16 and I am at the reaping. Katniss Everdeen is up on the stage. I want so badly to run up onto that stage and join her. Katniss Everdeen can't die, not without knowing how I feel about her. I decide that I'll volunteer for whatever boy gets reaped. But that's not necessary. Because when Effie Trinket pulls a name out of the boys reaping ball and walks back over to the microphone, the name she calls out is "Peeta Mellark."