Plot: Set pre-hunger games. Centered around Peeta's comment in his interview: "But a lot of boys like her", In several different perpectives.

This is my first fic so please be nice!

Peeta POV

The corner of my eye.

It's been getting worse lately. I think my friends are noticing it. Who cares anyway? A lot of boys like her. I always seem to catch her, just out the corner of my eyes, re-braiding her hair outside the gym, eating lunch, reading the tatty books in the school library, talking quietly with the mayor's daughter, watching her walk in with those Hawthorne kids and her little sister, putting books in her locker, staring out of the window in Games History. I'm looking at her now, putting her sister's hair in a neater pony tail at the front gate. The oldest Hawthorne kid, the one in the last year, is talking to her. He bends down and flicks her long, smooth braid so it swings like the metronome in the music room. I clench my fists. She turns her face towards him, the light from the early sun glinting off her eyes. She glares at him and snaps something, I can't make out what. My face burns with jealousy. What has that prick done to deserve her? I continue to watch as she straightens out, and tucks her sister's shirt into the back of her skirt. The three of them walk towards the school, with Hawthorne's three siblings behind them. I catch their conversation as they walk by.

"Look, all I'm saying is that you have to put your family above other people!" She says forcefully, her frown carving a tiny groove into her forehead between her dark eyebrows. She has a tight pink scar over her left eye. And a fading cut on her jaw.

"Yeah? Well they don't care about our families, or the Games wouldn't exist." Hawthorne snaps. I want to yell at him for talking to her like that. No one should talk to her like that.

"Do we have to talk about this?" Her sister, looking up at the two, awkwardly shifting her bag to her right shoulder, says. She looks uncomfortable. I guess she'd be 12 this year. Probably already was. That would make the next one her first reaping.

Their voices get mumbled as they head away from me. Her walk looks really nice from behind. The way her foot arches before it touches the floor, toes first then finally the heel. So ... delicate. Precise. The way her braid swings lazily, and the way her hips move...

"I said: HELLO!" I whip around. It's my one of my friends, Caleb. He's from the same part of town as me. He's got his hair spiked up again, kind of like the lizard that's in the Old World history books.

"Yeah?"

"Bro, you were spaced out again. I had to call your name four times! People were looking."

"Wouldn't want to damage your reputation of being 'cool' now would we?" I say, brushing him off.

I head towards my locker. I search for her dark head, but she's long gone. My locker is right next to homeroom, so it doesn't take me long to get there. I arrive way before the bell. So I slump down in my chair and flick through my homework diary. Then I notice a shadow fall over me. I look up and almost drop my homework diary. It's her. At first I think she's going to talk to me, but she just stares past me, I realise she's heading towards Madge. My feet are blocking the aisle. She's not in my homeroom, I'm wondering why she's here when I see the surprise register on Madge's face as well.

"Oh, hi! What are you doing in here?" Madge says.

"I got moved into your homeroom until the leak in the roof in ours gets fixed."

That's when I noticed all the other students pile in.

Ms. Bradbry struts in, her face like a cats butt, as usual.

"Class. Class settle down. Now, as you can see we have a great number of students joining us. I hope that this will be a short term affair." I didn't. It meant I got to see her more. "Some of you will have to stand. Ladies, Those of you with a last name beginning with A to J, you may sit." Half the girls sit down, randomly. "And you, Miss. Undersee." Madge always gets favoured. I could see it annoyed her. But she sits down anyway. And all boys L to T also sit. Anyone left, there are several window ledges and the rest of you may stand. Now, onto registration."

I sit as close to her as possible, several girls sit between us. I notice Delly sit beside me.

"Hi Delly." I say, letting annoyance taint my tone. She frowns.

"Why so grumpy! It's only nine thirty; you can't be having a bad day already!" I was. Every day was a bad day, since I first saw her.

"I'm just tired. Long night, y'know?" She nods her agreement. I go back to staring at her. Madge has stolen her homework diary, she's scribbling something, I think I even hear her giggle. A strand of hair lazily falls from behind her ear, swinging. Back and forth...

"Mellark! Pluck your head from the clouds! " It's Ms. Bradbry, I must've missed her call my name.

"Yeah, sorry. It won't happen again." Yeah it will.

Then, again, out of the corner of my eye I notice something new. She's looking at me. It's always the other way around. I'll be casually watching from a distance, and she'd sort of look up at me, but at the last minute drop her dead. We've never made eye contact. Don't look. Don't look. Damn. I look anyway. Her gaze drops as soon as my head turns. Then the bell rings.

Please review! I have the other chapters and I will update if I get some reviews!

xxx Flick