Hey Guys, there will be a little bit at the end that i'd like you to read concerning the story but for now I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games
Hold Back The River
Chapter 1: Katniss' P.O.V.
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and see where you hide
Hold back the river, hold back
The alarm sounds and I tentatively open my eyes. I can hear Prim, my little sister, get up and lock the bathroom door, meaning I won't be able to shower for a least an half hour. I groan and stumble out of bed, moving to my closet. I find a pair of jeans and the only clean shirt, which happens to be orange, a colour I'm not too fond of but it's my only option. I leave them out on my bed and venture out of my room to grab some breakfast.
"Good Morning Honey," My mom greets my cheerily as I pour my cereal, "Are you excited?"
"Mom, its senior year." I reply coldly, "It's not special."
"Yes it is!" She exclaims, always enthusiastic, "And anyway aren't you happy to be seeing your friends again?"
"I saw Johanna yesterday." I mumble through a mouthful of lucky charms.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth." My dad mock scolds and puts down his paper,
"And don't be so quick to dismiss your mother's enthusiasm, this year could be different." he says and winks at me. I love both my parents, but I've always been a daddy's girl. I love the twinkle in his eye, and the way he looks at mom like she's the only person in the world and how he's always supported us through everything. I give him a little smile,
"I doubt it, nothing ever changes around here." I call as I run upstairs and straight into prim who's coming out the bathroom. She's fourteen now, but she'll always be my little duck. I give here the once over,
"You can't wear that!" I exclaim.
"Why not?" She counters, crossing her arms defensively.
"Because you're fourteen and that skirt is way too short, and is that make-up? Why are you in such a hurry to grow up, go change now!"
"No, I look fine and-" She was cut off by our mother.
"Girls, stop fighting!" She yelled from downstairs, "Katniss stop telling Prim what to do, and Prim go change!"
"But you can't ev-"
"No buts just change!"
I give Prim an 'I told you so smirk' and quickly run into the bathroom before she gets there and takes another hour deciding what to change into. I turn on the shower and the room fill with steam. I step into the scolding water and watch it roll down my body. I suddenly become very nervous. I've never been that popular at school but I have a nice group of friends and I do well in all my classes, so why does this year feel so different? I know it's the last year of high school but I'd always thought of that as something to look forward to. I was never one to believe the lie that high school is the best years of your life. That obviously isn't true, but as I begin to think about this time next year my stomach turns at the thought of everyone going their separate ways and everything being different. I'm brought out of my trance by a loud banging on the door.
"Katniss I left my lip gloss in there and I need to reapply!" Prim screams through the door. I shut off the water and wrap myself in a towel, before I leave I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I look the same, but something definitely feels different.
"All yours." I say as she rushes past me.
I double check my bag to make sure I have all my books, when I hear the familiar sound of Jo's car horn signalling it's time to leave. I give mom a quick kiss on the cheek and call goodbye. I'm about to open the front door when my dad catches my arm,
"Remember what I said Katniss," He says softly, "This year could be different if you're open to it." He kisses the top of my head and I fumble out the door, the nervousness I felt earlier returning at his words, though I'm not quite sure why.
"What's up bitch!" Johanna calls as I enter her car. I laugh and shake my head. Jo has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. She lives across the street and since she is an only child she used to come over and play with me and Prim when we were little. Our personalities are like chalk and cheese but people say that's how we've managed to stay friends all this time, I have no idea what I'd do without her.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that!"
"Like a thousand?" she smirks,
"More like a million."
"And I still do it." She laughs as she pulls away from the curb.
"No Gale today?" I question and her eyes go dark. Gale is her on again, off again boyfriend and my other best friend. He lives next door to me and our parents are best friends, he has 3 younger siblings, two boys and a girl, Rory, Vick and Posy. Rory is the same age as Prim and is pretty sweet on her, although she seems oblivious to his affection. Vick is two years younger at twelve and posy is the youngest at just five.
"No." she says stonily.
"What did he do this time?"
"Well you know that party we went to last night, for the last night of summer," she begins, and I nod, I rarely go out to parties so it's a normal occurrence when Jo tells me all the gossip from them, "I went outside to get some air and when I came back I saw him talking to that girl Delly, Delly Cartwright, can you believe that I saw them talking!"
I laugh, "Oh Jo, you have to stop freaking out every time he talks to a girl, he can have girls who are just friends you know, I mean look at me, I'm just his friend and it's fine."
She sighs, "Yeah but you're more like his sister and he wouldn't be thinking about sleeping with his sister!"
"How do you go from seeing him talking to Delly, to him wanting to sleep with her?"
"Katniss men are fickle, they only think about one think and that is sex."
"I'm pretty sure that's not true, you just like the drama of breaking up with Gale and getting back together, so you conjure up these deluded fantasies."
"That's not true!" she pouts, "I'm just very sensitive." She looks at me and we both laugh, Jo is anything but sensitive.
"You don't have to worry you know, Gale loves you."
"I know, but it's fun to watch him come running back." She muses and sure enough when she pulls into her parking space Gale is there waiting for her. I grab my bag from the back seat and slowly get out of the car. I look up at the school and feel my stomach churn with nerves again. I take a deep breath and jog to catch up with Johanna and Gale who've walked ahead to meet the others.
"Katniss!" Everyone greets in unison, I smile and give them a little wave. They all begin to chat about their summers even though we spent most of it together. I take a step back and just observe. Annie catches my eye first, her auburn hair flying about in the breeze and her intense green eyes staring at Finnick. Finnick and Annie have been dating since freshman year, everyone thought their relationship wouldn't work, the super star athlete and the shy, quiet poet, but everyone changed their minds when they saw them together. My eyes travel down to where their hands are intertwined, they're rarely not touching, like it physically pains them to be apart even for a second.
Thresh stands to the other side of Finnick Checking out the girls as they walk by, if I didn't know him I'd think he was a jerk, but really he's a big softie, he just likes to keep up a certain image to keep up with his buddies on the football team. Gale's arm has snaked around Johanna's waist and her head rests on his shoulder and it makes me smile, but I begin to feel something else too, a pang of jealousy. Not of the fact Johanna is with Gale; Gale and I tried to have a relationship once but we soon realised it was founded on convenience rather than love, we thought because our families were so close we should work but it didn't. No, I'm jealous of what they have, I'm jealous of Finnick and Annie too. I'm jealous of how easy love comes to them, they just found the person and it fit. I've never been that concerned with finding a boyfriend, but seeing them all here now, I'm beginning to wonder if I've missed out on something.
I feel someone jostle me and look up,
"We have to go now Katniss." Jo says. She kisses Gale goodbye and links her arm through mine. We brace ourselves as we roam into the sea of swarming bodies hurrying to get to their first class. That's when it happens. In a swarm of browns, greens and greys I see them, a pair of striking crystal blue eyes staring straight back into mine. I look away, embarrassed that he caught me watching, when I look back their gone and I'm left wondering if I imagined it.
The eyes haunt me for the rest of the day. I look for them wherever I go. I scour all my classes and everyone in the halls, but I have no luck. No one notices but Jo when I keep looking at the door to the cafeteria to see each new face that comes in, hoping to see his.
"Waiting for someone?" She whispers while motioning towards the door. I shake my head.
"N-no." I stammer, she raises an eyebrow but goes back to the conversation knowing better than to push me on the matter. The whole lunch hour my eyes are glued to the door, I barely eat any of my food I can't seem to shake the image of those eyes out of my head. When the bell rings to signal the end of lunch, Jo whispers in my ear,
"I hope you find whoever you're looking for." I just give her a slight smile and nod but I can't help desperately wanting her sentiments to come true.
I'd almost given up hope of ever seeing him again, I only had two classes after lunch and he didn't appear in my trig class, so English was my last shot at finding him. English is my favourite class because I've always been a big lover of literature. Also it helps that Effie Trinket our teacher is married to my Uncle Haymitch so I'm naturally her favourite in the class, although she swears otherwise. I arrive early so I can get my favourite seat at the back by the window. I watch everyone walk in, some people I know, some people I don't, but I never see him. Suddenly, Effie appears in front of the board in a pink ensemble that if it were on anyone else, would look horrible but on her it looks charming. She claps her hands excitedly,
"Welcome, Welcome, and welcome to English Literature." She exclaimed, "I trust you all read the required books over the summer." Everyone nods and she smiles like a Cheshire cat.
"Excellent, we're going to start this semester with To Kill A Mockingbird, now I want you all to choose a character and write down 5 qualities they have and then try to reason them, when you're all finished we'll discuss." She moves to sit at her desk and writes out a list of her own. That's one of the things I liked best about Effie, she was the kind of teacher that got involved with the work and didn't just leave the class to it.
I settled on Boo Radley for my character as I felt although he only makes a small appearance is one of the most complex characters in the book. The whole class was silently compiling their lists when the there was a knock at the door, simultaneously 25 heads looked up at the door as the boy with the blue eyes entered. My breath hitched when I saw him; as the day wore on I'd convinced myself it was a dream, that I hadn't really seen him, but he was here, now, in my English class. Effie looked sternly at the boy, if there was one thing she couldn't abide it was lateness.
"Young man you are late." she scolded, his cheeks blushed scarlet.
"I'm sorry," He said, extending his hand, "I'm Peeta Mellark, I'm new here I got a little lost." Effie's face softened and she shook his hand,
"Oh that's quite alright dear, go sit down there's a seat at the back." she said charmed by his politeness. My heart rate quickened when I realised the seat to which she was referring to was directly next to mine. The blue eyed boy cautiously made his way to the back very aware of all the eyes on him. He sat down and pulled out a, well-loved copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. I tried not to stare, I really did but I found everything he did so mesmerising. He began to turn towards me and I quickly turned back round to disguise my gaze. He quietly cleared his throat and I turned back, he extended his hand, his politeness knowing no bounds,
"Hi, I'm Peeta" He said softly,
"Katniss." I replied taking his hand, trying to hide my surprise at the electricity I felt from his touch.
Hey so Just a little note to say that I hoped you enjoyed this story, If you follow me you will know that I haven't written for a while but I've been struggling with my anxiety for the past few months and I've found that writing can help so I plan to be uploading a bit more. Over the next few weeks I have exams so my uploading may be quite irregular if at all, but I have a three week break after that and I plan to write a LOT.
This idea was kinda sticking in my head and I wanted to get it down before it went. I think I'm going to rate it T, but if you guys feel like it should be upgraded to M then just let me know and I can change it. I know this chapter isn't that bad but it would come in handy for planning future chapters. The title is a song by James Bay, I suggest you check it out it's amazing.
As always thank you for reading and please follow, favourite and review all three are much appreciated (although reviews are my favourite ;)).