DISCLAIMER:

Hello! This is the first story I've ever posted here, and there are a few things I would like to point out before we begin.

First and foremost, English is not my native languauge, so I apologize for any potential grammatical errors.

Second, as you might've guessed from English not being my native language, I don't live in the US, and
am therefore not 100 % certain on how stuff like high school works in term of classes, grading and what have you. I would
however love any and all tips and/or corrections you might have after reading this.

The story revolves mostly around Peeta and Katniss, but will potentially involve other pairings later on. The story is
told mainly, but not exclusively, from Katniss' perspective.

I think that about sums it up. I hope you enjoy the first chapter, and please feel free to post a review afterwards, should you feel like it.

Chapter 1

Ugh. Mondays. Mondays are the worst, Katniss thought to herself as she pulled into the parking lot of her new school. This Monday was particularly bad, because not only did it signal the first day of a sure to be long and boring week, it was also the first day of her Junior year in High School. She moved here with her mother and younger sister very recently, so recently in fact, that she had missed the first week of school, meaning that whilst this was Katniss' first day back from summer vacation, everyone else had already been back for a week. Katniss had never been good at making friends, and she was not looking forward to having to start all over again in this new place. This school, and the rest of the city for that matter, was several times larger than the quaint little town they lived in previously.

And to top it all off, it was raining.

It's not that Katniss was an overly unpleasant person. It's true that she might have a tendency to be a tad too sarcastic at times, but the main reason she used to have a hard time making friends, was simply that there were nobody back home who she liked enough to put in any actual effort, with the exception of a few friends she liked quite a lot, but who she would now have to do without due to her…relocating.

Katniss exhaled exasperatedly as she backed her way into an empty corner parking space and shut off the engine. Luckily she was here early, so there were plenty of spaces available close to the school entrance. She grabbed her backpack, pulled the hood of her black hoodie up over her head, and climbed out into the rain. She was parked next to a very new, shiny looking Audi. She looked between the Audi and her own car, an old, dark red and dented Chevy pickup, a few times. The contrast between the two vehicles was almost comical. Though probably more so if you were the owner of the Audi, and not the pickup. She started making her way towards the main entrance.

Once inside, it didn't take Katniss long to realize that she was lost. Good and proper lost. Her old school had only one building, and a single grass field behind it that all the sports teams had to share. This school seemed to have at least four different buildings, plus one she figured was used for indoor sports, plus several large sports areas behind the school. She looked at her schedule, which she was mailed last week, along with a note from the principal for Katniss to give to her teachers to explain her absence during the first week of school. The schedule was frustratingly unhelpful in terms of helping her figure out where her first class was, and Katniss wished they would've sent her a map of the campus as well.

She figured there was no way she'd be able to find her class on her own, so she looked around the hallway for someone to ask for directions. After a quick scan of the seemingly endless hallway filled with lockers, her eyes landed on a guy fiddling with his locker, his back turned to Katniss, about twenty lockers down from where she was standing. She decided he would be as guide a person to ask as any, and started walking towards him. For a brief moment, as she walked towards him, every high school movie or TV-show that she had ever seen flashed through her mind. Was this guy going to laugh at her for no apparent reason and shove her into a locker? Was he going to look at her, and then turn back around to completely ignore her, having already decided she was not worth his time? Was he going to throw a Slushie in her face? Then she condemned her younger sister in her mind for making her watch Glee with her. She shook her head as she reached the guy, who had not yet noticed her. She cleared her throat.

"Hi, sorry, uhm, any chance you could help me out for a minute?"

The guy quickly turned his head to face her. "Yes?" he asked in a soft voice, that for some inexplicable reason, Katniss found soothing. Katniss also couldn't help but notice the boy's piercing blue eyes and his wet, blond hair, clinging to his forehead because of the rain. It wasn't until he raised one his eyebrows slightly that Katniss realized he was waiting for her to say something. She cleared her throat again, looking down at her schedule.

"I'm a little lost. My first class is English in Building C, classroom 304?" she looked up from schedule again. The boy smiled pleasantly

"Oh, you're new?" he asked.

'No, I've been going here since freshman year, but I forgot how to find my way around this place over the summer.' Katniss thought, but before she had the chance to say anything out loud, the boy shook his head at himself.

"Sorry, that was a stupid question." At least he could figure that out himself. Katniss attempted a small smile. The boy turned slightly to his side and pointed further down the hall. "Building C is down the hall and to the left, at the end of that hall is a door to a courtyard, and directly across is C. Room 304 should then be somewhere on your right hand side when you walk in the door from the courtyard." He turned back around to face her, still smiling. Katniss nodded appreciatively.

"Thank you."

He nodded back. "You're very welcome." He turned back to his locker as Katniss walked past him, towards the end of the hall.

As Katniss walked down the hall, she was first of all pleased that her previous worries about being slushied had proven silly and unnecessary, but for reasons still unknown to her, she was fighting the urge to turn her head and look at the boy again. However, she managed to reach the end of the hall and turn the corner before the urge got the better of her. Had she turned around, though, she would've caught the blond haired boy looking at her all the way down the hall.

When she reached the courtyard, she was relieved that it had at least stopped raining. She crossed to Building C, and easily found her classroom. About seven to ten students were already seated in the room, engaged in small-talk in various groups of two to three people. None of them looked up at her when she entered the room. She crept along the wall towards the back, and took a seat at the back row, in the right corner by the window. She dumped her nearly empty backpack on the floor, against the wall. More students began filing in, but Katniss was looking out the window absentmindedly, at what to her looked like one of the football areas. She sat in this state for several minutes, but was eventually brought out of it by a voice on her left.

"Hi." Katniss turned her head, finding that a blond girl had sat down at the table next to her. She was smiling at Katniss.

"Hello." Katniss sat up straight, realizing she had slumped down in her seat. Her voice was dull and void of any attempt to sound pleasant. Katniss' lack of eagerness did nothing to stop the blond girl, however.

"Are you the new girl?" Katniss raised an eyebrow. The new girl? You would imagine that a school this size had more than one new student. Were people expecting her? The blond girl, apparently sensing Katniss' confusion, continued. "Last week, I overheard the principal explaining to Ms. Thompson, our English teacher, that some girl wouldn't be joining the school until this week due to her just moving here or something. I figured that would be you, since I don't recall having seen you before."

Katniss turned slightly towards this girl as she answered, mainly to avoid appearing rude. "Yeah, that would be me." She still sounded like she was on the brink of falling asleep. Which was only half-true.

"Well, nice to meet you. My name is Madge Undersee." The girl was still smiling enthusiastically. How on Earth was she managing to be so cheery at 8 in the morning? Katniss nodded, giving her the same forced attempt at a smile she gave the boy in the hallway.

"Katniss. Everdeen." The girl, apparently known as Madge, made no further attempts at small talk as the teacher walked in. Katniss unconsciously slumped back down in her seat, staring out the window.

The teacher, Ms. Thompson, only called on Katniss once during the lesson, merely to confirm that she was the girl she had heard about, as Madge had previously explained. Apart from that, Katniss remained quiet, barely paying attention.

Once the bell rung, signaling the end of the class, Katniss grabbed her backpack, slung it over her shoulder and trudged towards the door. On the way, she was approached once more by Madge, who asked her if she needed any help finding her next class. Katniss kindly declined, this time sporting a more genuine smile. Her next class, History, was in Building A, meaning it would be around where she originally asked for directions. She would be able to find her way back there herself and, despite Madge seeming very kind, she would rather walk there herself.

Upon entering Building A and rounding the corner in the hallway, Katniss' eyes involuntarily focused on the locker where she first saw the blond boy, scanning the area to see if he for some reason would be there again. Seeing nothing, she quickly shook her head slightly, wondering why on Earth she was looking in the first place. She continued on and quickly found her History classroom.

Katniss was relieved to see that the back right corner seat had not yet been occupied, and she hurried down to claim it before anyone else could, once again dumping her backpack on the floor and looking aimlessly out the window. This time, she was not called on at all during the entire lesson. After what seemed like an eternity, the bell rung once more. Katniss scooped up her backpack, walked out of the classroom and stepped off to the side of the hallway, so as not to be in the way of the horde of migrating students walking up and down the hall, as she looked at her schedule again. Next up was Art. Art? What in the world had made her think that art was a good idea for an elective when she had decided on her schedule? Sure, she liked to draw now and then. Some had even praised her for being pretty good at it, but Katniss was not convinced. Either way, it could only be better than what she had endured in her first two lessons of the day.

Her art class meant she was, once more, headed back to Building C, however this classroom was at the other end of the building than her English class. She had a break for the next 15 minutes until the class started, but she decided to head straight for the classroom regardless. She managed to find it with relative ease, being one of the first students there. The art classroom was bigger, more spacious than the others, however based on the number of seats available, seemed to hold fewer students. The entire right side wall consisted of giant windows, allowing in an abundant amount of light. The seats and tables were all spread out much more than in the other classrooms. Katniss figured this would be so every student would have enough elbow room to work in case they were painting something or whatever. With her preferred seat in the back right corner already occupied, Katniss sat down on the second of the four rows, all the way to the left, near the door. She put her backpack on the floor, shuffling it under the table with her foot, to move it out of the way for other passing students. She slumped down, pulled out her phone and waited for class to start. Some minutes later, she was brought out of her trance.

"Manage to find your other classes without a map?" The voice was familiar, albeit the tone of it was slightly lighter than when Katniss had previously heard it. She looked up from her phone and met the gaze of the blond boy from this morning, standing next to her, backpack slung over his right shoulder. Katniss was once again taken aback by how incredibly bright his blue eyes were. His hair had dried since their last meeting, and now fell in small waves over his forehead. He also seemed much larger than he did before, but Katniss contributed this to her sitting down and him standing up. Once again, it took Katniss a second or two longer to answer than it should have.

"Yes. Though, a map would've been nice nonetheless." Katniss found herself fighting back an urge to smile. This did not happen often. The blond boy, however, did not show the same 'restraint', as he let out a chuckle.

"Yeah, it took me ages to get it right when I first started here." He leaned back, resting against the table in front of Katniss. He was intending to keep up this conversation. And, for some reason, Katniss had no immediate objections to this.

"I bet. This school is easily three times the size of my old one." She put her phone away and sat up straight, making a mental note of having to learn to sit properly. "Classes are about just as boring, though."

This earned another grin from the boy. "Don't worry, this class is great." He shuffled, shifting his weight on to his other leg. "So, what's your name?" As he spoke, he looked at the door to see a woman, most likely the teacher, wearing way too much make-up walk in the door. She walked to the front desk and began telling the chatting students to find their seats. The boy turned his attention back to Katniss, waiting for an answer.

"Katniss." She deliberately left out her last name as she, for reasons she could not explain, felt the need to leave some form of mystery about her, as opposed to when she had told Madge her full name just like that in her first class.

The boy smiled widely. "Nice to meet you, Katniss. My name is P-"

"Mr. Mellark!" The boy was interrupted by an unnecessarily loud and very high pitched voice, practically dripping with impatience, which turned out to be the teacher. "Find your seat. Please."

The boy, whose last name was apparently Mellark, turned to the teacher and then back to Katniss, giving an apologetic shrug as he stood up and took a seat, about three seats over to the right of Katniss, on the same row. Katniss watched him walk to his seat as he turned his back.

P. P what? In a way it seemed fair, Katniss learned only the boy's last name, and he learned only her first name. But regardless, Katniss wanted to know his first name. But for now, she would have to focus on the class. She figured she would try to give this class a chance, partly because it was an elective she had chosen herself after all, and partly because the boy had given it his seal of approval just before. Not that his opinion should matter to Katniss. But it did.

He turned out to be right, though. Sort of. The class proved more interesting than her other two and she actually found herself participating. Most of the class consisted of the teacher talking about different techniques to be used when painting and drawing, such as shading, outlining and the likes. The students were given different objects to sketch during the class, and Katniss earned herself several nods of approval from the teacher throughout. Every now and then she would try to steal a glimpse of the boy a few seats to her right, but she could never really get a good look. She did however notice the teacher clapping her hands, clearly delighted by whatever was on the boy's paper. The hour drew to a close. Following this class was the lunch break. Katniss briefly contemplated asking the boy for directions to the cafeteria, hoping he would walk her there. She quickly dismissed the thought.

On her way to the cafeteria, she walked by Madge, who recognized her, but didn't stop to greet her. She did however smile and give a small wave. Katniss smiled and waved back. She made another mental note to try a little better at conversing with this girl if the she ever sat next to her again in English.

Katniss ate her lunch by herself.

After lunch, the rest of the day moved agonizingly slow. Math. Spanish. Psychology. No Madge. No blond, blue-haired boy. Nobody else spoke to her.

Katniss was glad to be done for today. It had started raining again. She didn't even bother pulling up her hoodie when she walked from the school towards her car. She opened the door, threw her backpack on the passenger's seat, and climbed in. She shut the door and leaned back against the comfortable seat, exhaling in that same, exasperated fashion she did this morning. Having buckled up, she pulled out of the parking lot and set off for home.

Roughly 35 minutes later, she walked through the front door of the small house she lived in with her sister and mother. Although, she had hardly seen her mother, due to her working at very odd hours at the hospital downtown. Hours she had been forced to take after moving here.

"Prim? You home?" Prim, short for Primrose, was Katniss' four year younger sister. The one person in the world Katniss would do anything for.

"In the living room."

Katniss removed her shoes and jacket, placing her backpack on the floor, and headed towards the source of the voice. On her way there, she noticed a yellow note on the kitchen counter.

Back late. Dinner in the fridge. Make sure Prim goes to bed early.

Mom

Katniss picked up the note, read it once, then crumbled it up and threw it in the trash. When she entered the living room, she found prim perched on the sofa, watching TV. She looked up at Katniss. "How was your first day?"

"Great" said Katniss simply, as she sat down on the couch next to her sister.

"Any cute boys?" Prim teased, knowing full well Katniss was not one to talk about boys.

"Shut up."

"Is that a yes?" grinned Prim, her full attention now on Katniss. Katniss, however, was looking directly at the TV.

The moment Prim mentioned cute boys, Katniss' mind instantly flickered to the blond boy, who she only now knew only as P Mellark. Katniss told herself that the reason for this was simply that he was the only boy with whom she had interacted with all day. "No."

"Are you blushing?" Prim pressed on.

Katniss wasn't blushing, however, for a short moment, Katniss thought she might be, due to Prim asking this when she was thinking of the blond boy.

"I said shut up. Don't make me tickle you."

This threat finally shut Prim up. She turned her face back to the TV, albeit still with a wide grin across her face. Katniss couldn't help smiling either at her little sister. She would never, could never, be mad at her.

They ate yesterday's leftover stew mostly in silence, Prim being completely absorbed in another episode of Glee. Katniss did as requested by her mother through a yellow note, and tucked in Prim early. Katniss then went to her room, plumped down onto her bed and opened up her laptop.

After browsing for a while, she ended up on Facebook, where she came across the official page for her school. There were pictures from last week, during the first few days of school this year. Katniss clicked through them absentmindedly. She didn't have to look at many photos before she came across a photo of Madge. Then another. And a third. She was a very photogenic girl. She was nearing the end of the photo album when she found a picture of him.

On the picture, he appeared heavily engaged in conversation with a group of three to four other people. They were all laughing. He was flashing a set of brilliantly white teeth. Next to him was another boy, with curly hair with an odd bronze tint, and a very impressive tan. On the opposite side was a girl Katniss recognized from her art class. She didn't know her name. Katniss found herself moving the mouse over the picture. Only one person had been tagged on the photo. The bronze haired boy, Finnick Odair. She clicked back and forth a few pictures in the album, to see if there were other pictures of the blue eyed boy. None.

She still did not know his first name. It started to bother her. Then it started to bother her that she was bothered by not knowing some random guy's name. P what? Peter? Paul? Patrick? Before she knew what she was doing, she began typing 'Mellark' into the search bar at the top of the Facebook page. Upon realizing what she was doing, she quickly closed down her laptop, shoving it off the bed, where it landed on a conveniently placed pile of clothes. She buried her face in her pillow.

"Ugh. Mondays."

A/N: That's all for chapter one. I hope you enjoyed it, and as I mentioned in the disclaimer, please feel free to leave a review with any criticism, tips or suggestions you might have.