Chapter One.
Peeta
I always linger at my locker after school to see if she will make eye contact with me on her way back to the Seam; back to home. Maybe even catch her by herself for the chance to talk with her. We are in a couple of the same classes: History of Mining and Mathematics. My favorite class is history of mining because I sit in the seat behind her; I am currently not passing because I spend most days daydreaming and distracted by her beautiful long braid and her woodsy scent.
The teacher does not seem to mind my poor test scores in the class; the teachers and most merchant kids feel that a class about mining is irrelevant to our futures. Most Seam kids leave school, at year 10 because they are either pregnant or going to work in the mines to support the family when they turn 16.
Her mother was from a merchant family that married a miner. My father once told me how he used to love her mother when they were in school, but he was left wanting when she fell in love with someone from the Seam. He later married my mother. She was more attractive than the other girls his age and her father ran the store in town. So, everyone thought they would be a good match. My grandfather was to leave the town bakery to my father when he got older and someday, it will be left to my brothers and I once I finish this last year of schooling.
I can tell that Katniss is ready for this class to be over. It's our last class of the week, she's fidgeting and has already put all of her books and papers into her desk. Her hair falls onto my desk and brushes against my hand, sending waves down to my feet. I accidentally let out a slight gasp as I let her hair slip through my fingers and my feet tingle. She turns slightly to look at me out of the corner of her eye, I blush and look down like I was reading something interesting.
I know she doesn't know me, I am sure she doesn't remember the time that she was outside the bakery in the rain and I threw her some bread. I didn't take it to her, I didn't invite her in, I threw bread to her…in the rain, no less. I am such a coward. The girl that I have loved since my first day of school in year 1, and I threw burnt bread to her. My mother would never let her in our home, even when she saw her outside and starving. People from the Seam are trash and you are forbidden to even entertain them.
Everyone knew that my mother had problems and mostly, we were the problem. She had been known to hit us, mostly me – since she wanted a girl, when anything went wrong. After the night with the burnt bread, she broke one of my ribs. Even today, I have the beginnings of a black eye from a pan of muffins that were dropped when my oven mitt had a hole in it and scalded my finger.
The teacher dismisses us and I watch as Katniss jumps up, hands in her paperwork and heads for the door. I hurry to clear the books that I had been pretending to read earlier, so I could wait at my locker as she passed by to get her sister Prim from her class. I see the door opening and I can hear Prim on the inside saying she would be home soon after. Katniss turns and looks annoyed as she's walking towards me. She's alone!
I find myself in a trance as she gets closer and closer…pieces of hair coming out of her braid, framing her face. Her huge grey eyes and dark hair compliment her beautiful olive skin tone. All Seam kids look the same: dark hair, skin and eyes. But, there was something special about her. My mother says it's because they are so saturated with coal dust from the mines that it turns their skin. My mother is a bitch.
Katniss is the picture of beauty, but she is so thin. Her passed around clothes have mended holes in them and hang off of her already petite frame. In recent years she has started to fill out her clothes in all of the areas that would make a teenage boy notice. I've never seen her talking with any boys, other than Gale. He is a boy from the Seam. I know they hunt together, but I'm not sure if they are more than that.
Sometimes at lunch, I am lucky enough to get a table closer to her and Madge-the mayor's daughter. It's devastating to see how small and basic her lunch is. If only I could share with her. I know she would never take my help because I have seen Madge offer part of her lunch as well.
My heart aches at how hungry she must be, but at the same time my pants seem tighter staring at her like this.
I keep eye contact with her one second too long and she looks down as she passes me. I slam my locker shut and walk a little more quickly to catch up to her.
"Katniss?" She turns. Oh shit, what have I done? I hadn't made it past this part of my planning to getting her alone.
"Peeta?" Holy fuck, she knows my name.
"I – um – wanted to walk you out..."
"Why?" she slows for a second and looks at me.
"Oh, well…I just wanted to see if you would be coming by the bakery on Saturday. My dad uses the squirrels that you bring to make really great stew."
It is no real secret that she goes outside of the fence and hunts. It's still fairly warm since school just started and she has been bringing lots of different things to trade with my father on Saturdays. My father loves to 'talk shop' with her about the animals she kills and the weather. He always seems happy to see her. I have never had the courage to talk to her when she is at our back door. I only position myself where I can see her and she can see me, hoping to smile at her when she looks quickly over to me.
"Um, yes. Please tell Mr. Mellark that I will be there a little earlier than normal. It's my sister's birthday and we are having a par…" she stops when she realizes that she is telling me too much.
"Anyway, yes I will be there." She starts walking again and I keep her pace. "what happened to your eye?"
Ugh. I don't know if she knows about my mother but I don't want her to think badly of me.
"My brothers and I were wrestling…they don't like to lose." I smile and give a small nervous laugh while I run my hand through my blonde curls.
She squints her eyes. She doesn't believe me.
"Rye and I are on the wrestling team together, that's my older brot-"
"I know; I've been to some of the matches." She cuts me off coldly and I could swear that her face turns slightly pink. This makes me blush. Since when is she interested in wrestling?
We made it to where the road splits, town to the left and the Seam to the right. "Can I walk you to your house? I don't have to be at the bakery for an hour."
She looks confused. "Um, no. I have to get ready for the party tomorrow" ...she starts to walk away, leaving me with a small hole in my heart. But she turns back and says, "thank you though" with a tiny smirk on her beautiful, red, full lips.
I think I see her glance back at me as I watch her walk away. My heart is beating out of my chest.
Heading to the bakery, I am happily counting the hours until I see her again.
Katniss:
That was surprising. Why would he talk to me? What really happened to his eye? Why would he ask to walk with me? And mostly, why was he staring and smiling when I looked back?
I'm flustered and blushing. Gale is always saying that boys look at me, especially since my chest and hips have started becoming shapelier. Maybe he just wants to take me to the slagheap. That's the only place that merchant boys would be caught with a seam girl. Little does he know, I haven't and will not ever go there.
Of course, I know him. The baker's son. He is handsome, strong and at least half a foot taller than me. All of the girls giggle and try to talk to him. Peeta has tons of friends and lots of girlfriends it seems. But, he seems different. Sweet and soft spoken. The opposite of me.
I do have a soft spot for him, that I have never mentioned to anyone outside of Prim and Gale because he saved us when I was younger. It was after my father died in the mining explosion. I could never forget him because I will never be able to repay him for the bread that he gave us. It changed everything. It gave me hope. That's when I started hunting outside of the fences to feed my family, along with Gale's mom and siblings. My father had taught me long ago, and I was pretty good.
After our fathers died at the mine, Gale and I became friends and then hunting partners. Gale towers over me by at foot, he's tall and dark skinned. We often get asked if we are related. He is a couple of years older than me and even older women stare at him lustfully every time we go into town to trade. We laugh about it, but I see that he winks back at some of them. Maybe this is how he knows about the slagheap. I'm not really sure how I feel about that…
We go out of the fence every Saturday and several days throughout the week to hunt game and gather berries outside the fence. Most nights we still go to bed hungry not having enough to fill us completely, but we are alive. That is more than I can say for some of our neighbors in the Seam.
My mother is a healer and my sister is following in her footsteps. My mom is a shell of her former, beautiful self. She helps throughout the town with the folks that cannot afford the town doctor and when she is home, she spends her time sleeping and zoning out. Her life ended when my father's did. I have since become my sister's care giver. She is old enough now to see what is happening around her and to help my mother with her jobs.
It's about a mile or so from the school to my house in the Seam. Coming up over the hill, I can see that Gale is there waiting for me. "Catnip, what took so long?" Gale left work early, we're making a special trip outside of the District 12 fence to shoot something for the party tomorrow.
We head out towards the meadow, past the large tree stump where Prim and I used to have picnics, where the fence has a cut spot that we can slip through with no one noticing.
Gale and I are outside the fence, for about an hour checking our snares and have collected several squirrels and are very pleased to have gotten a beaver. This will make for a great birthday dinner for Prim.
My mind keeps going back to that short walk that I had with Peeta and him asking to walk me home. Not noticing that there was a grin on my own face, Gale was apparently watching me.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
"I was – um – talking to Peeta Mellark. Earlier, that's why I was so late meeting you." Oh no, why is he making that face?
"The baker boy? Why?" He is definitely bothered by this, for some reason. I can tell his hands are clenched.
"He just wanted to ask if we were coming by in the morning to trade, Gale – calm down. He seems friendly."
"Of course, don't we always go by there first? They always pay more than other places…we all know that a few scrawny squirrels aren't worth the bread and flour that he pays us. Besides, you shouldn't be talking to him unless I'm there."
This is infuriating, I can definitely take care of myself and don't need anyone – Gale included – telling me who I can and can't talk to. I feel my face getting more inflamed. I reach out and hit him with the back of my bow, "Fuck you Gale, why would I need you there to talk to anyone? How do you know I'm not sneaking around with him?" I wince as soon as I say it.
Being on the defensive, "Why would you even want to talk to him? He's a merchant's kid and probably wants to use you, knock you up and never talk to you again. Besides, you don't even like guys, Katniss…I think I would have noticed if you suddenly started showing an interest in the opposite sex..."
I snap around to look at him, why won't he look at me. I hate it when he looks away when I am this angry.
"You don't know that. You have no idea what I am interested in, how do you know I haven't been down to the slagheap already, Gale? Hmmm? Maybe I've been tons of times!" Why did I say that? He knows I've never been there and have no interest in going. Why is he SO angry about Peeta?
"Sure Katniss, I never see you down there when I'm there…but sure, you've been lots of times." He hisses at me. At this point, I am beyond angry. I throw my bow and game bag to the ground, storm up to him and pull my hand back to slap him. My hand stings after it leaves his face.
My chest is pounding with adrenaline. His eyes seem cloudy and crazed. In a swift motion he cups my face with one hand and holds the small of my back with the other. His lips are pressed against mine and I can feel his grip tighten and his body pushing harder into mine. My eyes close and I allow him to kiss me, my hands fall to his chest. My first kiss.
Do I want this? What do I do? How did this happen? I push him back, suddenly angrier than I was before.
I slap his face again, harder this time. His calloused hand, stained black with coal dust goes to his cheek. His face is frozen in shock. I turn on my heel, pick up my bow and game bag and do not look back until I stuff my bow into a hollow tree close to the fence. He's not there. If he wanted to kiss me, wouldn't he try to follow me?
I cut back through the meadow and pick some flowers for Prim, remembering why I am even out here in the first place.