As promised, I'll explain what a shadow children is. Long time ago, in China, they had a law:

Each family is only allowed to have one children.

In this story, Panem, they only allow each family to have TWO children. Sadly, Peeta's the third children, so, shadow boy he became! (Hope this explanation helped...)

Second fanfic I'm writing, both still in progress. Try and update soon!

-Love, Buttercup

Shadow boy POV:)

My name is Peeta Mellark. I'm sixteen years old. I've never been to school. I've never had any friends except for my two dear older brothers. No one knows me, except for my parents and my brothers. In fact, I'm not supposed to be known. Yet, I do know all the people around me, I'm eager to meet them, but I never will. I'm not supposed to live. I'm not supposed to. I'm just someone that's been given birth accidently. I'm a shadow child. Each family in Panem is only allowed to have two children, unluckily, I'm number three. I already have two brothers. To make this clearer, my whole family would get in trouble if the government found out there's a Peeta Mellark.

Kind girl POV:)

"Katniss, I'm hungry…" My little sister Prim, lying on her bed looking at me in an innocent way. She's at an important growing stage, twelve years old is what she is. It's not the worst though, having no food for two days.

My name is Katniss, Katniss Everdeen. I'm the head and the oldest child in the house. I have a mom, a dad that died from a mining accident few years ago, and an adorable little sister Prim. I check the only clock we have at our house. 5:30am. I'll have to get hunting if we don't want to starve… Unless I go to our unusually nice and rich neighbor, the Mellarks, to ask for food. The Mellarks' are probably the richest in the whole district 12, Mr. Mellark works with the Capitol governors, in fact he's one himself. Mrs. Mellark is a doctor. Their sons Jed is at university of Panem studying economy, and Leeva the younger brother is in grade twelve, the smartest out of the whole grade. Mr. Mellark has brown hair and brown eyes, Mrs. Mellark has bleach blonde hair and green eyes, and their sons have bleach blonde hair and gray eyes. Not so easy to tell apart their sons though! I looked at Prim and whispered,

"It's ok Prim. I've got to go. Just try and go back to sleep, ok? I'll come back with food."

"Katniss, I can't sleep. My stomach's actually aching that badly." Prim wails. She's probably the skinniest in the whole district 12, and her body is usually ill. I hugged her and said,

"Prim, I'm sorry, but I just got to go."

"Where are you going?"

"I just got to go. Try and go back to sleep, just try. Ok?"

"Ok… Come back soon!"

"I will. Don't worry. Buttercup will stay with you. Bye." I grabbed my my game bag, and ran outside. Prim's got blue eyes and pure blonde hair, same with mom; but I inherited my dad, gray eyes, olive skin, and dark colored hair. Buttercup's the cat Prim begged to keep.

I ran down the street to the cod-a-sac, where the Mellark's house is located. I looked into the window that's always covered, but strangely uncovered today. I thought I just caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar face; he has dirty blonde hair and blazing bright blue eyes. Wearing his pajamas, standing right by the window stood him. Who is he? Katniss, you don't have time to think. You've got to hunt. I reminded myself. I have a hungry little sister, and a completely can't-do-anything-and-already-broken-down mom at home. I went under the fence, stood up, and kept running. I ran in the forest, I fine with it, because know this place like home. I got to a tree, got out my bow and arrows from the secret hiding place in the tree trunk. I walked silently towards the pigeons. The result of pigeons: two. I looked around. I'm pretty sure there was a deer. Slowly, I walked towards the bushes. I set my bow and arrow up, ready to shoot. No use. The deer saw me. I'm having bad luck today so far. Still, I walked around quietly, caught some more animals, set up some snares ready for tomorrow. Result of today: Two pigeons, one squirrel, and one rabbit. Hopefully Prim's got some goat milk today. More variety's healthier for Prim…

Shadow boy POV:)

6:30am in the morning. I can't get off my mind about the girl that walked by an hour ago. The girl with dark hair that's in a, what do you call it, braid I think? What's she doing in the forest though? Will she come back? Where does she live? How old is she? Who is she? Why have I never heard about her? I never knew that there was a girl with dark colored hair in our area. I thought I've heard about everyone in our area, like Delly Cartwright, Primrose Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne… Who is that girl?

"Peeta! Breakfast's set up, you can come down early if you want!" Mom knocked on my door and whispered. Oh yeah, I'm just a shadow boy… I walked out and said,

"Yeah ok. I'll have early breakfast today with Leeva… Hey mom, can I go outside into the forest today? No one ever goes…"

"I guess it should be fine… You have to go now though, in case someone goes to the forest later on in the day."

"Thanks mom! I'll be heading to the forest now!" I never really forget about manners. They're important. At least that's what Jed and Leeva told me…

I put on my runners, a jacket, and sweatpants and I walked outside, sneakily. I walked to the forest, went under the fence, and followed the footprints of that dark haired girl. I jumped over a creek, ran on a fallen tree trunk. I experienced things I've never done before. This is too cool. I love exploring this forest… I hopped on stones, and landed back on soil. In front of me stood a girl, with dark hair, and a braid. She's really concentrating hard, she's holding something, and I think it's what you call a bow and an arrow. What's she doing with a weapon? I thought girls don't use weapons. They don't go on wars or anything, only young boys that are actual citizens of the country, Panem, need to.

The arrow went flying. It shot straight through a type of bird that flied. A bird that's flying in freedom. That girl went towards the fallen bird and picked it up as she walks back. She saw me. She saw me, Peeta Mellark, the shadow boy that's not supposed to be seen. We stared at each other for a moment. She opened her mouth,

"You won't tell anyone I hunt in the forest, will you?"

"No, I won't." I answered her confidently. Who can I tell anyways? I don't even have any friends… She sighs in relief,

"Thank goodness you won't. Hi, I'm Katniss Everdeen. Who are you?"

"You promise you won't tell anyone though."

"Yeah sure. I'm good at keeping secrets."

"Ok," I breathed heavily, I decided I'll trust her, "my name's Peeta Mellark."

"Peeta Mellark? Never heard of you. Where are you from?"

"Ok, you promise you'd keep me as a secret though… I'm Peeta, younger brother of Jed and Leeva Mellark… Yeah, ok, I'm an illegal citizen. Shadow child." Katniss stared at me, she probably doesn't know what to say… I kept talking,

"I know it's quite a surprise to you, but it's why I've asked you to keep my secret."

"Alright then. I'll keep you as a secret friend. But if you're one of those shadow children, that means you don't go to school, right?"

"Right, because no one's supposed to know me. Which family do you belong to?"

"Everdeens… Prim's my sister, and there's my mom. No dad."

"Wait, slow down. Is your sister Primrose?"

"Yeah, Primrose, Prim Everdeen."

"I know most of the kids around, like, heard of them. Delly Cartwright, Gale Hawthorne, Prim-er Prim Everdeen, but I never heard of you."

"Why not though? Why am I the only one that's left out? The only one that never make any friends? I'm always that one."

"Perhaps I just forgot about your name or something… Sorry Katniss."

"Yeah never mind about it. Ok, look, I've got to rush back to my family to feed them, or they're going to starve to death, and we don't have any money. I'll go to your house at 3:45pm? You cool with that?"

"Ok… There's no one at home by that time anyways. See you soon Katniss!"

"Bye!" She dashed off quickly towards the outside of the forest, and I followed her footprints to get out of the forest.

~Page break~

There's no one here. Ok. People are off to work, and children are off to school. I went into the green bushes tunnel in my backyard. I followed the tunnel and got to the back door. I walked back into my house. My mom's already working in the hospital, dad's still at the capitol, Leeva's at school, and Jed's at university obviously… I've got to stay at home, hiding in the shadows. That's who I am… Shadow boy Peeta Mellark. I thought about Katniss, I thought about rich and poor. I want to know more about Katniss the kind girl. Somehow I have a strange feeling about her… Just strange. It's just strange because I never had this feeling before. Just, I can't get my mind off her. What is this? Suddenly I feel that she's dangerous, dangerous for me… She's the kindest person I've ever met, she's pretty, and she's tall too. She's perfect on everything. But what is this though? What's going on with me?

Kind girl POV:)

I left the house with Prim, making sure we have dinner tonight. I made some rabbit stew to at least let Prim fill up at bit of that hungry stomach. I'm really sorry to Prim, letting her starve for two days… Still Katniss, the worst isn't two days, it's two weeks. It's ok Katniss, everyone survived that two weeks, we'll survive this two days.

~Page break~

I hate lunchtime, I don't even have any lunch. I don't have any friends, unlike Prim. I can't go to the grade sevens and just eat lunch with them… I walked outside under the tree and sat there. Madge, my only friend girl but not exactly my friend, walked towards me. Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter. Her family works with the capitol too… Madge smiles and said,

"Want some share of my lunch?" She's the only one that I know that doesn't have to worry about hunger, and Peeta too… I lift my face up and looked at her, I asked,

"You actually will?"

"Of course! Here, have some of my lunch." She's got all those fancy stuff, bread with ham and cheese, and two oranges. Two oranges. The most expensive food in the whole district 12, and she has two. She whispered quietly,

"You can take all of them if you want. I'm not hungry. Share it with Prim."

"Are you serious? Am I dreaming or is this happening in real life?"

"It's real life Katniss. Just take it."

"Oh my god… Thank you for everything Madge. You saved my family's life!" Even though this isn't exactly real because I hunt, but hunting is actually forbidden in district 12. Actually, apart from Gale and me… Gale and Madge are my only friends in district 12, before knowing Peeta. Right now, only Gale and Peeta know that I hunt. Not even Prim or my mom knows. My dad taught me how to hunt when he was still alive. Dad…

"Katniss? Hello? Earth to Katniss?" Oops, I've been daydreaming for too long. I grinned and said, "Sorry Madge. It's probably class time, so I need to run!"

"Ok, bye Katniss! Enjoy the food!"

"Just, thank you so much Madge! I love you for always being nice and sharing your food!"

"No problem! See you tomorrow!" I ran back into school for class. It's class time. More classes for the sort of smart Katniss Everdeen.

~Page break~

School's over, I'm glad I get out of Miss. Trinket's history class earlier. Now I have to shadow boy Peeta. That poor thing. Not as a rich/poor poor thing. He doesn't have any friends, yet he knows about all of us. He's going to have had made lots of friends if he's a normal kid. Blazing bright blue eyes, that's what scares me and draws my attention towards to. What am I thinking about? He's not drawing my attention; he's just a normal friend. Wait, a normal friend. I don't even really have any friends. Katniss, no, you cannot fall towards him. I'm not even falling towards him though. What am I thinking about? I've got a family to take care of already…

Review? Clear enough that said review. Did you guys enjoy the chapter? Just tell me how you felt about this story :)