The Boy who Sacrificed for the Bread.
Peeta's P.O.V
"You!" I heard my mother screeched, "You Seam brats, always rummaging through our rubbish!" I leaned against the kitchen doorframe and saw my mother at the back door, obviously angered, "Stealing-or, in your case, attempted stealing-is punishable by death, you know! Now, get out of here before I call the Peacekeepers on you!"
By now, I've made my way behind my mother and I can see who she is shouting at:
Katniss Everdeen.
I know her from school, kind of. I've never talked to her, exactly, because I was expected to hang out with town kids, whilst she pretty much stayed to herself, but I know her from her being in some of my classes and I know her father was one of many miners killed in the mine explosion.
My mother backed away from the door, closing it, and went back to work a few minutes ago to attend to a customer, but still looking-more like glaring- at Katniss, who had slumped down by the old apple tree we had planted next to the pig pen in defeat, through the window in our door.
I looked at her now and tried to remember how she looked before her father's death: well, coming from the Seam, she has never been the healthiest-looking girl. But her father's hunting skills had kept them going. She had more weight on her than some Seam kids and would have smile on her face, especially when she was with her family… What I saw now was not Katniss Everdeen.
Her cheeks were hollowing, her skin paling from lack of nutrition, shivering. But, worst of all, looking up vacantly at the door her as if to say 'Let the Peacekeepers come for me, or just leave me to die here, in the rain'.
That was a look that said 'I give up'.
That wasn't Katniss Everdeen. Katniss Everdeen would never give up.
And I wouldn't allow her to even consider doing so now. Period.
"Peeta, go get the bread from the oven, it's going to end up burning!" my mother commanded. I walked over to the oven, and I caught a glimpse of Katniss once again.
I knew what I had to do.
I clamped my eyes shut and forced myself to trip. I knocked over two of the bread-turners, when I looked down I saw that two loaves of bread had landed in the fire.
"Peeta! What have you done?" I heard my mother shriek from right behind me, "You fool!" the next thing I knew, her left hand (thankfully the one that was rolling pin-less) had back-handed me and connected with my left cheek, her wedding ring catching and digging into my skin. I winced in pain but made sure not to cry or anything. She walked over to the burnt bread; she had grabbed and put a pair of oven gloves on along the way, and picked them up. It didn't take the bread long to cool (with the door having been open for such a long time, the kitchen itself was pretty cool, now) and she shoved them into my arms. She opened the door and I knew better than to stall going outside.
As I ran outside, I heard her shout after me, ""Feed those to the pig, stupid boy! No one would buy those! You're just like those Seam brats, you're all useless!" and shut the door.
I looked at the door and began tearing the burnt bits on the bread off, making sure that I only pulled off the burnt areas. I looked at the door once again, and saw that I wasn't being watched by my hawk-eyed mother. I walked over to Katniss, ignoring to increasing pain of my swelling cheek, and dropped the loaves of bread in her lap and ran back in the house, I didn't want to be caught by my mother.
The next day, I saw her again. And I saw her look a bit more like the way Katniss Everdeen should-determined to carry on living. I saw a dandelion-the first one that Spring-and I saw her eyes trail down and the look on her face she got when she saw it. I began to walk away, it was the easiest option, and I didn't want to get questioned as to why I did what I did.
But, when I looked back, I saw that both she and the dandelion where gone.
X~xox~X
My mother always suspected afterwards that I did what I did to help Katniss, and it sickened her that I would do so. That I would risk our own livelyhood for 'some useless Seam girl that no one would notice,nor care, if something happened to her'. But I knew my mother was wrong, and I told her so, which only resulted in more beatings.
So, I soon came to terms that, by doing what I did, mine and my mother's realtionship had been sacrificed. Gone to the dogs- or pigs, in my case.
I then came to terms that, by doing what I did, any kind of relationship I had with Katniss had been sacrificed and made awkward by what I did because people from the Seam hate owing people and even I knew that Katniss owed me big time for what I did, even though I didn't want her to.
I also, in the end, simply sacrificed my opinion. It only ended in beatings, beatings that left marks I couldn't keep hiding. Or it fell on deaf ears, I soon learnt my opinion was cared as much as the starving children in the Seam. So it dissapeared, thought to be never be seen again.
X~X-X~X
Some people may think of me as the Boy with the Bread.
Others may think of me as the One who gave Hope.
And, even though she saw the mark, I don't think Katniss thought much about what I did to recieve that mark.
And for that, no one will know the truth.
That I am Peeta Mellark, and I am the Boy who Sacrificed for the Bread.
And now I am being sent into the Hunger Games to sacrifice the girl I sacrificed so much up for...