It was the first day of September, the first day of school and the sky was as grey and colourless as smoke rising above the chimney back home in the bakery. Silent trudging footsteps crept down the road while Peeta kept his eyes solemnly on the ground as if it were a tragic occasion. The air held a type of nervousness, of being abandoned by their parents for the first time or the frightening unknown. All around him were dull stares, thoughtful frowns, and the restless shifting of the adults.
"Micky, I told you to stop it," a man's voice hollered. A sharp slap cut through the air, a few children tensed their shoulders and most of the parents averted their eyes and pretended not to see. Haymitch wasn't the only drunk in District Twelve. Morgan Donner was known to drink the way his sister used morphling, and he was a mean type of drunk.
Michaelis let go of his father's hand as his blow sent him reeling and he crumpled on the ground, his pants turned dark as the dust clung to the fabric and he stared, almost stunned that his father would dare to hit him in public.
Dannel Mellark shook his head and crouched down to Peeta, who was wide-eyed and terrified of leaving the safety of his father's embrace. "School's great fun, you'll see Peeta," his father said cheerfully. "Delly's in your class, you'll meet all sorts of friends and play games and I know Miss Foster, she's really nice and make you feel right at home."
But Peeta had an awful feeling in his tummy, like that time he snuck five sugar cookies in one sitting and later his mother had screeched at him when he confessed about his tummy ache as to why he couldn't eat much dinner. His father gave him a sympathetic smile. "Are you nervous Peeta?" Peeta quickly shook his head, he was a big boy now and he didn't want his father to know he was scared. Dannel smiled and clasped a hand on his small shoulder. "That's my boy."
Amoungst the chattering parents and tearful children one woman stood out, blonde and fair, clutching the hand of a dark and dusky young girl who looked like a stranger next to her.
His eyes softened at the sight of the mother and daughter. "You see that woman over there?" Peeta's father whispered. He bent down and lowered his voice as if telling him a great secret. "When I was younger, that was the woman I wanted to marry, only she ran off with a coal miner."
Peeta's eyes widened. His father was so kind and brave and good he couldn't understand why any woman wouldn't choose him, especially for some smelly coal miner and asked him so.
Dannel Mellark's eyes misted over and seemed to settle on the small girl next to the woman he loved. "Because when Robin Everdeen sang, the birds would go silent." Peeta stared at the little girl and drank in every detail about her, from her red plaid dress to her hair in two braids and wondered if her voice too could make the birds go silent.
During music assembly when Miss Foster asked if anyone knew the valley song he instinctively looked to the girl in braids and her hand flew up. Miss Foster propped her up on a stool and Katniss opened her mouth to sing the most beautiful song that he had ever heard. It was spellbinding, Peeta could have sworn all the birds sitting on the windowsill fell silent and at that moment he knew that he was a goner.
Katniss, that was her name he learned when they played the Name Game.
His father was right, that day they did play a great number of games, after the Name Game was the Letter Game, and then the Colour Game. They weren't too hard, but a little exhausting to young Peeta. After snack time Miss Foster handed out colouring sheets and crayons. While Peeta scribbled all over a house under a sun his eyes kept finding their way back to Katniss, whose eyes were crinkled in concentration and her tongue was poking out as she tried to stay within the lines.
He took to watching Katniss, always wanting to speak to her by never having the courage. Five year old Peeta didn't have any friends because too shy to ask to join in their games. He was a sullen loner who hung back from others and flinched at loud sounds. At a young age he had learned the invisible dynamics of their family, his mother would beat him and Rye black and blue and she was even known to take a swing at their father from time to time, but she would never, ever even raise her voice at Klein. His eldest brother was solemn and intelligent, everything about him was neat and tidy from his clothes which he carefully folded to the way he treated his chores, which was probably why he was their mother's favourite. On the other hand Rye was the opposite, loud and boisterous but somehow well-liked and he was the most popular boy in his class. Rye was the type of person who could always make the best of things, no matter what the situation. Once he had accidentally broken an entire tray of biscuits, but then he simply bagged them up and labelled them as stardust cookies and they sold out within a day. Their mother had smacked him for being careless but their father had laughed at his cleverness and ruffled his hair saying "that's my boy!" Rye took after their father more than Peeta and Klein, like him he liked to smile and joke and laughed a lot so at dinnertimes it would be mostly the two of them merrily swapping stories their while mother fussed over Klein. This left Peeta, the odd one out ignored by everybody else to eat his bread silently, wishing that Katniss was there to pay attention to him and keep him company.
His mother always complained to their father every time they did their accounts that three mouths to feed was just too many. It hurt, that his family would have been better off without him. His father always reassured him afterwards that he was loved but Peeta couldn't help but feel unwanted, especially when everyone was too busy doing grown-up things to pay attention to him. Sometimes, it hurt being alone. The day before first grade he was at the playground sitting on top of the swings. One by one the parents came and took their children home, until Peeta was the only one left. His father was busy with the shop and his mother didn't care about him. He was busy watching Katniss, her two braids flying behind her as her mother came and held her hand to take her home. Transfixed by her, Peeta decided that one day he would marry Katniss and make her love him.
