A/N - I wrote this around the time the Hunger Games came out to theatres, but I lately found it in my documents. Enjoi. xx (fully aware I spelled 'enjoy' wrong).
"Katniss! Where are you going?" my 7 year old sister Prim cried at me.
"I need to go. I need to find food for us," I told her, hoping she would understand.
I was 11, and Dad had died in a mine accident a few weeks ago. Prim, Mom, and I lived in the Seam, in the poorest part of District 12. Before Dad's death, we had little to eat. Now that he was gone, we had almost nothing to eat. I was basically in charge of the house now because my mother had sunk into a depression when she was the one that was supposed in charge of the house now.
"It's raining out!" Prim pointed at the pouring rain outside the window, doing everything in her power to stop me from leaving.
"Prim, we need food! We can't stay here and not have anything to eat," I said to her.
I could see teardrops starting to well up in her bright blue eyes now. The last thing we had was boiled water flavored with some mint leaves I had found.
"Are you leaving us?" Prim asked. Tears were streaming down her face now.
"Prim, I'm not leaving you and Mom! I need to find some food for us. Anything is going to help. I'll only be gone for about 15 minutes," I said her, and then threw my arms around her. I could smell the flowery scent in her hair.
It was late winter, and it was already freezing inside. I couldn't imagine how cold it would be outside.
"Stay safe," Prim said softly. For a 7 year old, Prim was much more mature in my opinion. She was following my mother's footsteps to be a healer.
"I will," I responded, then walked out the door, shutting it behind me.
I was wearing my father's old jacket. It was a little too big for me, so I pulled it tightly around me to keep the warmth. I was standing under the overhang. I looked ahead of me. All I could see was the rain coming down to the ground, and the ground was soaked and it looked muddy.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked out. I was in desperate need for food for my family. I figured that I should look in the merchant area first. Maybe I could find some food in the trashcans? 'Better than nothing', I thought to myself.
I had been to the merchant area of District 12 before. The walk there was about 10 minutes. If I walked, the rain would soak the jacket through, and I would be soaked, I thought. I was a pretty fast runner in my opinion. If I ran, I could make it to the merchant area in half the time.
'Only a couple more weeks, Katniss', I thought to myself. My birthday was on May 8th. When you're 12, you can sign up for a tesserae; something that supplies a year of food for one person. It would really help my family. I didn't care that in order to get tesserae; you have to have your name entered in the reaping more times. I wanted to help my family.
Running there, I could feel the rain pouring down harder. Prim was probably at home watching out the window waiting for me to return home with a handful of nuts, berries, and other things we might feast on.
When I finally got there, the rain water had also soaked me entirely. The wind was lightly picking up. 'Great. I'm probably going to get pneumonia", I thought to myself. I couldn't stand the cold anymore. I was thinking of turning around and going back. 'It's for Prim and Mom. It's for them', I thought to myself. I then saw a couple of trashcans outside the baker's shop. Maybe the baker burnt some bread and tossed them out? I thought to myself, not giving up hope. The pig pen outside the shop caught my eye. My little ray of hope that there would be food in the trashcan ended. The baker probably would toss the burnt bread to the pigs. I still wanted to check out the trashcans to see if there was anything.
I opened the lid to the trashcan. There was nothing in there. I decided to dig deeper to find food, but I was stopped.
"You Seam children! Looking through my trash like a bunch of animals!" came a screeching voice from where the bakery was. It was the baker's wife and she was standing out the door. I knew she meant that for me because there was no one else around. 'I'm looking for food for my family! My family is starving!' I wanted to scream back, but I decided that the best thing to do was to leave.
The baker's wife had gone inside. I started to walk back home empty-handed. I thought that I was going to come home with at least a handful of berries. I felt completely hopeless now. I had promised Prim that I would bring home food for our family. I had let them down. We had no more food. I had promised Prim that I would only be gone for 15 minutes; 30 minutes probably have passed and I didn't find any food, and I had the baker's wife scream at me and call me an animal. If my family starved, it was all my fault, I thought, my head hurting.
I heard some shuffling noises come from behind me. I turned around see what it was. The door to the bakery had opened, and there was a boy with ashy blonde hair standing there looking at me. He was medium height and had a stocky build. He looked familiar... I didn't know where I had seen him before. Then it hit me, he was my classmate. I knew that his name was Peeta, and he was the baker's son. We were in the same year, but we rarely crossed each other's paths.
I looked back at him. "Throw it to the pigs! No one's going to eat burnt bread you stupid creature!" the same screechy voice yelled. This had to be his mother. My heart sank to know that this was his mother. My mother never called me stupid, and she rarely screamed at me. At school Peeta seemed nice. I couldn't believe that his mother treated him like this. I had never personally met the baker, I had only seen him in his shop. He looked nice and kind, and well- the opposite personality of his wife. My mother complimented his bread when we had bread from the bakery. Prim and I had tried the bread and agreed that it was excellent as well.
I was standing there, standing in the pouring rain with my teeth chattering and stomach rumbling from hunger wondering why Peeta was standing there for so long. His mother told him to throw it to the pigs. He had two loaves of burned bread in his hands. They didn't look too bad. There were some spots that didn't look burnt. 'That could feed my family for days', I thought to myself. I told myself not to get my hopes up that he would give me the bread.
In one swift motion, he threw the two loaves at me, walked back inside and shut the door behind him. I didn't know what to do. There were two perfectly fine loaves of bread laying in front of my feet. Why didn't he throw it to the pigs instead? I picked up the bread slowly. I could hear some banging coming from inside the bakery. My mind was racing on what was happening. The baker's wife was screaming again, and there was more banging. My eyes were widening. My first thought that she was beating him.
"You stupid creature! You don't burn bread! When I tell you to feed it to the pigs, you do what I say, and do not throw it at the poor Seam children who go through the trashcans!" she screamed, and there was another banging sound.
She was beating him, I thought. Peeta had risked a beating to come outside in the cold and give me bread. I tucked the two warm loaves into my father's jacket, and sprinted home.
I opened the door, and before I knew it, Prim had her arms around me.
"Where were you!?" she cried, then let go.
I could tell that she had been crying. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her pale face was red and blotchy.
I answered by pulling the bread out from the jacket. They were still warm. Prim gasped at the sight.
"Bread!?" she exclaimed. I nodded.
"Where did you find these?" she asked.
"The bakery," I responded.
"These probably costed you a fortune!" Prim cried. The bread at the bakery was expensive, and we only had it on special occasions.
Prim then ran to tell my mother that I had brought home two loaves of still-warm bread for us to feast on.
I walked to the table, and then set the bread down. I didn't know how to thank Peeta. He had saved my family from near starvation, and that was more than I could ever ask from someone.