Chapter 1
The deep orange colored sunset shone through my bedroom window, the peaceful light must have woken me up because very slowly my eyelids had begun to separate. 'Wow. That's amazing. It looks like today is going to be a beautiful day...' I remember thinking, and then the wretched blaring of my alarm clock sounded. It was 6AM. Without even thinking about it I had slammed my fist down on the clock making the sound stop, almost immediately after I felt the terrible pain in my fist where I had struck the clock. The pain slowly brought the realization back into my mind that today was my first day of Senior year at a new high school..."Fuck" I muttered aloud.
I flung the covers off my legs and stepped out of bed, after standing up put my arms above my head and stretched my body while hearing every bone in my body let out a quiet snap. I walked across my small bedroom into my bathroom; I stripped down and turned on the shower. After getting in I lost all sense discomfort as the warm water surrounded my short, but yet muscular body. But still, one thing couldn't escape my mind...School. I had never disliked school at all, I loved learning new things and my grades reflected that. I don't ever remember getting anything lower than %95 on a test or not turning in a homework assignment, but the thing that made it so terrible was the kids. School was a place I succeeded academically, but not socially. My family moves a lot, so I learned to not have best friends because in 6 months we could be moving 200 miles away, or more.
But what really put a damper on my social life was not my attitude or my personality; it was the fact that I was gay. Whatever school I seemed to go to people would make a desperate attempt to make me feel as bad as possible about myself. I learned to just ignore them, but of course words hurt, I just learned to not show other kids my pain. I always try and have a good attitude about things, but it's just hard sometimes. I guess the best thing I can do is to try and make a good impression on the first day of my last year in high school.
. . .
I dried myself off and stepped into my room naked, I usually don't have to worry about other people in my room because my parents are usually gone at work by the time I wake up, they both work night shifts so that gives me the entire house to myself from 9PM till 9AM, I flung on a simple t-shirt and a pair of shorts then heard my phone go off. I looked at the screen and saw my mom's message:
-Have a great first day! Stay Safe!
My parents always trusted me when they left for work, they think I'm not the kind of boy who would have huge parties at the house or go and get wasted. I can't say that I have not done things like that, they just think I haven't. I slipped on some socks and my green pair of converse and headed out of my room. I walked down our small and dark hallway and down the stairs to our kitchen. I grabbed some cereal and opened the fridge and pulled out the milk that was nearly gone. I used the last of it to eat my cereal with. After eating I went back upstairs and brushed my teeth and grabbed my backpack and walked back downstairs and out the front door.
The morning sun shined brightly off the hood of my car. I had a black Jeep Cherokee that was given to me on my 16th birthday. I got inside and started up the engine. I had to look at the small map I printed out last night to remember where the school was. "345 Everdeen Road" I repeated to myself trying to remember the address. I pulled out of the driveway and was on my way to school. Driving was always relaxing to me, something about the scenery just calmed me down, and no matter where I was I could find beauty in anything. I thought about the way I was going to present myself when I got to school and before I knew it, I was at 345 Everdeen Road.
The school appeared to be huge, one of the biggest I've seen. The tall building read in bold golden letters 'PANEM HIGH SCHOOL'. After looking for a parking space for a good ten minutes I finally found one and pulled in, the parking lot was huge here which probably meant that there were a lot of kids.I sat in my jeep and saw that I had about thirty minutes until the bell rang to go to class. I looked at my schedule and saw there was a six minute passing period and that my first period was Art. 'At least it's not Gym or Trigonometry' I thought. Having art first period gave me even more time to wake up before actually going to a challenging class.
I had about ten minutes left so I decided to go inside, I opened my car door but I felt it hit something. I looked to see a tall boy with dark hair holding his side. 'Shit' I thought. I got out and looked at the boy, "I am so sorry, are you okay?" I said to him. He just smiled at me with a pair of grey eyes that made my mind melt. He kind of chuckled and then replied," Yeah, I'm fine. No worries." His voice was deep and strong. The handsome boy then offered his hand. "I'm Gale." He said. I reached out trying to act as confident as possible, but when I touched his strong hand I almost forgot to shake it, then I realized I should probably introduce myself. . "Peeta." I said while giving his hand a firm but not too firm shake. "Are you sure you're okay? I hit you pretty hard." I asked. I hope I'm not worrying too much; it was just a car door. He smiles that beautiful smile again," I'm fine, don't worry it was just a car door." He reassures. 'Did he just read my mind?'
He was probably a head taller than me and his short dark brown hair was the exact opposite to my shaggy blond hair. I examined his features with subtle concentration, and then I realized I was probably staring. I was about to bid him goodbye when I heard him ask curiously," So you're one of the new Seniors I suppose, can I see your schedule?"
"Sure." I say as I grinned, I tried to appear relaxed but on the inside my heart was turning inside my chest. I held the piece of paper out to him and he grabbed it and looked over it with his beautiful grey eyes.
"Wow." He says, I start to get worried.
"What?" I say with a smile, trying to look calm and collected. He looks up at me and smiles back.
"We have every class together besides Gym." He says with a cheerful grin on his face.
I start to realize that my knees are starting to shake and lightly cling against each other. 'What is wrong with me? This isn't even a big deal. I'll probably be moving again come second term anyways.' I knew I needed to keep my distance, I mean I just met this guy literally minutes ago and I am already trembling whenever he smiles.
"That's awesome." I say excitedly as he handed me back my schedule. When I reached out to get my schedule my finger grazed his hand and the warmth of his skin sent goose bumps throughout my body. 'If only we had Gym together' I thought to myself. I knew it was wrong to think of somebody that way when you've only known them for about five minutes, but I don't seem to care anymore.
"Well, now I have a friend in six of the seven periods of the day." He says as he begins to chuckle.
"So you consider me a friend? You just met me; I could be anybody for all you know." I say playfully, he chuckles so at least he finds that a little funny.
"Well. I guess I can get to know you better in first period." He says with a sly smile on his face.
"Lead the way." I said back. I realized that keeping such a far distance might not be the best approach after all…