hello wonderful people of , after about four years of reading fics,I've finally decided to upload my own. Please be kind! Happy Reading :3

The five words which described Katniss Everdeens life, and the ones that didn't.

CHAPTER 1:

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Beauty

It was Peeta Mellark's fifth birthday, and his entire kindergarten-class had been squeezed into the generous confines of the family's bakery. He glanced around the room and was greeted with the jubilant gazes of his classmates. He nervously smiled back and continued looking, but was interrupted when his mother brought in his birthday cake. He smiled and awkwardly stared at the candles, as the room burst into a chorus of "Happy Birthday".

'Why does this have to be so weird?' he thought as the overly-enthusiastic children jumped excitedly, clapping and hooting when they ran out of words to shout.

"Blow out the candles, and don't forget to make a wish dear" his mother said, smiling at him. Peeta inhaled deeply and blew. The room erupted in jubilation, five year olds lunged at the cake with predatorial screams and Peeta dove sideways to avoid them. He did however get a fistful of icing thrown into his hair. His mother shrieked and Peeta ran for cover under the table farthest from her.

When he slid under the covers, he found himself face to face with her. Katniss Everdeen.

For a whole minute, they both stared at each other in silence, then Katniss finally said- "Happy Birthday...Peeta"

His motor senses stopped working. All he could fathom was that Katniss Everdeen had said something to him, which he'd been dumb enough to not hear. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked, stupidly. "I wished you a happy birthday." Katniss repeated. "Oh. Uh, thank you" he said. "Would you like some cake?" he asked. "Well, I'm not sure there's any left." Katniss replied. They both looked at the centre-table, where the cake once stood were about fifty kids, running amok, their mothers in tow, all yelling and screeching. "Oh" Peeta remarked. "That's too bad, it was a good cake"

He looked at Katniss who shrugged, "I guess we'll never know" she said, and gave him a toothy grin, which he returned. "Well, it's getting late, so I should go home." She said, shyly tugging at her red dress, which was worn and spotted around the edges. Peeta panicked. He couldn't let her go, not when he was finally talking to her! He looked at her shell-shocked, then yelled- "WAIT! stay right here, let me get you something" he said and ran from their hiding spot.

After a few minutes, he crawled back in, covered in about a pound of cake. "Sorry-" he gasped, as he collapsed beside her, "-it's a jungle out there. But I got this for you" he held out a grubby bag, filled to the top with an assortment of cookies. "oh! No, I…I couldn't" she said, shooting him a sympathetic gaze, "it's alright" Peeta smiled, offering them again. " In exchange for the cake. I'm sorry they got to it before I could. Here, have these. I baked them this morning. You can give some to your sister, she'll like them, I'm sure." She relented. "Thank you" she whispered, a smile crept upon her face. "And it's fine, really. No need to say sorry, about the cake I mean… I like cookies more." She took a cookie out, broke it in two half and gave one to him .

They ate their cookies in silence, as the sounds of the battle outside slowly died down. "I think that's why they all came here, f-for the cake I mean." Peeta said. " Nope, Not me." Katniss said, "I came for the cookies" and then she flashed him a devious grin.

That's when it happened. Peeta looked at her, he really looked at her and then, he realized something, something not every five-year old can. Katniss Everdeen was Beautiful.

She wasn't pretty, like Delly, no, instead, she was beautiful.

But of course, he didn't tell her that. Instead, he grinned in response and walked her to his front door. "Goodnight Peeta" Katniss said, then standing on tiptoes, she did something that made his stomach swoop and head spin, she kissed him. Well, it was a peck on the cheek more than anything, but it happened!

"Happy birthday" she repeated, then ran off into the night, swinging the bag of cookies.

Peeta stared after her, then walked back- in a trance- to the party, where the children-covered in copious amount of cake- bid him farewell and walked out, constantly being scolded by their mothers.

"Well, that didn't go as planned" his mother said, grumbling as she scooped wasted food into the bin, Peeta picked up a mop and proceeded to wipe the floor clean with it, but his mom stopped him, "Peeta, it's alright. I'll ask Barn or Rye to help. Today was a busy day, you must be tired. Go to bed" she said, and sent him off with a kiss to the forehead. Today was indeed a day of miracles. Mother wasn't scolding him, Father had praised his cookies earlier in the morning, even Rye and Bran hadn't teased him, but all that was secondary to the fact that his wish had come true. Katniss had noticed him, she'd talked to him, she'd given him the best present ever.

He smiled to himself and tenderly rubbed the spot where her lips had touched his cheeks. And then quiet suddenly, another epiphany occurred to him, that when it came to Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark was a goner.

Years later, he would look back at that moment and smile. Beauty was a subjective word, but to him, beauty was olive skin and straight black hair, beauty was grey eyes and a crooked smile, beauty was a permanent scowl and a melodious laugh, beauty was Katniss Everdeen: smart, funny, very intimidating and blissfully unaware of the effect that she had on him.