Peeta Gets Dared
It's the last day of school before summer vacation and my friends and I are all sitting in a circle in the schoolyard, killing time before we have to go inside. They're all talking about their plans for the summer, but all I can think about is Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is the prettiest girl I have ever seen, and she has no idea I exist. Well there is a possibility that she knows I exist but it's very slim. I mean what are the odds she remembers one day, in the rain, when I threw her some bread, when she spends all her time with Gale Hawthorne, the town heartthrob? Everyone knows they're going to get married someday, everyone, except for maybe Katniss. Katniss is a perceptive girl but she doesn't really notice the way Gale looks at her sometimes. I've been watching her carefully for the last ten minutes or so and she hasn't even averted her eyes from Gale's. Katniss doesn't exactly have a sunny personality but everyone can see that she lights up when Gale's around, a very bubbly Anna Albright on my left interrupts my thoughts about Katniss's eyes:
"Geez, should we give you two a room?" she asks.
"What are you talking about?" I add innocently.
"You and Katniss Everdeen, you were practically undressing her with your eyes."
"I was not!" I scoff, and I wasn't, but I then proceed to do so and blush.
"Aww! You like her don't you?"
"I do not!"
"Yes you do."
"I do not."
"Oh really, well then why don't you go over there and talk to her."
"Why?"
"Because I dare you too."
"What makes you think that has any hold over me?"
"Remember the party at Delly's last week. We played truth or dare and you chickened out. I told you that I would give you another dare and you had to do it because you chickened out of that one?"
"I remember, however, I still don't see how that has any hold over me."
"If you chicken out of this one, the alternative is to strip naked and run across the school yard."
"Fine." I say as I start unbuttoning my shirt.
"Peeta!"
"What you gave me the chicken and I'm doing it."
"You mean you'd rather have the whole school see you naked instead of talking to Katniss Everdeen."
"Yes."
"No, I won't take it, you have to talk to her, by the end of the day no exceptions."
"But Anna."
"You know what? I have a better idea, by the end of the day, you have to kiss her."
"WHAT! That was never the deal."
"Yep, you have to kiss her, on the lips, with tongue, for a total of one, two, three seconds."
"Or what?"
"Or, you have to strip naked and run all the way to the Seam and back."
"But that's practically the entire district."
"So I guess you'd better take the kiss."
"Fine, by the end of the day?"
"By the end of the day."
"How will you know that I did it?"
"Don't worry Mellark, I have my ways." She winked. "Good luck." And I was glad she gave it to me because I was going to need all the luck I could get. It's not that I had never kissed a girl before, I had, it was just that Katniss Everdeen, was the most intimidating person I had ever met. She was one of those people that everyone admired but no one really wanted to be friends with. Her only friends I knew about were Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter, Gale, and Prim her little sister. And the worst part was one of these three people was always with her, but that's not the intimidating part. The intimidating part was that Katniss is an amazing archer. She could take you out from a mile away on a cloudy day on her worst day. On her best day she could probably kill you from two or three miles away. So if I kissed her without her consent, lord knows what she would do to me. So I somehow had to make her think it was her idea. I would have to seduce her, and I had no idea how to do that. I'd seen my brothers do things to charm girls in the past but I knew that those ways would not work on Katniss. She was special, and I don't mean in the sniffing glue kind of way, I mean in the she's different from other girls kind of way. She won't be swept off her feet easily, but I'll have to do everything I can to make sure she gets swept, by me. So I do the first thing I can think of when the bell rings signaling school to start. I open the door for her when she walks in. I didn't think she'd notice, I hoped she'd notice, and she did notice. She didn't say anything but she smiled at me slightly as she passed. That's a good sign right? Anna gives me the thumbs up from across the yard so I must have done something right. I follow her into the building and clear my throat behind her.
"Uh Heya Katniss."
"Hi." She says giving me the same awkward slight smile she gave me on the way in, and then adds. "You're Peeta Mellark right? The bakers son?"
"Yeah, that's me." I say, surprised she remembers me.
"Would you mind…."?
"Yeah?" I ask mesmerized by the way she bites her lip.
"Would you mind telling him that I can't trade with him this week? I saw some Peace Keepers patrolling the area by the bakery and I don't want to risk getting caught, you know with my haul."
"Yeah." I sigh disappointedly. "I will pass on the message."
"Thank you," she said.
"No problem." I answer. I can't believe this! my first real conversation with the girl and it involves my father. God could I be any stupider. Katniss and I both enter our classroom and take our seats. We've always sat on opposite ends of the room, and today I'm truly grateful for it. I take my seat and turn towards the board, completely uninterested in anything the teacher has to say today.
"Okay class today we're going to continue our discussion on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, specifically the death scene. Now I want to hear from all of you what you think motivated them to kill themselves, yes miss Everdeen?"
"I think it was stupid that they killed themselves."
"Why?"
"Well they had so many other things to live for. They were only 13 years old. What does a 13 year old know about love anyways?"
"13 year olds know a lot about love."
"Oh Mr. Mellark."
"Yeah like what?"
"They can understand what it means to love another person, even if they don't quite understand everything that goes with it."
"But shouldn't you understand everything if you really love someone."
"No, no one who has ever been in love understands it completely."
"So you think it was rational what they did?"
"I think that if I thought the person I loved was dead then I wouldn't want to live either."
"But that's irrational. If there was only one person on this planet that was meant to love you, there's no way you would ever be able to find them. It would be wasteful to end your life based on that."
"Well I think it's romantic." Spoke Anna from across the room, breaking the spell between Katniss and I.
"Romantic? It's romantic to kill yourself because you think someone is dead who is not?" says Katniss
"It's romantic that they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for each other." I add. "Sure it's romantic that their parents have to bury their only children because of their ignorance to the situation." Argues Katniss.
"Okay! Okay class that's all we have time for, now it's time for you to go to gym."
"Great." Groaned Katniss, as we all got out of our seats and started heading for the gym. I caught up with Katniss and said: "Sorry about what I said during the debate, I just got carried away."
"Don't apologize to me. You were just voicing your opinion. There's nothing dishonorable about that."
"I just don't want you to think less of me for it."
"I don't I promise." She says as we're entering the gym. Katniss peels off from me and joins Madge while Anna comes up behind me and whispers, "You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to win this bet." Her statement makes me aggravated. I'm trying as hard as I can. Until today, Katniss and I have barely said two words to each other. I think I'm doing rather well considering those circumstances. Our gym teacher, Mr. Cassidy, interrupts my thoughts by saying, "Kay kids, today we're going to do the mile run." A chorus of groans erupts throughout the room. "Shush, we haven't done it in a while and it's important to make sure you stay in peak physical condition." he forgets to add, Because if you get chosen for the hunger games we don't want you to make our district look weak. But of course by definition district 12 is weak but he would never mention that. He has us all line up at the starting line and shouts "Go!" at the top of his lungs. I'm actually a decent runner so this doesn't prove to be a hard task for me and it isn't hard for Katniss either. She is one of the top runners in the district, though she would never go out for the track team or do anything to prove that she is remotely athletic. So it's a big surprise when five minutes into the run, I hear Katniss Shriek not half a foot behind me.
"God Dammit." She screams. "Miss Everdeen? What's wrong?" asks Mr. Cassidy, while running up behind us.
"I stepped in a pothole and twisted my ankle." She huffs. He goes to Katniss, starts examining her ankle and says, "Miss Everdeen I'm afraid your ankle is sprained, you'll need to go to the school nurse."
"Okay." Agrees Katniss halfheartedly as she attempts to limp off to the nurse's office. "You can't go by yourself. Mr. Mellark, would you please accompany Miss Everdeen to the nurse's office."
"Yes Sir." I spout rather eagerly as I walk over to help Katniss. I put my arm around her and she winces but she doesn't pull away. "Thank you, for helping me, you didn't need to do that."
"Well Mr. Cassidy told me to and look at you. You can barely walk right now."
"Thanks for the reminder." Katniss snipped.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
"No, I'm sorry. It's this stupid ankle. I hate being injured."
"We'll get you to the nurses office soon, and then she'll wrap your ankle and you'll feel better in no time."
"Why are you so nice to me Peeta. I've only ever been a jerk to you but you're always so nice. Why?"
"I don't know. I guess I've always had a soft spot for you." she looks at me with recognition in her eyes that I've never seen before and then she winces hard and I suggest. "Hey let's sit down for a second okay?" she agrees by sitting down next to me on a log not ten feet from the front door of the school. I turn around to say more to her when I notice that her face is inches from mine. I could win the bet right now if I just tilt my head down a little bit more. I start to tilt and surprisingly she doesn't move away, if anything she is moving closer to me. Our lips are barely touching when the bell rings signaling the end of the period. She looks up at me, startled, and jumps up off the log with so much force she almost falls over. I grab her arm to stop her and she says, "We'd better go. I don't want to be late for Lunch."
"Yeah me neither." I agree, while I put my arm back around her and take her to the nurse's office. We don't say anything to each other between the log and the school but I can tell that we both want to. I casually say goodbye to her when we reach the nurse's office and I head to the cafeteria for lunch. All of my friends are there including Anna to my disappointment.
"So I heard that you almost won the bet." She prods.
"Shut up, Anna." I scowled.
"Oh come on Peeta, I was just teasing."
"Well would you stop?"
"Sorry." She says putting her hands up in defense. On the other side of the cafeteria I see Katniss enter with Madge. Madge has her arm over her shoulder. That should be me, I think to myself. She sees me and immediately looks away but I think I notice a slight blush on her cheeks. I should go over there, I should say something, I say to myself. Just as I have this thought Gale enters the Cafeteria. What's he doing here? He doesn't have lunch right now. I think. Gale kneels next to Katniss and puts his hands on her ankle. What the hell? What is he doing? Is he trying to hurt her more? Katniss winces in pain and it takes all my strength to keep me from going over there and punching Gale's lights out. I realize Anna is physically keeping me in my chair.
"Peeta? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Anna."
"Are you sure? I can call off the bet if you want."
"NO!" I interrupt. "I said I would do it and I'm going to do it."
"Fine." she says just as the bell rings. Gale is still there. He and Katniss have been talking and laughing for all of lunch and now he's helping her get to class. I notice a melancholy look on Madge's face when she watches Gale helping Katniss and I come to the conclusion that Madge must have crush on Gale. Poor Madge, I think. It must really hurt watching those two together. She probably feels about as great as I do right now. I watch Katniss and Gale limp out of the cafeteria together and wonder how in the world am I going to win this bet. With Gale around as Katniss's personal protector there's no way I can get her alone by the end of the day. I should've just kissed her when I had the chance. I struggle to head back to class but manage it anyways. The rest of the day passes like a blur. Opportunities to win the bet are slim, but I allow them to pass through sheer stupidity. I've completely given up by the end of the day and am ready to take my punishment when to my surprise; Katniss asks to speak to me privately after school. She brings me into a secluded area inside school and I have no idea what's going on. I am entirely ready to take an arrow in the heart, but am instead, startled by her lips on mine. Her lips are warm, soft and feel perfectly right with my own. I take my chances and open my mouth as an invitation. She obliges and for a minute, nothing else matters but the two of us and how perfectly we fit together. After a while she pulls away and I sigh "Katniss" and she knows the question before I even ask.
"Your friends told me about the bet. Well they didn't exactly tell me, but I heard them talking about it and I decided to help."
"Why?" I ask audibly.
"Well I felt like I owed you for today and also for that day when we we're twelve. You took care of me and you didn't have to and I've always felt like I was indebted to you for that. Now I think we're even."
"Even?" I question.
"I'm only wondering, why did your friends want you to kiss me?"
"Uhh I don't know, it was a bet, it was stupid." I stumbled.
"Well anyways, thank you Peeta Mellark, for today for everything, I guess I'll see you later?"
"Yeah see you later." I croak. I watch her leave, but a part of me wishes I had reached out and stopped her.