This won't be the whole Games from Peeta's POV, just the Reaping. Let me know if you want me to extend it to the goodbyes.
Enjoy!
My body wakes up automatically at 4:00 am. Even though I don't think anybody will be buying bread on Reaping Day, I still promised my dad I'd help him this morning. I throw on my work close and head downstairs.
"Morning dad," I say as I enter. We live above the bakery, so I don't have far to go to get to work.
"Morning," he grumbles back. My dad has never really been very talkative.
My dad is already getting started, and I fall into line beside him. We work silently for a while. As my body completes the monotonous routine, my mind begin to wonder. Before I can help myself, I start to think about Katniss. I hope she'll be okay. I doubt she even knows my name, let alone thinks about me. Especially today. I turn to my dad. If he had just married her mother, I wouldn't be in this situation. I sigh and focus on my work, pushing all thoughts of Katniss out of my mind. For now.
After about an hour, I heard somebody knocking at the back door. I glanced at my dad, wondering who would be coming to the bakery this early on Reaping Day. Wordlessly, my father goes to see who it is. I can faintly hear some talking before my dad calls for me to bring a loaf of bread. Curiously, I bring the bread to the door and hand it to him. That's when I see him.
Gale Hawthorne. Katniss's closest, perhaps only, friend, with whom she spends most of her time. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up getting married. I am stuck with a wave of jealousy. What makes him so much better than me? Quickly, I shake these thoughts from my head. I've never even spoken to her, let alone tried to be her friend. I have no real reason to dislike Gale. He's her friend. He might even be related to her for all I know. So why does the thought of her with him make me so angry?
I turn around and leave, embarrassed for thinking this way. I busy myself with baking for the rest of the morning, finding comfort in it. I love baking. The delicious smell fills the air and I wish I was able to taste the things we bake. Well, I guess I do, but it never tastes the same when it's stale.
My father and I share the squirrel he got from Gale for breakfast. Thank goodness my mother isn't up yet. If she was, you can bet I'd be eating a much less appetizing breakfast of day old baked goods. Unfortunately, though, the squirrel only reminds me of Katniss. She's so good with a bow and arrows. I contemplate trying to talk to her for maybe the billionth time, but dismiss the idea. What can I possible have to take to her about anyway?
My train of thought is interrupted by the sound of my mother moving around upstairs. Fast as lightning, we are back to work. The last thing I need today is to give her a reason to be angry. I already have enough to worry about as it is. Sure, I've never needed to take out tesserae, but there's always a chance. I wonder how many slips Katniss has…
Before I know it, my mother is ordering me to get dressed. I race upstairs and put on the nicest clothes I own. Why does the Capitol demand we dress up? I mean, what's the point of looking your best when you'll probably be dead in a week? It doesn't make any sense to me.
"Is that how you plan to have your hair?" I hear my mothers voice say behind me. Suddenly I'm frozen. "Well?" I hear her tapping her foot on the wooden floor. Speak up!
"Uh, no, I'm just going to fix it now. Alex borrowed my things earlier, and I need to go get everything back from him." I'm impressed with how easily the lie slid out.
"Okay then, just hurry up," she orders before marching away. I get to my room as quickly as possible and fix my hair into something my mother would deem acceptable.
Soon, it's time to file into the square. I hate the way we are all herded into pens. It makes me feel like we are nothing more than animals to be slaughtered for entertainment. Its disgusting, the way the Reaping is treated as a holiday.
Alex, my older brother and I, make our way to the square together, but split as soon as we are done checking in. As I approach my section, I catch sight of my friend Delly. She is just about the nicest person I have ever met. Even today she looks happy. Sometimes I find myself envying her possessiveness.
"Hi Peeta!" Delly trills brightly, upbeat as always. "How are you today?"
"I'm as good as can be expected, Delly," I reply.
"Come on, at least try to be optimistic. You can't have more than five slips. Think about some of the other seam boys. They must have five times that."
I know she is saying this for my benefit, that she's only trying to cheer me up, but it only reminds me how unfair everything is. How practically everyone from the seam has to take out tesserae. I can't help but feel guilty. I wish there was a way to help. You did help someone once, a tiny voice in the back of my head says, but I silence it. Then, for some reason, I think of Gale. How many slips must he have? Before I can think something awful and selfish, I turn back to Delly.
"I know. I guess I really shouldn't worry," I say, but it's more to please her than anything else.
"That's the spirit. Don't worry it will all be over soon. I've got to go now. See you later!"
"Bye Delly." I can't help but remember that for two kids, it won't be all over. For them, this is just the beginning of the end.
I stood and listened to the same old speeches as usual, going on about the goodness of the Capitol. Personally, I don't know what's so good about a city that murders innocent children for sport. Even worse, those kids don't even get to die as themselves. First, they are forced to suffer and kill. Not even the victor comes out the same.
I am distracted by Effie, the district twelve escort, walking towards the girls' reaping ball.
"Ladies first," she always says. As if it's a privilege. I nearly laugh before I realize a girl is about to be sentenced to death. Please, don't be Katniss, I thing. Or Delly, or Susan…
"Primrose Everdeen!" Shock. That girl couldn't have more than one entry! My daze is broken by a sudden realization. Silently, I curse in my head, thinking every foul thing I've ever heard. Because I know what's coming.
"I volunteer!" I can hear Katniss' voice ringing above the crowd. "I volunteer as tribute!"
The desperation is obvious in her voice. She loves that girl more than anything in the world, and I knew there was no way Katniss would allow her into the Games. But all I can think is that I'm going to have to watch the girl I love die for entertainment. Should I go to say goodbye to her? Tell her how I feel? I know I can't. It would be too cruel, too selfish, to confess my feelings and then have her sent off to die. Especially if she feels the same way… she couldn't, could she?
I am abruptly aware of everyone staring at me.
"Peeta Mellark? Where are you? Come on up!" The voice belongs to Effie, but she isn't making any sense. It takes a while to register that she means me. For surely nothing this horrific can happen to a person.
I look around in bewilderment, and it painfully dawns on me that I have been reaped. I will be locked in the wilderness with 23 others, including the girl I love, and only one will return home.
Slowly, I make my way to the stage. When we are instructed to shake hands, I finally bring myself to look at Katniss. I can see it in her eyes that she remembers me.
Our only real interaction happened when we were eleven, after her father died. My mother and I were working in the bakery, like normal. She went to the back, and I heard her screaming. I followed her, and heard her say some terrible things to Katniss and threaten to call the peacekeepers. It was clear that she was starving; she could barely stand upright. Even back then, it was hard to see her that way.
We went back inside, and before I could think, I dropped two loaves of bread into the fire. Furious, she slapped me. Hard. I could tell I was going to get a black eye. I remember her yelling and yelling, but I wasn't really paying attention. Then, when she told me to give it to the pigs, I went outside and waited for her to leave. When the cost was clear, I tossed them to Katniss and went back inside.
The next day, she caught me looking at her. Both of us looked away, slightly embarrassed. Then, for some odd reason, she picked a dandelion. That's it. The only time our paths ever crossed. I didn't think she even remembered it, it happened so long ago.
All of this goes through my head in a matter of seconds. Katniss looks nervous, so I give what I hope felt like a reassuring squeeze. All I can think it: How am I possibly going to do this?
I appreciate any advice, so please review! Prim will be coming up next, followed by Gale.