Chapter 2

Peeta POV

Katniss Everdeen. Was it too soon to say I love her? Probably. I mean, I had been watching her all summer after I spotted her one morning in town, but I had only spoken to her once and she was anything but kind. But somehow that only made me want her more. After that morning, I looked for her everyday at the start of practice. I assumed she would be back. She did say she ran every morning. But I was without luck.

On Saturday morning, I finally had the courage to ask one of my teammates about her. It was the last day of preseason, which meant that everyone was exhausted from the heat and being overworked for days. I sat down on the bench next to Tyler, who was currently lacing up his cleats in preparation for the morning drills. "Hey, Tyler."

"Hey, man," he grunted in response, not even bothering to look up from his shoes. "What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing," I said. "Just…remember that girl I was talking to the other day?"

"What girl?"

"You know, dark hair, grey eyes. You remember. She caught that awful pass Alex threw. I think she said her name was…Katniss."

At this Tyler froze and sat up. He gave me a questioning look, his eyes narrowed and eyebrows scrunched. "Yeah," he said hesitantly.

"Have you seen her lately?"

To my surprise Tyler let out a small laugh. "No, of course not. Why?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her since. And she told me she runs here every day so…"

"Does she? I'm surprised."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well…" Tyler paused. "She doesn't normally go where there are, you know, people. Actually, that conversation she had with you was probably the longest I've ever seen her talk to someone. She just doesn't know how to deal with other human beings."

"Maybe other human beings don't know how to deal with her," I said under my breath.
"What was that?"

"Um…why do you think she's like that?"

Tyler immediately looked away from me and his hands started fidgeting with the hem of his jersey. I waited for a minute, expecting him to answer, but when he didn't I cleared my throat. "Do you know why she's like that?"

Tyler sighed. "I don't know. I mean, not really." He then leaned forward slightly and continued in a whisper. "She didn't used to be like that. She used to be… I don't know…normal? She's wasn't the most popular girl in school, but she was alright. Laughed, had fun. But then everything changed when her dad left."

"Why did her dad leave?"

"Well, the official version is that he got a better job offer somewhere else. A place where he couldn't bring his family. But the unofficial version," Tyler moved an inch closer, "is that substance abuse finally got the best of him."

"Substance abuse?"

"Yeah. Alcohol, drugs. I mean, it was definitely no secret that this guy was a bum. He got busted enough times for it already. I guess, one day, he just got out of control."

"Did he overdose on something?"

"No, at least not that I'm aware of. He just left, in the middle of the night, no explanation."

My heart broke with this new information. I couldn't imagine waking up one morning to find that one of my parents just disappeared. It was not exactly like I had an ideal home life, but I had never been abandoned. No wonder Katniss was reserved. Her spirit was broken.

"How do you know all this?" I asked Tyler, my voice somber.

Tyler shrugged. "It's common knowledge. In a small town like this, scandal travels pretty fast. No one has secrets."

I involuntarily gulped at this statement. Because I had a secret. One that I hoped no one in town would discover. People from my last town found out about it. It was why we had to move. I didn't want people's pity.

"So people just stopped talking to her after this happened?"

"She stopped talking to us!" Tyler defended. "Like I said, she became a different person. It wasn't anyone's fault. It just happened."

I wasn't expecting it, but Tyler actually gave me a lot of good information. A lot of useful information. I felt as if I knew Katniss better now. And her story only made me want to get to know her more. She didn't deserve to be alone. She didn't deserve to be treated that way. My mind immediately jumped forward to Monday, the first day of school. I was sure to see her then. She couldn't escape me forever. I decided I would talk to her on Monday.

"Don't," Tyler interrupted my thoughts.

"Don't what?" I asked innocently.

"I know what you're thinking," Tyler began. "Just stop it. She's not worth it. I know she's good looking and everything, but she's a social pariah. On Monday, you'll see. She'll just make life difficult for you. And it's your senior year in a new school. You haven't even met the other girls yet! Trust me, they're much nicer than Katniss."

"Yeah, okay."

Tyler sighed and stood up, grabbing his helmet. He started to head towards the center of the field where the rest of the team sat, stretching. He stopped after a few paces and turned to look once more at me. "She won't want you, Peeta. As your friend, trust me. Don't bother with her."

"Yeah, okay," I said one more time, grabbing my helmet and following Tyler onto the field, but I wasn't listening. Little did he know I was planning to do the opposite.