2 Chapter 2
So here is chapter 2 I hope you enjoy it :)
Last time: "So explain to us everything that happened in detention, why was she wet and why are you happy?" Delly asks as we walk to the town square
"Glad you could join us." Rye says as we walk through the front door of the bakery. "It's not very busy at the moment." I look up at the clock to see that it's 10 past 4. "How was detention?" He asks.
"It was alright." I say. Rosie takes a seat at the only table in the front of the bakery. "Very boring though but I suppose detention is meant to be." I laugh and swap my jacket with my apron.
"Yeh I guess so." Rye says. "What did you do?"
"Well Rosie and Delly went to do some errands with Mrs Myers and me and Katniss had to tidy the room for her." I walk over to the counter.
"Wait, Katniss? What was she doing there?" Rye asks, sounding confused.
"Mrs Myers had given her detention before we showed up to lesson." I say.
"So what did you and Katniss do?" He asks.
I explain to him everything that happened in the classroom and the janitors. By the end of the explanation, he's laughing. "What's do funny?" I ask, smiling.
"You fell... out...a window?" He asks holding his stomach.
"No, no, I was pulled out a window by a deceitful little girl." I say laughing.
"A deceitful little girl, that you love." Rosie says from behind me. I turn around and roll my eyes at her. She laughs at me.
"Anyway, what can I do to help?" I ask Rye. He takes a minute to stop laughing before he starts speaking.
"You can take over here, there's still some food left and there's only 45 minutes left until closing time. I'll go into the back and help dad clean the kitchen." He says and leaves the room, resuming his laughing.
"Do you want some help?" Rosie asks, once Rye has disappeared into the back. "I could refill the shelves If you want?"
"No I'm fine at the moment." I reply. "I don't think we need to refill the shelves again until tomorrow, besides there isn't that much food left anyway."
"Okay well I need to go and get some new shoes from Dell's." She stands up. "I only have 2 pairs of shoes left, I threw the rest away because they where too capitol like and the ones I'm wearing are falling apart anyway, do you want some shoes?"
"No I'm fine with the ones that I have at the moment." I reply. "I do have something that I need to do though, I was wondering if you could run over to the hob for me?"
"Yeh for what?" She asks, leaning across the counter top to face me.
"Well yesterday, dad asked me to get him some more liquor but I ended up working at the bakery late and when I got back to the hob it was already closed so I was going to do it today but it would be very helpful if you could do it for me?" I say to her. She nods. "Ok well you've been before haven't you?"
"No, remember, you would never let me go because it was rough in there." She says.
"Oh yeah, it definitely is rough in there especially for us two, so if you wait until I finish, I'll take you in there but don't go over the top with shopping." One thing about Rosie is that she loves to shop and in the hob everything is really cheap so it would be great for her.
She laughs at me, "As if I'd do that!" She says, I raise my eyebrows and she looks at me.
"Fine, I won't!" She says. "Just because you're a few minutes older than me, doesn't mean you can boss me around!" She says with a smile.
"If I can't boss you around them Why do you listen to me and do what I say?" I say, smiling. The door opens and Ria Harrison from the sweet shop across the square walks in.
"Because mum told me too." Rosie replies.
"Yeh right as if." I say rolling my eyes.
"No seriously, she said 'you have to listen to what Peeta and Haymitch say and do what they tell you to." She says, laughing.
"Yeh ok, go away and buy your shoes!" I say pushing her towards the door, laughing.
"Ok well I'll be back soon then." She hugs me and leaves the bakery, turning right towards the shoe shop.
"I didn't know Rosie was back in town." Ria says. "How long has she been back?"
"Just since last night." Ria and I have been friends for about 11 years. She's in the same year as me, Rosie and Dell. She sits at the front behind Gina but she's very quiet in class. We met when dad used to take me and Rosie to the sweet shop all the time for a little treat. Until Rosie moved to the capitol not long after and he would just take me. Rosie doesn't remember her though and she doesn't really talk to her when she comes over every year. I only get to see her these days when she comes into the bakery or briefly at school. She doesn't come in very often because her dad has become ill and she works full time in the sweet shop with her mum and her little brother Ross, he's 12. Ross has to go to school though because he doesn't know enough stuff to leave yet.
"How's your dad doing?" I ask.
"He getting better I think but I'm gonna go over to Mrs Everdeen's house tomorrow to see if she can come and check on him, or even Primrose because I just need to know he's okay." She says, handing me the piece of paper that her mother writes everything that they need on.
"Primrose? Don't you think she's a little young to be making those kind of judgements?" I ask her.
"She might only be 12 but she had a lot of knowledge about healing, she's almost as good as her mum but not quite." She laughs.
I hold up one finger and turn towards the door. "RYE!" I shout. "ORDER!" He walks through a minute late and takes the paper off me. He looks down the list and smiles.
"We already have all of this baked so I'll just be five minutes Ria." He says and disappears.
"THANKS RYE!" She shouts after him.
"So what about Katniss, is she good at healing?" I ask, curious.
"I suppose so, she's nowhere near as good as Evelyn and Primrose but she knows some stuff." Ria says laughing.
"How do you know that?" I ask. I'm kinda surprised that she knows more about katniss than me. I knew that katniss was a lot better at hunting than healing but I thought that she couldn't heal at all. I guess I was wrong.
"Well a week ago, she came by with her mother and Prim, whilst Evelyn and Prim where working on dad, they asked her to do things and get things for them and she knew what she was doing every time." She says.
"Oh right fair enough." I smile at her as Rye walks back through the door.
"I have everything on your order." Rye says walking back in. He slides the bag across the counter top and Ria takes it in her hand.
"Thanks Rye, thanks Peeta. Good luck at the reaping." She smiles. "And tell Haymitch I said good luck in the capitol."
"I will Ria, thanks and good luck to you and Ross. I know its his first reaping so I know scary that can be." I say with a sad smile.
"Thanks, it's scary for us and especially considering that he's male so I can't volunteer for him if he's called, I can volunteer to go in with him though." She says.
"No don't do that, trust me you won't be helping anyone if you do that." I walk around the counter and take hold of her arms. She looks up and me with tears coming out her eyes. "If Ross is picked, I will volunteer for him. I will go in."
"No Peeta, you can't do that. I won't let you do that." Ria says.
"No Peet, you can't just do something like that." Rye says from behind us.
"I'm not taking back what I said, I mean it." I say.
"And there's no way we can change your mind?" Ria asks.
"Nope."
"No way?" Rye asks.
"No. And besides he has like a 1 percent chance of going in, his names only in there once." I say.
"Yeh I guess you're right, its just that mum is always working, dad's Ill, Ross is all I've got." Ria says.
I hug her and she wraps her arms around my middle. "It's going to be okay. I promise." I say to her.
"Thanks Peeta anyway I better get these back so we can have our tea." She says and leaves.
"As if you just did that!" Rye says.
"What?" I ask, pretending that I didn't do anything.
"As if you just agreed to volunteer for her brother." He shouts. He's obviously annoyed with me.
"Well I'm not just going to sit here and watch a 12 year old go to almost certain death." I say, facing him.
"And I'm not just gonna sit here and watch you go to almost certain death." He says back.
"Rye, I don't want you volunteering for me if I'm picked." I say. "If that's what you're talking about."
"Fine, if you don't want me to then fine but I can't let you be stupid and volunteer for a boy you hardly know." Rye says.
"I might not know him but I know his sister very well, and I can't let her go through that."
"Forget it, I'm gonna go back to work because it's pointless arguing with you when I can't change your mind." He says and walks back into the back. Out of everyone in this whole district, Rye is definitely my best friend, he's more like a brother to me. But like every other best friends we have our arguments. Delly however is my second oldest friend, I was friends with her even before I started working at the bakery. I became friends with her on our second day of school before Rosie moved to the capitol. My oldest friend would be Gale Hawthorne. I knew him from when I was 1. His mum used to look after Me and Rosie whilst dad was in the capitol.
Rosie doesn't return until 5:05 whilst I'm closing up with Rye. I've just locked the door when I see her running across the square. The shoe shop is a few doors down, what was she doing across the square. She gets to the door and I unlock it again to let her in. "What where you doing across the square, you only went to get shoes?" I ask.
"Well after I got the shoes I realised that I had grown in the past year and I needed more district 12 clothes. So I went to the clothes shop. Gina was working and kept asking about you. Eventually I got some clothes, I also bought you some new jeans because you told me on the phone about a week ago that you needed some new ones. Then I went to the sweet shop and got some of our favourite sweets. Then I got dad a present because he's my dad, there's no other reason." She laughs. "After that I ended up at the butchers and bought us something for dinner."
"You did all that in 45 minutes?" I ask, rather surprised.
"Yeh, I'm surprised I didn't do it in less time, normally I'm really quick, I think it was Gina talking to me.." She laughs.
"Yeh she is rather annoying." I say laughing. "Just let me close up and then we can get going to the hob."
"Agreed." She says and takes a seat at the table, placing her bags down on it.
It takes me only 10 minutes to clean up. All I have to do is shut the blinds, lock the door. Again. Clean the counter top and the table whilst Rye puts away all the food left on the display cases at the window. I walk into the bathroom and splash water on my face and wash the flour off from my hands. I take of my apron and shove it in one of Rosie's bags. I need to wash it and I can do it tonight.
"Come on let's get to the hob." I say to Rosie and we walk into the back of the bakery, to use the back door because the front door is locked.
"Hey Rosie, I didn't realise you where here, when did you get into the district?" Leaven says from the sofa. He's sitting there with Masan next to the fire. All the Mellarks know the real story of where Rosie lives and why, they're the only people I'm the district other than me or dad that do know, even really doesn't know. I don't think I trust Delly with the secret because everything that she gets told she feels the need to tell everyone she knows. The only secret I have told her that she hasn't told everyone about is the Katniss secret. She's told a lot of people though but no one from the seam which I'm thankful for.
"Just this morning, we where having some trouble at home and now I live with peet and dad permanently." Rosie says.
"Well it's good to have you back." Masan says.
"Thanks Masan, that means a lot." Rosie says. "How's Aymee doing?"
"She's getting better I suppose but she wanted a daughter for all the time I knew her and when she got one, it was snatched away but I suppose she's coping with it, we are all coping." Masan says and I feel a tear fall from my eye. Poppy isn't mentioned much in this house anymore. There will come a time when we will talk about her and smile instead of cry but at the moment I can't seem to smile whenever someone mentions her because everything about her reminds me that she's not here anymore and it breaks my heart every time. "Are you okay Peeta?" Rosie asks.
"Yeh I'm fine." I say quickly wiping the tear away. "Come on we need to get going and make dinner." I say.
"Peet. If there's something wrong then I can cook dinner, I don't mind." Rosie says. "It's because Poppy was mentioned want it?"
"No I'm fine, let's just get to the hob." I reply. "Then we can get home. It's been a long day and I just want to get home." I walk towards the back door with more tears falling. I twist the handle and pull the door open. Just as the door opens, I reach up to wipe my eyes and carry on walking. My foot catches on something and I fall forward. I hear someone groan beneath me and I roll sideways. I look to my left to see Katniss lying on the floor. I stumble to my feet rather quickly and my head spins. I take a moment to recover myself and reach over to help Katniss up. "I am so sorry!" I say. "I didn't mean to bump into you, I didn't know you were there."
She puts her hand up to stop me mumbling. "It's fine." She croaks out. She stands on her feet and sways a little. "Come inside..." She doesn't resist, she just lets me lead her to the sofa, next to Leaven and across from Masan and Rye who just came in. I help her sit down and walk to the kitchen to get some ice. I wrap it up in a towel and place it on her head. "How do you feel?" I ask.
"Well I just had someone who is almost twice my size, land on top of me, how would you feel?" She asks.
"Not good then." I say. She smiles sarcastically. "Well do you want me to get you anything?" I ask.
"No thanks, are you okay? I'm not the only one who's fallen over twice today." She says laughing.
"Hey! That was your fault, you pulled me out of a window." I say, laughing.
"Only because you caused me to fall over in the janitors office." She replies. She has to stop laughing from how much her head hurts.
"That was not my fault! You slipped." I say, this time it's my turn to stop laughing, I must have hit my head on something when I fell.
"We must have head butted eachother when we fell." Katniss says reading my mind.
"Yeh I guess so." I agree, it would totally make sense considering when I rolled off her my head was right next to hers so I'm guessing that my headache is caused by Katniss' head. "How's your back from earlier?" I ask.
"It's fine." She says. "Until I landed on it just now but it's fine, I'll talk to my mother about it."
"Sorry." I say.
"It's fine, anyway I only came over to trade, I need to get back to my family and I believe you where going somewhere." She says.
"Yeh I was going to the hob, my dad wants more white liquor." I say.
"Well, I guess I'll be leaving then." She says and gets up, placing the ice back on the table. "Goodbye, thanks for the ice" She says to me before leaving.
"No problem." I say. She's at the door now.
"I'll go and get you some bread." Rye says and runs off into the kitchen. He returns a minute later with a bag. He hands it to Katniss and in return gets 4 squirrels.
"Peeta I already went to your house but nobody answered so I still have your game do you want it now?" She asks.
"No it's fine you keep it for your family, we got some food from the butchers today." I say with a smile. "And my dad never answers the door so that why nobody answered."
"Okay thanks." She smiles. "Bye." Then she's out the door and gone in a couple of seconds.
I watch her leave and then turn around to everyone else. "You tripped her over... you fell out a window?" Leaven says, smiling even wider.
"I'm gonna explain this one more Time." I say and go into the whole story of what happened in detention. "Then we left school and came here..." I finish. Rye bursts out laughing again.
"So she pulled you out a window because you knocked her over in the janitors office?" Masan asks and I nod.
"Why are you laughing? You've heard it before." I ask Rye.
"Well... I believe you promised to talk to Katniss not knock her over every chance you get." Rye says, laughing again.
"Hey! I did talk to Katniss!" I say defensively. His laughing is beginning to hurt my head.
"I think... when Poppy said 'talk to Katniss' She meant, 'tell her how you feel' not just talk to her." Rye replies.
"RYE!" I shout, his laughing really starting to annoy me. Everyone looks at me in shock but Rye still carries on laughing. "Please stop laughing! It's hurting my head!" I shout at him. "You don't see anyone else laughing, just you." He turns around the look at everyone else, then stops laughing after he sees everyone else watching him. I turn to Rosie. "Can we please just go home?" I ask and she looks at me.
"Why?" She asks. "Can't we stay here and talk for a while."
"No Rosie please." I beg, I probably look really stupid right now but I really want to go home. "My head is banging and I'm aching everywhere, my back, my legs, my arms, even my feet. We still have to go to the hob and get dad's white liquor." My voice is beginning to get louder and louder as I speak. "Then I need to cook dinner for dad or he'll starve, he never cooks for himself, it's been a really long day and I'm really tired. Can we please just go home?" I shout. "I. Know it's your first day here in almost a year and I'm sorry for shouting at you but I really just want to go home... please Rosie... please?" I ask. I'm beginning to feel faint from all the shouting and the headache.
"Okay Peeta, I'm sorry." She says standing up. "Peet are you okay?" She asks looking concerned. I nod and close my eyes, taking a few breaths. When I open my eyes, Rosie is standing right in front of me still with a concerned look. I smile and she hugs me. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and take a couple more breaths. "Come on then, let's get home." She says. We say goodbye to the Mellarks and leave the bakery
We walk through the cold streets of town. Most of the shops have closed down as of 5 o clock so it's mostly empty, but there's a few shops open when you walk deeper into town towards the seam. There's also still a few customers around. They are all probably walking home. One person I didn't expect to see though is dad. He's walking out of the seam into town when we make it there. "What are you doing here?" I ask. For once he doesn't have a bottle of liquor but has both his hands in his pockets.
"I was out for a walk, what where you doing?" He asks us.
"We where going to the hob for your liquor that I forgot yesterday." I say, he smiles at me.
"You don't have to bother with that anymore." He says.
"Why..." I ask slowly, I'm very confused at the moment, what has gotten into him,he seems sober.
"Well I did a lot of thinking today whilst I was walking and I decided that I'm gonna give up drinking. When there was just you Peeta, I thought that you where responsible enough to take care of yourself so I never really tried to give up drinking, I know you wanted me to but I thought that if I let you take care of yourself then it would make you a better person and nothing like your father. I don't want either of you to turn out anything like me. Anyway now that I have both my children again, I'm gonna try to make an effort a d as of today, I'm gonna try and stop drinking and first when we get home, I need you two to do me a huge favour." We both look at him with our mouths hanging open. "I need you too help me clean up the place and get rid of the liquor, but you're going to have to do that." I reluctantly nodded and he smiles. "What did you buy?" He asks, looking at Rosie's bags.
"Just some stuff from town, I'll show you when we get home." Rosie says with a smile.
"So let's get home then..." Dad says.
"I kinda needed to go to the hob though." I say, we are running low on a few things at home and I can't buy them from town now that it's all shut down for the day.
"What for?" Dad asks and Rosie looks at me.
"Just some stuff that we need at home and I also need to see someone about my headache." I say to them. My head has been hurting since we left the bakery, every noise causes it hurt more.
"I know just the person." Dad says clicking his finger and walks off, me and Rosie run after him.
"Who?" I ask, when we catch up to him.
"You'll see." He says and carries on walking. He's walking deeper into the seam and I think I know where he's heading.
In 15 minutes, we are standing outside the Everdeen's house. "Dad. I Can't be here." I say to him.
"Why not?" His face holds confusion as he looks at me.
"Because I just Can't, I don't want to explain the whole thing again." I say, holding my head. It really is pounding now, I can feel it behind my eyes and in my temple.
"Really?" He asks with his eyes wider and a smile on his face. I nod and he Knocks.
"What are you doing?" I hiss at him.
"Getting something for your headache obviously." He says sarcastically, I'm about to shout at him again until the door opens.
"Haymitch Abernathy, I haven't seen you for 10 years, what are you doing here?" I hear Mrs Everdeen ask.
"Well my son here." He points to me and I turn around. "Needs something for a headache and I was wondering if there was anything you could do for him?"
"I thought I would see you here Peeta, Katniss told me what happened." She lets out a small laugh before speaking again. "Anyway, I do have something, I gave some to Katniss about 10 minutes ago but it takes a good half an hour to make more. She didn't finish hers so if you don't mind I'll just give you the remainder of hers and if it's still hurting tomorrow morning before school just come by and I'll make more for you." She smiles and I nod. She turns around to face the house and shouts,"KATNISS!"
"WHAT!" I hear in a some what annoyed reply.
"COME HERE AND BRING YOUR HEADACHE RELIEF!" Mrs Everdeen shouts back.
Katniss walks around the door frame a few seconds later with a glass in her hand, it has a horrible greeny coloured liquid in it and I scrunch my face up at the sight of it. Prim is standing behind Katniss, with a sad look on her face. "Sorry about Prim, she's very scared at the moment, you know with her first reaping coming on Monday." Mrs Everdeen says. I nod.
"I understand how it can feel." I say and wave to Prim.
"Hi Peeta, how are you today?" She asks.
"I'm good, how are you?" I ask.
"Fine I guess..." She replies.
"I thought you would show up." Katniss says. "My head hurt like crazy so I guessed yours did."
"It still does. Everything that is said around me makes my head hurt." I say.
"Sorry, I'll speak quieter." Katniss says. She understands the pain of this headache so I'm guessing she understands how the sound of peoples voices affects the pain. I nod in agreement and Mrs Everdeen looks at Katniss.
"Katniss could you please give him the rest of your headache relief." She says and Katniss nods. She hands over the glass in her hand and they all look at me whilst I look at the disgusting green stuff. "Better to get it over with quickly because I assure you, it doesn't taste very nice."
"It doesn't look very nice either." I say laughing.
"It tastes as good as it looks I'm afraid. But it helps a lot." Mrs Everdeen says. I close my eyes and gulp back the disgusting drink. It burns my mouth straight away and burns my throat even more. It tastes a lot worse that any of dad's drinks. It kinda tastes like nail varnish. I only know what nail varnish tastes like because Rosie thought it would be brilliant to put nail varnish on my nails whilst I was sleeping when we where 6 and at the time I slept with my thumb in my mouth and I put my thumb in my mouth just after she put the nail varnish on my nail and I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth all day. But this tastes like drinking a full bottle of nail varnish all at once.
It's burning my throat that much that I can't swallow it. Rosie notices and clamps a hand over my mouth. "Swallow it Peeta!" She says in my ear. I choke on the liquid until I'm able to swallow it and when I can, It all goes down and I'm pretty sure that it's going to make a reappearance some time in the next 24 hours. Prim smiles and hands me a glass of water that I didn't notice she was holding. "Drink this, it should help." She says and I drink the whole glass. It doesn't help at all. The taste is still in my mouth and for some reason it's worse than it was before. Prim offers to get me some more but I decline the offer. Within a minute, the weird liquid has made me cough. Not just normal everyday cough but the cough you would expect from an asthmatic 50 year old. "Prim go and get the purple bottle in the cabinet please." Mrs Everdeen says and runs off. I feel a hand on my back, rubbing up and down. It turns to slapping and my coughing subsides. I look to my left to see Katniss standing there with her signature awkward look. Her mum stands on the other side of me, now with the purple bottle in her hands. It contains a clear liquid that looks like water. "It's fine Peeta, this happened to Katniss... it happens to some people... Katniss was only the third person that it has happened too, that I've encountered, you being the fourth."
I attempt a smile and she pours the clear liquid into my mouth which tastes of strawberries. The taste of nail varnish has gone from my mouth and the coughing stops completely. "Wow! That works really fast." I say with a smile. Katniss nods and then her eyes flicker to my nose and she smiles more.
I give her a questioning look. "Sorry for staring but you have sunburn on your nose and it looks funny." She says and laughs. I smile at her again. Every time she laughs I probably look like some kind or creep, smiling at her. When Katniss has finished laughing, I look around at everyone. I Catch my reflection in the window next to their door and see that she's right. It does look funny, I let out a little laugh . It stops in a line under my eye, as if I'd been wearing sunglasses. The tip of my nose is almost the same colour as a strawberry and the skin stretching out from my nose gets lighter until it finally stops in a very crooked line about an inch from my ear. "Rosie why didn't you tell me?" I ask.
"I didn't notice it, I'm pretty sure it wasn't there whilst we where at the bakery." Rosie replies.
"No it wasn't...I remember." Katniss says. We all look at her and she goes back to looking awkward, but not before flashing me a smile. I smile back and Mrs Everdeen speaks.
"Well we better get going, me and Katniss where just about to start making our tea." She says and beckons Katniss and Prim back into the house. I smile and wave at Prim. "Goodbye." Mrs Everdeen says.
"Yeah we need to get to the hob." I say, Katniss looks at us weird, I know that she doesn't expect victors children to go into the hob but she decides to not say anything and a smile appears on her face. "Thanks Mrs Everdeen." I say.
"Please call me Evelyn." She replies with a smile.
"Okay... Evelyn." I let out a little laugh. "Prim good luck at the reaping on Monday, Katniss I guess I'll be seeing tomorrow at school but goodbye any way." I say and Evelyn smiles at me before shutting the door.
Me, Rosie and Dad set off for the hob. Rosie doesn't shut up until we get there. She's talking about the 'looks' that Katniss was giving me. Rosie seems to think that Katniss loves me back. Katniss hardly even knows me. It would be amazing if she loved me back but that's probably never going to happen.
When we walk through the doors to the hob, a few people look at us. I'm used to it by now but Rosie becomes really uncomfortable and starts fidgeting. I look at her and smile. "No-one is going to hurt you." I say to her. "It's just like town but a lot cheaper." She smiles again and grabs hold of my arm. I walk forward and she seems to latch onto my side. I laugh but carry on walking.
I buy a lot of cleaning stuff from a man located near the back of the hob. If we are going to clean the house then we should do it properly. I buy some salt from Greasy Sae because I used the last of it on last night's dinner. Whilst I'm at Sae's stall, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around to see Gale Hawthorne standing behind me. "Hi." He says. "Buying your dad's liquor?" Gale and I where friends when we where younger, from when I was a couple months older, up until when he met Katniss, then we floated apart and now it's just conversations here and there.
"No, he's trying to give it up. I'm here with Rosie and Dad buying stuff for the house." I say. Every time I'm in here, he's in here, it's like he spends all his time here. I wouldn't call us friends, more like acquaintances. He never talks to me when he's with Katniss though, only when he's by himself which I'm kinda thankful about because obviously I make a fool out of myself when I see Katniss.
"Where are they?" He asks looking around.
I follow his gaze around, realising for the first time that they aren't here. "I don't actually know... they where here a second ago." I say laughing. I turn back to Gale and he's looking at me. "So how have you been?" I ask.
"As good as you can be when you have to kill your food I suppose." He says. I nod.
"Yeh I guess so." I say with a small smile. "Good luck on the reaping next week." I say, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Yeh you too." He says, placing his bag on Sae's counter top. He takes out all the food before handing Sae 2 squirrels and placing the rest back into the bag. She hands him a bowl of soup and he starts eating it. "So how's your mother?" I ask. "I haven't seen her in a while, I've been meaning to come round but I've been working at the bakery when I've not been at school."
"She's doing alright. Just got her hand full with Posy and Vick." He says. I nod.
"So how many times is your name in this time?" I ask him.
"42." He replies.
"Oh I'm sorry..." I say.
"No it's fine, I'm not worried about myself... it's Rory's first reaping this year... Prim's as well." He says. "I'm worried about them."
"Yeh. Tell Rory I said good luck for Monday." I say, he nods. "I've got to go and find my family so I'll talk to you some other time." I smile and walk away.
Then I buy 3 bars of soap, one for each bathroom. I also buy Rosie some shoelaces. The ones you normally get at the shoe shop are really thin and break within a week so I buy her some really thick black ones that coal minors usually buy. I also buy some vegetables to go with the meat that Rosie bought for dinner.
I find Rosie and Dad, right at the back of the building, next to a book stall and a bed stall, where they sell duvets and pillows and things like that but they don't actually sell beds. They do in town though. "What you doing?" I ask them.
"Well dad promised me that he will buy me a double bed tomorrow so we are buying the covers and pillows for it, we also got you and dad some too. They are all the same though." She smiles. "Then dad bought me about 11 books, because I plan on finally filling my book cases. I bought you some new paints and we bought us all some new clothes. Oh and some bin bags for the house and all the rubbish in it."
"Are we having a home make over or something?" I ask and she laughs.
"That's the idea." She says.
By the time we are done in the hob, we all have about 4 bags each, plus the stuff that Rosie bought in town. We rent one of the carts outside the doors and put all of our shopping into it. I wheel it all the way back to the Victors Village and when we get back to our house, it's 8 pm and the sun is going down.
When we get home, I can't fit the cart through the door because it's too big do I have to leave it in the front yard and carry the bags in. Dad unlocks the door and together, me, him and Rosie get all the bags in the house and on the kitchen table. "Right, put the food in the fridge, then we will tidy up, just leave the rest of it where it is and we will sort out when we are done." Dad says and new and Rosie pick up the bags with food in. I put the meat and the vegetables in the fridge and the salt and the sweets in the cupboard. When I turn back around dad is standing there with the time of him bags in his hand. "Let's get going then." He smiles.
I take the radio out of one of the cupboards and turn it on so it's blasting out music, I turn it up a lot and we all get started on the house. It takes us 2 hours to clean the downstairs and only half an hour to clean dad's room. Mine and Rosie's rooms are already clean. By the time we are finished fully it's almost 11 pm. "Right now I'm starving... Peet do you think you could whip us up something to eat?" Dad asks.
"Don't you think it's a bit late for food?" I ask.
"No of course not." He says sitting down at the kitchen table where all the bags are.
"Ok fine." I say and walk to the fridge and take out everything for the food. I place it on the counter and begin to cook, dancing along to the music still coming from the radio. I finish the food in 20 minutes and we eat. It's nice to be eating as a family again. We keep a conversation going the whole time we spend eating and even after we have finished we just door there talking until dad says, "we need to get this shopping sorted out before we all go to bed." I stand up and take the plates and put them back on the counter before walking back over to the table. I grab two bags and start sorting through, putting it in piles of who's is what. I put all the cleaning supplies in the kitchen cupboards and take the bars of soap to the bathrooms. When I get back everything is sorted out into piles and the bags are gone. My pile is the smallest one of all and it contains, 3 pairs of jeans, an orange button down shirt with long sleeves, a black top, a green top, a white top, a dark green fluffy jumper, some paints, paint brushes, a duvet, a duvet cover, 2 pillows, 2 pillow covers and a bed sheet.
Rosie's pile contains- a pair of shoes, some shoelaces, 6 pairs of jeans, a blue top, a pink top, a yellow top, a black top, a white shirt, a purple shirt, a grey leather jacket that's very similar to mine that I've had for almost a year, 11 different books, a double duvet, a duvet cover, 2 pillows, 2 pillow covers and a bed sheet.
Dad's pile contains- a pair of shoes that Rosie must have bought at the shoe shop, 5 pairs of jeans, 4 black tops, a jacket,a blue jumper, a white jumper, a duvet, a duvet cover, 2 pillows, 2 pillow covers, a bed sheet ad his present off Rosie that actually turned out to be a book.
After we have sorted it out, we all take them upstairs. I have to help Rosie take her books upstairs because she can't take it all but eventually I'm able to go to bed. I turn around to the clock to see that it's 2:12 am. It's a digital clock so it tells me the time exactly. I close my eyes and fall asleep.
The next time I wake up, my head is pounding and my clock says it's 4:46am. I've only been asleep for 2 and a half hours. I can't get back to sleep with this headache though so I climb out of bed. As I pull myself to my feet,I realise that my legs and back are hurting. Must have been when I fell out the window yesterday, I must have fallen on my hips, causing my back and legs to hurt. I walk to my drawers and I pull on some clean underwear, then a pair of my new jeans. Then I pull on my orange button down shirt. Then I realise that it's too push for school so I swap it for my new black short sleeved t-shirt. That looks better. I pull my green fluffy jumper on over it and I'm extremely surprised at how good it feels. I hang my head out my open window and feel that's really cold today. I pull on some thick socks and then my boots, which look really scruffy against all the new clothes but no-one is going to care. I knot my shoelaces twice and tuck them into my shoes. Standing in front of the mirror, I attempt to flatten down my blonde curls. A minute later I realise that it's not going to work and I walk to the bathroom for a shower. I only just decided to have a shower after I finished getting dressed. If I had thought of it before then I probably wouldn't have got changed.
After my shower, I get dressed again and brush my teeth. By 5:39 am I'm all ready and only haven't breakfast left to eat. I don't have to be in school until 9, what am I supposed to do until then.
I walk downstairs and straight into the kitchen, switching on the lamp in the corner. It's just becoming light outside so I'm not going to need more than a lamp to light up the room. I switch the TV on and I'm not surprised when Caesar Flickerman comes on with the morning announcements. I turn to the cupboard and get out everything to make pancakes. I leave it all on the side and watch the screen. He starts talking about the games again as he usually does in the week leading up to the games.
At half 6 I decide to stop watching the TV and make breakfast. Within 20 minutes I have 6 pancakes made. I take out two trays an put 3 pancakes on each of 2 plates then place them on the trays and put a glass of orange juice on each one before taking them upstairs. I place one of them on the top of the stairs and then walk to Rosie's room with the other one. I knock lightly, "Rosie?" I say. No answer. I open the door and Rosie is in her bed asleep with a book in her hands. I place the tray down on her bedside table and take the book out of her hand. I shake her shoulder lightly and her eyes open. "I brought you breakfast." I say. She smiles at me but closes her eyes again. "Rosie, wake up, you need to eat this and you need to get up, we have school in an hour and a half." I say and pulls herself to a sitting position.
"Thank you for the food." She says.
"No problem." I smile and leave the room
I go to dad's room and wake straight in. He's lying in bed asleep, snoring really loudly. "DAD!" I shout, he's always been a very heavy sleeper. He doesn't react to my voice. I place the tray down his bed side table and take a handful of his duvet, pulling it off quickly, he still doesn't react. I walk over to him. "DAD!" I shout into his ear. His eyes shoot open and he looks at me.
"What are you doing?" He shouts.
"I brought you breakfast." I say to him. I walk over to the window and open it fully, letting in the cold air outside. "Now eat it!" I order.
"Hey, I'm supposed to be the parent here!" He replies.
"I don't care, eat it!" I say and leave the room.
I walk down the stairs and back into the kitchen. I left the TV on and I still need to make my breakfast. When I step through the kitchen door, I hear the phone ring. I groan and turn around to answer it. I take the phone off the receiver and place it to my ear. "Hello? Abernathy residence?" I say through the phone. At first I can just hear crying. "Hello?" More crying. "Who is this?" The crying stops and it goes silent.
"Peeta?" I hear someone say.
"Yes? Who am I talking too?" I ask.
"Sorry, it's mum." I hear her say. I didn't even recognise her voice.
"Mum? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" I ask.
"Is Rosie around? I need to talk to her right now! It's really important." She says and starts sobbing again.
"The she's upstairs... one minute." I say and place the phone onto the table by the phone. I turn around and run at full speed up the stairs, knocking past dad on the way up. I mumble a sorry and burst into Rosie's room.
"What's wrong?" She asks. She's now fully dressed other than her shoes and was just brushing through her hair when I can through the door.
"Mums on the phone, she was crying and she wants to speak to you. It sounded urgent." I say quickly. She puts down her hair brush and pushes past me, disappearing into the hallway and down the stairs. When I get to the bottom of the stairs I see her holding the phone to her ear and holding a hand over the other ear.
"...what's wrong?... No... yes...Monday...What?...really...yes I guess so...I'll tell them...bye... I love you..." She places the phone back on the receiver slowly and turns around to me. She has tears rolling down both her cheeks and is making horrible sobbing sounds. "I need to talk to you and dad about something." She says and walks away into the kitchen, where dad sits at the table with a cup of coffee. I follow her and sit down next to dad. "Mum just gave me some news." She says and dad sits up straighter. "Well considering that I live here now, I am permanently a citizen of district 12, which means that I have to be like a district 12 teenager and..." She trails off, I'm not quite sure I'm gonna like where this is going. "... My name is in the reaping bowls this year and every year until I'm 18..." She says and my mouth hangs open.
"Oh. No." Dad says. "It's going to be okay Rosie, I'll tell you the same thing I told Peeta 4 years ago. If either of you are picked then I will do anything I can to save you. I promise." He stands up and hugs Rosie for the first time in 10 years.
"Thanks dad." She smiles into his shoulder and I feel tears fall from eyes.
"I can't believe my little sister is in the reaping, I thought this day would never come." I say and they both look at me. Dad now has a few tears in his eyes and Rosie's still crying. I stand up and wrap my arms around Rosie.
"I'm only a few minutes younger than you..." She mumbles
"I don't care." I say into her hair. "You're still my little sister."
"I love you Peeta." She says, burying her face into my shoulder.
"I love you too Rosie." I reply, kissing her on the head.
A few minutes later, I finally make my breakfast and I eat silently whilst Rosie and Dad talk about the reaping. He explains to get everything that happens because normally she doesn't get to see the reaping because she starts in the house, incase anyone recognises her and asks why she's not in line with the others. She watches the recaps but they are only from when the excort starts speaking. Obviously that's normally mum. I don't remember a time when it wasn't. Even before I was taking part, I had to watch because my dad was on stage, then whilst he was in the capitol, we would go to Hazelle's and spend a week over there. At the time she only had 2 kids, Gale and Rory. So me and Gale used to play together when we where kids. My dad left her money every year to get us anything we needed and then pay her for looking after us.
Dad had told Hazelle and Cole that Effie was our mother when we where 6 because they asked about her and why she couldn't look after us so he told them why and obviously because Hazelle had to pick up Rosie from the train station so she should have known why. As it turns out, Gale was hiding behind a corner when he told them and he found out. I don't think he told anyone though, which I'm glad about. Rosie had the biggest crush on Gale when we where younger and tried to follow us wherever we went. I distinctively remember telling her to stop following us because she isn't a boy and can't play with us. When she moved to the capitol, Hazelle would pick me up from my house and then take me to the train station to pick Rosie up. I always got very excited.
When I was 7, Vick was born, which meant that she now had 5 kids to look after and whenever her husband, Cole, was home he would take me and Rosie to the park that was just outside the school yard. All it had was some horrible old swings and a ratty old climbing frame. On Sunday we would spend the whole day with Cole, he would bring us back to our house so that we could play with our toys, whilst he sat in the kitchen watching a capitol show on the small TV.
Whilst me and Rosie where at the Hawthornes, we would bring over the spare mattress that dad had bought for them. It spent a couple of weeks on the living room floor and me and Rosie would sleep on it.
When we were about 4-7 Gale would always want to sleep downstairs with us. His mother would normal lye say no but a few times she said yes. Hazelle had originally told us that boys sleep in one room, girls in the other but Rosie never wanted to be alone so Gale and Rory would sleep in one room and me and Rosie in the other.
When me and Rosie where 12, I started to work at the bakery and Rosie would come with Mr so we would only sleep at Hazelle's then leave early in the morning for the bakery. That year, after the reaping, Cole died in the mine and we where all devastated and then a couple months later, Posy was born and the house was now too fill for us to stay there, I remember telling Rosie about Cole's death and she didn't believe me until she came back to the district when I was 13 and he wasn't there.
That year, dad tried to get us to stay at the Everdeen's but I argued with him and told him that I couldn't, so eventually we ended up staying at the Mellark's. That year was Leaven' last reaping but Poppy's first reaping so everyone had mixed emotions about it. At the time I had been working at the bakery for over a year so during the day I would help out in the bakery and Rosie would go to the park or something with poppy who only worked on the days I had off, which where Friday, Saturday and Monday. These days I have to work everyday after school and then all day Saturday.
The next year, when we where 14 we had to stay there again because dad still didn't trust us by ourselves. Last year when we where 15, he finally trusted us to stay in the house by ourselves but Leaven was sent to check on us every night. It was rather annoying that he didn't trust us fully. I can see why though because last year was when I drank half of his liquor. He didn't find out about it though because I bought him more with the money that he left us. When he got home though he apologized for Poppy about 50 times until I finally told him to shut up.
At 8:04 am we leave for school. We arrive at 8:52 and the school yard is almost empty. Most kids take the week before the reaping off to spend with their families incase they are picked. Me and Rosie don't need to because if either of us are picked we will get to spend time with both of our parents anyway and then if we aren't we can spend time with dad when he gets back so we always come into school the week before the reaping. Last year there was only 4 other people in our class. But on the Friday before the reaping there was only me, Rosie and Katniss, she's always in the week before the reaping because from what I've heard she doesn't like her mother all too much but prim does though. This year though, Katniss and Gale, walk through the gates together with Vick, Prim and Rory trailing along behind them. Looks like Rory, Vick and Gale aren't staying home either. I give them a sad smile and Gale smiles back. Katniss gives him a confused look as he smiles at me. I'm guessing he never told about us being friends when we where younger. He starts talking to her and then she looks shocked, she looks back and forth between me and Gale and then starts walking towards me. "So I hear that you and Gale used to be friends." She asks.
"Yeh, since I was only a couple months old up until around the time he met you." I say.
"I'm surprised he didn't mention you before." She says to me.
"Yeh me too." I say and walk away. I'm really not up for conversation today, not even with Katniss.
When we get to class, there's only 3 people in other than me and Rosie: Delly, Katniss and River. Delly calls us over to sit with her but I smile and carry on towards the back of the class. I take a seat and rest my head on my arms. I let a silent year fall from my eyes, but quickly wipe it away when I catch Katniss looking at me. She turns away and carries on looking out the window. "Now class, today we are going to learn about district 4 victors." Our teacher says. "The most famous one, of course, is Finnick Odair. He's known mainly because his promise of prostitution in the capitol but secondly because he is the youngest person to ever win the games, at the age of 14." The teacher starts going on and on about district 4 and its Victors but I just tune her out and find myself staring at a wall. Eventually my head goes into my arms again.
I can't believe the person I care about the most has a chance of going into the games. I'd gotten used to the fact that all my friends might go to their death but I never thought my own twin sister might do. I can't volunteer for her if she gets picked and I know that she would never forgive me if I volunteered to go in with her. I also couldn't do that to mum and dad. They would be heartbroken to see both of their children go into the games in the same year and knowing that only one of them could come out. Mum and dad have probably realised that I would want to save Rosie if that ever happened. I just can't imagine my little sister dying in that arena. I would never let that happened, she's too much of a good human being to die in that stupid arena. "Peeta Abernathy. Are you paying attention?" I hear the teacher say. I pull my head up from my arms and look at her. She holding a piece of chalk in her hand and has the other hand on her hip. The look on her face turns from anger to sympathetic. I'm confused at to why until I feel a tear drop on my hand and realise that I'm crying. "If you need a moment you can leave my classroom. Just take a moment outside and come back inside when you're ready." She smiles. I nod and pull myself to my feet, pushing my chair back under the table and walk for the door. I feel Rosie grab my hand and give it a squeeze as I'm on my way out, I squeeze back and leave the room. I lean against the opposite wall and run my fingers through my hair. I look up at the sound of footsteps. I turn left and look down the hallway and see Gale. I quickly wipe away the left over tears from my face as he gets closer. "Why you out of class?" He shouts to me.
"I was sent out." I reply.
"Peeta Abernathy? Sent out of class? What did you do?" He asks, laughing.
"You gonna think it's really girly but I was actually sent out because I was crying." I say. His face turns serious as he finally makes it to me.
"Well it must be really serious If Peeta Abernathy cried in front of people... What happened?" He asks.
"Well this morning, mum called from the capitol and told us that Rosie is entered in the reaping. I can't talk to anyone about it because no-one knows about mum and I just need someone to talk to other than dad or Rosie. I just can't stand the fact that the person I care about the most in the whole world is going through the reaping, I know how bad it is as and I never wanted her to have to go through it and I know that I can't volunteer to go in with her because I just can't put my parents through that. She's already broken the law so I don't see why president snow won't put her in the hunger games or make sure that her name is on all of the slips of paper. It just... I... I just don't know what to do." I say very quickly. I slide my back down the wall and sit on the floor with my elbows on my knees and my hands in my hair.
"Wow! Peeta calm down!" I hear Gale say and he sits down next to me. "I'm sure Rosie name won't be in there more than a normal 16 year olds and I'm sure that president snow won't do anything to jeopardise that. Rosie will be fine, I'm sure she will." He says.
I look forward him. "How do you know?" I ask.
"Well I don't, we just have to have faith about these things and hope that nothing happens." He smiles and stands up to leave. "I'll see you later Peeta." He says and leaves. I didn't even ask him why he was out of lesson.
I stay on the floor, looking up to the ceiling with my arms leaning on my knees. Maybe he's right, maybe the only thing I need to do is hope that it will all turn out right. Maybe that's all I need. Hope.
Third lesson we have Mrs Myers again and I have to sit next to Katniss. She smiles at me as I sit down and I smile back. The lesson goes by slowly. Mrs Myers seems nicer today than normal. I think it's probably got something to do with the reaping next week. I turn back towards Katniss to see her scrolling something on a piece of paper. She slides the paper over to me. 'What was wrong with you earlier?' It says in her scruffy handwriting.
I pick up my pen off the table. 'Nothing, just family problems, that's all.' I reply.
'Oh okay then, well I was wondering... considering that you and Gale used to be bestfriends and now me and Gale are.. maybe, we could be friends? What do you think?' When she slides it over to me, I smile.
'I think that's a great idea.' She writes.
Suddenly I'm brought back to what Gale said earlier about having hope. I've always had hope that me and katniss could be friends and now we are so maybe if I have hope then nothing will happen at the reaping...
I hope you liked this chapter and the whole Peeta/Gale back story. I had fun writing it... Please review on it :)
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