Later that day, Katniss and Gale came in the sweet shop- Peeta's mother was gone so Katniss was allowed in the store, and Peeta's dad was quite fond of her- with three rabbits and two squirrels. Katniss, as usual, had shot the rabbits straight through the eye so the meat wouldn't be ruined, and took them off Gale's belt to lay them on the counter. Peeta's father noticed the especially fat rabbit and said, "How about two loaves of bread for these?" He put his hand on the rabbit. Katniss eagerly nodded and pushed the rabbits toward him. Then she noticed Peeta behind his huge father, icing cookies.
He felt he couldn't have been caught doing a girlier thing, but smiled anyway, hoisting the piping bag further up on his shoulder. Katniss eyed the sugar cookies that Peeta was painting tiger lilies on hungrily, then said, "Hi... Peeta."
Peeta felt ecstatic. She knew his name! That meant he was one step closer to making her fall in love with him and eloping and leaving Gale behind to shoot dumb little squirrels. He said, "Hi, Katniss." He saw her staring at the cookies while his father went and got the bread, and Peeta pointed. "You want one?" he asked, not even looking at Gale. He didn't care what Gale wanted.
Katniss hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. "No," she said, frowning, "I couldn't- I don't have anything to trade for them." Peeta shrugged and laid down the bag, picking up a cookie. "This one's on the house," he said, feeling confident. Gale's furious look encouraged him further. He picked up a cookie and held it toward Katniss, and she inhaled. "Are you sure?" she asked through clenched teeth. Peeta nodded and smiled, and Katniss slowly took it from him. "Thank you," she said, admiring the flower pattern on the top.
Her eyes widened and she smiled a little, then looked up at Peeta. "I don't want to ruin it, it's so pretty," she stammered. Peeta smiled at her and said, "I'm glad you think so. Now eat it!" he laughed. She laughed too and tossed the small cookie in her mouth. She covered her mouth with her hand as she chewed, and closed her eyes. Peeta knew how it felt to close your eyes with emotions like that.
She swallowed and said, "Oh, Peeta, that was so good!" Then she blushed and frowned at Gale. "I should've saved some for Prim." Gale shrugged and took one loaf of bread under his arm and stormed out. Katniss looked embarassed on his behalf, but Peeta noticed she hardened a little, too. She picked up the loaf of bread and said goodbye as Peeta's father left to go bake more bread. She leaned in toward Peeta and whispered gruffly, "Thanks... for not ratting. I owe you." Peeta leaned back, still shivering at her warm breath on his ear, and shook his head. "You don't owe me anything."
She frowned, a look Peeta didn't like on her, and nodded. "Yes, I do. I'll make it up somehow." Peeta waited for her to try and throw up the cookie or something crazy like that, but instead she did something Peeta would replay in his head again and again.
She kissed her palm and pressed it to his cheek.
It was fleeting- the touch was almost like a soft slap- but he felt it. She then drew her hand back, nodded at Peeta, and then took her bread and left. Peeta sighed after her, wishing he would've pulled her in and kissed her right there. He looked down at the tiger lily cookies, and then knew he could never look at them the same way again.
XOXOXO
Peeta was woken by his mother, who was hitting her ceiling and Peeta's floor with the end of a broom. Peeta remembered the story that his father had told him, about how he wanted to marry Katniss's mother, and wished he did. But, he thought again, then Katniss would be his sister. He couldn't marry his sister.
He threw the covers over his head and groaned. The only reason he even got up to go to school was to watch Katniss solve problems in math. She was good, and he needed help in it. He wanted to ask her, she sat up one seat and to the right of him, but he never could. He was afraid he would just sit there with his mouth open and she would laugh.
He had never heard her laugh. He was sure it was nice- it had to be. With her beautiful voice- which he'd only heard whenever she came in to trade with his father or when she quietly answered a question in math or science- it had to be. He tried to imagine her laugh- would it tinkle or be deep in her throat?- but knew he was probably wrong.
His mother had just woken him up from a wonderful dream, where Katniss had come up to him at lunch and, in front of all of his friends, professed her undying and passionate love for him, then kissed him. On the mouth. His friends were all jealous- they didn't think Katniss looked too bad- but would find another girl. There would never be another girl for Peeta. He would have Katniss or die alone.
Peeta slowly rolled out of his bed and got dressed- just a blue shirt and black pants, and the boots he wore everyday- and then found his bookbag. As he slowly made his way down the narrow staircase that led to the small house above the sweet shop, he found his mother, her hair pinned back and an apron tied around her waist, pulling a tray out of th eoven above the fire. His mother did not acknowledge him, but his father, who was gaving change back to an early customer, smiled. "Morning, Peeta," he said. The customer waved. Both of Peeta's brothers ate, but Peeta just left for school.
As he walked in the school building, he saw Katniss making her way toward her first class, which was also his first class. Math. She put her books down on the desk and then noticed Peeta watching her. As soon as their eyes made contact, Peeta looked away. He wished he could stare in her deep gray eyes forever, but couldn't bring himself to look back until he knew she wouldn't punch him. He'd seen her punch someone before. It'd only happened once, but someone said something about Prim and she took them down. One swing of her fist and she was sent home and the boy sent to the nurse.
She walked by him and down the hall. Peeta stood in the room alone, relishing the feel of her rushing by him. Her side brushed up against his front as she pushed between him and the desk in front of him. Peeta noticed that there was only ten minutes until class started, so he sat down, got out a piece of paper, and began to draw. He loved to paint, but in order to start painting, you had to be able to sketch it out. You did in Peeta's case, anyway.
He wrote out the two words on the scrap paper in his finest scrpit, then added bars to them, making parts of the letters block while leaving the tails and other smaller parts to curl elegantly. The letters formed almost instantly, and then Peeta shaded the parts where the light would create a shadow, if there were a light above it. The words, Katniss Mellark, covered almost all of the paper, and Peeta remembered that he would have to do this on better paper and paint it nicely. For when they were really married.
He drew a tail off the bottom leg of the 'K' in 'Mellark' and then looped it around to form a heart. He had just started shading this in when his math teacher came up behind him and chuckled. "Isn't it supposed to be the girls who draw their first names on your last?" Peeta blushed and slid the piece of paper under his math book. "Umm..." he said. The teacher chuckled and sat down next to him. "It's alright, Peeta. I've known for a long time. I'll look up to ask you a question during the lesson and I'll see you staring at her so... lovingly that I just let it go. Actually, we'll be moving seats today, so I'll see if I can sneak you in next to her." He winked and stood up just as the bell rang, then moved to the front of the room. The kids filed in and took their seats, but before they could unpack their things the teacher raised a hand.
"Class, don't get too comfortable. We're moving seats today." Everyone stood up and grabbed ther things, and Peeta noticed Katniss looking around the room. Who did she hope she would get? Peeta wanted to get her. The teacher started telling people where their new seats were, starting in the front and moving to the back. He pretended he couldn't see Peeta or Katniss and left them for last. He looked puzzled when he saw them standing there, and Peeta's stomach dropped. He would get to sit by Katniss for an entire marking period! His breath whooshed out as he directed Katniss and Peeta to a pair of seats in the very back of the class.
Katniss sat without a complaint, and Peeta sat by her. He stared straight ahead but watched her out of the corner of his eye as she unpacked her things. She moved so smoothly and Peeta couldn't help but admiring her long fingers. Now he knew how she was so skilled with a bow.
"Alright class, page 343, work with your partners and do problems 1 through 15." Peeta looked up at the teacher and saw he was smiling in his direction. Peeta waited for Katniss to speak first. She flipped throug her book, as did Peeta, then said quietly, "How about you do the odds and I'll do the evens?" That left Peeta with one more problem than Katniss, but he didn't care. She started on her work and Peeta did too, while trying to think of how to bring up the sweet shop. Her kiss. The heart-stopping, ground-shaking kiss that she put on his cheek.
She sat, however, in silence, and didn't appear to be itching to bring it up. Peeta kept saying to himself, Now, say it now! But he couldn't. If Katniss was fine with not saying anything about it, he would be fine with him too. He didn't want to rush their imaginary relationship.
"Number seven is wrong," Katniss said quietly, a small smile on her face. Peeta blushed and quickly erased most of his work, but Katniss put a hand on his. He froze, and she leaned closer to him, so much that she was pressed up against his arm. He held his breath in wait, and she went on. Katniss wrote back the letters he erased and Peeta noticed her small, neat numbers. She fized the part he had right and stopped where he messed up. "There," she said in her quiet way. "Keep going."
Peeta tried not to scream in excitement as Katniss stayed leaned over his arm while he wrote. He focused on trying to make the mubers look like Katniss's when she stopped him again. "Right there," she said, pointing to the last thing it wrote. "Since you're dividing by a negative you have to flip that around so it says "X is greater than 32+5". Got it?" Peeta nodded and bit his bottom lip, trying to hold in his smile. Katniss watched as he wrote in the corrected sign and then finished out the problem. "X equals 38?" Peeta asked. Katniss gave a smile that did not show her teeth and nodded, then turned back to her own work. Peeta sighed and kept working, in his new seat next to Katniss.
XOXOXO
The bell rang much too soon for Peeta's liking. Katniss closed her paper in the book and looked at Peeta. "Can... uh, can I sit with you at lunch? You can get the even answers and I'll get the odds." She held her bag and didn't look at him, like she was waiting to be rejected. Peeta asked, "You want to sit with me?" She nodded to the floor, then added on, "If that's okay." Peeta smiled, then smiled bigger, then grinned at Katniss. "Yeah," he said, picking up his bag, "yeah. Come on!" Katniss followed the path he'd made through all the kids in the grade under them as they walked to the lunch room. Peeta led them to the table with all of his friends.
They sat on the end, not bothering to get any food, and opened their books again. They put Katniss's paper in front and Peeta copied it, and then they traded. One of Peeta's friends, Tayte, came up to them and sat down on the other side of Katniss and Peeta, who were sharing a bench. "Katniss, I think?" Tayte said. Tayte was very tall, one of the tallest kids in the grade, and muscular. Katniss nodded and then looked back to her book. "Peeta!" Tayte crowed, holding out his arms. "You finally got her to sit with you!" Peeta gave Tayte the worst glare he could, and made a fist when Katniss wasn't looking. His eyes opened wide and then he mouthed, "Kat- ohhh, Katniss. Okay," he said, standing up to move further down the table to join their friends, "I'll leave you alone."
Peeta kept glaring until Tayte had sat down far enough away to where he couldn't hear them. Katniss finished the problem and then gave Peeta's paper back. She didn't say anything as she got up from the table and walked outside. Peeta was shocked. Not even a goodbye? He got up and followed her, and his friends 'ooohhhhh'ed.
Katniss was sitting outside, staring past the electric fence that seperated the District and the woods. She was frowning, once again, at the grass, and did not raise her head when Peeta sat by her. "Are you okay?" Peeta asked, looking sidewys at her. She did not answer him, but twisted her body away. He didn't feel shy around her anymore, at least not right now, but confused. What had he done? They still had to get married!
"Katniss?" he asked again. He sat and admired her wavy mahogany hair, tracing the sun-lightened strands with his eyes. Peeta rested his elbows on his knees and waited for her to answer him. He could hear her heightened breathing, and he was not prepared when she started yelling.
"What did he mean, you finally got me to sit with you? What was that about?" she yelled over her shoulder. Peeta couldn't respond for a moment. He opened his mouth to answer her, to defend himself, but she yelled again. "Was it some kind of bet, or something? Were you going to play a prank on me? What? What were you going to do?"
"Nothing!" Peeta yelled, holding up his hands. Katniss turned back to face the fence. "I wasn't going to do anything," Peeta said, his voice lower. He wasn't one who yelled often. "I just... you asked if you could sit with me! How is this my fault?" Katniss mumbled to herself and shook her head, and Peeta scooted around to see her face. She was scowling, and turned her head when Peeta looked at her. He said softly, "They just know you're very smart, and they know how bad I am at math. I've been talking about you tutoring me for a while and..."
He did not mean any of that. He'd been... observing Katniss from afar since kindergarten, and had fantasized about them always being together. He only said this to make it seem like he wasn't such a stalker. Katniss smiled a little, then said quietly, "A tutor." Peeta looked at her, shocked, then said, "Huh?" Katniss laughed and asked again, "You said you needed a tutor. Do you want me to tutor you sometime?" Peeta fumbled for words and then, finding none, settled for a nod. She pursed her lips and said, "I don't know..." Peeta smiled, playing along. He threw his arms up in surprise. "What?" he said, "You just offered! You can't turn your back now!"
Katniss laughed, really laughed, and Peeta knew he was right when he thought it sounded like tinkling bells.
How was that for a second chapter? I've been working on this for a while, so I hope it pleased. I appreciate all the reviews, that make me smile. I want to thank you all right now, but at the end of the story I'll give shout-outs by name. Exceptionally good reviews will get a shout-out by chapter. I hope you're enjoying this! I'm working really hard on this. Keep reviewing, lovies!
I love you all, you beautiful people! Lol.
~Paige