Peeta
My hands are frozen in front of the dark wooden door to the Everdeens' house. I had just ceased knocking, but my nerves make me want to bark. Mrs. Trinket motions for me to move my hand, but it's frozen. My legs are quivering.
"Peeta—" she starts, but the door swings open. We both jump, Mrs. Trinket releasing a small gasp. In front of us stands the mother in a freshly pressed blue blouse and jeans. She has a warm smile and older eyes that crinkle when she's grinning. Her face looks tired, but it's light now.
"Hi!" She sounds friendly. "You must be Peeta…" Her voice trails off as she extends a hand to me. Her eyes flicker over my body, soaking up what I look like. "My, aren't you a handsome boy?" I feel myself blushing, and I shift uncomfortably, awkwardly.
"Is he here?" pipes up a small voice behind the woman. The mother steps aside to smile down at a little blond girl in pigtails. She immediately blushes upon noticing that I'm standing right in front of her. "Oh," she squeaks, reaching out to shake my hand. Her own almost disappears in my palm, it's so small. She shrinks back to the corner of the room, inspecting all of us with wide, blue eyes. She's pretty and petite, and reminds me off a little flower or maybe a mouse. Cute. I spin around, my mouth halfway open to ask where the other one is, but the mother just turns to the staircase, where a set of bare feet have appeared.
"Katniss." Mrs. Everdeen's voice is stern, though it's soft. And then she's there. Her presence almost fills the entire room. She doesn't appear shy, but stands with her legs pressed together, her shoulder thrust back. Her hair spills over her shoulders and down to her elbows, slightly damp. My eyes flicker over the ends, which are purple. I'm momentarily confused, because in the photo they were blue. She must change them often…
"Hello." Her voice brings me back to reality. It's slightly rusty, but soft as it speaks volumes. My eyes travel the length of her, from her pristine white blouse to the fraying edges of her black jeans. I could stare at her all day, but her solid gaze breaks me away from my daydreaming.
"Oh," I stammer as I realize she's waiting. She raises one eyebrow, twitching, above the other. Amused. I feel myself reddening. "Hi." She extends her hand in greeting, and I quickly take it. She's leaning forward, and I can see everything on her face— each imperfection that stands just right on her face: her little pale constellation of freckles just standing out around her nose. A pimple just peeking out from the top of her eyebrow. Her chapped lips. Her hand is more calloused than I expected. It's gone before I can even process anything. She's back to her uniform pose, like some sort of soldier. I'm almost shaken. The way she looks at me now is one of complete warning— Don't you screw with me.
"We hope you'll find our house suitable," the mother says, as if I'm some superstar and not some sad little orphan with emotional issues. I smile weakly at her anyways and nod my head.
"It's lovely," I tell her, and she beams. Mrs. Trinket smiles like she's exhausted and straightens her pink plastic purse. Her red lips are stretched into a thin smile.
"Fantastic. Peeta, if anything comes up, call." She's out the door in a flash, and I can sense her relief from the house. My eyes travel shyly back to the family, who are expressing a whirlwind of different emotions.
Primrose— the little girl— is still hovering in the corner. She smiles at me like an angel, though she seems timid, still like a little mouse. Mrs. Everdeen is all vacant smiles, like she'd used them all up a long time ago. Katniss is a death stare, plain and simple. I can feel her gray eyes burning into me from the other side of the room. Why did I make her so angry? I didn't even know her.
"Thank you for having me," I offer, the words tasting a little bitter. Mrs. Everdeen nods her head, humming a mmhmm. More silence. Primrose steps from the corner, finally, and offers a hand to me. I pause, unsure, but I take it. A soft, but audible, sharp intake of breath is heard behind me. Katniss. What does she think I'll do, hurt her sister? It makes me want to hold Primrose's hand even more. The little girl beams up at me like I'm the best thing in the world.
"I'll show you around, Peeta," she says, and I notice her front tooth is lopsided from growing in. I feel myself smiling. She's sweet. I wish Katniss would talk to me like this brave little girl. There's a chorus of whispering behind me, followed by a small, rusty groan of defeat. Soft footsteps approach, and a dark head of hair is standing next to me, gray eyes flickering in the opposite direction. I sigh inwardly in confusion. "Don't mind her," Primrose pipes up, leading me out of the kitchen and up a skinny set of curving stairs. They turn in on themselves about halfway up. "She's quite lovely, actually. She can be quite a prissy one sometimes, though. Especially with what happened—"
"Prim!" Katniss exclaims, though her voice is soft. Primrose shrinks beside me, and my mind wanders. What had happened before? Katniss's frame relaxes and she sighs. I can feel her breath on my shoulder, and it makes it tingle a little. "Sorry, Peter." I open my mouth, but to my surprise, she's blushing. A rare moment. The color disappears after half a second as she stammers, "Peeta, sorry, God! I always mess that up." I feel myself chuckling, and she manages a small smile. I have yet to see her smile with her teeth.
Primrose tells me about the rooms and where I'll be staying in the guest bedroom. It's small, but I'm not one to complain. The walls are a light orange color, which I find lovely, and there's a nice view of the tops of trees, and in the distance I can just start to see the skyscrapers. Katniss's hand brushes mine accidentally as we exit the room. My eyes flicker to her face, but she doesn't show any signs of emotion.
Once we've finished the tour, Primrose leads us to the backyard, which is a mess of tall, green grass and jumbled wire fences against a backdrop of bright green trees. It smells like pine and dew, and I'm transfixed by the small yellow flowers and a lone, twisted oak. The whole backyard slopes downhill towards the trees slightly, and my converse squeak in the wet grass. Primrose laughs as I spin around, drinking in everything. Katniss doesn't say anything. As my eyes flicker over the fence, I notice something. Something so small that no one could really see it if they were just passing by. There's a hole, just big enough for one person to fit through, near one of the furthest posts. Maybe I could ask to patch it up if it was an inconvenience. I shake off the following thoughts and inch towards Katniss as Primrose begins to pick the scatterings of the yellow flowers.
"I like your house," I say vaguely, watching Primrose, though I'm really paying attention to the girl in the corner of my eye. She's watching Primrose, too. She doesn't say anything at first, but I see her opening her mouth after a while.
"Yeah." She's silent after that, raising her hands by her side like she's checking her fingers. I notice her nail polish is a chipping purple hue, like her hair.
"I'm sorry if I'm sudden," I blurt out, and I'm immediately embarrassed by my words. But they get her attention. Her intense gray eyes have found my face, which I feel heating up as I continue to face straight ahead. She shakes her head.
"Sudden?" I feel awkward, and I squirm a little under her gaze.
"Um…" She may be growing impatient. I'd always never been very good with words, and this time, they're failing me yet again. I sigh, running a hand through my golden locks. "I may ask questions. I like to know about my foster families. You know, so we get closer and stuff." Wow, that came out a lot more upfront than it was meant to me. Katniss shifts a little in the corner of my vision.
"Of course." Her gray eyes flicker back to Primrose, who's begun to chase a few stray dragonflies. I blink a few times.
"I don't want to offend you," I begin, and I feel her looking at me questioningly. "I really don't want to make you upset. But why are you so pissed about me being here?"
"What?" She sounds genuinely surprised, and I begin to think that maybe I'd interpreted her expressions incorrectly. She turns to face me. "Pissed?" She's as silent as I am as I try to think of some way to cover up what I've just said. "I'm just…" My head almost whips to look at her face. Her brows are furrowed, a dimple below her mouth peeking out as she bites her lip. Her lips are chapped, and I can feel everything draining out except for the picture of the corner of her tooth snagging on the skin of her lips. Her lips. I'm shaken when she speaks again. "Cautious." She doesn't say anything else, but I glance over, urging her to go on.
"Why?" I pry when she doesn't say anything. She sighs, sounding a little frustrated.
"Look." She's facing me now, Primrose forgotten. Her dark hair trails her face, tendrils brushing her forehead in tapping motions. Her gray eyes are stubborn. "The last foster kid we had here was just a handful, alright?" She turns back to Primrose. When I don't say anything, she turns back to me again, clearly aggravated. "He kissed me." She says it bluntly, like it shouldn't have happened at all. My lips part as my stomach swirls. "He knew I had a boyfriend, too." Boyfriend? What? Suddenly everything had gotten so much more complicated.
"I'm sorry," is all I can manage, but Katniss isn't done. Her eyes have turned furious.
"I didn't want you to be like him." Her voice is quieter. I feel my pulse slowing down, my eyes blinking in slow motion. Oh.
"I'm not," I promise her, and her brow relaxes visibly, her intense eyes draining of all of their fury. She's turned away before I can see her expression.
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