I'm really glad you liked the story so far. And the reviews pleased me so bad. Chapter three's here to pay back the reviews.


I untangle myself from Peeta and stand awkwardly in front of him. I feel my face gets hotter and I think it's turning red, so I let my eyes focus on the floor.

"Thanks," I say, and then I pick up my stuff that fell down from my backpack and quickly put them back inside.

Peeta is about to help me but I stop him. He makes another confused face. I try not to look at him and once I finish putting my stuff away, I run off. I manage to take a glimpse of Delly and her friends smirking and giggling behind Peeta. Delly approaches him and holds his shoulder and pulls him back.

"You don't need to help her, Peeta. She's strong enough to settle this. She's from the Seam, in fact. Who always work so hard till their skins turn dark and create huge, ugly muscles," she said with mockingly.

The other people who gather around us at first snorted, and then burst their laughs loudly. I try not to pay attention to their mocking gazes. But their laughs are just too loud that it's hard to ignore them. I close my eyes and fasten my pace into the crowd. Finally I manage to escape from them by locking myself inside the bathroom. I touch my hot face and realize that my tears are actually streaming down from my eyes. I sit down on one of the toilet seats and wrap my arms around myself and hide my face till everything goes black.

I don't realize how long I fell asleep in the toilet. But I think I've missed at least two classes. I stand up and walk towards the door. I take a deep breath and prepare myself for the worst once I step outside. I slowly creep out of the bathroom. Nobody is around the hall so I guess it's the fourth period. I realize someone is standing beside the door. It's Peeta.

His back is leaning against the wall, his left hand is inside his jeans' pocket and he's looking at his phone in his right hand. He finally notices me, stands up straight and puts the phone inside his pocket. Then I find out he had his backpack with him.

"Hey. Sorry about what happened just now," he says, rubbing the back of his head.

Why is he apologizing? Delly is the one who's supposed to be apologizing to me, not him.

He continues, "I should've sat next to her during Miss Effie's class. Really, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. It's not your fault anyway. Delly's is the one who's in fault here," I say, trying to make him less guilty.

He smiles and chuckles. "I guess you're right."

"What happened after I ran off?"

"Well, I told Delly that she was wrong about the people from the Seam, especially you. And that pissed her and she went off to her next class with Kelly and Diana. With a 'hmmph' sound," he imitates Delly's whiny voice and it makes me laugh.

I don't know what to say next so there's nothing to say after that and there's an awkward silence around the empty hall. I don't feel like going to class either so I'm stuck here with Peeta in front of me.

"Wanna go somewhere?" He asks.

"You're not going to class?"

"Nope. I think you need some company to talk with, so I'm here."

"Yeah but I don't want to drag you along and cause you trouble."

He grins and says, "I feel like ditching right now and I'm actually not in the mood for class today anyway."

Wow. I never knew that Peeta, the nice, honest boy is actually a typical type of boy who breaks the rules at times. Well, he's a teenager like me anyway. I agree with him so we walk around the town and visit the stores like the bookstore, the market and finally the bakery but we only take a glimpse of it because we can't take the risk of his mother from seeing him ditching school, especially with me. And then we end up at the boundary line between the town and the Seam. He hesitates to continue on walking but I encourage him to move on even though most people in the Seam hate the people from town. I tell him that he's not like any other them. That works and he walks in to the Seam. We stop at a huge tree near the boundary line and we sit on the tree's large trunk, and then we start talking.

"Why did you help me by throwing the breads at me, Peeta?" I ask him.

"Huh?" He looks blurred at first but after that I think there's a click in his head. "You mean when we were kids?" He's silent at first and looks at the sky as if he's looking for the right answer. He then answers, "I just wanted to help you. Is it wrong to help someone who needs help?"

"Well, that's true. But helping me wouldn't gain you anything but making me owe you."

"You don't owe me anything, Katniss," he denies.

"Yes I do. If you didn't do it, my family would've died," I insist.

He sighs in defeat and lays his back against the tree trunk. "Then what do you want to do since you owe me?"

"I don't know. Depends on what you want me to do."

He puts his index finger on his chin, making a thinking face. Then he snaps his finger. "Then why don't you bring me to the woods?"

I never thought that he wants to go to the woods, I mean, among all places he can go he picks the woods. But I can't say no, do I?

So I say, "Sure. When are we going?"

"How about Sunday?"

I say it's okay. Then we realize that it's already near afternoon so Peeta decides to go home and return to his work and I decide to hunt. We bid farewell then we go to each other's house. Once I reach home, Prim's already there.

"Hi. How was your day?" She asks the moment she sees me enter the house.

"It wasn't so bad," I say, smiling. Because it's true, spending the day with Peeta isn't so bad at all. "Is mother here?"

"She's working on the medical plants she bought this morning."

I nod then go upstairs and change my clothes to my hunting clothes. After that I tell Prim to take care of the house while I hunt. When I get out of the house, I run towards the fence that separates the houses and the woods. I slip through the hole on the electrified fence to the woods then I grab my bow and arrows. I go deeper into the woods and spot a deer eating some grass. I stretch my bow and prepare to shoot the deer. But when the deer walks forward, a trap triggers and a net wraps around the poor animal.

"Too slow, Catnip." I hear a voice says.

I put down my weapons and turn around and see my best friend. "Shut up, Gale."


Whoo-hoo! Finally finished the school scene. I'm sorry if I made Katniss a little OOC. If you guys noticed, Peeta and Katniss sounded as if they were on a date. Anyway, Gale finally makes his appearance. Review please.