Camp Panem
Chapter 7
Peeta's POV:
I gaped at the scene before me. Katniss was very close to Cato. She had an arrow nocked in her bow and she was ready to shoot. The point was touching Cato's chest.
Katniss didn't see me. I had no idea what to do.
"I know you're not gonna shoot me, Katniss. You wouldn't shoot a person," Cato tried to smirk that annoying smirk, but I knew he was at least a little scared.
"Everyone has a first time," Katniss said and quickly shot the arrow high up into the air. "Now go away." Cato smirked again and looked at her one last time.
"Party at nine," he whispered, and walked away. Just as he crossed over to the other unit, the arrow came falling down towards Cato, and fell into the ground right by his feet. He left the unit.
It was then when Katniss finally noticed me.
"What do you want?" she snarled, obviously not in a good mood.
"Nothing, I just….I was just walking around and seeing what everyone was doing," I lied. She looked at me in a funny way.
"You saw the whole me-shooting-Cato thing, right?" Katniss asked. I nodded. "Well you don't tell anyone. Especially if Snow or Trinket finds out, you're dead," Katniss threatened.
"You wouldn't actually shoot someone, would you?" I wondered aloud. She got even angrier.
"What the fuck, Peeta! You know what, I don't even know you. I don't know who you are. I just know your name and I just found out you freaking existed yesterday. I don't get what's with you. You think we can be friends. You think you know me. But big surprise, Peeta, you don't. You don't know me. Because nobody does. Nobody knows who I am. And nobody ever will!"
I tried to take it all in. I tried to remain calm. But I my heart was cracking in two inside.
"Maybe you can be more open, Katniss. We can be friends. Nothing more," I suggested. Katniss suddenly looked like she wanted to cry.
"My only friend is Gale. But he really sucks sometimes. He's had about fifty girlfriends. They come and always go with hurt feelings. Gale gives less shit every time he breaks up. Like last time, he broke up with this rich little prep-school girl named Delly Cartwright from Majesty probably, and he didn't even care. This is how it went, Peeta, seriously. Gale sees Delly at some kind of public place. Gale and I are both poor, 'cause we live in Market County, you see. But there Delly is, sparkling in a pile of crap. And Gale might be poor, but he's freaking handsome, not that I like him, but we can both agree on that," Katniss stopped to take a breath and look at me. I nodded. Gale was a pretty handsome fella. We sat on a bench and Katniss continued.
"So he notices Delly. He goes up to her. He compliments her. Delly is confused. Then Delly likes Gale back. They go out for a week or two. And then the 'feeling' isn't there anymore, so Gale dumps Delly. And I don't think he even ever loved her. 'Cause he just called me up one night, a week after they started dating, and he was like, 'Me and Delly broke up.' And he sounded happy. That's the problem; Gale always says the 'feeling' isn't there anymore. But truthfully, I think he just gets tired of the same girl. He dates every pretty girl he sees because he knows he can get them 'cause of his looks. Then he breaks the girl's heart. It sucks," Katniss frowned.
"That's terrible. I feel bad for Delly…..and the other forty-nine girls. He shouldn't just go around dating and dumping," I said.
"Yeah. Let's change the subject."
I thought for a bit. "I heard that you're from Market County too," I recalled.
"You're from Market County?! You look like a Majesty kid."
"Well….um….I live in the um….nicer part of town," I said carefully, watching my words.
"It's alright. It's just that…well….most of the kids here are all rich and…ya know….they're so Majesty," Katniss sighed. Majesty was the center of our country. Also where the richest families lived. You had to have a permit to even go inside Majesty.
"Um, I have to go now. I need some time to poke around the paints and stuff, so see you at the party?" I stood up.
"Yeah," Katniss smiled a little.
I started to walk out of the dirt-floor unit and back onto the grass but-
"Wait!" Katniss shouted, looking at me with wide gray eyes. I turned.
She looked down at her lap. "Never mind."
I back to the kitchen and sat on a tall stool by a countertop. The place was deserted, and I was alone in the cold weather. I slumped over the table. I thought about Katniss.
The thing is, I've known Katniss Everdeen all my life.
I lived in the good part of Market County. I was in her grade at school. I've always stared at her, wondering how a face like hers was humanly possible. She was beautiful; she was the sunshine peeking out of the cloud of reality. I guess I loved her even when I was little. I guess that's why I was so determined to develop a relationship with her. The only time we had direct interaction was probably the bread.
It was wintertime, the season where everything was tough. The bread hardened almost immediately after it was released of the fire and the fire was difficult to start. I got daily beatings for getting blood in the dough or on anything else. My hands became so dry and cracked in the winter, that with the slightest touch, they bled. I was probably around ten years old, so I didn't like the blood very much. Give me those hands now and I wouldn't care.
But I had no time to take pity on myself. Every day, Katniss came back to school looking weaker and skinnier. I knew that she illegally hunted in the government-restricted forest, but most of the game was hibernating for months. I knew her family was feeble and poor, and I knew that many were dying in Market County, and she could slip away right with them.
One day, especially cold, the air was biting even inside the bakery with multiple fires going. Snow was falling outside like cotton balls, and I could watch the blanket grow thicker and thicker each second. I daydreamed out the window and worried about Katniss and her family. I was distracted with the thought of her frozen to death; her small body lying on the floor, her piercing gray eyes wide open and glazed over, a mother and a small child weeping over her corpse.
Mother slapped my back.
"Get to work, you worthless little thing," she scowled. "This is your last chance. I don't want blood on my bread." I went back to the marble slab used as out counter and started kneading the bread dough. Mother was tired of my blood getting everywhere, so she put me on the cheapest product. I stood beside my brother, Rye, who was preparing pastry paste. Rye was the big brother, the awesome role model I wanted to be. He cared about me the most out of my other two brothers. Mother got the fire started and left the room. Rye suddenly grabbed one of my hands tightly and started wrapping something around it. I realized they were bandages.
"Mother will freak if she sees another drop of blood," Rye whispered, and bandaged my other hand.
"Where did you get this?" I asked quietly.
"Mrs. Everdeen used to have a healing shop. She sold this to me," Rye explained quickly. "go back to work, now. Try not to get beaten."
I thanked Rye and kept on kneading. I knew Mother never loved me, and I was the unwanted son. When she became pregnant with me, she wanted a girl, I knew it, and out came little boy Peeta. Mother came back into the room. She grabbed the bread dough from me and inspected it for any blood. I was proud to know that I wouldn't be getting slapped this time. She merely grunted and slapped it back on the marble.
She turned and checked out the window and squinted, her eyes wide. I looked to see why. I couldn't see much from the thick cloud of snow, but I could make out a small figure picking through our trash bins. Mother opened the back door and screamed terrible things at the figure I would not like to recall. As she opened the door, I had a clearer view.
The figure was unmistakably Katniss. She was alive, but she looked like she was on the edge of a cliff, the smallest puff of a toddler and she would be pushed into the pit, falling into death. I couldn't let that happen. I made a plan quickly in my head, a plan I knew I'd get a beating for. I looked back at Rye, who had told me not to get beaten, but I didn't want to take part in Katniss Everdeen's death. So I put the bread into the oven and burned it.
Mother screamed at me and shoved the burnt bread into my arms, pushing me out the back door.
"I gave you a chance! Now you'll feed the pigs and stay with them!" Mother scolded, and locked the door. I glanced at Katniss, crouched in the snow, the flurries already piling on top of her head. She looked like she was too cold, too beaten down to move, and she'd freeze to death right there. I threw the bread at her, and it landed in front of her face. She grabbed it and rubbed it all over her body and face, embracing its heat. She broke off a hard piece and stuck it in her mouth, stood up, and looked right at me with a confused look. I could read what was going on inside her head/.
Why?
I just smiled a little. She ran off to her home. I sat on the steps, waiting to be let inside the kitchen again.
Katniss's POV:
I didn't tell Peeta to wait because I wanted to keep talking to him. I told him to wait, because, well, did I ever tell you how I hated owing people? I hated owing Prim for making me happy every day. I hated my mother for not being sour back at me when I yelled at her. I hated owing Gale for caring for me so much while all I did was shun him.
And now I owe Peeta Mellark my life.
