Author's Note; Sorry for the wait, I'm having some serious writers block and motivation problems so I'm if this isn't all that good.
I throw myself down on one of the sofas in the sofa area after the maths lesson from hell. I will never understand when I will ever need to use algebra in my life. Finnick, Clove and Johanna are already sitting here talking about something that my mind cannot grasp as it shuts down into sleep mode from the overload of information from maths class. I give the guys a smile of greeting but then take out my headphones and put them on, letting the calmness of acoustic music wash over me and I shut my eyes. I have it quiet enough so I can hear what is transpiring around me but loud enough to stay disconnected. It's not long before I feel the sofa sag ever so slightly beside me as someone sits down but I don't acknowledge them until I get a prompt nudge in the arm. I lazily open my eyes and look to my left to see Katniss smiling at me. I practically rip the earphones from my ears and sit up straight without hesitation.
"Hey." She says with a small laugh, probably from my rush getting my headphones off. It's been a week since our little 'heart to heart' talk and we have been spending a lot more time together. She changed her seats in class to sit next to or nearer to me in every class we share and she often, like now, comes and joins my little group at lunch times and she fits in just fine. Everyone has really taken to her. I'm not sure if it's just for my sake but I really don't think it is, I think they genuinely like her, it's hard not to. Cato hasn't come back to school yet since the party but all the gossip and fuss over what happened has died down, which I'm grateful for. The superman jokes were getting ridiculous, most of them coming from Finnick actually but also for Katniss' sake. She seems a lot happier now than she was that day she snapped at me.
"Hey, how are you?" I reply chucking my bag on the floor from beside me and shifting over on the sofa so Katniss could shift over from sitting on the edge.
"I'm alright. I can't wait till the holidays, I need some r and r." She laughs again.
"Come over here and I can rock your world." Finnick chimes in with a wink. What a corny bastard. It makes me laugh anyway.
"Even if Idid mean rock and roll, I doubt you'd be up for the challenge Fin." Katniss says back with a slightly smug but extremely sexy grin.
"If I can't, who the hell in this world can?" Finnick says with a worryingly serious face and his eyes flicker to mine. Oh dear god, really? I can feel the redness creeping up in my cheeks and I pray that Katniss replies with something witty to cover this but it's not her that speaks first, it's Clove.
"So the film night isn't that long away, who are you all inviting to go?" She says with a cough but avoids all eye contact. Of course Finnick is the first one to pipe up.
" I've had my eye on this one girl in my science class, her names Annie. I think I might turn the charm on and ask her." He says with a huge grin. It's not the cocky or seductive one or even the teasing kind of one he normally displays when he is talking about girls, it looks like a genuine smile. A big one. This Annie must have really made an impression on him as I've never seen that smile grace his face whilst he's talking about a girl.
"What about you? Who are you asking?" He asks Clove back, putting his arm on the back of the sofa where Johanna is sitting next to him. Back to normal Finnick again. Clove goes silent for a second and looks down at her lap. Maybe something is wrong with her, is she upset over something? Just when I'm about to ask her, she looks up at me with some kind of sparkle in her eye. Oh crap. She's going to ask me. Crap, crap, crap. Everyone else notices just after I do and I feel the stares of Johanna and Finnick on me but that realisation goes away when I realise something else, Katniss has tensed up next to me. I glance at her over my shoulder to see her looking intently at Clove, almost as if urging her on. The silence is overwhelming and I'm trying my best to keep calm.
"What about you Katniss? Are you going to ask anyone?" Johanna pipes up, cutting though the silence and tension. Now it's my turn to tense up, it's like my body has seized, waiting for her answer to see who had the capability to win her over. In a way I hope she says she isn't going to ask anyone as knowing what this film night is going to be like, it would be a torturous night having to watch some guy swoon over her.
"Well, I'm not going to tell until I've actually asked him." She says with yet another grin. In that instant my mind starts racing to think of excuses for not turning up to the night and I slouch back in my spot as the conversation carries on. I bet it's Gale. Of course it is.
"Well you better ask quickly, the night is soon approaching and everyone is going to get taken soon and whoever caught your eye may be one of the first to go." Finnick jokingly warns. What the fuck is his problem? Why is he egging her on to go ask some guy out when he knows how much I like her? I intend to give him a death stare but when I look up to him he is smiling at me. What the hell is he smiling at? He's my best friend and all but he can be a douche sometimes.
The rest of that lunch time was taken up by the conversation of the film night and honestly I was sick to death with talking about it with all the meetings we have been having about it with Miss. Trinket and the incredibly awkwardness of the Clove thing so I'd plugged back in one of my headphones so that I could let my mind wander but still be open to engaging in conversation and not being rude.
By the end of school I felt like a walking zombie, it had been such a long day. I offered to help out in the bakery when I got in as there is nothing better to relieve stress than to knead dough and it's one of my favourite things to do. My dad was glad for the help as it was quite a busy day, so he went out to the front of the shop to tend to the customers whilst I stayed in the back making loaf upon loaf of bread to loud music. I was absolutely covered in flour by this point and my arms were starting to fatigue from the sheer pressure I was using to knead this dough but I carry on as I feel myself calm down from the stressful day. As I'm putting another tray of bread into the oven I hear my dad call me from the front.
"Peet! There's someone here for you!" I wipe my hands on my apron and walk curiously out into the front of the shop, I never get visitors here, except Finnick when he comes for free food of course but he normally just strolls through into the kitchen. There's quite a little crowd queued up at the counter as I walk over to my dad.
"Yeah dad?" I ask trying to pick out someone waiting for me. Being quite a small town, all the faces in the shop are familiar and I guess anybody could be here to talk to me. My dad doesn't have time to answer before someone calls out.
"Hey Peeta!" I instantly recognised the way my name is said and my eyes shoot around the room in search for her braid but I can't see it. Then my eyes catch on to her. Her hair has been let down and is falling in waves over her shoulders, her plump lips are turned up into a small smile and her grey eyes have taken on a misty look. She's so beautiful and I can't help thinking it.
"Hey, can we talk?" She says as she walks over to where I'm standing behind the counter.
"Erm yeah, sure. Let's go in the back, it's a lot less crowded and noisy." I say as I direct her though to the kitchen. She takes a minute to take in the scene around her. I can see her eyes scanning over every detail of the kitchen, soaking it in as she slowly moves around. I wait and watch until she speaks after feeling satisfied that she has seen everything she needs to about the kitchen.
"So what's up?" I ask pulling her out of her little trance as I shove my hands in my pockets. "Finnick tell you about the cakes?" I laugh but she doesn't laugh back, she is standing in the middle of the kitchen looking over at the oven silently.
"Are you ok? What's wrong?" I ask concerned as I walk over to her. She still doesn't look at me but slightly impatient, I tip her chin up gently with my hand so she is looking at me.
"Gale and I got into a kind of fight." She sighs out. I always knew Gale was a hot tempered person, quite like Katniss actually but I've never known them to have a fight, they've always been too close.
"What happened?"
"He asked me to the film night thing and I told him I didn't want to go with him." She says a little quietly and I only just picked up what she said over the noise coming from the shop. That really took me back, I was certain he was who she was asking to go with her anyway.
"I want to go with you."
