Chapter 3

"I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples, bastards and broken things." — Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

The bakery is not what I expected to be. Of course, I didn't really know what to expect. I'd imagined that the bakery would look like a run down version of what the bakeries near my old apartment in London looked like, or at the very least, it looked like the bakery in the film. But it didn't. Instead, it looked like the bakeries you find in Wales, as in it was a run down cottage, but there was still a homely feel to it.

No wonder the Mellark's didn't want to leave here, I think to myself; It's beautiful.

I think back to when I was a child in my old life, when I was growing up in Wales and visiting these sort of bakeries. The thought is clearly too much for my 4 year old body, and I feel myself start to tear up.

Frustrated, I wipe away my tears, hoping that my family members won't notice. Unfortunately, as the odds are not in my favour, they do.

Madge immediately hugs me, whispering words of comfort. My father looks at me concerned and I smile at them.

"Don't worry about me," I say, "The smoke is just getting in my eyes."

The air was heavy with smog this morning, so, I was grateful that I could use that as an excuse. Madge lets go and nods whereas my father doesn't change his expression.

"You know girls, if the smog is affecting you, then we should probably go back ho-"

"No," I say, cutting him off.

I need to meet Peeta Mellark. His love for Katniss is one of the main reasons for the rebellion, but it's not just for that reason that I need to seek him out. His words were always seen as a weapon, one of the most deadly; after all, wasn't it Peeta's words that gave the Capitolitans the incentive to riot and rebel against the games? He was a good person but a manipulator who understood how the game worked. Katniss may have handed him the berries, but he was the one who wanted the nation to see what they were doing. I need someone with that ability on my side as I can't just simply hope that he'll still have these skills in the future. For all I know, my simple presence in his classes might somehow make him lose this ability and then when he gets reaped, he'll just die pathetically while Katniss may win.

Father looks unsure, but Madge grabs my hand and pulls me inside.

Well, someone's eager.

The bakery is something else entirely. It's warm inside (which I appreciate) and it smells like yeast, cinnamon, bread and coffee. There is a wide range of pastries and foods available in the bakery, food which existed in my world, something I was grateful for. A man behind the counter beams at us as soon as we walk in, and I immediately assume that he is Mr Mellark. After all, his sons were bound to be too young to help run the bakery and I doubt that the family could afford to hire help. I swear Peeta mentions in the first book that he and his family had to eat stale bread due to not being able to afford proper food...

"Ryan" My father greets, receiving a nod from the baker.

"Marcus" the baker replies and the two begin to talk about nothing and everything at the same time.

My father's name was Marcus, something which I hadn't known. From the confused look Madge is giving me, I assume that she also didn't know this. Even for a 24 year old trapped in a 4 year old's body, the fact that my father's first name is something other than Mayor is shocking.

Before I know it, my father has bought three strawberry tarts and is leading us out of the door. I brace myself for a tantrum, wanting to stay in the bakery until I meet Peeta, or at least one of his brothers, but Mr Mellark helps me out.

"How about a playdate?" he asks my father and I grin, silently thanking the mayor despite the fact that he didn't have any idea that Madge or I wanted a playdate.

Maybe I had been watching too much Game of Thrones in my past life, but it was pretty obvious that Mr Mellark only wanted the bakery to have the support of the Undersees. After all, of the Mayor's daughters are close to the baker's sons, then why wouldn't the mayor provide money to ensure that the rapidly deteoriating bakery doesn't collapse and kill either Madge and I, or people we strongly care about.

Now that I think about it, no wonder Madge was such a loner in canon. Katniss was probably the only person in that school that she could guarantee would not try and use her to elevate their or their families' status.

My father quickly agrees, which although I am happy about, is a bit strange, as surely he would have realised what the baker was trying to do, if I, a year his junior, realised.

Maybe he saw something that I didn't, I don't know, but due to his agreement, I found myself sitting in front of the 3 Mellark brothers a few days later.

I never liked the Mellarks. Other than Peeta, the family just seemed like a special sort of horrible. After all, unless this was a medieval or fantastical world, how could someone stand by and let their spouse abuse the children the two made together? Not only that, but the second Mellark stood by when his younger brother's name was killed and didn't do anything to try and prevent it. I know that Katniss' actions were seen as unique, but surely I would have assumed that any decent older sibling would have volunteered for their younger sibling. Gale would have volunteered for Rory if his name was chosen, I'm sure of it. If Delly Cartwright could volunteer for her brother, then I'm sure she would. We are supposed to know our younger siblings better than anyone else- even than our own parents, so if we know that our siblings is too gentle (or too good in Peeta's case) for these games, then surely we would volunteer to save them?

Oh no, not the Mellarks. Instead they simply watched Peeta become a victor and then refused to live in a house with him. Do I know why? No, Susanne Collins was never very specific with this issue, but I do know and believe that what they did was wrong.

Over the days before the playdate, I make a plan to rid Peeta of the Mellark's influence. By distancing himself from them, the blow that would have surely come from the second brother not volunteering wouldn't affect Peeta so much. I prepare to hate the Mellark brothers for what they chose to do, but as I stand in front of them with Madge, I realise that I can't hate them. How could I when these children in front of me haven't done anything wrong?

I don't even know their names, I think to myself, feeling ashamed that I was so ready to hate them based on something that an alternate version of themselves had done.

"I'm Bran," the eldest says, distracting me from his thoughts. He is 8 years old and with stormy blue eyes and dirty blond hair, looks nothing like his father.

"Rye" The middle child says with a wave and a smile. He is 6 and unlike his older brother, he does look somewhat like his father, having the same colour eyes as the man.

"And that's our brother Peeta!" They exclaim, pointing towards the youngest and I get my first look at the Boy with the Bread.

Peeta didn't look anything like how I imagined he would look from the book trilogy. He didn't look anything like Josh Hutchinson either. His ashy blond hair, which I had always assumed was straight, was curly and fell in such a way that had his brothers not clarified what gender he was, I'm sure Madge would have assumed his was a girl. He however, was a spitting image of his father, from the facial structure to the exact same shade of blue in his eyes.

He doesn't say anything to us, only making brief eye contact with us before going back to looking at the floor and I wonder if he'd been hit by his mother to behave around us, the Mayor's children.

'You have to keep behave,' I imagine her saying after she'd hit him, 'don't say a word and lose our chance of getting more money.' I clench my fists in anger, but luckily, no one notices.

'I'm Madge,' my twin says with a smile which the two older Mellark's return. Peeta continues to look at the floor. A couple of minutes pass and I realise that everyone is waiting for me to introduce myself.

"Maeve," I mumble, feeling myself flush at the attention.

Peeta briefly looks up then, so I count that as a win.

"Why don't we play tag?" Bran suggests, and at Madge's confused look, he goes onto explain the game. At least they have a simple game like tag in this world. Then again, I think to myself, in this world, tag is probably the only thing that children play.

"Is Peeta playing?" my twin asks after he finishes his sentence. I hide a smile with a cough. It looks like someone is interested...

"Well it depends if he wants to play," the eldest Mellark replies, turning to his youngest brother,

He turns around to Peeta, who vehemently shakes his head.

Madge nods and then runs forward to tag Rye, who dodges and laughs at her second attempt, which results in her falling over.

The three run around the room yet I stay still, watching Peeta, who is still staring at the bloody floor. Maybe he thinks I decided to play with the other? I don't know, but after a few minutes, he finally looks up and his eyes meet mine.

I smile at him and he shyly returns it. I count that as another win. Seriously, I think to myself, how does one so shy become the confident Peeta Mellark I know from the books?

"Why aren't you playing?" He asks, his voice hoarse. Hoarse from what? I don't know, but the most likely reason would be from lack of use. After all, if he's already being abused, like I think he is, then he would probably speak as few as he can, as speaking draws attention to oneself, something that an abused kid wouldn't do.

"Hi," I say and he mumbles a greeting, looking down at the floor again.

I sigh to myself, knowing that it was going to be hard to get him to trust me, let alone be my friend.

Or maybe not, I think to myself, glancing at my bag.

"Follow me," I say and walk towards it.

I hear his footsteps as I make my way across the room and smile. At least he trusts me enough to follow me.

"Let's draw!" I say, taking out my trump card: a notebook. I know that Peeta was a really good artist from the books, so he would have had to start drawing from somewhere right?

To my surprise, he looks at me confused.

"What is that?" He asks and I frown.

Has this kid never seen a notebook before? I know that we live in District 12, but surely a Merchant's son would know what a notebook was.

Apparently not. I was dreading having to explain literally everything I own to a Seam Kid. Maybe Katniss would know what some objects, I briefly wonder. After all, her mother was best friends with my mother and late aunt...

"It's a notebook," I explain, trying hard to keep the incredulity out of my voice, "we draw in it."

He nods then and gets the pens out of my bag for me. I open the book and start drawing, wondering when exactly this kid figured out he was good at drawing in the books. Surely, he didn't actually get all of his skills from decorating the cakes form the bakery?

I finish my drawing and look up to see him watching me. When our eyes make contact, he quickly looks away to stare at my picture. I wait for him to add his own drawings, or at least pick up a pen but he doesn't.

It looks like I'm going at this the wrong way...

I flick to the next page and draw half of a heart. Then I motion for him to finish it. He frowns at me, but at my encouraging nod and smile picks up a pen and finishes it.

"When I say we draw together," I say slowly, making sure he understands, "We draw together, Okay Peeta?"

He nods. "Okay"

Unfortunately I can't point out the Fault in Our Stars reference because it doesn't exist in this world. But believe me, I wanted to.

"You're a really good drawer you know," I say to him after the next drawing, trying not to wince at my error. I'm a 24 year old woman damn it; I shouldn't be calling an artist a 'drawer.' Peeta because he actually a 4 year old didn't notice my error and correct me.

Instead, there is a visible change in his demeanor. His whole face lights up.

"Really?" he asks, his voice filled with an emotion that I somehow don't recognise.

"Yeah, you're amazing" I say sincerely and he grins at me.

Later that day, when my parents tell me off for filling an entire notebook with doodles and not practising my writing like I was supposed to do with it, I will think of that grin and smile, knowing that it was worth it.

"Did you girls have fun?" My father asks when we leave the Mellark house later on. "Yes," we both exclaim. For different reasons I'm sure.

"Can we play with them again?" I ask him and he looks surprised before relief crosses his face. If the Mellarks were the best choice out of the merchants, I think to myself, then I do not want to meet the other families.

"You can meet them as many times as you like my dears," he says and both of us beam at him to show our gratitude. Madge is happy to play with people that weren't just me (I take no offense to that cause I'm sure if I were an actual 4 year old, I would feel the same way.) And I'm happy that I can finally initiate the first part of my plan.

Little did I know that in the house we just left, Peeta Mellark, in a voice that his family had never heard him use before, requests to see us again. In the original world- the one where I didn't exist, this meeting would have still taken place, however neither the Mellarks or the Undersees would have sought a second meeting, as Madge would never have been confident enough to ask to see them again and she hadn't made a memorable impression on the Mellark boys. This time however, I made an impression on them. I gave Peeta something that he had never received before: Praise and ignored the louder, more boisterous boys to focus on him.

I needed an ally and I definitely gained one. But this encounter left me with something far more meaningful than an ally. That night as he went to sleep, Peeta Mellark fell asleep thinking of his first friend: not Delly Cartwright as he would in another life, but of Maeve Undersee: The Girl who Sees Him.

Phase 1 of Project Iron Throne:

Don't give up on the boy with the bread- COMPLETE

A/N Hope you like this chapter! The list for Phase 1 of Maeve's plan will be full of references of memes, videos or moments of the randoms I'm in, so be prepared. I won't reveal what the endgame of this project will be as I don't like to give spoilers, just letting you guys know.

Also, the reference to this part of phase 1 is from a song by Studio C, a youtube channel. It's called 'Peeta's song,' and is hilarious. You should check it out.

Thank you for reading!