Chapter 3
Peeta roughly knows what he's doing on board a horse. His posture is a little off and he doesn't know how to rise the trot, but that can all be sorted with a little time. I watch him bounce around in the saddle and giggle.
"Try to relax a little. Feel the rhythm of his trot." I watch him flop around in the saddle. He tries, and fails miserably. "Ok stop, stop."
He brings Hunter to a stop and turns to look at me his cheeks red from exertion.
"You need to relax, you're as stiff as a surfboard. Now close your eyes, roll your shoulders back, take a deep breath and ask him to walk," I instruct. I watch his broad shoulders roll back and see the muscles flex beneath the t-shirt he's wearing. Then, his muscular pectorals puff out and his whole body seems to relax as he exhales the breath. He nudges Hunter into a walk.
"That's it, move your hips with the horse, it keeps him in forward motion. Now, when you feel ready, take another deep breath and nudge him into trot. Once he's trotting, stay sitting for a few beats, feel the rhythm and tell me how many beats you can feel."
He walks for another while, and I nudge Jay to walk alongside him. He looks at me and smiles before taking another deep breath. He nudges Hunter into trot and bounces around before finally finding the rhythm.
"Two beats. I think I feel two beats," he calls out to me.
I nudge Jay into trot to catch up with him.
"Yeah you're right. Now try to stand up in your stirrups for one beat and sit with the other. If it helps you, chant one-two or up-down as you go," I suggest as we trot along.
It takes him a few tries but eventually he gets it. I have him come back to a walk and then trot a few times before I ask him to add steering into the mix. Just a few figure eights, nothing too complicated for now. When I ask him if he wants to try cantering when we've stopped for a minute, he pales.
"I've never cantered before. I just stuck to walk and trot in Gramps place", he says, sounding a little embarrassed. "Those two always seemed the safest."
"Actually, you'd be surprised. Cantering, I find, is easier than trot. It's like, this fluid motion, and all you have to do is keep your butt in the saddle and relax and move your hips with the movement of the horse. Wanna watch me go around for a canter?"
He nods so, I pull Jay out to the track and nudge him into trot. When we reach the corner of the arena, we begin to canter. I sit deep in the saddle and roll my hips with the movement beneath me. I concentrate on Jay for a couple of minutes as he's not his usual impulsive self and I'm working harder than normal to keep the pace up. When I look over at Peeta, he's staring at me intently. I see him swallow hard and his nostrils flare as he watches me. The look in his eyes sends butterflies through my belly and they fly all over my body. I don't know what to make of the sensation, so I turn my attention back to Jay and continue cantering him for another circuit of the school, before bringing him back to trot.
As I trot around I take a deep breath and turn to look at Peeta.
"See? Canter isn't that bad its—,"
I'm broken off by the loud honk of a car horn.
Jay spooks, screams, bolts off and, after a couple of strides, he throws a massive buck, completely unseating me and sending me flying. I land on my back in the sand, dazed.
"Shit! Katniss!" I hear Peeta call out, jump down off Hunter and rush over to me. "Shit, Katniss, don't move!"
"I'm fine, Peeta, I've had worse," I complain trying to sit up.
"No, seriously, don't move. Didn't Christopher Reeve get paralyzed because of a horse riding fall?" he questions, dead serious.
"Yes, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed due to a horse riding accident, but I am fine. I can feel and move both my hands and my toes, and the only thing right now that hurts is my butt and my pride," I scowl at him fussing over me.
We're broken out of the trance by Johanna running over to us.
"Shit, Brainless, can't you keep your stud under control?" she smirks at me while kneeling down to double check my spine. "All fine, no lasting damage to you physically, unfortunately. Now get your ass back up on that horse," she declares pulling me to my feet. She spots Peeta, and gives him the once over. "Oh, hey, who are you, you fine looking thang?"
Peeta turns that cherry tomato colour again at Johanna's remark, and looks to me for help. Johanna was in Gale's year in our school, but didn't pay any attention to any of the younger guys. She has a thing for older men. Rumor had it that she was sleeping with an army sergeant named Boggs, but I know that's all bullshit. I honestly think she started the rumor to win herself some cred; she loves being the centre of attention.
"JOHANNA MARY JANE MASON! What the FUCK were you thinking of, honking your FUCKING horn when there are horses in the arena? Are you fucking NUTS?!" I scream at her startling Jay again who had just made his way back over to me. "No. Actually, don't answer that, we already know the answer."
I take a deep breath to calm down and rub Jay's face to help soothe him, and myself, some more.
"Peeta, this is Johanna, or Jo as she prefers, another instructor here. Jo, this is Peeta, our working student this summer," I introduce them.
Jo looks Peeta slowly up and down, appraising him before turning on her signature 'charm'.
"Well, cowboy. You look familiar. Have I sat in your saddle before?" she asks him, as casually as if asking for the time.
"No, I doubt it. You're not my type," he replies, seemingly unfazed by her brashness. He looks her up and down also before continuing. "But you might have known my older brother, Rye, he was in your year in school and went after anything that would have him."
He turns away to grab Hunter who had started munching on a patch of grass at the edge of the arena.
"I think I'm gonna leave cantering until next time, Katniss. I'll take him in and untack if you want to stay out here," Peeta says already turning to leave.
"Ok, you can go on back to the barn to finish unpacking if you want. There's not much left to do in the yard. Dinner is at 5 in our house if you want to join us," I call out to him as he leaves.
"Nice going, Jo, scaring him away. You really can be such a bitch, you know that?" I grumble at her.
"Woah, Brainless, fall outta the wrong side of the bed this morning?" she laughs at me. "And what's with the worrying about how he feels? You didn't care when it was that other blonde idiot, what's-his-name."
"No, I'm like this because someone was an idiot and honked their car horn when there was a lesson going causing me to fall. So, excuse me if I'm pissy at you!" I berate her again. "That idiot's name was Cato, and he was an asshole. Peeta lives in this town, and he was actually interested and wants to learn. Now, give me a leg up so I can finish working Jay on his other side before turning him out."
Jo gives me a leg up and helps me with Jay, giving me pointers where needed. We pop a few jumps to end on a high note and then head back into the stables. After untacking Jay, Jo corners me in the tack room.
"So, bread boy was in our school huh? And the way you seem to care about his feelings says you like him," she enquires with a sly look on her face. "Is he the guy you were cooing over when we were in school?"
I brush past her and she follows me as I walk back out to put some horses into the paddock before going for dinner.
"What? No!" I blurt, my voice a higher pitch than normal. I cough to cover it. "He's the guy who beat up Mavel Jones when he was bullying Prim after Dad died, so he can't be all that bad. And yes, he was in my year at school, but I barely noticed him. He was always with the 'it' crowd and you know me, reclusive and focused on my studies."
"That doesn't mean you didn't stare longingly at him from across the cafeteria," she says, the last part uncharacteristically high and breathy. After seeing the look of shock I give her she snorts and adds, "yeah, I noticed Katniss. I might not have paid much attention to school, but I always kept an eye on my friends, and you, sweetheart, kept looking over at the popular table."
I feel heat creep up my face as I turn away from her to continue the work.
"Could you do the quick clean of the stalls before we have to go wash up for dinner, please?" I say, getting back to business and walking away from her.
Once the last little rounds of the stables are done, we head back towards the house to see Peeta leaving through the front door and walking to his car. He's too far away to shout to without drawing attention to me and, since I've already been ribbed by Jo, I don't want to add Haymitch into the mix too.
We take our filthy boots off on the porch and walk into the hall. After scrubbing our hands clean, we head into the kitchen.
"What's for dinner, momma Lils?" Jo asks as she plonks herself down at the massive kitchen table.
Jo's mom passed away of breast cancer not long after my Dad did, and since she became my friend back when we were 15 she's called my mom momma Lils. My mom started coming out of the depression that hit her after dad died around about then, and Jo always had sleepovers here with us since her Dad had to take a second job working nights to keep their house.
"Just casserole and veggies, Jo, nothing too fancy. Oh, Katniss, Peeta said to tell you thanks for the invite to dinner, but he had plans to meet a friend who's home from college tonight," she says as I come up to help her out and get the plates out for everyone.
I wonder who this could be while setting the table before realising Jo is sitting doing nothing playing Candy Crush on her phone.
"Get up off your ass, Mason, and either help me or go get Haymitch and Prim before this starts to get cold," I growl at her still pissed from earlier.
She holds her hands up in defeat before retreating the room.
As I lay in bed that night, staring at the ceiling, I hear a car coming down the drive. I glance at my phone to see its 12.30 and smirk to myself thinking getting Peeta up for his first full day on the job is going to be fun. As my mind starts to wander while trying to drift off, I start to think how unruly his hair looks in the morning? Then it wonders what it would look like after me combing my fingers through it during a makeout session, and what kinds of noises I could make come from his chilled chest.
I sit bolt upright in bed, shocking myself away from that train of thought.
"No, Katniss. You cannot go there," I scold myself before lying back down and putting on a video on YouTube of the sounds of a thunderstorm.
Just as I feel myself drifting off to sleep, I picture Peeta in my mind's eye, hovering above me. With a flash of lightening, I see that look he had in his eyes as he intently watched me canter.
Thinking back on it now, the movement of your hips in canter essentially has you grinding the saddle. These are my last coherent thoughts before I fall asleep.
A/N thank you sincerely for all the follows/kudos and comments, means so much to know people actually like what's going on in my brain. Who do we think Peeta was meeting? Next chapter is going to be Peeta's POV, but it won't be as long as this one. This story is mainly going to be from Katniss's POV with a few snippets of Peeta's thrown in here and there. Again thanks to the amazing Javistg for being beta. Until next time; Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones.