Disclaimer: The Hunger Game and its original characters belong to Suzanne Collins. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 7

Peeta squeezes my hand.

"She's always like that," Liam says dismissively. "I wouldn't take it personally."

Thor smiles, reminiscing. "Actually, I think she used to be meaner."

I ignore them, look at my fiancee. "I knew this was a bad idea," I mumble.

Mr. Mellark, who was putting something in the oven a moment ago, turns around and gives me a warm expression. "No it wasn't, sweetheart. Trust me, that went much better than I expected."

"Katniss," Peeta whispers softly, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. "When dinner's ready, she'll come downstairs, barely look at us, and take it up to her room. I really just wanted you to meet my brothers. Don't worry about my mom."

Twenty minutes later, when dinner's done, Peeta calls up to his mom. She comes downstairs, as predicted, grabs her plate, and trudges back up the stairs. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing I narrowly escaped some sort of family drama.

I'm still thinking about Mrs. Mellark's permanent scowl as Liam tells some sort of childhood story about Peeta.

"Peeta used to follow us around," Liam was saying, his face animated. "Thor and I used to hate it. Peeta, with his short and stubby little legs, would waddle around after us while we were baking, while we were feeding the pigs - everywhere. One time we had to take him to the market with us, and Thor and I saw these pretty girls. We were talking to them - you know, they seemed interested in us - so I give them the line."

Peeta's shaking his head and smiling at the memory.

"Peeta was wandering around the store, and we thought he wouldn't come back to us for a while. He usually gets lost looking at the cake section. Anyway, he comes up to me, tugs on the hem of my shirt. The girls think he's adorable - God only knows why - and they're giggling. Then Peeta says, 'Liam? How can you say you've never seen a lovelier girl when you say that to every girl you talk to?'"

Playfully, Liam punches his little brother in the arm. Peeta frowns and rubs his bicep. "After that, we taught him how to cook. We taught him how to put the frosting on the cakes - his favorite part. We wanted to keep him preoccupied, so he would stop following us everywhere."

Thor gives me a knowing look. "That's right. We never got any serious girlfriends until Peeta grew up and stopped following us around."

I laugh, and the rest of the dinner falls into the place the same way. Thor and Liam telling me funny or embarrassing stories about Peeta, Peeta asking me if I need any more food, Mr. Mellark resentfully going upstairs to collect his wife's plate. We don't see her for the rest of the night, and I almost think I'm off the hook until she calls, "Peeta, make sure she doesn't steal any food from our garbage again."

I know, I know, my chapters are super short! That's just the way I write! Sorry I didn't update in forever, but thanks for reading:) Please review!