Yeah, so I'm back from my holiday in France! I would have updated earlier but I was awake for 30 hours on the way back from France to England. 20 of those hours where spent in the car actually travelling, 4 were spent directing traffic after there was a huge (and horrifying) car-crash, 5 were spent eating, getting lost, and typing and the other hour was spent climbing into my house through our bathroom window after we left the keys inside the house and couldn't get in... (Don't ask.)
But I must tell you how good it feels to FINALLLY HAVE WIFI! ... AND A TAN! I mean, come on. I was in France for 5-6 days and got a better tan than I have during this entire summer holiday in England. (Depressing, I know).
Right then. It's time for me to stop talking. Enjoy this chapter of SPARKS! YEAH!...
I'm running. Running as fast as I can. I can see Peeta standing not 20 yards from me, flour up to his elbows, a worn apron around his waist.
"Peeta!" I shout. He turns to me, his eyes wide, and opens his mouth, as if he were to speak. But then his mother appears from inside the bakery, rolling pin in hand, her mouth set in a line. "Peeta! Behind you!" I shout. I attempt to move forward but my legs stay firmly planted on the dusty ground. Mrs Mellark brings her arm back. "No! Stop! Please!" I scream, tears trickling down my cheeks. The rolling pin makes contact with Peeta's jaw and he staggers, clutching at his face, and falls to the ground.
I wake with a gasp and a cold sweat on my forehead.
"Katniss?" Prim sits up from the bed she is sharing with my mother and rubs her eyes. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. Bad dream, that's all." I reassure her. "Go back to sleep." Prim gives me a small smile and lays her head down on the pillow, closing her eyes. I stand and change into more comfortable clothes. I pull on my hunting boots. I twist my hair into its signature braid. I head for the woods.
The morning air is fresh. Well, as fresh as it can be in this coal-covered district. I can feel the summer heat bearing down on the back of my neck, as I get closer to the fence. The trees provide me with shade and a slight breeze ruffles my hair. I find my bow and arrows. I manage to shoot a rabbit. I sit on a fallen tree and skin the animal, listening to the sounds of the forest. But soon my mind wanders to Peeta. He's been gone for nearly two days now. He could be anywhere.
How do you begin to look for a lost person? I've asked around, searched alleyways, and done everything I could do. I've looked where Peeta would most likely be.
Even in the forest, where I'm normally so focused on hunting, I keep an eye out for Peeta. As if he would be here, in the forest, alive. He's a townie. How would he know what was edible and what wasn't? How would he know how to defend himself against wild animals? He wouldn't even know how to get back the fence, the only trails available are normally only used by animals. Gale and I are used to this environment. Peeta Mellark, on the other hand, is not.
I'm walking towards the Hob with three rabbits and a beaver when I come up with a plan. I need to, have to, go to bakery. I have to ask his mother. I need to confront his family face on.
"It's a sign that autumn is on its way." Greasy Sae says knowingly, nodding her head towards my first large haul of kills for about two months.
"Thank God." I say, a smile on my lips. Sae takes the beaver and a rabbit for a handful of golden coins. I mill around her stall for a moment.
"Is there something you want?" Sae asks me.
"Have you seen Peeta Mellark lately?" I blurt out.
"The baker's youngest son?" I nod. "No, I haven't. He normally comes in here with his mother to by baking twin and herbs during the summer. But I haven't seen him."
"Would you call me crazy if I went to his mother and shouted at her?" I ask, biting my lip.
Sae stares at me as if I've suddenly sprouted another head. "Depends on why you want to shout at her." I frown. "And she is a nasty piece of work from what I've heard."
"But you wouldn't call me crazy, would you?" I persist.
"No, I suppose not. But make sure you give that witch a good scare from me as well." Sae grins crookedly at me.
I sell one of the two remaining rabbits and head back to my house, leaving the last rabbit on the chopping board in our kitchen. And then, I head for the bakery.
It feels strange to be walking through the real side of the Merchant's area of District 12, instead of through the back- streets and ally-ways. I'm used to trading goods at the back door of the bakery with Peeta's father. I march straight into the bakery and find that it is empty. No one is waiting to be served or buying anything. I walk up to the counter.
"Welcome to the Mellark Bakery. How may I-" Rye turns to face me. "Oh. It's you." I raise an eyebrow. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want. I want to know where Peeta is." I tell him, folding my arms.
"Look. Get this into your thi-" Rye clears his throat. "-head. Peeta doesn't want to speak to you. He doesn't want to see you. He doesn't want anything to do with you. You have ruined his life as far as he's concerned."
"You do realise that nothing ever happened, don't you?" I say, leaning forward, my hands on the wooden counter.
Rye frowns. "I heard that he knocked you up."
"Congratulations! You're an uncle!" I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
Peeta's brother drops the notepad he's holding, his blue eyes wide. "So it's true?"
"No." I roll my eyes. "Nothing ever happened between us. I wasn't even associating with him until about a week or two ago."
"Then why don't you just go back to normal, and leave him alone?" Rye says. "Our mother isn't the most... forgiving person."
"You could say that again." I smirk.
"Well, yeah." Rye admits, a small smile on his lips. "But if I were you, I wouldn't get involved in this. She was angry with him. I've never seen her so furious. I don-"
"Rye! What are you doing?" A high-pitched voice exclaims. Rye and I straighten up immediately.
"I was just telling Miss Everdeen over here which type of bread we're cooking next week." Rye says, his eyes flickering back and forth between his mother and me.
"Oh, fantastic idea!" Mrs Mellark hisses. "Just tell her what we're selling and when we're selling it so she can come in and steal it from us!"
"No, I wasn't going to do th-" I start.
"I don't want to hear anything coming from your mouth." Mrs Mellark snaps at me. "You are a Seam slut." She pronounces each word slowly, popping the 't'. "You always have, and you always will be. I told my son to be careful, not to mess around. And now look what he's done! Knocked up a thing like you. It's disgusting. He isn't a son of mine. You've ruined his life! You've ruined everyone's lives! And you think you can walk into my bakery and act like everything is fine and dandy?" I stare at her, eyes wide. Her words of venom have had no effect on me, but I'm just amazed at how much she has said in one breath.
"Mother, you-" Rye begins. Mrs Mellark holds a finger in the air. Rye falls silent, his eyes throwing daggers at his mother.
"Okay, well." I say, taking a step back from the counter so that I can face Mrs Mellark fully. "Lets get a few things straight. Firstly, your son never knocked me up, nothing even happened between us. In fact, he saved me from being taken by Cray. Secondly, even if he had knocked me up, how would he have ruined everyone's life? Thirdly, this isn't your bakery, it's your husband's."
"How dare you speak to me like that!" Mrs Mellark screeches, walking towards me. "Maybe you should have been taken by Cray! It would have been a whole lot better."
"What's going on?" A quieter voice asks. I look over Mrs Mellark's shoulder and see Peeta's father coming through the door. "What is all this shouting for?"
"This girl has the nerve to come in here and yell at us! After all she's put us through!"
"I think you're the only one yelling, dear." Mr Mellark says. "You and I both very well know that this whole situation has been based on a misunderstanding. Katniss, were you ever pregnant with my son's child?"
"No." I say. Mr Mellark looks knowingly at his wife.
"She's lying." Mrs Mellark says. "She's only pretending to love Peeta. She's just jealous of the life we have compared to hers. She simply wants a way into the Merchant side of town."
"That isn't true!" I say indignantly. "I'm not trying to do anything! Peeta just happened to be in the right place at the right time!"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Mrs Mellark shrieks at me.
"He saved me from Cray! He's done nothing wrong! Your son is a good man! Despite all that you've put him though, he's turned out to be a polite, kind and strong person. You don't deserve him as a son." The room falls silent. I know I've gone to far. But Rye and Mr Mellark's face tell a different story. I can see that Rye is trying to fight a grin from spreading over his face. His smile is wiped off when Mrs Mellark brings he hand back and slaps me on the cheek. The pain is similar to when I was hit with the ball in Gym. My mouth drops open. My hand moves to my cheek.
"You filthy little slut." Mrs Mellark says.
"You may think it's okay to beat your children, but it isn't okay to hit me!" I shout at her. "It isn't right to hit anyone!"
"Don't you tell me what to do!" Mrs Mellark shrieks, furious.
"Where's Peeta?" I ask.
"It's none of your business! You leave us alone! You leave him alone!"
"Is he here?"
"No." Mrs Mellark says.
"You're lying." I say quietly. I step forward and jump onto and over the counter. "I'm sorry." I whisper to Mr Mellark as I pass him. He looks down at his feet.
"Get back here!" Mrs Mellark yells at me as I climb up the stairs. "Get out of my house! Now!" I hear her climbing the stairs behind me, but I'm already searching through the bedrooms. Peeta is nowhere in sight. One door left. I push it open. And there he is. Lying on the bed, a blanket thrown over his stomach.
"Peeta." I whisper, walking forward. His face is covered in red welts, and a long cut -a scratch- runs down the side of his face. His arm is at a funny angle. I can't see the rest of the damage under his shirt. From the looks of it he's unconscious. I feel a hand grip my arm and yank me backwards, out of the room.
"Get out of my house." Mrs Mellark screams at me, pushing me down the stairs. I stumble down them, through the front of the bakery and into the street.
"Is he dead?" I ask her. Her face pales. She doesn't answer me. "Tell me!" I shout, fighting the tears. A group of people walking by the bakery stop and stare. "Did you kill your son?"
"Go home." Mrs Mellark says, slamming the door. I run, my braid whipping my back with every step. By the time I reach the Hawthorne house, my cheeks are wet with salty tears.
"Gale!" I shout, hammering on their front door. Gale opens the door, his eyes wide.
"Christ Catnip! What's happened?" He says, stepping towards me.
"It's P-Peeta!" I say, my voice breaking between racking sobs. "I w-went to his house and he's in his r-room. B-but he's badly injured Gale, l-like you wouldn't believe."
"Come in, try to stop crying." Gale says, putting his arm around me and pushing me gently into his house.
"Katniss! Are you alright?" Hazelle asks, the spoon she was holding clattering onto the floor.
"It's about the baker's son." Gale says hurriedly.
"Rye?"
"No, Peeta."
"Oh." Hazelle frowns. "What's happened?"
"Well, I went to the bakery to see if he was there, and if he wasn't, ask his family where he was."
"What do you mean? Has he been missing?"
"For a few days." I say. "So I went in and started talking to Rye. He was saying how angry Peeta's mother was and how I shouldn't get involved but then Mrs Mellark came in and we started screaming at each other and I ran past her and up the stairs of their house and searched through all the rooms until I found Peeta. But he's hurt. Real bad."
"How bad?" Gale asks, leaning forward on his arms and staring at me. I wipe my hand over my cheeks to get rid of my tears.
"I'm not sure. But his face is pretty busted up, and he wasn't awake. I don't even know if he's alive." I feel a fresh wave of tears starting to appear and blink rapidly to get rid of them.
"Who did it to him?"
"Who do you think?"
"His mother?" Gale asks, lowering his voice.
"Yes." I say. "Of course it was her."
Gale opens his mouth to say something when someone knocks on the front door of the Hawthorne house. I look up at the door along with Gale as Hazelle answers it.
"Oh, hello." She says quietly.
"Can I come in?" Another person says.
"Of course, yes." Hazelle steps back a little and I see Rye (of all people) step over the threshold. His eyes flicker around the room that is used as a kitchen, sitting room and dining room before they come to rest on me.
"What do you want?" Gale asks.
"I want to talk to you about my brother." Rye says, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. He looks very, very out of place in the Seam, with his light hair, blue eyes and better quality clothes. "You need to get him out of there. Away from our mother."
"I know." I mumble. "How did you know I was here?"
"I saw you running. I followed." Rye shrugs. "I've got a plan on how to get Peeta away. My father is in on it too. But it won't be easy."
"I'm listening." I say. Gale nods beside me.
"Okay. This is what we'll do." He begins, looking between Gale and I, determination in his eyes.
Ooooo.
What do you guys think Rye's plan will be? :D