CONTRE QUI, KATNISS?

by savemesalzburg

Author's Note: Thank you so much for your kind reviews and feedback. I'm glad you all enjoyed the first installment of this story. I realize that it was kind of short, but I was kind of just testing the waters. Hopefully from here on out, the chapters will be getting a little bit longer. I really enjoy writing this, it's slowly becoming an obsession. And seeing as I don't have school until Monday because of fucking Sandy, I can spend the rest of the week and the weekend writing it. And also the grocery store that I work at doesn't have power, so that's a plus, which means probably no work either. :D Woohoo. And all of my homework is done. So I have nothing to do with my life except for sit in front of the computer like a blob. I mean, I could go to the gym, but who wants to do that? XD

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games, nor do I own the poem Contre Qui Rose.

Chapter Two:
The Artist

After the morning, the day went by almost in a blur for Peeta. It was AP Latin, AP Art, AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Biology, AP Global History, and to end the day he had health with probably the most unpredictable teacher in the school, Haymitch. It was always Russian Roulette when it came to that class, because you really had no idea what to expect for the day. Well, there was one thing that was always a constant in that class, and that was the fact that Haymitch was drunk. It was a wonder that they even allowed him into the school as intoxicated as he was. Weren't they supposed to be enforcing the whole "no underage drinking", and "don't drink and drive" thing? Haymitch obviously wasn't underage, but he had to be drunk when he was driving here. Then again, if he was one of those functional drunks, it probably was better for him to drive when he was drunk than when he was sober. Maybe that was why the kept him as a health teacher: he was a living example that pretty much shouted "Don't drink kids, or you'll end up like me."

"Don't drink, don't do drugs, stay in school," Haymitch slurred, leaning against his desk and taking a swig from a clouded bottle on his desk. It wasn't anything they hadn't been hearing since the fourth grade. They even had to sing some stupid song about it when they were in middle school to show their parents that they had learned something. Obviously the Panem school system had something to prove, not that it actually worked or anything. Most of the cooler members of this school were drinking and smoking every weekend at one person or another's house. Peeta normally liked to stay away from those parties, but he showed up at the more important ones. Mainly just Halloween, After-Prom, and New Years. He attended the occasional Christmas party as well, depending on who was having it. Intelligently, he always offered to be designated driver so he wouldn't be forced to drink too heavily. If anything, he would have something light at the beginning of the party, but he usually preferred nothing at all. His entertainment came from watching everyone else get wasted and do stupid shit.

"I had an assignment for you all, but I'm pretty sure the majority of you won't do it, so I'm just gonna throw in a movie on the dangers of meth," he said, stumbling over to the old television and shoving a dusty video tape into the ancient VCR. "Mellark, I doubt you're going to be able to see anything all the way over there, so why don't you come up here and sit next to Everdeen?"

Peeta's heart nearly stopped in his chest. He had to be kidding, right? He could see fine from his seat second from the door, and he didn't ask the kid next to him to move. This had to be some kind of strange coincidence.

"What's the matter, Mellark? I'm pretty damn sure she got rid of her cooties ten years ago, now move it!"

He obediently grabbed his notebooks and rose from his seat, moving wordlessly across the classroom to sit by Katniss. As he sat down next to her, he felt her gray eyes burning into him. It was like she had x-ray vision and she was reading every thought that his heart had asked his head to think about her. It felt like she could hear the words on the back of his tongue screaming, "Dammit, Katniss, I love you!"

But no, she couldn't.

Instead, he smiled at her and coolly said, "What's up?"

Her eyes blared into his as her lips mustered a small smile and a confident "Hey, Peeta."

And that was it. Her eyes slid from his towards the television screen, completely ignoring his presence like he sat next to her all the time. For the first time in a long time, Peeta became frustrated with himself and the situation. Was he really that invisible to her? Did she really just pretend to act like he didn't exist? Or was she just oblivious to the entire situation? He didn't quite understand. All he knew was that he was going to have to try harder, and this was going to be his last year to do it. By the time he graduated high school, he was going to have kissed, danced with, and proclaimed his love to Katniss Everdeen.

He spent the rest of the class contemplating ways that he could go about doing that, but unfortunately nothing that sounded like it would realistically work came to mind. His drive to the bakery was spent in the same mind state, trying to think of ways that he would be able to put his goals into motion. Of course, he already had the idea for his confession down, but once it was out, how would he get her to learn to love him too? Then again, he couldn't make her love him...but he could try his hardest to get her to see what a great guy he was. Peeta couldn't remember having a crush on anyone else in his life. She had always been the only one.

Once he got to the bakery, however, he had to temporarily wipe his mind of its current state. As always, Mr. Mellark was happy to see his son, and asked him about his day before turning the family-owned business over to him for the night. Peeta liked working at the bakery in the afternoons. There were very few customers, and he usually only had to clean it once. In between baking tomorrow morning's bread, he even had time to work on his homework, which he usually finished by the time he had to close up. As usual, tonight he finished everything...except for the AP Literature assignment. That was something that he wanted to take as much time as possible to look over and think about. It had to be perfect. He had to put everything into it.

At 9:30, Peeta gave everything a last look over and locked up for the night. As strong and confident as he was, he always hated walking out to his car at night alone. If he had to, he knew he would be able to take on an attacker, but it wasn't something he wanted to do. It was a quiet drive home. Normally he would be listening to music, but his stereo system was currently broken. He would have to spend the upcoming weekend trying to fix it, because driving home in the dark in complete silence made one feel quite lonely. Once he arrived home, he parked the car in the driveway and quietly made his way into the house.

As usual, he found that his parents were already asleep. That was a common occurrence, seeing as they had to wake up at four in the morning to finish the baking before the opening of the store. He placed his books in his bedroom and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He made sure that he was as quiet as possible, because if his mother woke up, well, lets just say Peeta might end up falling asleep with a bunch of red marks in the shape of a wooden spoon on his back. No, Mrs. Mellark wasn't abusive. She just had well...anger issues.

After his shower, Peeta went back into his bedroom and replaced the towel that hung on his waist with a pair of boxers. It was only then that he went into his schoolbag, grabbed his AP Literature notebook, and sat down at his desk to write. For fifteen straight minutes, he stared at the empty sheet of notebook paper in front of him. He wasn't quite sure where to start. Eventually writing his poem turned into doodling, which turned into half of a face on the margin of his notebook paper, which turned into looking a lot like Katniss by the time that he was done with it. Although he wouldn't admit it, she was one of his favorite subjects to draw. He had only sketched her once or twice, and wouldn't dare draw anything involving her in his art class. One thing he mentally added to his list was to ask her one day to sit for him so that he could draw her, perfectly, and then paint her.

It was past midnight by the time that Peeta even started on the poem, but once he got started everything came quickly and he was in bed before one. It took him awhile to fall asleep, however, because he was so excited and anxious for class tomorrow morning. He was quite sure that Miss Trinket would ask people to volunteer to read theirs, or maybe everyone in the class would be put on the spot. Peeta wondered what Katniss was writing her poem about. It probably had something to do with nature or archery. She was, in fact, captain of the archery team and had won several titles in competition, which was just another thing that made her so amazing. He finally drifted off to sleep around two in the morning with a smile in his face and, for the first time, hope in his seemingly hopeless situation.

Haw haw, you all have to wait to read Peeta's poem for the next chapter. :3 Although if I have anything to do with it, it will be up by tomorrow. Don't get used to this though. As soon as school starts again, posting might go down to once a week. =(
Oh, and I hope you all enjoyed sexy shower Peeta. ;)
Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome. :3