Teach Me

Chapter 7 - "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."

Her hands grip the pencil, her face filled with frustration and stress. She scowls at every movement of her hand. Her hands scrunch the paper up into a ball, and it clinks into the bin. Katniss sharpens her blunt pencil for the sixth time this lesson, her grey eyes are dilated as the stress takes over. On the other hand, I'm doing brilliant, I've sketched the vase and now I'm sketching the flowers with a light pencil line. Katniss does the opposite to me, she's heavy-handed and draws the lines dark and when ever she goes to rub out her pencil lines, the led smudges leaving it gloomy and dark. The only reason I'm good at drawing is because my father used to teach me how to decorate the cakes at the bakery, I'm the only artistic person in my family- besides my father, his hands are too fragile to have a steady hand to decorate delicate designs.

She scrunches up the eighth piece of paper, I grab a piece of paper from behind me. The silky, smooth paper lies under my fingers, I quickly sketch out a vase for her, making the curves smooth and clean. It's only a quick sketch but she looks like she needs help and I'm willing. Her eyes look for mine as she notices what I'm doing, "What are you doing?" She speaks in a hushed voice. "I'm fine, you don't have to... I suck a drawing anyway." I slide the paper to her side as a small sigh escapes her lips but I smile in return. "It's fine, Katniss. You. Have. It." I stutter as she helplessly takes it, she gives me a thumbs up before returning the shadings onto my sketch, her sharp pencil traces my lines as the class sits in silence. The teacher looks up a few times but doesn't notice our exchange, I continue to carry on my flowers. Waiting for the time to pass, it's last period and we have 10 minutes left, Katniss is coming over today- I've made sure my father is out of the way, although it's my shift in the bakery but I'll work and help Katniss. I expect the bakery will be quiet today as it's a school day, but who knows?

Watching my watch till the seconds count down, Katniss keeps a smiles on me as she knows me watching the time. She taps her wrist- pretending she's wearing a wristwatch. The teacher stands over the students, before the bell goes she clears her throat. "Katniss and Peeta." She wave her hand over to us. "I want a quick work, please. The rest of you are excused " Her pen is placed behind her ear as her glasses slide down her nose and her hair is like straw, except it's a brown color instead of yellow. "I don't know what the deal here is, between you two. But whatever it is, I don't want you helping Katniss." Her stern eyes scan my face. "You ask me for help, okay?" She asks Katniss as Katniss just says ok, her hand trailing on my arm as she pushes me to the door. "Bye Miss!" She shouts as we exit.

"I can't wait, the baking is going to be so fun." She stammers as the cold wind hits our faces and the tree shiver in response.

"I know." I smile.

We walk to the bakery and when the bakery is in vision, Katniss smiles patiently. Her vibe beams with excitement as we stroll into the bakery, the plastered walls stand out as the sigh that says 'Mellarks' is painted onto the white walls in red. I jog up to the aprons and grab one for Katniss and I, I tie it around my waist and pass one to Katniss, she gracefully smiles. "Can you tie the string for me, please?" She questions, as the string on her back is hanging loose. Fumbling with my fingers, I grab the string in both hands and double-knot the string together, my hands swiftly touch her back as my cold skin touches her warm jumper. I let go, and she turns around, with red cheeks but a proud smile.

Clapping my hands together as I grab the flour from the cupboard and start to weigh out, Katniss copies me as I tell her to get the chocolate chips. She fumble around in the cupboards until she pulls out chocolate chips, the tip is to melt them into the cookies before placing them on top. I instruct her as he mixes the formed dough. "You're handling the dough wrong." I state. She drops her floury hands besides her.

"Then pull up your sleeves, and take your watch off and show me." She smartly replies, but little did she know, my wrist is covered in scars and cuts. My recent cut was at night after Cato kicked my ass, lots of dark thoughts baffled up my brain and I forced myself to dig another knife into my flesh. Slowly, I pull up my sleeves and take off my watch, before she spots anything; I wash my hands, hoping her eyes won't meet mine.

I keep the planted at my side, and dive into the dough, creating a kneading motion with my hands, I squeeze my eyes shut as she gasps in shock.

"Peeta, look at me." She whispered in a worried voice. She grabs both my hands in her grasp. "What is this?" She runs her fingers over my brokenness and her eyes glisten in the light. I catch my breath and prop myself up on the counter, she does the same. "It started when I started high school, my older brother left the house and my mother didn't want him to. She took out her anger on me, as I was the youngest, she told me I was worth her time or energy- she never physically hurt me, but her words hurt." My eyes begin to water, I keep in my tears but the dam broke and the tears surge. "On top of that, Cato and his friends kept calling me name because they saw my mother yell at me. When I cut myself, It feels right. I'm not worth it, I need to take my anger out and I chose to do it to myself." Her hands are still holding onto mine. "So, I've always hidden it with my watch and my sleeves. Hence- I always wear long sleeved t-shirts." I finally whisper. She jumps down from the counter and stares briefly in my eyes

"Promise me, you won't do it again. If you feel like that- call me. If you feel sad- call me. If you want company- call me." She breathed. "I want to be here for you." Her arms climbed onto my shoulders as my hands find her waist We hug for at least 6 seconds before we leave each other, I like her company, it feels right. We get back to making the cookies, I put them into the oven and they will be ready in 10 minutes, in the meantime, I make us a drink and we take a seat.

"You have any idea what you want to do, when you finish education?" She questions as her legs wraps around mine.

"I want to work with kids, my mother wants me to go into the IT industry like my older brother Leo. What about you?" I say shyly.

"You do what feels right, Peet." She smiles, Peet. She doesn't really calls me that. "I'm not sure yet, I want to go to college and study physiology, I like understanding people and how their world works- it's interesting."

We talk for a while about what we want to do when we are older, what are plans are. For instance: she wants to help Prim get into nursing, she wants to go to university and study physiology major, she tells me she wants to travel a lot, and maybe settle down with someone. My heart burst when she said she wants a lasting relationship.

The oven is beeping, I turn it off and place the cookies on the cooling rack, the cookies look scrumptious. After a while, I get impatient and give her 6 cookies to decorate with icing sugar and frosting. On her first cookie she draws a bow and arrow, on her second, she draws a tree, she mainly draws wildlife and flowers but on her last one she draws two people holding hands, although the hands look demented, I can still make out what it is. On my 6 cookies, I drew painting equipment and on my last one- I drew a girl with a braid, holding a bow and arrow. She told me she goes to the leisure center to do archery, she said she could shoot me exactly in the eye a mile away, even though she wouldn't do it. We finish up and I place her six cookies in a 'Mellarks' bag. She looks at my last cookies and smiles. "You really caught my braid in the picture." She smirks.

We stand in the doorway of the bakery, the Mellarks bag in her hand. It's dusk- my favorite time of day, her hand fiddles with the ends of her braid. "I had a really good time, I'll see you tomorrow at school." My heart beats fast, I feel the need to do something, like an urge, before I could stop myself. I pressed my lips into hers, she doesn't refuse as she kisses me back, her hands roam around on my back as I bunch up the ends of her t-shirt in my hands. We broke away for air and suddenly it got awkward. "I waited for you to do that." She whispered into my ear as she holds onto me tighter.

A/N: Got exams tomorrow and next week, I'll try to get as much done in my free time. Also, I've started planning another fanfiction, i'll be working on it as well as this one... i'll give this one most of my attention though. Thank you for all your reviews so far, I read every single one. I'm not sure what to do in the next chapter, leave some suggestions if you want, thank you, bye!x