Chapter Five-
(Peeta- the winter before his first Reaping)
It's definitely reached the peak of the cold weather now because everyone is wearing at least two jumpers inside, whilst we're in lessons, and we're all still shivering. At least I and the other Merchant kids are wearing more than one jumper, anyway; I mean, if you were to turn your attention to the Seam kids, you'd wonder how they're still alive in this weather.
However, some seem to be faring better than others. There are a certain couple of young girls from the Seam that appear to bounce into school every morning, on the arms of their father. At least their father will be singing, but, sometimes, the eldest girl will join in, too, and the youngest will hum along, unaware of the actual words. When they do this, it looks like they forget their hardships.
After the past few years, I've noticed that the song they sing now, they will only sing at this time of the year. I've given up wondering why, instead focussing my attention on who the angels in the song seem to be rejoicing. However, I've decided that it's probably something that the world believed in long ago, but it hasn't been allowed to pass to us because of the Capitol.
As usual, however, my gaze is directed to where my thoughts are directed as I focus out of the lesson, and only a sharp jab in my side brings me back to reality.
"Why don't you talk to her, Pete?" Angel asks, her eyes looking at me as I don't look at her.
I sigh. It's been the same routine, the same kind of questions every day, since the second day when she was at school, when we were five; she would always jab me in the side, before asking a question concerning Katniss. "Because she wouldn't want to talk to me, Angel," I finally answer.
"Have you ever tried?" she moans, knowing what I will say.
"Not recently, no," I mutter, quickly turning away when the girl in question begins to look in my direction.
Instead, I glance down at the notebook on my desk, where there, sketched, is a girl with one plait across the back of her head to her shoulder, an old jumper that's much too big for her, and a pair of winter trousers. She is sitting at a desk in a classroom, her gaze looking into the snowy landscape outside of the window, so that I cannot see her face.
"Which of Pete's lovers are we talking about this time?" laughs one of my other friends, turning to face me as soon as the bell for lunch goes.
"No one, Isaac," I grumble, snatching my notebook off of my desk and stuffing it in my bag, before anyone other than Angel can see it. "Shut up."
"Oh, you're getting a bit touchy again, Pete," he complains, leading the way out of the classroom. "Are you sure it's not someone you're embarrassed about?"
"Isaac, stop," Delly says, before I get the chance to reply. "You're delving too deep into his personal life. He'll tell us when he's good and ready. Is that right, Peeta?"
I just shrug my shoulders, unprepared to say anything.
"But that does mean there's someone, then, if he's going to tell us at some point," Isaac reasons.
"How about your lover?" I interrupt. "How many girlfriends have you had this year, already?" My friends begin to laugh at the somewhat annoyed expression on Isaac's face, so I laugh, too, and offer my hand out to him. "We'll make a deal. I'll drop the subject of the names of girls you woo in a year, if you don't make a big deal out of the girl that I may or may not like."
"Does that mean you'll tell us who she is?" he asks slowly, shaking my hand.
"Of course not," I reply, smirking. "But, if you pursue it further, I'll make a point of getting all your past girlfriends to really begin to annoy you, even more than they already do, anyway."
He rolls his eyes. "They all love me, still."
"That's precisely my point," I admit, turning on my heel to walk down the corridor, away from the lunch hall. "It won't be so easy if they all think that you still love them, too, will it?"
I can hear the annoyance in his tone as he calls, "Where are you going now, then? Your lover went this way."
My hands clench at my side. "Isaac, I saw the last girl you just split up with going that way. Mention it again, and I'll either talk to her, or I'll kill you. It's your choice. Until you've made that decision, I'm going to my locker. Have fun making up your mind." I walk away, down the corridor, without waiting to hear his response, only turning around when I hear my cousin catching up with me.
"Why don't you just tell him that it's someone else, to avoid all of the hassle?" she suggests, sighing.
"He'd then just make fun of me and whoever I told him it was," I decide. "It's easier this way, if I have a threat working in my favour."
A small smile flits across Angel's lips as she stops next to me, when I stop at my locker. "That really annoyed him, you know?"
"Yeah, I know. He'll be over it in an hour or so, though," I say, opening my locker and grabbing the small paper bag out. Then, after checking no one's around, I put the bag in the locker next to mine, before walking quickly away.
"Pete!" Angel hisses, grabbing my wrist and trying to pull me to a stop. "What are you doing? Are you just asking for your mum to beat you, or something?"
I pull my wrist away and continue walking. "It's the last day of term, Angel, and then it'll be Christmas. They won't have all that they deserve, so they can have something from me."
She frowns. "If your mum finds out-"
"She's not going to find out, unless you tell her, is she?" I challenge.
"How did you get them away?" she whispers.
"I paid for them," I admit. "I get nothing from there for free, but I just hope that they get to enjoy them."
I can tell that she wants to say something else, but she decides not to when we appear at the table with the rest of our friends, luckily not revealing my secret.
We eat our pathetic attempt of a school Christmas meal in, mainly, silence, only really talking when one of us begins a complaint about school, or when someone asks what our plans for our couple of weeks break will be. To be honest, the answer to the question is the same for everyone: we'll be working in our family's business, as this is always the second busiest time of the year, the time when people have saved their money from the rest of year.
However, anyway, my attention is focussed elsewhere, and I can tell that Angel, at least, knows. Katniss can't, yet, have visited her locker because, even though she visited her younger sister and made her laugh, there was no exchange of cookies, and there have been no angered looks sent in my direction. Instead, she currently sits with Madge, the Mayor's daughter, hardly talking, but smiling a little.
"Did you two clear your lockers out, just then?" I hear Delly ask, which pulls me back to my friends at the lunch table.
"No, we didn't," answers Angel for me. "Peeta just wanted to drop something off."
I shoot her a look, but no one else seems to notice it, especially as Isaac goes on to point out, "It seems a bit pointless, though, Pete. Why drop something off when we'll be collecting it all again now?"
I shrug my shoulders as we all get up, following the crowd that makes its way out of the hall and to the lockers. "I suppose that I was just following the natural routine and didn't think."
He laughs. "No surprise there."
"If I were you, yes, I guess you'd be right," I agree, ducking under his arm when he reaches out for me, before turning to face him as I walk backwards, smirking.
It takes my other friends' restraint to stop Isaac from pretending to attack me in the middle of the full corridor, where he would cause more of a hold-up than there already is when people stop at their respective lockers.
Eventually, we all part ways as we near our lockers, so I am left with only Angel when we reach ours. At least, I think we're on our own, until I see a confused looking Katniss standing at the locker next to mine. She's holding the small, carefully wrapped treat bag full of sugar coated cookies that I put into her locker earlier, working the ribbon through her fingers.
After a couple of seconds of analysing it, she looks up and tries to search the corridor for someone else who could have given it to her, so I immediately look away from her and to my locker. The thought of her beginning a conversation with me suddenly spins through my head and my hands become clammy, the books that I am removing from my locker almost slipping through my fingers.
"Angel, are we meant to be taking everything out?" I ask quickly, unsure of how I could talk to Katniss, so needing an excuse not to.
She looks at me, obviously seeing the panic in my eyes because she shakes her head and almost laughs. "Yes, Peeta. We're taking everything out, so that they can clean it, whilst we're not here."
I nod and continue to put everything in my bag. "You're laughing at me."
"You need to grow up, Peeta Mellark," she answers, shutting her locker once everything is out. "You should try things that you're too scared of sometimes. It would be good for you."
I shake my head, too, and follow her as we walk back into class, leaving Katniss by her locker, still looking a little dumbfounded.
However, soon, everyone- including Katniss- has returned into the classroom and the teacher is about to start the lesson, before the school receptionist comes in and stands at the front of the class. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she apologises, "but I am being sent around all the classes to collect certain pupils." She then reads out a list of who needs to leave, and they're all of the Seam kids in our class.
They all file out in silence, all looking scared because they have not been given a reason why they're suddenly leaving, and the door is quickly shut after they leave. The teacher immediately begins the lesson, but it's obvious that no one is actually leaving. In reality, everyone wants to know why they all had to leave without getting a reason, but everyone is also a little scared for the reason.
The last lesson passes by slowly, due to the lack of concentration on everyone's part, so we are incredibly relieved when the final bell to signify a couple of weeks' break rings. The remaining students quickly file out, saying goodbyes once they're outside. No one really hangs around, though, because it is so cold, and no one expects to meet their friends during the holidays for the same reason.
The only of my friends that I walk home with is Angel, who is wrapped up tightly in her sister's old winter coat. Her family's business hardly gets any customers during this time because of how difficult it is to find flowers, so they usually save their nicest flowers for the rare wedding in the District, or they can trade the herbs that they find with the apothecary.
"You had the perfect opportunity to talk to her, Pete," she whispers, looking down at the street.
"I know that I did, Angel," I reply, equally quietly.
"Why didn't you, then?" she asks.
"I'm scared," I admit after a long pause. "I'm so scared that she'll reject me and hate me, and all those sort of things. I can't imagine a day without her, but I can't even imagine her noticing me, either. If she breaks my heart, what am I meant to do? My mind has been set on the fact that I will marry her, since the first day, but what if she doesn't feel the same?"
I hear Angel sighs, but, somewhat to my disappointment, not to my surprise, she doesn't answer. Really, I don't blame her. What can you say to me? A love struck boy, who has fancied a girl since their first day of school, yet he's unable to even say "hi" to her. We could speak for the first few days after we met, but, since then, she seems to be holding a grudge against me.
Eventually, I dare to question what happened after lunch. "Why do you think they all left?"
Angel shrugs. "I don't want to think of why, and I especially don't want to make you think of why. You'll do something stupid when we find out- I can tell."
"I won't," I disagree. "I promise I won't." But we both know I'm not telling the truth.
All of the students looked freezing, unhelped by the fact that they were all shivering with fear. However, even though none of us could hear what was being said, we all recognised the look of shock, and then loss, that crossed everyone's faces. It was not long until almost all of the students that were in the courtyard were crying, often hugging younger siblings even closer to them.
I continue to replay the moment in my head as I say goodbye to Angel, before heading to my own house. After dropping my bag off in my room, I take my jumpers off- because it will be so hot in the kitchen with all of the ovens going- and go back downstairs, tying my apron around my waist as I go. I head straight to the back and grab the ingredients to start baking, without saying anything to anyone.
James is, luckily, serving in front of the shop, so I'm going to have a couple of hours, at least, without torment. Ever since the first day of school, I have been unable to avoid his teasing, but I know that today, especially, when he saw all of the Seam kids taken out of class and told something that made them all cry, is not going to be an exception, other than it will be worse.
However, as I stand and continue to put the ingredients together for whichever bread I was asked to make, I begin to wonder if the news has yet reached as far as here. After I left school, the last I heard about whatever incident that occurred was when I spoke to Angel. I'm sure mum will try as hard as possible to keep it out of here, but I can't let that happen.
"Dad?" He glances up towards me, and then nods. "Do you know what that thing was in the Seam today?"
"What was that?" interrupts mum as she walks in from the storage room, glaring at me.
I shrink back, but, luckily, dad says, "He was just enquiring into the incident in the Seam. There was nothing else there."
She continues to glare at me as she argues, "It shouldn't matter to him, anyway. Why should he care what happens to the rats?"
I shrug. "I just wondered."
She doesn't say another thing as she turns away and begins her own work, leaving me able to do my work in silence. For a while, I just work everything together to make the dough for some bread, before I put that in the oven and leave it to bake. Then, I move on to make some cookies, which bake much faster than the bread, so are out of the oven first.
It is when I am decorating the cookies that I glance up, towards the clock, and note how late it has suddenly become. Usually, by this time, dad's traded with Katniss' father. He'll come in after a full day's work, and then a couple of hours in the forest, with at least a few squirrels that he will trade with us for one or two loaves of bread, and, sometimes, something for his daughters, too.
I turn my attention away from the clock and quickly replace it on taking the bread out of the oven, without burning myself. Carefully, I place the loaves on the cooling rack, and then check around the room to make sure mum has left, before asking, "Did Mr Everdeen trade with you earlier, before I came home?"
Dad turns to me, raising his eyebrow. "Why?"
"I was just thinking that I hadn't seen him come in today and I usually do before now," I lie. "We won't have any squirrels today, if he doesn't come," I attempt to joke.
He doesn't laugh, sighing. "Peeta-"
I shrug. "Sorry, dad."
"I've got nothing to complain about," he reasons. "It's your mother that might."
I nod slowly, before turning my attention back to the cookies. "I know. I really did just wonder. I saw that the Seam kids were taken out, and I just wanted to know if anyone knew why."
"Don't bother, son," he sighs. "Wait for someone to tell you."
"Yeah." I fall quiet again, but I look up again when I hear someone else entering the room. "Hey, Angel."
"Hey, Pete." She smiles at my dad. "Can I talk to you quickly?"
Dad nods, so I follow my cousin out of the bakery, to the garden. She stops and stays still, until I have, too, saying, "Don't over react."
"I wasn't planning to," I admit.
"Pete, the news of what happened in the Seam has started to reach here," she begins. I nod. "There was an accident in one of the mines today. They don't know which one and they don't know who came out. However, they've been there all afternoon, since the accident, and the Everdeens are still there, waiting for their dad to come out. I'm sorry-"
But her words have no sound as she continues, her words and their meaning finally sinking in. Katniss and her family may have lost the part of the family that has kept them going for longest. What can they possibly do?
Author's Note: I hope you like Angel as a character because she's definitely going to be really important for Peeta and Katniss' potential relationship. I thought that she was going to be the best way for Peeta to find out about the mining accident, and I also thought that this was going to be the easiest way to introduce it into the story.
RadMalfoyCookie: My only review for the last chapter, but at least you reviewed :'( I know! Maybe they'll talk soon, though, with all the gifts that Peeta's leaving her.
Next chapter: There's something about a thin Katniss and some bread...
Pleeeease review, as I only had one last chapter!