A/N: I'm sorry for the lack of updates! But this longer chapter is hopefully good for you :)
- everything that I write about (at least the school scenes and stuff) will most likely be based off real life. So yeah... Peeta's course schedule was actually the way my courses were arranged in the eighth grade. I mean, there were more course rotations, but I just altered it so it wouldn't be confusing.
- here in Vancouver, there actually isn't a BC School Games. I just made it up so it would sort of reflect the Hunger Games, but less brutal and more fun :)
Hope you guys like it :) planning on doing a chapter in Katniss' POV if you like.
disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games.
and again, most of the events I write about from here on out actually happened :)
Semester 1:
block 1: Math 8/10
block 2: French 8
block 3: Socials 8
block 4: Science 8
Semester 2:
block 1: English 8
block 2: Physical Education 10
block 3: Drama/Art 8
block 4: Cooking/Textiles 8
That is my course schedule for this year. Great. To be honest, I am kind of excited to go back to school, just because Katniss and I will be spending the entire school year together. Yeah. We have every single class together. That's gonna be fun. And I know from what I've seen before, that high school is much more fun than elementary, so I'll be looking forward to that. I'm glad my mom got me transferred to Aderyn Park. Katniss, Gale, Drew (he's awesome.) and I walked there a few weeks ago, and it's awesome. It's just a five minute walk from the house, and the area is great. A two minute walk gets you to a pizza place, an asian food court, a Seven-Eleven, and the culinary program at school is great. A few downsides are:
1. That odd teenager, Finnick Odair, is going there too. And whoop-dee-doo, I am invited to another 2 years of teasing from him.
2. Freak axe-lady, Johanna Mason is going there as well. Yay.
3. The town drunk, Haymitch Abernathy, is mentor to whoever is unlucky enough to be chosen for the BC School Games that is being hosted in Vancouver this year.
Deep in the meadow
Under the willow
A heavenly voice sounds from outside my windows, easily breaking me out of my thoughts.
A bed of grass
A soft green pillow
Her voice has never sounded so gentle or angelic.
Lay down your head
And close your eyes
And when again they open
The sun will rise
Here it's safe, and here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you for all harm
Here your dreams are sweet
And tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
We've made a few more covers since that day in July when we agreed to team up. We have officially been made a band. Our name is Girl on Fire, a spin-off of Katniss' old username 'KatonFire.' It's been so much fun. Prim and Rory made their own stand-alone cover of Count on Me by Bruno Mars. I think they'd make such a sweet couple. Last time I asked them about it, Rory made a face.
"Hey Rory, do you think you'll get married to Prim?" I asked, kneeling down to his level. He's like a shrunken copy of Gale.
"Ewwww, never!" he exclaimed, scrunching his nose. I laughed and Katniss just smirked at Prim. At first glance, they look like polar opposites. Sweet, little Primrose with her long blonde hair and fair complexion, and Katniss, with her longer, more graceful build, and her olive skin and dark brown hair. When you look more closely though, you would be able to tell they are sisters. They both share long eyelashes, high cheekbones, and a few barely visible freckles on their cheeks. And the bond between Prim and Katniss is unmistakable. I'm pretty sure Katniss would do just about anything for Prim. And Rory is so cheeky. And despite his "ewwww!" I'm pretty sure they're getting married. I mean, Prim could get anyone to propose. Katniss is a little more fickle and stubborn, but I'd be happy to propose.
We go to school today. And frankly, I'm a little scared. Gabe is going to Aderyn Park as well, and I know him. He's going to embarrass me. I'm glad Gale will be there to calm him down. (but he's already given me the talk about Katniss, which was mixture of horror and snickers from Gabe who was listening around the corner.) Gale and Gabe and a few of Gale's friends are in my PE class. Unfortunately, all the PE 8 classes were full, so Katniss and I were put into a PE 10 class. Kinda nervous about that, because Katniss and I are the only 8th graders in that particular class. I mean I'm not unfit, but I can't compete with 10th graders when it comes to PE. And from what I know, this PE class is a boy's only class, so Katniss was an exception. I think she's already popular among the school staff. I just think it'll be awkward if someone recognizes me from our YouTube account, because I've got to admit, we're pretty famous already. But Katniss begs to differ.
I dress casually, a nice pair of jeans, and a new shirt. My dark red, worn and tattered Converse slip in easily, and I grab my backpack and open the curtains to yell for Katniss. Yeah, we're that close already. Just in front of my window, is a wooden desk where I set up my laptop, a few pictures sit in the corner of the desk. One is my old school portrait, which I will replace when I get my new one taken later in the month. Another is a smaller one, where a picture of Katniss and Gale holding little Posy is framed. That was taken a few days ago. And the last one is a sneaky photo of Katniss and me taken by Gale. Katniss and I sit, back to back, in a grassy field. Prim and Rory's silhouettes play in the background, but we are the camera's subject. Katniss wears my red DC hat on her head. She stole it an hour before the picture was taken. It's a professional looking picture, and I love it. I raise my eyes from the picture and see the still closed window of Katniss. I sigh, and place my new binder in my backpack. At that moment, Katniss opens her window and yells my name, making me cringe.
"Sorry." She smiles sheepishly. Her hair is put in her braid and she wears a simple gray v-neck t-shirt, and pale green jeans from the looks of it. "Hey," she says, smiling at me, her gray eyes twinkling with excitement. I chuckle a little at her expression, and she glares at me.
"What?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. I still don't know how she does that. I shrug a little.
"You just look excited," I explain. She smiles at me and nods.
"I am," she exclaims. "let's go, Gale said we should leave early." She says. I nod and close my window after smiling at Katniss. Going down the stairs quickly, I grab two chocolate chip muffins from the pile . One for me and one for Katniss. She's loves them, along with the cheese buns I brought her for a filming day once.
"Gabe! Let's go! The Hawthorne's are waiting for us!" I call, seeing as Gabe's blonde head sits at the TV. I hear him make a sound in acknowledgement, but he makes no move. I roll my eyes at him, and get an idea.
"There's a bunch of girls you could meet if we get there earlier!" I say. I've never seen him move so fast.
"Let's go," he grumbles, grabbing my shoulder and pushing the door open. At the Hawthorne's door, Gale and Drew stand, waving at us. I hear a "Love you, Prim!" from the house, and Katniss appears at the door. Her eyes light up when she sees me, and I try to keep the love-sick grin off my face.
"Are we all here?" Gale asks. I nod. Gale, Drew, Katniss, Gabe and I are all here. Andrew left early, he's on his two-day trip for college orientation. He's 19.
"Okay then. Let's go!" Drew says, running off to the gate with his arms outstretched, waving them around like an airplane. Beside me, I can see Katniss face-palm.
The walk isn't too long. Drew almost got run over by a car, but I've learned that's normal for him. I'm pretty sure with his airplane run to school, he's already there. Katniss and I make small-talk, talking about the school. She tells me the inside looks like a hallway, and that there are mostly boys that are blonde. She makes a joke about them.
"It's like a disease, Gale and I like to call it "the blonde-boy disease"" she snickers. I roll my eyes and play along.
"Are you saying I have a disease?" I ask while pressing the walk button on the crosswalk.
"Totally, I mean, what's with this place?" she asks, while walking. I shrug and when we get inside, I immediately notice what she pointed out earlier. The school looks like a long and wide hallway, with a small cafeteria, and random halls off the main one. And there is a sea of blonde-headed boys, and I see very little girls, and they are all blonde from what I can see. It seems like the Hawthorne's and Katniss are the only dark-haired children here. I see Gabe pout at the lack of women, but he immediately brightens when one smiles at him.
"I like this place," he tells Gale, and he runs off to say hi to the pretty girl. I snort and turn back to Katniss, but she's not there. I look around and spot her at a locker. I make my way to her, and she opens the locker, revealing the bareness of it. It's a lower locker. She makes a face at it, but stuffs her lunch inside and closes it. Her locker is in a small lane called Puffin Lane.
"Where's your locker?" she asks absently, practicing her locker combo as she talks. I take a look at my schedule and it says: PL035. I smile inwardly. I put in the combination of the locker just above Katniss' lower locker. She instantly freezes, the lock in mid-turn. She looks up at me. I snicker at her stony glare.
"You got a top locker?!" she asks in mock anger. I nod and smirk at her, putting my hat and lunch inside. She shakes her head and turns to me, leaning against the other locker.
"I hate you," she grumbles. I know she doesn't mean this. "You just be glad you got me a muffin in return," she says. I chuckle and close my locker. A deep throat is cleared behind me, and I wince. I remember hearing this voice. More particularly in a backyard, while playing tag.
"Hey, Mellark." The deep and amused voice confirms my thoughts. I turn around to see bronze-haired Finnick Odair smirking at me. My horror and eyes widen when he turns the lock of the locker just next to mine. Oh no. This is not good. I vaguely see Gale, Gabe and Drew open lockers in the same bunch as us, but I am frozen in place. My horror is making me choke up. I feel a small hand close around my wrist and pull me away with a "Peeta?" and drags me away from the scene. The last thing I see before looking at Katniss is a red-haired girl smiling at the Finnick Odair. Katniss looks up at me with quirked eyebrows, and I shake my head.
"C'mon, let's get to Math." I say, putting my arm around Katniss' shoulders.
We walk down the hall, with Gale, Gabe and Drew at our side, and Katniss was right. It's like a disease. There are only blonde-heads here. Gale opens the door of the Math room, and the teacher smiles at us. She instructs us to sit wherever we like, and Katniss and I sit beside each other on the side of the classroom. I anxiously look around the room for a bronze head, but after the bell rings, I am relieved to see that Finnick Odair isn't in this split class. My relief is short-lived though, when I see Gale and his friends, along with Gabe sitting behind and in front of us. Behind us is Gale, Gabe and a boy named Ansel (I met him a few weeks ago, he filmed one of our music videos.), and in front is a bunch of Gale's other friends. I'm getting scared now. Katniss, who sits beside me, on the window side of the table, looks at me concern. She nudges me, and I look at her.
"You okay?" she asks, her eyes looking concerned. I nod, and look to the front. I still feel Katniss' eyes on my face, but after a second I hear the snickers from behind us die down. I guess Katniss is looking to the front now. I sigh, and cherish the feeling of Katniss' arm pressed against mine. This year is gonna be interesting.