Thank you guys for reviewing and following my story! I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the prologue. The first couple of chapters are mostly introductory chapters. I'm trying my best to re-edit them so that we can get to the action sooner, so please bear with me.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the charcters, unless otherwise noted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Chapter 1: Notice

"Dude, did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"About that Everdeen girl?"

"What about her?"

"She tried to kill herself."

Peeta looked up at his best friend of eleven years—his blue eyes widening in shock as his dark haired friend took a bite off of his pizza as if he just finished telling his friend the scores to last night's football game.

"You're kidding right?" he asked.

Gale finished chewing his food before answering his blonde friend.

"Why would I kid about something like that?" he asked, wiping sauce from his mouth with the back of his hand.

Peeta sighed as he looked away from his friend. He was right. Although Gale was known to be a bit of a class clown, there's no way he would joke about something as serious as death. Gale's father died when they were both in middle school, leaving just him and his mom. His mom worked two jobs in order to support the two of them. Gale even had to pick up some odd jobs every now and then when things got tough. The only way that Gale would ever have a chance of getting out of Fresno was by earning a football scholarship to an out of state college.

Even though his friend was known for making crude jokes, sometimes at his expense, Peeta knew that it was all a façade to hide the pain that the death of his father left him with.

"Wow," was all Peeta could think of to say as he looked down at his own food.

"Why do you look so shocked?" asked Gale as he took another bite of his pizza, "It's not like you actually talked to her."

"How can you not be so shocked? I-mean a girl who up until this point, was a classmate of ours just took her life," said Peeta as he ran a hand through his golden curls, "and for the record, I actually have spoken to her before."

Gale stared at his friend with a doubtful look on his face.

"I asked her for a pencil once, which I gave back to her at the end of class," said Peeta with a triumphant look on his face.

"FYI, saying words like 'Can I borrow a pencil?' does not exactly qualify as a full conversation."

Peeta rolled his eyes, "Well I'm sorry for not having a five minute conversation with her." He gave a small sigh, "It's just shocking you know? I-mean one minute she's sitting behind us in class and the next minute she's dead."

"News flash, I said she tried to kill herself, not that she actually did do it."

"Oh," Peeta said dumbfounded, "still. How does someone like her wake up one morning and decide to end their life?"

"I don't know. All I know is that she was found in her bathroom passed out and bleeding to death," said Gale with a sigh, a clear indication that he didn't feel like talking about it anymore.

Peeta looked down at his own pizza, which suddenly seemed unappetizing to him.

"How do you know all of this anyway?" he asked after a small moment of silence.

"I heard Clove tell Glimmer in homeroom. Turns out Clove lives next door to Everdeen and saw the whole thing. I bet the whole school probably knows by now. You know how gossipy those two can be. Glimmer probably told Cashmere who probably told Madge who would have told Delly and, well, need I say more?"

Peeta rolled his eyes and gave a small laugh at his friends comment. It was true, the blonde was notorious for knowing everything about everyone and making sure everyone else knew everything about everyone as well. If only she knew why Katniss Everdeen had suddenly decided to try and kill herself. Then, maybe he wouldn't feel as guilty as he did now.

He knew that it was silly to feel this way. After all, Gale was right, he hardly knew the olive skinned girl with the dark braid and the silver eyes. He didn't know her favorite color or her favorite food or where she originally was from. He didn't know about what made her tick or what made her laugh. He didn't even know who her friends were or where she sat at lunch. He knew for a fact that she and Madge Undersee were lab partners in chemistry, mostly because Peeta was in the same class and he was bit bummed out that he was stuck with Flavius instead. Other than that he had no idea who she chose to spend the rest of her time with.

This thought lingered in his mind as he looked around the school cafeteria to see if any of the tables looked grief stricken. If there was, he thought, then maybe that's where Katniss sat. Her friends would definitely be sad and hurt that their friend tried to kill herself…wouldn't they?

However, the more he looked around, the more he realized that everyone was just going about their business as if nothing had happened. None of the tables looked like they were hurting. Everyone seemed to act as is it were any other day. Students were minding their own business. The athletes were having food competitions while the cheerleaders cheered them on, the nerds were too occupied with their books, the loners looked bored out of their minds, the stoners looked more stoned than ever, and the rich kids looked more self obsessed, if that was even possible.

Maybe…maybe no one knows. Maybe Gale's wrong and Delly hasn't told the whole school yet. Or maybe…maybe no one cared.

"Gale?" he said as more of a question than a statement.

His friend looked up as he licked some sauce off of his fingers, "What?"

Peeta looked around again, suddenly relieved that he and Gale were currently the only ones sitting at their own table, "If-if I tried to kill myself, do you think anyone would notice?"

Gale coughed as he almost chocked on his Gatorade. He suddenly looked up into his friends blue eyes, "Dude, of course people would notice. You're the football captain Peeta. You're easily the most popular guy in school. If something happened to you, Panem would declare a national Peeta Mellark day just to show how much they love you."

Peeta sighed again and picked at his pizza. Gale was right. He was the most popular guy in school. After all, he was captain of the varsity football team and considered by all to be a modern day Adonis. He was tall, practically towering over the entire Panem High population. The muscles on his body were well defined and stood out against the blue shirt he was wearing. His blonde locks fell right above his cyan eyes and created a sort of halo around his head. He was loved by every single person that had ovaries, and was worshipped by those who didn't. People noticed everything about him, which he sometimes found kind of creepy. I-mean do complete strangers randomly offer to throw your gum away for you just so you wouldn't get detention for sticking it under the desk, and thus not getting enough practice to win the big game? 'I think not.' thought Peeta.

"Why are you even asking me this?" asked Gale.

"I don't know." shrugged Peeta, "I guess the whole thought of suicide makes you wonder if anyone here cares about what happened to Katniss. I-mean look around. No one here seems to know about it and if they do then nobody seems to care. I guess it just made me wonder if people actually pay attention to other people but themselves."

Gale looked around the cafeteria. He gave a small sigh as he looked back at his best friend, "I guess your right. But then again, you never really did see her with anyone else. Maybe she was a like, a loner or something?"

"Maybe," said Peeta, "But still, it kind of sucks that someone like her has gone unnoticed for the past three months."

"Someone like her?" asked Gale, with an arched eyebrow.

Peeta suddenly felt his face get hot. Was he really that obvious?

He would be lying if he said he hadn't noticed her on more than one occasion. He'd be lying if he said he never noticed the way her face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl that looked more endearing than annoyed or intimidating. He'd be lying if he said he never noticed how she seemed to bite her bottom lip when she was nervous, or the way her braid never seemed to keep her hair away from her face. He'd be lying if he said he didn't notice the way she spoke with her eyes instead of her voice. He'd be lying if he said he didn't realize that the very moment he first saw Katniss Everdeen walk into Mrs. Sae's homeroom, he was a goner.

"All I meant was that it sucks that no one seems to care. I feel kind of bad," he said.

"Peeta, it's not your fault. You didn't even know the girl, like you said, you've only spoken to her once and that was just to ask her for a pencil. And besides, she's only been here for like, three months. I don't know about you, but newbie's don't really make great impacts on people, especially if all they do is scowl at people."

Peeta sighed again while Gale looked down at his uneaten slice of pizza, "Are you gonna eat that?" he asked.

Peea gave a small chuckle and shook his head. Gale took that as the signal to grab his friends plate and begin to chug down his food.

The bell suddenly rang, signaling the end of lunch. Peeta and Gale walked out of the cafeteria and headed for their lockers. Peeta opened his locker and groaned as he realized he had History with Mr. Cray next. He unwilling got his notebook and closed his locker. He said bye to Gale and headed towards his History class.

Once there, he went to his desk towards the center of the room and sat down. He laid his head on the desk and he waited for everyone to finish saying hi to him and sit down in their rightful places. Once the tardy bell rang, he looked towards the door. A feeling of disappointment hit him when he realized the olive skinned girl was not going to walk in. Around him, people were talking and some even tried to talk to him while they waited for Mr. Cray to finish writing something on the board. However, Peeta didn't really feel like talking much. Instead, he looked back to the empty desk at the corner of the room.

Gale was right. People would definitely notice if he went missing. Peeta was worshipped here. He had everything he wanted, popularity, money, and girls. But as he stared at the empty desk in the back of the room, he couldn't help but wonder why he suddenly felt so empty inside.