A/N: This chapter is told from Peeta's point of view, and I will changing perspectives throughout the story- hopefully it still makes sense! Also more of Finnick coming up soon!

Peeta's POV

I was literally counting down the minutes until Monday afternoon, when Katniss and I would be able to work on our psychology project alone again. I waited for her while she packed up her schoolbag, and I hoped she didn't notice they way I was looking at her. I couldn't help it though- she was beautiful. No, more than that. She was my dream girl. For so long I had looked up and down these halls and seen girls that all looked the same with their designer bags, heavy makeup and styled hair, but Katniss wasn't like that. Her hair was pulled into a messy side braid that had come loose during the day, and she didn't need makeup, she was already stunning.

"You right there?" Katniss looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

Great, she caught me staring. I coughed, embarrassed, "Ah yep, let's go."

She seemed more comfortable slipping into the limousine with me today than the first time we studied together. To be honest, I felt that the whole private car thing was a little over the top, but my mother insisted, and that was that.

When we arrived at the apartment, I was relieved that no one was home. Katniss sat down on the couch, and again I couldn't believe that she had agreed to study with me. I figured that she hated me, and everyone else at The Capitol School, and for good reason. My friends had hardly made a good first impression.

"I made biscuits last night, if you'd like some." I told her.

She looked at me for a moment, "Sure."

I brought over the plate of biscuits I had spent hours icing just for her, and suddenly felt nervous that she wouldn't like them. For some reason it felt very important to me for her to like them, like I needed to impress her with my baking, which I knew was ridiculous. Taking one bite of the biscuit though, she smiled at me.

"These are really good!" she exclaimed, helping herself to another.

"Thanks," I felt a blush spread over my cheeks, "I thought you could bring some home for your sister, if you'd like."

"She would love that." Katniss paused for a moment, as if lost in thought, "We walked by your bakery once, a few years ago with our father. Prim loved all the decorated cakes in the window….My father said he would buy her one for her birthday some day." She stopped again, before realising I was watching her intently, "Sorry, I'd forgotten about that."

Katniss had a sad expression on her face as she relived that memory, and for a moment I felt bad for bringing up memories of her father who she clearly missed more than anything. I started to feel guilty for ever feeling like my life was unfair, when for Katniss everything must be so much harder. I often caught myself wishing for a different life, not one filled with dinner parties, uncomfortable suits and first class flights to Europe. I found everything about the Upper East Side so dull and I was tired of the parties and the gossip and the 'scandals'. Katniss was like a breath of fresh air, my chance to be myself without the reputation I had gained from being the quarter back on the football team and the son of wealthy business owners. I loved that Katniss really cared about her sister, and I had so much respect for her because she worked hard for everything she had, unlike me which was handed to me at birth.

Another thing I loved about Katniss was how she looked when she studied. She was so focused and intent on her work that she didn't even notice that I was watching her. It was hard to concentrate, I'm not going to lie, when she was sitting so close to me on my couch. I'd never felt that nervous around a girl before and I wanted to do anything I could to make her happy and comfortable. It was going well until my mother arrived, who unfortunately had other plans for our study date.

"Peeta, are you home?" The second I heard my mother's voice, everything inside me froze.

I sat up straighter as she entered the room. By the look on my mother's face I immediately knew that I was in trouble. This was not going to be good.

"Oh you are." she said, unimpressed. "I thought I told you to go to the bakery after school to help with the flour delivery."

My stomach dropped. Oh no, I had completely forgotten about that. "I'm sorry, I forgot."

"Forgot?" she snarled, "Peeta, your father and I spend all this money for you to go to a good school, I ask you to do one thing for me, just one thing! And instead I find you here with some new girl, like you don't care about this family at all!"

I felt myself getting angrier and angrier by the second. "Why couldn't Rhys or Wyatt do it?"

"Peeta, your brother's are very busy with college and football, you know that. I can't believe you would be so selfish."

"Mum, can we talk about this later?" I said through gritted teeth.

"No, I don't care that you're trying to impress whoever this girl is, we need to talk about this right now."

"Mum, please." I was begging now, how embarrassing.

"I can't believe you would behave in such a careless way- your brothers were never like this."

"But they never worked at the bakery- I do! Every week! " I couldn't believe her.

"Don't talk back to me Peeta." She went to turn away, "Don't bother coming to the dinner table tonight."

Finally my mother was gone. I was absolutely seething, my hands hurting from clenching my fists so tightly, but when I turned back to Katniss I was so embarrassed I couldn't meet her eye. She was sitting completely still, her pen still in her hand, and I could tell she was uncomfortable and didn't know what to say.

"Peeta…" she said quietly.

"I think you should just go." I muttered. I couldn't bear to be around her after she had witnessed something so embarrassing.

Instead, I watched her pack up her books in silence and walk towards the elevator. She turned to wave goodbye, but I looked away. I only looked up as the elevator doors started to close, and I thought that I had just lost my chance with the most perfect girl I had ever met.

After I finished the rest of my homework, I left the apartment without saying a word to my family. I doubted that they would notice that I was gone, so what was the point? I took the subway three stops to Mellark Bakery, which was closed up for the night. I entered through the back door into the storeroom, where bags of flour where piled up high on the floor. Sighing, I flicked on the lights and got to work stacking them properly. Soon I found that the monotony of the task calmed me down.

When I was younger, I found that baking had a similar effect on me. Whenever I was upset, angry or confused about something, I always knew that baking would make me feel better. To me, kneading dough for hours was much more effective than any punching bag. Growing up, my anger was mostly directed towards my mother, and the way she treated me. Even though I was her only son to express any interest in the family business, she always favoured my brothers, who were smarter and better at sports than I would ever be. I even made the school football team just to please her, not because I particularly liked to play, but even that wasn't enough for her to notice me. To her, I was just an extra set of hands in the kitchen, and she only recognised my talent for baking as a way to make more money. So I had long ago given up trying to please her, and worked at the bakery only for my own enjoyment.

There was just something so satisfying about pulling a freshly baked loaf of bread out of the oven, or watching people marvel over my decorated cakes. While I was not as skilled as my brothers in many things, baking was something that I was good at. To release my anger and embarrassment over the situation with my mother, I began making a batch of brownies. Usually sifting the flour and cracking the eggs would be enough to take my mind off of things, however, not even baking could ease the pain I felt at potentially loosing Katniss.

So instead I decided to try plan B: Speaking to Finnick. Although he wasn't exactly good with other people's problems, he could always make me laugh, and that was what I really needed. Finnick lived a block away from me, in a lavish apartment along with his mother, father and his old nanny Mags, who still lived with the family despite Finnick no longer needing her care. He was closer to her than his own mother, and was the only person I had ever seen him show real affection for. When I arrived, Finnick was in the middle of an intense Scrabble game with Mags, who of course was winning by a mile.

"Peeta my friend!" He said cheerfully, "Tell me, what words could I possibly make with these letters?"

"Cheater!" Mags exclaimed.

I looked at his letters- Q, C, B, A, L, W. "I think you're out of luck." I told him.

"Ah whatever." Finnick said, "I'm out for today Mags, but I call for re match tomorrow!"

Mags rolled her eyes as she stood to leave. "I'll still beat you."

"So what's up, Peeta?" Finnick asked once Mags had left the room.

"Family stuff." I told him.

"Ah." Finnick said, trying to sound wise, "Tried baking?" Apart from Katniss, Finnick was the only person who knew the true extent of my mother's unpleasantness. He needed no explanation from me to know that it had something to do with her.

"Didn't help." I said glumly.

"How was your date then?" he asked.

"It wasn't a date." I said quickly, "But that's part of the problem- my mum came home right in the middle of it."

"And scared Katniss off by the sounds of things."

"If Katniss speaks to me again I'll be surprised."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up." he said, a poor attempt to cheer me up, but I appreciated it none the less. "There's plenty of fish in the sea."

Yeah, for Finnick maybe, who'd never had a relationship with a girl that lasted longer than one day. I never understood how he could move on from a girl so quickly. What I felt for Katniss was different from what I'd ever felt before, and there was no way I would be able to get over her anytime soon. She had made such an impact on me, from the moment I met her, that she was impossible to forget.

The following day at school, I could barely look at Katniss after what had happened. I tried to avoid her during the day, even going to my locker after she had left hers. Unfortunately when we met the end of the day, she refused to let what happened go. She seemed genuinely worried about me, but I still felt sick about all the things she heard my mother say.

"Katniss, can we not talk about it?" I said, frustrated.

"Look, don't worry Peeta. I'm used to getting treated badly by people." she tried to reassure me, "I'm just sorry she treated you the way she did."

"Yeah well I'm used to that as well." I said sadly. "Do you think you could keep that to yourself though, people here don't really know that she is so… you know."

"Sure." Katniss replied.

When I finally looked at her properly, I didn't see any judgement in her eyes, or pity or sadness. Instead I saw a reassuring smile, a smile that made me feel like maybe she wasn't going anywhere. Maybe things would still work out for us.