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©Suzanne Collins
Chapter 7, The Stand and the Score
The next morning I get up early with Prim and we grab my hunting bag and go out to the woods and I show her where the berries for the rolls Peeta and I are going to make grow. She starts picking making sure not to pick the nightlock that grows a little ways off. I then run as fast as my legs can carry me because I don't want to be late on my first day at the Mellark bakery, Mrs. Mellark will kill me if I am late. When I get there I have about ten minutes to spare. I go inside and see Peeta at the counter.
"Hey"
"Hey Katniss," he comes around the counter and gives me a kiss on the cheek.
"Prim is out picking the berries now"
"Excellent! We should go start making the dough then," he says as he leads me into the back, he gets an apron and hands it to me then gets one for himself. "Shoot!" he says.
"What? What's wrong?"
"We need to pick up the flour and sugar at the train station"
"We can do that, come on," I start for the back door; he grabs my arm and stops me.
"I will go wake up my brothers and we will do it. You can go run the front counter, ok?" I sigh and agree; he shows me what to do then gets his brothers. I hear them go out the back. I get the broom and start to sweep, not knowing if the front actually needs sweeping. Soon the bell rings above the door and a man comes in and gets a few loaves of bread. I get him the bread and think I can do this!
I hear the back door open later and hear the bags being thrown down and then Toby, Rye, and Peeta come up to the front. Rye comes up to me, and gets close to my ear and whispers,
"Hey there honey"
"Rye! Leave her alone," Peeta whines. I just give Peeta a look; I know how to handle Rye.
"I think you know," I whisper back to Rye. He straightens and looks at me, he gives me the sexiest stare he can muster and I blow him a kiss on my hand. We all start to laugh, except Peeta. Rye and I always do the awkward attraction thing, we do it just to annoy Peeta even though now I probably shouldn't the face Peeta has on is priceless. Rye gives me a hug.
"How are you Katniss, my baby brother causing you trouble?"
"No Rye, he is being the perfect gentlemen" I say smiling at Peeta.
"Sure he is" he says. He goes upstairs, back to his bed probably.
"Toby, tell Katniss your news," Peeta says.
"I'm engaged"
"Toby! That's great, to the florists daughter, Aurora right?"
"Yes, the toasting will be next week sometime, you are welcome to come"
"I wouldn't miss it. Congrats Toby," I say as I go to give him a hug.
"I better be going over to the florists, see you guys" he leaves and it is just Peeta and I, I slowly walk over to him, I grab his arms and gently rub them.
"Ready?"
"Sure, just one thing though"
"What?"
"This" he leans into me and passionately kisses me, it awakens a fire in the pit of my stomach that I can only describe as love. He pulls away and grabs my hand and leads me to the back.
"Ok, today I am going to teach you how to make rolls, so when we have the berries we have it down pat"
"You are the teacher, I believe that if anyone can teach me to make something edible its you"
"I don't know if anyone is that good," he says laughing, which earns him a slap in the arm. He gets out some bowls and we gather ingredients and begin to measure. It seems easy enough but little did I know that it was about to get a lot harder.
I spilled. Peeta went to measure out the flour into the bowl, and I insisted that I could measure it. So I had to get seven cups of flour, I got to five when the sixth cup was a little too full and it fell on the counter.
"Oh, you bad girl you spilled" Peeta says like I just stepped on a bird.
"I am not bad, this is bad," I say as I scoop the flour into my hand and fling it at his face.
"You sure you want to mess with me?" I don't answer I just fling more flour at him.
"Oh, its on Everdeen" this leads to massive amounts of flour going everywhere around the kitchen, a few eggs mixed in with beautiful blonde hair, and nutmeg dusted in my eyebrows. We are laughing and throwing ingredients and having the most fun I have had in a while. While Peeta is trying to get the sugar off of his shirt I run into him and kiss him. We are standing there in the messy kitchen having the most beautiful moment. The fast and loving moment turned into hell.
"Peeta Mellark! What do you think you are doing!" yells the voice I never wanted to hear.
"Mother! I, I we were just, we just," She storms over to the wall grabs the broom and picks it up ready to use as a weapon against Peeta. She is about to whack him when I jump in front of him. My face burns, and I am suddenly on the ground only half awake, I can make out what is happening though.
Peeta is yelling at his mother, she is cowering in the corner. He brings his hand up and she covers her face, then he relaxes a bit and talks softly. He is pointing to me, and his mothers face gets red. She begins to yell again and she points to me, he hits Peeta on the face with the back of her hand, and walks out of the kitchen. He watches her then looks at me and runs to my side.
"Katniss, are you ok? I am so sorry; I promise this will never ever happen again. I promise you I will never let anyone hurt you. Ever." He says as he holds me. I raise my hand to his face and look him in the eyes. His eyes have tears in them and the other side of his face is all red.
"It's ok, I knew what I was doing when I jumped in front of you, I am proud of you, for standing up to her"
"Thanks, let's get you home" He easily scoops me into his arms and kisses the top of my head as he takes me home.
"Peeta, what are we going to do about the rolls? Your mother isn't going to let us do that anymore"
"We will figure something out, maybe we could make a stand in the Hob. They would be more than happy to help Gale. They love him there" He looks scared, I know he doesn't like the Hob, he thinks its dangerous.
"Ok, we can do that" My brave boy. We get back to my house and Prim and my mother are at the kitchen table when Peeta and I come in, me still in his arms. My mother stands up when we get in, she does a visual check up of us, taking note of Peeta's face and the fact that I am in his arms.
"What happened?" she asks.
"My mother" Peeta says ashamed.
"Set her down on the bed and you sit on the other one, I will get some supplies, Prim" Prim gets up to assist my mother. We go into the bedroom and he sets me down and kisses my forehead, and quietly whispers that he is sorry, and then sits down next to me. My mother comes in and gives Peeta a wet cloth to put on his face. She then comes over to me and puts wet cloths all over my face; I protest I get a cloth over my mouth.
"That is the best I can do, you two hang tight and later we can watch the Games"
"What is it tonight?" I say feeling bad that I can't remember.
"Training scores" says Prim. Tonight is the night that the tributes are scored on how well their skills are. The two of them leave and Peeta lies down next to me and puts his arms around me, and we drift off to sleep.
Peeta kisses my face and I wake up.
"The scores will be up in a few minutes, you ok to get up?"
"Yea, I should be" I get up just fine, but Peeta still holds my hand. We sit down on the couch and wait for the TV to flick on. When it does I squeeze Peeta's hand and he squeezes back.
The scores start at District One and end at Twelve. The Careers are from Districts one, two, and four, and they the ones from one and two look like they are here to win and I get even more scared for Gale. They all get high scores of eight or nine, but the boy from two gets a ten. The other Districts get good scores, the little girl that reminds me of Prim from Eleven got a seven, I wonder how she did it. Then comes District Twelve. Missy gets a five, and then Gale's face comes on the screen. I squeeze Peeta's hand so hard it must hurt but he doesn't say anything, then it comes up. We stare at the screen, wondering if it is a mistake, I have never seen a score like that ever.
Gale got an 11.