Disclaimer – I do not own The Hunger Games or any of its characters. All credit goes to Suzanne Collins.
A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, they literally mean everything to me. This chapter took me quite a while to do but I managed to finish it in the end. And again, thank you to my Beta Reader Sarah, for helping me (:
Next Thursday arrived much quicker than I had anticipated. A small part of me was looking forward to seeing Prim excited and happy and another part was just nervous. Why was I so nervous? It's just Peeta.
When I exit the junior side of the school at the end of the day, I make my way over to the grassy area where Peeta is already waiting by the tree silently observing his surroundings. When I approach him, I keep my gaze fixed on the green turf below my feet and neither of us make an attempt to say anything.
An uncomfortable silence looms over us like a shadow. "Thank you," I genuinely say, finally breaking the silence. He turns his body around to face me. I snap my attention away from the ground and look up at him. His thick eyebrows are knitted together, forming a small crease on his forehead.
"For giving the cookie to Prim last week," I begin to explain, "you didn't have to—"
He waves it off, "Don't mention it," he says, smiling kindly at me.
The bell rings seconds later and I see Prim exit the school with her two friends by her side. She gives them a quick goodbye wave before merrily skipping her way over to us. "Hi, Peeta!" she greets him excitedly.
I take a hold of her hand protectively and she gives it a little squeeze of reassurance. "Hello, Prim," he says with a genuine smile across his face.
We start walking slowly under the hot sun through the town. I keep my gaze fixed on the ground, while Peeta and Prim continue to talk about school and his life at the bakery.
"So what's it like working at the bakery?" she asks in her adorable voice, "It must be so much fun, being surrounded by all those cakes and cookies; and the best part, you get to eat them," she says, her eyes lighting up in delight.
A smile tugs at the corner of Peeta's lips and even I have to lift my head up because I'm curious of the answer. "Well, it's nice most of the time. Unlike my brothers, I enjoy it even if it means getting up at the crack of dawn. But, really, we're not allowed to eat the cakes or cookies," he explains.
This surprises me as well as Prim. Her mouth forms into an O shape as she takes an understanding of the information. "I would've thought that a family that has all those ingredients wouldn't have to worry about stuff like that," I pipe in, taking an interest into the conversation.
He shakes his head softly and his eyes meet mine, sparkling blue on cold grey. "If we eat them, then we won't have anything to sell," he tells me, and I can see the logic in that. If they don't sell, then they can't make money and if they don't make a profit, then they can't afford to buy new ingredients.
"But I'm sure you can eat a cookie or two?" Prim asks.
"Well, we eat what's usually leftover, and, by that time, they're all stale and rock hard." The corner of Prim's lips turn into a small frowns at the sound of this.
"Speaking of cookies," he slings his school bag off his shoulder and unzips it. He pulls out a small brown paper bag. "I made some new shaped cookies this morning and I could really use your opinion on it," he then unrolls the lip of the bag and pulls out a small cookie frosted perfectly into the shape of a rose.
"It's similar to the one I made last week, only this time I used a different type of frosting," he explained whilst he handed her the cookie.
She stared at the cookie in her hand, taking in the news that Peeta told us. "Are you sure this is okay?" she asks. "I don't want to get you into trouble or anything."
"It's perfectly fine Prim," he reassures her with a smile.
She snapped the cookie in half and plopped the first half right into her mouth. She closed her eyes the second the burst of sugar hit her taste buds. "Mmmm! This is delicious! Katniss, you have to try some!" she exclaimed, handing me the other half.
I shake my head softly, "It's fine, Prim, you eat it. Go ahead."
She shrugged her shoulders and put the second half into her mouth before skipping along in front of us.
"How's your mother?" he asks when Prim is a bit ahead of us. Out of all the things we could've talked about, he decides to talk about families.
"She's fine," I say honestly. Ever since that fall in the woods, I've been seeing more of my mother being a mother lately. She's even started to help around the house and I could've sworn I heard her singing one morning. But I won't get too attached to this idea; who knows when she'll fall back into her depressed state?
"That's great," he says.
"How is your family? You have two brothers, don't you?" I ask, remembering the time he wrestled them at school, coming only in second place.
He nods, "They're all good. We've been getting more orders at the bakery. Dad's loving it, but that means more work for us, which they're not too happy about." A small laugh manages to escape my mouth at the sound of this. I look up at Peeta and see a smile painted across his face. The first smile that reaches his eyes.
The conversation continues on this way until we finally reach the edge of the town. "It was nice walking with you again, Peeta. And thank you for the cookie; it was delicious! I'm sure they'll be a bestseller. Could we do it again?" she pleads looking up at me with those blue eyes.
It's moments like these where I'm reminded just how precious life is and that I would do anything possible to keep that smile on her face. "I suppose it's okay," I start only to be cut off again.
"Great!" she shouts out in joy. "How about next Thursday again?" she asks, looking at Peeta with hopeful eyes.
"That sounds great. And I'm very glad you liked the cookie. I'll be sure to make more of them. Bye, Katniss! Bye, Prim," he says with one final smile before walking in the opposite direction to the merchant area.
I feel Prim's hand enclose mine and I smile and softly kiss her forehead. I wonder how many times I'm going to have the image of Peeta's smile imprinted on my mind.