~Sketching Out Our Love~

~Chapter 13~

Hi everyone! I'm literally so excited to post this chapter… I've been waiting for this chapter for a really long time!

So, as you can all see, I have changed my PenName. I intended to change it months ago, but I never did for some reason. But I decided that now was as good a time to change as any. So, yeah, just a head's up. I'm still the same person, just a different PenName. So, now, I'm Peeta'sPearl. Yay for me! :)

I don't have much to babble about today, so you can all get to the chapter right now! Be warned, it is very short … and you'll know why once you finish it. :)

Enjoy! 3

*Peeta POV*

It was the first time I was unhappy to see Katniss.

Today had been miserable from the start. It was the first day of November, and it had come with the true start of winter. The sky was overcast and grey, promising a huge storm later today. As an artist, I loved seeing the sun, and drawing the various shades of sunlight. It was hard to draw anything when it was winter.

She was waiting right at my locker. Even in my downcast mood, I couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked today. Her cheeks were red from the cold, and she was wrapped in a pretty jacket and jeans. Her dark hair was free of its customary braid, and instead swirled around her shoulders.

Her grey eyes scanned my face for a moment, obviously trying to see if any trace of Saturday's emotions still lingered on my face. For her sake, I fixed my features into a fake smile. Katniss immediately broke into a smile, and I saw her visibly relax.

"Hi!" She greeted me breathlessly. I wrapped my arms around her, and stroked her back slowly. "I missed you." She murmured into my neck.

"Me too." I tell her honestly. I hadn't seen her since the disastrous Homecoming night, and I know she had been worried about me. In a way, it was sweet to know Katniss had been worried about me.

"Do you want to do something after school today?" Katniss asks me cheerfully as I grab my English books out of my locker.

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

Katniss looks at me with her big grey eyes. "I want to see your parent's bakery again, if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't." I smile at her. "We have hot chocolate for the holiday season too."

We walk to Katniss's locker hand in hand. I stay silent, thinking about Glimmer. I had wronged her, and I was, in a way, responsible for all of her actions. If I had let her down more gently, then maybe she wouldn't have launched a whole plan of revenge on Katniss and me.

"What are you thinking?" Katniss asks me gently. She can see how I've become unfocused, and I know it scares her. She thinks that she did something wrong, when it couldn't be further from the truth.

"Nothing." I tell her simply. I see her closing her locker, and grab her hand before she shuts it. "Don't forget your English folder." I tell her, purposely changing the subject.

"Thanks." Katniss grabs the folder out of her locker, and shuts it. She turns to look at me, and her mouth opens, as if wanting to ask me a question. But the next moment, she closes her mouth, and instead looks at our intertwined hands.

"If I did anything wrong on Saturday, I'm sorry." She whispers to me, looking at me earnestly. I can see that tears are pooling in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you."

My heart softens as I see her scared expression. "You didn't do anything." I tell her gently. "I'm just angry at myself."

A look of deep relief comes over her features, but is replaced by worry in the next moment. "Why are you angry?"

"Because of what I did to Glimmer." I say honestly.

Katniss's grey eyes look at me fiercely. "Look." She begins. "Maybe you didn't break up with Glimmer in the best way. But she chose her actions, and you can't blame yourself for what she chose to do."

"But I started it." I argue. "If I told her I didn't want to date her anymore, instead of cheating on her and kissing you, none of this would've happened!"

"Do you regret kissing me?" Katniss suddenly asks, her grey eyes glaring at me.

"No!" My voice rises in my panic. "I don't regret anything that's happened between us."

"You said it yourself on Saturday." Katniss adds. "You said Glimmer is vain and jealous. No matter what your actions, Glimmer still would've have been vain and jealous."

"You really think so?" I ask hopefully. I really want to believe her, but my conscience is telling me otherwise.

"Yes." Katniss replies simply. She squeezes my hand, and goes on the tips of her toes to kiss my cheek. "None of this is your fault."

My cheek burns pleasantly from where she kissed it. I can feel my lips curling into the first real smile of the day. For the millionth time, I think of the insane effect this girl can have on me.

"Let's get through school, so we can go get some hot chocolate." She encourages me. "I can't wait to see how you decorated the bakery for Christmas!"

"Who says we have to stay here all day?" I say, and grin mischievously at Katniss.

"I do." Katniss says simply. "We can't ditch just because you feel like it."

I make a pouting face at her, and Katniss smiles good-naturedly. "Stop complaining." She says jokingly.

We walk into English holding hands and laughing. Our English teacher, McCrane, gives us the death glare as we head to our seats. Her dark beady eyes follow Katniss and me as we walk to the back of the room and sit in our seats.

"What's up with McCrane?" Katniss asks me in a whisper. "She looks really angry."

"She's always angry." I say casually, which makes Katniss laugh and nod her head in agreement.

The source of McCrane's anger is soon discovered. We are having an assembly halfway through her class, so she only has twenty minutes to torture us. Several of my classmates erupt in cheers when they hear that we only have to spend twenty minutes here. I can't help myself from smiling along with the rest of them.

McCrane does her best to make sure the next twenty minutes are awful. She manages to fit in a pop quiz, which I'm pretty sure I failed, and introduce our newest book, The Scarlet Letter. Once she has given us our homework assignment, which is to read the first three chapters, she reluctantly turns us loose.

"That was awful." Katniss grumbled. "Did she really expect us to know when Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the stupid book?"

"I guess so." I reply. "What did you put?"

"I put 1850." Katniss replied. "What did you put?"

"I put 1840." I reply. "Watch me be right." I add arrogantly.

Katniss never backs down from a challenge, and I watch her dig her copy of The Scarlet Letter out of her backpack. She turns it over and reads the small summary on the back of the book. "The Scarlet Letter was published by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850." She smirks.

"Fine." I grumble. "You just guessed and got lucky."

"Be quiet!" McCrane hisses at us. "You are to walk to the auditorium in complete silence!"

Katniss and I end up sitting right behind Cato and Clove. They both still look furious that Glimmer messed up their Homecoming night.

Katniss turns to me, and whispers, "What are Effie and Haymitch doing here?"

"What?" I follow her gaze down to the stage, and see Effie and Haymitch, who Katniss had pointed out to me on Homecoming. "I don't know."

We sit in comfortable silence, holding hands, with Katniss's head resting on my shoulder. We watch Effie walk to the microphone, and tap it to make sure it works. She looks ridiculous in a blindingly pink shirt, and her shoes are at least five inches high.

"Welcome, welcome!" Effie trills in a high voice. Effie pauses and takes a moment to look around at the student body. "My name is Effie Trinket, and I am your new Principal!"

Katniss and I exchange looks of shock. Neither of us was expecting this, and all I can think is What happened to Snow? Katniss is apparently thinking the same thing, because she mouths What about Snow? at me curiously. I shrug at her, and direct my attention back to Effie.

"Snow has decided it is time for him to retire." Effie says in a falsely bright voice. I can just see the lie underneath, though. Snow definitely has not retired. Something has happened.

"Mr. Abernathy," Effie gestures at Haymitch, who still looks hung-over from the weekend, "will be the vice principal."

The staff nods encouragingly at Effie's words. Most of the students aren't even listening to Effie, but talking amongst themselves. Katniss is staring at Effie with narrowed eyes, and I can't help but laugh at her intensely focused gaze. She turns and glares at me, which makes me chuckle harder. Katniss eventually caves in, and I see a smile tugging at her lips.

"We are looking forward to a great rest of the year!" Effie concludes. "Have a great rest of your day!"

As we file out of the auditorium, Effie appears out of nowhere and grabs Katniss's wrist. She says, "I'd just love to meet you and Peeta after school today!"

Katniss glares at Effie, but I quickly step in, and say, "We'd love to."

Effie beams at me, and quickly rushes away to find Haymitch again. Katniss glowers at me, and hisses, "What was that for?"

"Don't you want to find out what happened to Snow?" I ask her curiously.

Katniss looks at me in surprise, "Well, I guess when you put it that way…"

"Just admit it." I grin at her. "I'm right."

Katniss and I walk into Snow's old office holding hands. I realize as we knock on the door that we have always walked into this office holding hands. It makes us more united, and able to take on Snow and his nastiness. Even though Snow is gone now, it still feels right to walk in as a team.

I hear the loud clacking of what can only be Effie's shoes on the other side of the door as she comes to open the door. Effie throws the door open wide, and her green eyes stare at us in confusion for a moment before recognition crosses her face.

"Hello!" She cries a little too loudly. "Come in please!"

Effie ushers Katniss and I through the door, and for a moment, I can only see pink. The walls that were the color of blood during Snow's time are now blindingly pink. The red chairs have been replaced with white leather chairs, and the desk is a rich brown color. I notice with amusement that there are no less than fifty pictures of various breeds of cats in the room. They are everywhere- taped to the walls, on cabinets, and in picture frames on her desk.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" Effie sighs in contentment as she looks around her room. "I just had the walls painted a couple days ago, and I spent all of today taping my cat pictures!"

I thought a principal was supposed to do more constructive work than tape cat pictures around a room, but I suppose I was mistaken. I barely stifle my laugh, and when I look over at Katniss, I see that her lips are pressed together in a thin line. She meets my eyes, and for a moment, I see a smile twist up her lips, but we manage to contain our giggles.

Effie has taken a seat behind her desk by now. She leans forward, and looks at us earnestly. "I heard you were very affected by Mr. Snow." Effie shakes her head in concern. "I can't even imagine what that must have been like."

Katniss disguises her laugh as a cough. I don't know what I expected of Effie, but this is certainly not it. She seems to have the best intentions at heart, but she misses the point, in my opinion.

"Now, Snow couldn't really do anything to either of you." Effie is looking at Katniss now. "He wasn't that powerful. He was only a principal, after all."

Katniss stares at Effie in surprise. "I didn't know that." She mumbles, looking chagrined. Now that I think about it, I guess Effie is right. It wasn't like Snow was a dictator who could control us or our actions.

"He's very intimidating." Effie replies kindly, as if she was talking to a Kindergartener. "What really made us look into him and ultimately fire him was something different."

I look at Effie curiously. "Do you mind telling us what it was, Ms. Trinket?"

Effie positively beams at me. "Of course, Peeta!" She smiles happily, but her mood becomes somber a moment later. "Mr. Snow was using the school finances to buy things for himself. He also did the same thing with several other businesses and schools."

Effie looks at us sadly, as if she can't understand why anyone would be as cruel as Snow. I can just imagine Snow driving off in a Ferrari or watering his strange rose hybrids with the school's money. I suddenly understood why our school computers were so old. "He is now being forced to pay it all back and abandon his position as principal." Effie adds as an afterthought.

"Ms. Trinket?" Katniss asks hesitantly. She glances at me for a fraction of a second before continuing. "What happened to Glimmer?"

Katniss and I kept a close watch for Glimmer today, but neither of us saw her. I assumed she had just stayed home after Saturday's fiasco because she was too embarrassed to show up.

"She has been expelled." Effie says flatly. "She was found with quite a bit of alcohol in her bloodstream, and she also attacked another student."

"Wow." I breathe out quietly. I can't help but pity Glimmer, even after everything she's done. "That's terrible, even for someone like Glimmer."

Katniss throws me a sharp glance that is loaded with some emotion I can't quite comprehend. There's a little bit of surprise in her glance, but I can also see some confusion as well. I don't know what to make of it, so I just ignore her.

I lean forward on Effie's desk, resting my hands on the smooth wood. "That is mahogany!" She warns me loudly.

I jump back from Effie's desk as if I'd been electrocuted. "Sorry." I mutter, even though I'm more amused than sorry. Who would even care that they had a mahogany desk anyways?

"Run along now" Effie says, like we were five years old. "Haymitch leaves me all the work. Watch him be raiding the teacher's fridge right now."

I take Katniss's hand, and we walk out happily. "Do you know what this means?" She asks me excitedly.

"It means Snow and Glimmer can't keep throwing empty threats at us." I grin at her. "And we can finally live happily ever after."

"You are so cliché." Katniss teases me, smiling at me and making my heart jump. She is so pretty.

"No, I'm romantic." I counter, brushing my hand across her lower back. She shivers in pleasure under my touch, and I can't help but feel satisfied that I can make her feel that way.

We pass Haymitch a moment later. True to Effie's word, he has a bottle of lemonade in one hand and two sandwiches in the other.

"Welcome to the Mellark bakery." I make a big show of holding the door open for Katniss and ushering her in. She rolls her eyes, obviously annoyed by my actions, but smiling all the same.

Thresh, our employee, nods at me from behind the counter. "You can take a lunch break, Thresh." I tell him. "I'm going to teach Katniss how to make gingerbread cookies."

Katniss looks at me with a mixture of excitement and horror. "I can't cook or bake anything." She whispers to me in terror. "I'll burn the bakery down to the ground!"

"Relax." I soothe her. "I'll help you."

Thresh walks out, and I go behind the counter. I grab two mugs, and fill them up with steaming hot chocolate. I throw a couple marshmallows into each mug, and hand one to Katniss. "Drink." I command her while I grab a couple holiday cookies.

"Geez, you're so bossy." Katniss grumbles, but she can't resist eating the cookies and sipping her hot chocolate. A shiver of pleasure runs through her body as she takes a sip of the hot drink, and she smiles. "I haven't had hot chocolate for years." She sighs in pleasure.

"Why?" I ask in horror. "Everyone loves hot chocolate!"

"After Dad died," Katniss hesitates for a moment. "My mom and I couldn't afford anything but the necessities. We haven't had a Thanksgiving for five years."

I stare at Katniss in shock. "Well, you will have a Thanksgiving this year." I vow. "You and your mom can come to my house. My mom won't mind." I make an instinctive note to always bring a cookie for Katniss. She deserves all the cookies in the world.

"That's not necessary." She mumbles. "It's better now, because her job as a nurse is really good."

I cross the counter, and kiss her, interrupting her from saying anything else. Her breath tastes like hot chocolate and sugar, and I breathe in the scent of her happily. "I love you." I murmur against her lips. My hands are tangled in her hair, but when I try to draw back, Katniss only holds me tighter. "Stay." She whispers into my mouth.

"Always." I say without hesitation. "I'll never leave you." She smiles against my lips, and I can't help but shiver when her tongue flicks across my lips.

"You're a good kisser." She gasps out once we've broken apart.

"You're not that bad either." I grin at her playfully. I run back behind the counter and grab two aprons. "Here, you'll need this." I throw one of the aprons to her, and tie the other one around me. I grab some flour, sugar, and cinnamon from the back room. "Ready?" I ask her cheerfully.

"Not really." Katniss mumbles, but she comes behind the counter and stands next to me all the same.

I decide to read off the instructions while Katniss measures them out and puts them in the bowl in front of us. I read the first ingredient off the recipe. "Four cups of flour." I begin.

Katniss carefully measures out three cups of flour, and tips them into the bowl without any problem. On the fourth cup, however, she misses the bowl, and the flour goes everywhere. I stare at her in horror through my floury eyelashes. "It's ok." I lie with a mutter. I measure out another cup of flour and tilt it into the bowl. "Two and a half cups of cinnamon. " I continue, as if nothing happened.

We get through the rest of the recipe without any problems, to my great relief. We whisk the ingredients together, and then I wrap the dough up. "Why did you do that?" Katniss asks in disappointment.

"We have to let the dough stand for two hours." I explain to her patiently. "We can't cook it right away."

"I knew that." Katniss mumbles as a blush heats up her cheeks.

"Sure you did." I mutter. I take my apron off, and grab a broom and begin to brush all the flour off the ground.

"Do you need help?" Katniss asks. She takes her apron off, and folds it neatly.

"Sure, you can wipe the table." I reply, thinking that nothing bad could happen if she was just wiping the table off.

"Ok." Katniss says cheerfully. She grabs a wipe, and begins cleaning the table. "I can smell the dough." She moans. "Are you sure we can't just eat it right now?"

I chuckle at her impatience. "You need to be patient." I tell her patiently.

"I'm terrible at being patient." She replies ruefully. "That's why I'm such a bad cook, I think."

"I can help." I murmur, wrapping her in a hug. She says something that vaguely sounds like, "Make it worse."

We stand in each other's arms, unmoving, for several long minutes. We simply enjoy each other's company, and there is nowhere else I'd rather be. My hands rub her back gently, and climb up her arms and play with her long, flowing hair. I tie her hair up in intricate knots, and let go of them and let her hair flow again. "I love you." I breathe quietly, not wanting to break the peace of the moment.

"I love you too." She whispers into my chest. Her arms are at my face, softly rubbing the stubble. "You need to shave." She teases me.

"I guess I do." I concede, self-consciously feeling my face.

The next two hours go by quickly. We finish cleaning up the bakery, help several customers, and get in a couple conversations. As the two hours draw to a close, I can feel the excitement vibrating off of Katniss.

I quickly knead out the dough, and place it in two large rectangular pans. "What shapes do you want?" I ask her. "We have gingerbread men, snowflakes, gingerbread women, and hearts."

"Gingerbread men, of course." Katniss replies, grabbing the cookie cutter. I watch her cut several gingerbread men up, and I place a tray for her to put the cookies on. It doesn't take very long before all the dough is shaped like gingerbread men, and ready to go in the oven.

"This is so much fun." Katniss smiles, her eyes lit up. "I wish I could work in a bakery!"

"Do you want to?" I ask her seriously. "Thresh can't be working all day; he needs some help."

"Really?" Katniss's eyes light up like the sun. "But what if I mess everything up?"

"You won't." I tell her softly. "I'll help you with everything for the first couple weeks."

"Are you joking?" Katniss asks me suspiciously, her grey eyes narrowed.

"No, consider yourself hired." I say seriously. It would be nice to have Katniss around all day, and Mom would say yes, because we need the extra help.

"Great!" Katniss looks excited, and I get excited about her working here. We would be spending the whole day together at school and then come work together.

She surprises me by hugging me, and I don't hesitate to hug her back. Katniss isn't the affectionate type, and I enjoy seeing this other side of her. I must've hugged her ten times already today, but I can't seem to have enough of her. We stay wrapped in each other's arms until we the oven dings because the cookies are ready. I hold on for an extra second, not fully ready to let go of her.

"Cookies." Katniss mumbles into my shoulder.

I laugh at her eagerness and let go of her to grab an oven mitt. "I see how it is." I tease her. "You put up with me just to get your cookies."

"Something like that." Katniss smiles at me, and I pretend to glare at her in anger.

I grab several tubes of icing, and hand half of them to Katniss. "I'll ice half of them, and you can do the rest." I tell her. The ones I decorate will be for the bakery, and Katniss can take the rest home with her.

I look over at the cookies Katniss has iced so far. They are actually very pretty, and I make a mental note to have her help me ice the cookies all the time from now on. "What do you think?" Katniss asks nervously, seeing how I am looking at her cookies.

"I think that they are perfect." I tell her honestly. "You always need to help me ice cookies."

Katniss flushes with happiness. I can't help but jerk her hand holding the icing, and as a result, the face of her gingerbread man gets messed up. He now has one huge blob as an eye, and it actually looks amusing. "Hey!" Katniss looks mildly angry. "You messed up my gingerbread man!"

I try to look innocent, and when that fails, I grin at her mischievously. "So, what are you going to do now?"

In response, she fires some icing at my face. I retaliate by shooting some light pink icing at her face. She laughs through her icing caked face, and I start laughing alongside her. We collapse on the ground, laughing and covered in icing. "Peeta…" Katniss gasps out between laughs. "You are an idiot!"

I grab a whole bundle of paper towels, and hand some of them to her. We wipe our face and the ground until no trace of our icing fight remains ."All done." Katniss says proudly.

"Let's get you home." I say to Katniss. "Before your mother kills me."

Katniss laughs. "My mom is working the night shift today, so she won't notice whether I'm home or not."

"Let's go." I reply. She takes my hand, and I grab her share of the cookies. We walk out to my car hand in hand, and she gets in the passenger seat and takes the cookies from me.

We drive in silence for several minutes, because Katniss is busy eating the gingerbread cookies. "Mmm…so good." Katniss moans. She looks at me, and says, "You're going to make me so fat."

I laugh at her. "You'll always be beautiful." I tell her sincerely. "You can eat as many cookies as you want."

"You're such a sap." Katniss smiles, though. I've never seen her smile as much as she did today.

Minutes later, we are at her house. "Thanks for today." She says softly. "Today was one of the best days of my life."

I smile. "I agree. Snow is gone, and we can finally be a normal couple."

Katniss looks at me like she wants to say something, but, instead she scoots closer to me and kisses me. I can taste the icing and sugar on her lips. I sense all the things she would never say out loud to me in her touch. I deepen the kiss, and Katniss responds eagerly. When we come to our senses, I realize Katniss is practically on my lap, and I suddenly feel embarrassed. "Sorry." I mumble self-consciously. "I didn't mean to do that."

"Thanks for driving me home." She says as she grabs her backpack and the plate with the remaining cookies.

"You're welcome." I grab her hand one last time, and kiss it. "See you tomorrow at school, I guess."

"Yeah." Katniss replies. She opens the door and gets out. I watch her walk to apartment door and walk in. When I can't see her anymore, I back out and begin heading home.

I replay some of the sweeter moments of the day in my head, like finding out Snow was fired and Glimmer expelled. I think back on all the kisses and hugs Katniss and I shared. I hear her laugh as I shoot icing at her face. I feel so content and happy as I think of the two of us together, and I can't wait to see Katniss tomorrow at school.

I feel beyond elated at how perfect things are right now. It's almost like I'm flying on cloud nine, and I feel like nothing can go wrong now.

I don't notice that a huge red car on my left has run the red light until it is way too late. There is a sensation of a huge crash, and I feel like I'm falling backwards.

Then the edges of my vision blur and the world goes black.

Yeah, I just did that. Please don't hate me!

So… I have good news and bad news.

Good news first. The next chapter is not the last chapter. There are probably two more chapters after this. So, there is a little more to the story after all.

Bad news- I don't know when I can update again. This coming weekend is my Homecoming weekend, so I might get very busy and not have the time to update. I'm so sorry that my Homecoming coincided with this chapter. Just bad luck, I guess. :(

Keep in mind that you will get a preview of the next chapter in Katniss's POV if you review. So, please review, and we'll all be happy.

As always, thank you for all your support. I seriously have the best readers in the world.

Love,

Peeta'sPearl 3