Chapter 6

(5 years old)

"Katniss looks like a booyyyy! Katniss looks like a boooyyy!" Clove Mathews chants to a 5-year-old Katniss Everdeen on their kindergarten playground.

"I do not!" Katniss shouts back, tears streaming down her face.

"Yes you do." Clove states firmly, her minions Cashmere and Enobaria laughing in agreement behind her.

"You wear little boy clothes and you're skin is too dark. Don't you know that girls are supposed to wear pretty little dresses and have pretty skin? That's the only reason Gale is friends with you, because he thinks you're a boy. He wouldn't like you if he knew you were really a girl."

"Yes he would!" Katniss screams back. "Gale is my best friend, and he knows I'm a girl. You're the one he doesn't like because you're ugly! He told me so himself!"

Clove shoots daggers through her black little eyes towards Katnis, and her companions have gone silent, waiting for her reaction.

She gives Katniss an evil grin and says back, "At least I'm not the one covered in mud."

Katniss wonders what she's talking about, but doesn't have time to think about it before Clove steps forward and shoves Katniss back roughly, causing her to trip and careen into a huge pile of wet, sticky mud behind her.

She lands on her back with a plopping sound, getting it all over her clothes and in her hair. She looks at Clove, shocked, who just smiles and walks away, Cashmere and Enobaria following her.

Katniss can feel the tears pricking her eyes as she tries to pull herself out of the mud. She can't get up because she keeps slipping, when she hears someone say her name.

She looks up to see chubby, baby-faced little Peeta Mellark holding out a hand for her.

He has short blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes, although he had yet to grow into his round little body.

"Here Katniss, grab my hand." He says. She eyes him suspiciously before accepting his help out of the mud.

Once she's standing, she casts her eyes down to the ground.

"Thank you." She says in a low, sad voice.

Peeta just smiles at her with the little amount of teeth he has.

"She's wrong you know." He says in a small voice. "You don't look like a boy."

Katniss doesn't know why he's trying to be nice to her, she's never spoken to him before in her life. "No, she's right." Katniss replys. "I do look ugly."

"Not you don't!" he replies with a happy edge to his voice. "I think you look really pretty! And you're a lot nicer than Clove is, that's much more important than how you look."

Katniss doesn't know how to respond. No one has ever called her pretty before, let alone a boy she hardly knows. He has to be making fun of her.

She stares at him, silently daring him to say more. He just smiles back at her.

"I do!" he says again. "I think you're really pretty." And with that, he starts looking around on the ground for something. He sees what he wants and bends down to pick it up.

A tiny yellow dandelion.

He beams up at her, holding it out in his hand.

"This is for you. A pretty flower for a pretty girl." She looks at him with tears I her eyes.

Not thankful tears, but angry tears.

"It's not nice to lie, Peeta! Saying things that aren't true isn't nice! I don't want your flower, so just leave me alone!" she screams at him.

The smile instantly falls off his face and is replaced with a look of pure sadness.

She gives him a hard look and takes off running in the opposite direction, her breath heaving with tears.

"Katniss, wait! Come back!" she hears him yelling behind her.

She keeps running, never turning back to look at Peeta, not believing he could do something so mean right to her face. From that day on, she made a mental note to avoid Peeta Mellark the best she could.

I ran home that day to my mother crying, telling her about Clove and the mean boy who had tried to give me the dandelion.

My mother told me that she knew Peeta's father, and guaranteed me he was not trying to be mean. I asked her how she knew him, and she told me they had been friends in school for a long time, and if Peeta was anything like his dad, he meant what he said.

I was still upset at Peeta after she said this, not completely believing her. My mother made me promise I would apologize to him, and a week after the incident, I decided to get it over with and be done with Peeta Mellark once and for all.

One day at school, I pulled out a piece of scrap paper and wrote "I'm sorry" on it in my clunky handwriting and shoved it into his desk when he wasn't looking, washing my hands of him and his teasing.

To this day I don't know if he ever got the note, but he skillfully avoided me for a few years until the day his family packed up and moved across the country in 2nd grade.

It wasn't until I became friends with Delly in high school that I found out she was Peeta's cousin.

I had always wondered what happened to Peeta Mellark, but never cared enough to ask her about him. I wonder what he looks like now…

My father announcing we've arrived at the therapists brings me out of my walk down memory lane.

This morning I had a screaming match with my mother about my scheduled session, telling her I wasn't going and that I didn't need some asshole telling me how fucked up I am in the head.

She just shook her head and replied, "You're going. End of discussion."

I stomped to my room, slammed the door behind me and crawled back into bed. It was a few minutes before Prim walked hesitantly into the room and up to my bed, saying,

"Please go Katniss. Just go one time and see how it is. If you still hate it they may not make you go back. But at least you gave it a shot."

I looked at her angrily, but knew I wasn't about to get into it with Prim. I sighed an angry "Fine", changed and left the house with my dad. We had to drive into the city for the appointment, me trying to distract myself with memories of a boy I hadn't thought about since the last time I saw him.

I get out of the car and my dad and I walk into the building. It's sterile white and extremely cold in here as we walk up to the front desk to check in.

"Hello," my dad begins, "My name is Scott Everdeen and my daughter has an appointment today with a Mr. Cinna."

"Oh, of course, he's been expecting you!" the receptionist replies way to excited. Her name tag reads "Effie", and her face is caked with makeup. She's also wearing one of the strangest outfits I've ever seen, making her look like a flamingo.

She tells us the doctor will be right out, and to have a seat in the waiting room. We sit in silence, not looking at one another. My dad has had a really hard time with what happened, and he hasn't said more than two words to me since I came home.

I know it's because he hates me now I think.

He knows as well as I do everything that happened was my fault.

We don't have to wait long before the doctor comes out to greet us. He is medium height with dark skin, but dressed very casually.

He shakes my fathers' hand, introducing himself.

"Hello, my name is Cinna." He says. "And you must be Katniss." He turns to me and I smile back.

"Hi," I reply. "Nice to meet you."

I was hesitant about coming to this appointment today, but I know I already like Cinna. He already makes me feel comfortable.

"Well, are you ready to get started?" he asks. I nod my head and being to follow him back to his office, looking back and giving my father a small smile. He smiles back as I enter the room.

It's very cozy, with a desk in the corner and a big, comfortable couch in the middle of the room across from a matching, plush chair. He motions for me to sit down on the couch, telling me to make myself at home. I sit down gingerly, my stiches still sensitive, as he takes a seat in the chair across from me.

"Well, it's certainty nice to meet you Katniss. Would you mind telling me how old you are?"

"Seventeen," I reply. "I'll be eighteen in March." He smiles, looking impressed.

"Oh, how exciting, eighteen is a big year! Do you know what you're going to do to celebrate?"

"No." I reply simply. "I haven't thought about it much."

I know what he's doing I think

He's beating around the bush trying to avoid the elephant in the room that is why I'm here.

"Well, I'm sure you'll think of something. After all, you only get to be eighteen once!"

I just nod in reply. He takes a deep breath and continues.

"Well, Katniss, I think you know why you're here. And the first thing I wanted to let you know that this is not a punishment. I am simply here to listen to whatever you want, or don't want, to talk about and offer the best advice I can. Just try to think of me as an older, wiser friend you can talk to about anything that's troubling you."

He pauses. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

I look down and shake my head. "Not really." I tell him softly.

"That's fine." He says. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

Oh no, here it comes. I really wish I hadn't come here. I shake my head.

"How is school going? I assume you're in your senior year?"

That wasn't the question I was expecting.

I look up at him, a little shocked.

"School's okay,' I reply. "I get pretty good grades and like being with my friends."

"What's your favorite subject? Besides lunch." He adds with a laugh.

I smile and give it some thought.

"Well, I'm not really good at any one subject, but I enjoy biology a lot."

"Oh, why is that?" he asks.

"I don't really know, I think it's because I spent so much time outside as a kid, I really like learning about animals and plants. Nature things like that, I guess."

"That's very interesting," he replies. "Is that what you want to study in college?"

I freeze.

I haven't really given college a thought in the past week. At the beginning of the year I was really looking forward to it, but since that night I haven't though that far ahead into the future.

I couldn't even see my future past the next few days, let alone something as trivial as college.

"I'm not sure, " I say. "I haven't thought about college much."

"That's alright, you still have plenty of time."

I nod at him.

"Do you get along with your friends?"

"Yeah" I say.

"Can you tell me about them?" From then on I describe each of my friends and all their personalities, some of which bring smile to his face. He also asks me about my family, and I tell him about how close Prim and I are.

I tell him I've always sort of felt like a mother to her, because when we were little both of my parents were working long hours so it was up to me most of the time to take care of Prim.

"Well, she's lucky she has a loving sister like you. I know my siblings wouldn't even notice if I broke my arm, let alone do all those things for me." He laughs.

I chuckle back at him, before I look at the clock and realize our hour is almost up.

He didn't even ask me about why I'm here I think to myself, confused.

He didn't ask me one thing about what happened.

"Well Katniss, our time is up for the day. Thank you for coming to talk to me, you seem like a very nice girl who has a good head on her shoulders. I would like to see you again soon, if that's okay. You can set up your next appointment with Effie at the front desk.

Also, let me give you my card, which has my office and personal number on it. If you ever need to talk about anything at all, don't hesitate to give me a call."

I nod and thank him, taking the card and following him out to the front desk. My dad stands up from his chair in the waiting room, shaking Cinna's hand.

I make my next appointment with an overly cheery Effie and we start to head home.

That was odd I think to myself.

I was expecting him to force me to talk about what I did. He'll probably get to that next time.

"How did it go?" my dad asks me.

"Fine'" I say. "He was really nice." And he was. I felt very at home talking to Cinna, almost like I as talking to an old friend.

We get home and I go to my room to take a nap. I don't have nightmares, but I do dream.

I dream that I'm walking around the woods, holding someone's hand. I look at their face, but I can't tell who it is. All I can see is that they have blonde hair.

I feel alarmed for a minute, thinking it's Cato, but I don't feel like I'm in danger. I don't feel threatened.

Who is this person? I ask myself.

I wake up, confused that I would have a dream I was holding hands with a stranger. I decide to go on my computer to check Facebook. I never go on, maybe once a month, but when I pull it up I have a few miscellaneous notifications from people I don't really care about.

I sit there for a few minutes scrolling through my news feel when I see a status form Delly. I look down at the names of the people who liked it.

And then I see his name.

Peeta Mellark.

I click on it and I am brought to his profile, but it's protected. All I can see is his profile picture, which is dark because he's standing against the sun. I can barely make out his face, but I can see that he still has the same blonde hair he did when we were little.

I shake my head at myself, log out and lay down on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

Why do I all the sudden care about Peeta Mellark? I ask myself.

I haven't seen him in ten years, and the last time I talked to him I yelled in his face.

My phone alerting me of a new text message brings me out of my thoughts. I grab it and see that it's from Delly.

Delly: "Hey Kat, did you get my voicemail? If you didn't, would you like to come to my family's picnic this weekend? It will be a lot of fun!"

I think it over in my head.

The last thing I want to do right now is see any of my friends. The time I spent with Johanna was bad enough. '

I'm about to tell her no when I remember my dream.

How I felt relaxed with whoever I was with, at least enough to hold their hand.

My curiosity gets the best of me and I text her back.

"Hey Dell, yeah I got your message. I'll be there."

Thanks for reading! Please review, I love feedback! And I promise the story is going to start picking up here soon, so stay tunned... ;)