Katniss and the Rebels
Chapter 4: Talks
Hi everybody!
Ok so this is the fourth chapter and in it we have: Gale, Peeta and Mr. Mellark.
I hope you enjoy it
This chapter is for ashjoh123 who has reviewed all my chapters and I really appreciate it :D
Updated on the 24th June 2014
Disclaimer:Nope I'm not Suzanne Collins so I don't own The Hunger Games or Peeta Mellark (sob)
Katniss POV
Finally! After what seems like forever the bell signalling that it is finally lunch rings loud throughout the hallways and everybody quickly packs away their belongings and rushes out the door.
Gale is outside the door of my classroom when I walk out. We haven't been back to school a month yet and he all ready knows my timetable off by heart.
"Hey Galey what are you doing here?" I ask him.
I am not objecting to speaking with him but he rarely ever meets me straight after class we usually meet up in the cafeteria or outside.
"Nice to see you too Catnip, I'm just here to say that I have to go to talk to Mr. Crane at lunch so I was going to ask if you want to come round after school, learn Vick's new dance move." Gale says, winking at me as we walk to my locker.
I grow nervous, I have a fair idea how Gale will react when I inform him who my project partner is and it isn't a good reaction.
"Oh sorry Gale I can't come over please apologize to Vick for me. I have to do this project for Home Ec. and I need to work on it after school today with my partner."
"Oh right, ok." Gale is never very interested in anything to do with school stuff and Home Economics isn't exactly Gale's thing.
"So..." Dammit "Who is your partner?"
"A person, nobody important." I say quickly.
Yes ok I'm being stupid you don't need to tell me!
Gale laughs, "Well I didn't think you were partnered with an alien Catnip but then again in Ms. Trinket's class anything is possible. So come on who is it? Its not one of the Careers is it?"
I silently pray that Gale won't over-react,
"My partner is Peeta Mellark."
Gale freezes and stops in his tracks.
I stop walking and turn to look at him.
"Gale?" I ask gently, "You all right?"
Gale remains silent and continues staring at me, his face expressionless.
"So you are grand with me working with him then? Great! well I am going to go to my locker now! You have an enjoyable conversation with Mr. Crane and I shall speak to you soon. Bye!"
I sprint to my locker, opening it and getting my books until suddenly my locker is slammed shut.
I jump in shock and unsurprisingly Gale is standing over me, his hand placed on my locker door and he is looking down at me with hardened eyes.
I sigh and attempt to think of something to say
"Look...Gale it is no big deal. It is a dumb school project that will be over with in a few weeks."
"Yeah a project that you will be working on with Peeta Mellark. Not just any old townie, a Mellark!" Gale yells at me, a group of freshmen stare at us but Gale's glare quickly has them running for their lives.
"Gale please calm down. Peeta isn't that bad! I can handle him! We both know that I have dealt with far worse than Peeta Mellark."
I zip up my bag and walk away from him as fast as I can but I soon hear the sound of him follow me.
It doesn't take long until he is right behind me.
"Look Catnip, I'm sorry." I hear him say.
I turn around to face him.
Gale doesn't apologize often so I hear him out.
I fold my arms and look up at him (he is too damn tall)
"I know I went a little overboard, I know you can take care of yourself. Its just...I worry about you, you know so just please be careful."
"Gale relax please! Its not like I am going on a date with him or anything! I am just doing a project with him where we cook which I am rubbish at. Just please tell Prim I won't be home until dinner time and apologize to Vick for me."
"Yeah course I will. Anyway I think everyone knows that you're a terrible cook-hey!"
His outburst may or may have been a result of me shoving him...he deserved it!
"Oh shut up Gale it's not like you can cook." He just shrugs.
"So...you and Mellark are going to be working together? That should be interesting. Just don't get too close to him yeah? You know full well what his brothers are like."
Peeta's elder brothers are known for being massive players and jerks. I think the eldest has calmed down now but the other one is still a player and a jerk.
"Oh come off it Gale, you're no better than them, you're never away from the Slag Heap!"
The Slag Heap is basically where guys take girls to make out with him.
Darius nicknamed him 'The King of the Slag Heap after he went there with some blonde, popular senior in freshman year.
I usually try to ignore the fact that my best friend takes random girls there as often as he does.
"Oi! You know I stopped doing that in summer before last year!" Ok yeah that is true.
Gale soon leaves and I make my way to the cafeteria to eat with Thom, Darius and Madge.
Peeta Mellark is leaning against my locker when I reach it at the end of the school day.
He looks up and his eyes catch mine and he smiles lazily as I walk over to him.
"Hi" he says when I reach him.
He slides over to the locker beside mine so I can open my locker.
"Hi well aren't you punctual, are you ready?" I ask him while sorting out my books.
"Aren't I just? Yeah I am ready. Do you have much homework?"
"Yeah of course though it's mostly study what about you?"
"Same"
"Thanks for your help with the project" I say as I close my locker "I never would have survived on my own, would have burnt the house down"
"What do you mean?" Peeta asks confused, "We are partners right? I mean we are supposed to work together.
I guess he wouldn't understand being a popular townie and all.
Whenever I got partnered with a townie for a project they made me do all the work.
"Well most of the partners I've had usually just made me do all the work."
"Well I'm not like that. I promise to do my fair share." Peeta says sincerely
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it. I kind of want a good grade anyway and if anything you told me about your cooking is true…"
I want to elbow him like I did to Gale this morning...and Thom but I can't bring myself to do it so I just shove him and tell him to shut up instead.
By now we have exited the school building and are making are way towards the bakery.
I remember my conversation with Thom, and decide to ask Peeta before we get there about his mother.
"So will your family be home?" That sounded really wrong didn't it? Dammit ok floor swallow me up now please.
"Shouldn't think so, my dad will be working in the bakery, my mother has gone to District Six for a couple of days. She should have left around lunch I think, my brother Rye will still be at college and my eldest brother Bran might come around but he hasn't made any plans of coming over known to us.
The way he says 'mother' makes me think that him and his mum don't get on well.
I don't think anybody does get on well with Mrs. Mellark she is just pure evil...you didn't hear that from me though.
I smile at him and he grins back.
"So tell me a bit about yourself Katniss." He says, turning to walk backwards in front of me (I am sure he is going to trip but I bite my lip to keep from saying anything)
I laugh "Well Peeta just how much do you know about me?" I ask half jokingly and half curiously.
"Well I know that your name is Katniss Everdeen.
You are the eldest in your family and you have one younger sister called Primrose or more commonly known as her nickname Prim.
You are 17 years of age and your birthday is May 8th.
Your best friends are Gale Hawthorne, Thom Carlson, Madge Undersee and Darius Homesway.
You love the woods and used to go there with your father who you were very close to.
You are excellent at archery.
You don't like cooking and aren't exactly great at it and you are an amazing singer."
I look at him in shock how does he know so much about me?
Peeta looks at me nervously like he has only just realised what he has said.
Peeta turns around quickly, walking alongside me in silence again.
Peeta looks as if he is about to apologize but I intervene.
"Well if I didn't know better I would say you stalked me" I say slightly warily
"So your name is Peeta Mellark. You have two older brothers, Rye and Brna.
Your birthday is December...16th? And you are 17 years old.
Your best friends are Finnick Odair, Delly Cartright and Thresh Simmons.
You are an excellent artist and exceed in painting especially.
You wish to take over the bakery when you finish college.
Like me you aren't close with your mother and you are often told that you are like your father."
Peeta seems as surprised as I was and I look down at my feet nervously.
By now we have reached Mellark's bakery.
Peeta hold the door open for me and I walk inside grinning at him,
"Why thank you Mr. Mellark." I say in a posh voice
"You are very welcome Ms. Everdeen." I take a quick glance behind me and am forced to hide a smile when I see him blushing.
Mr. Mellark is behind the counter when we enter the bakery. He seems to be in deep concentration sorting through some books.
He looks up though when the bell above the door chimes once it opens.
"Peeta! Hello, listen I know that today is your day off but do you think you could-? oh hello Katniss sorry I didn't see you there" Mr. Mellark says nervously
In my honest opinion Mr. Mellark seems exhausted.
I do hope he is all right.
I briefly wonder if this has anything to do with his wife leaving for a few days.
But I quickly cast that thought aside as it is none of my business.
"Hi Mr. Mellark" I say, waving shyly
"Dad, Katniss and I were going to work on a project for school upstairs but I mean if you need me to work-" Peeta is clearly conflicted.
I can tell he wants to help is dad who to be honest looks as if he hasn't slept in days.
But Peeta's dad is quick to intervene, "No of course not, I can do all this later. You two go on upstairs, Katniss you can stay as long as you want its lovely to see you." Mr. Mellark says closing his book and smiling at me.
"Thank you" I say smiling back at him
Peeta nods to his father and then leads me through one of the doors behind the counter and we walk upstairs into his sitting room.
His house is not large like Madge's house but it is a lot bigger and nicer than mine.
Peeta and his father unlike most townies don't seem to care about money or status.
But it is no secret that the Mellarks have more money than I could ever dream of having.
We sit down on the couch and Peeta takes out a sheet of paper from his bag to write plans on.
"So how about we do you simple food? Like for starters we do something simple and traditional. For main course we can cook chicken curry or something and then well desert will be my specialty of course" Peeta says grinning at me "So we can make anything really for that or just take something from the shop. Does that sound ok?"
I nod, "Yeah that sounds great. So lets come up with a few options of what we can make for each course and then afterwards we can narrow it down to one or two."
"Yeah perfect."
I leave Peeta's house at six o clock.
On my way out I wave goodbye to Mr. Mellark who grins brightly at me when he says goodbye but I can still see the tiredness in his eyes.
I think about everything that happened today on my way home and when I reach my house I see Prim outside feeding Lady.
Lady is our goat.
Yes. We have a goat.
As if you didn't think our family was odd enough all ready.
She is Prim's...well pet I suppose as well as Buttercup
Buttercup is Prim's old cat.
Buttercup and I do not get along well.
At all.
Anyway back to Lady. I found her a few years ago on Prim's birthday so I brought her home and gave her to Prim as a birthday present.
Unlike Buttercup, Lady does help us out as we use the cheese for trade.
So I don't complain about her...that much.
I shut the gate, Prim looks up hearing the sound and she runs towards me.
"Katniss! Hi! How was your day?" Prim asks excitingly as she hugs me.
I smile, somehow Prim can always make me smile.
I don't know a lot of people who can say that about their siblings.
"Hi Little Duck. My day was good thanks and yours?"
"My day was great!" She says grinning
"That's good, look I am sorry that I couldn't walk you home with Gale today but I had to work on a project for school."
Prim grins wickedly when I say this. Oh no…
"Yes I know. Gale told me that you were paired with Peeta for a Home Economics project."
Prim seems really really excited about this.
Oh god.
"Since when do you know the baker's son?" I ask her.
We don't know many people from the town expect for Made and a few of Prim's friends.
Prim looks like a townie (our mum is from town and Prim looks exactly like her) so she doesn't have as big a problem making friends with them.
Prim sighs in despair at me while I just raise my eyebrows in confusion.
"God Katniss do you ever pay attention? I see him all the time when we are in town! He is ALL WAYS staring at you when you aren't looking. And you do the same thing when Peeta isn't looking. I don't know how you two don't notice it. It's ridiculous.
I am surprised that nobody else has realised that you two are obsessed with each other. Its about time you two finally talk. I was beginning to think he would never work up the courage to talk to you because lets face it you wouldn't have done it."
Offended!
"And plus I see him whenever we go into the bakery. Or when you or Gale send me there. He isn't bad looking at all-"
"Prim! Come on get inside" I push her inside as I look around making sure nobody heard her rant and I follow her shutting the door after me.
"Prim! Number One: Peeta Mellark does not stare at me. Number Two: I do NOT stare at Peeta Mellark. Number Three: We are not obsessed with each other as you put it. Number Four: Looks aren't everything Little Duck."
Prim gives me a long bored look.
"Katniss." She says seriously, folding her arms
"I see what Peeta is like when we enter the bakery. His face all ways lights up when he sees you and he can never take his eyes off of you. He definitely has a crush on you. I am sure of it. I doubt he knows you like him back though." Prim says frowning
Well I never realised that my younger sister was so observant but then again I could just be really obvious.
"Sure Little Duck. Whatever you say. Now how about we get some dinner?"
Prim gives me a knowing look before rolling her eyes and walking ahead of me into the kitchen.
As I make our dinner I try and shake off what Prim said about Peeta and I but I can't.
I take a deep breath and attempt to focus on cooking. Trying to ignore Prim's voice in my head telling me over and over again that Peeta Mellark likes me.
Which he doesn't
Well at least I am pretty sure he doesn't.
Great well that's the fourth chapter done now I hope you liked it.
Did everyone see the Catching Fire trailer it looks brilliant I can't wait to see it.
Thanks for reading and please
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