Chapter 21

Peeta Mellark POV

My mom has been in the bakery a lot lately to prepare for Thanksgiving, it's usually the busiest week of the year. We have a lot of pre-order pies to make, Katniss agreed to take an extra shift today to help with customers so my parents and I could spend most of the day baking in the kitchen. Gale isn't taking an extra shift, but I'm not sure why. Not that I'm complaining, it's just odd.

My brothers aren't coming into town until tomorrow, today is 2 days before Thanksgiving. We got out of school early today, we had a half day. They don't start their break until tomorrow, they'll be coming home then. I get why they aren't in a hurry to come home, it's not fun here. I know I won't be ecstatic to come back when I go off to college.

"Where's Gale?" I ask Katniss when I come up to the front to stock the cold case.

"He's with his family today," she says. "He wasn't able to take an extra shift."

"Did he want to?"

She shrugs. "I don't think so," she says. "He feels kind of burnt out lately."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I say. "What do you have planned for Thanksgiving?"

"Just going to Gale's house," she says. "We like to make Thanksgiving dinner for the kids there so that our moms don't have to worry too much about it."

"That's nice," I say. "I really admire how close your family is."

"We kind of have to be," she says, straightening the pen holder and mini stapler by the register. "It's been a rough few years."

"I'm sorry," I say after a pause. I wish I had a better response, but there isn't much I can say. I haven't been in her shoes. "I can't imagine what that's like."

She shrugs. "It is what it is," she says. "What do you have planned for Thanksgiving?"

"My brothers are coming into town tomorrow," I say. "They'll probably help me with practicing for wrestling."

"Oh, that sounds fun," Katniss says. "It's good that you have people that have experience with that so you can practice with them."

"I think it's just an excuse for them to beat me up," I say. "But sure, let's go with that." She laughs at that, I actually made her laugh. I would do anything to keep hearing that laugh.

We somehow get through the day, but it's just as busy as I expected. Every year I keep thinking that maybe the holiday season won't be so bad, and every year I'm proven wrong. I guess it's good that my family has a successful business, but it's still stressful that I have to deal with this when I'm a kid myself.

"How are you getting home?" I ask her as she's getting her bag to leave.

"I was going to walk," she says. "It's not too cold."

"Isn't that a long walk?"

"About 30 minutes or so," she says. "It won't be bad, I can clear my head."

"You shouldn't walk that far by yourself," I say. "Let me walk with you."

"You don't have to do that," she says. "That'll just mean you have to walk back by yourself."

"I don't mind," I say. "I can always call my dad to come pick me up if necessary."

Katniss pauses, I can tell she's hesitant. She shouldn't feel so guilty about accepting help. "Okay," she finally says. "If you're sure."

I smile at her and we head out towards her house. "I hope this job has been good for your family," I say as we start walking. "I know the pay isn't exactly amazing."

"It's been really helpful," she says. "Anything helps, honestly. And it gives me a tiny bit of spending money, which I didn't really have before."

"I'm glad," I say. "I'm glad my parents haven't been too hard on you."

"They're fine, your dad is super nice," she says. "Not that your mom isn't, she just doesn't talk to me much."

She's trying to not say anything bad about my mom, even though she really can. My mom isn't nice, but it's nice of her to pretend she is.

"My dad is cool," I say. "It was nice of him to let you and Gale work here, I'm glad he did."

"Why would you care where I work?" She asks.

I don't want her to know I'm hopelessly in love with her, so I think of something else that still expresses that I care about her.

"It's nice to see you outside of school," I say. "Plus, this is a good first job."

"I've worked odd jobs around town over the summer," she says. "But this is my first official job."

"You can always take anything you want home for Prim," I say. "I hope you know that."

"Thanks," she says, smiling. "It's best to not have her get used to that, though. I don't want her to expect it every time I work."

It's nice that she wants so badly to keep Prim grounded, but she shouldn't be so hard on her. She shouldn't be afraid to give Prim nice things once in a while.

"I hope you have a good time with your brothers over the break," she says after a pause. "You must miss them while they're gone at college."

"Sometimes I do," I say. "I miss Rye, Nickel is just over me at this point."

"I feel like Prim is over me already," she says. "I just want to look out for her, but it seems like she doesn't want that."

"She's in middle school, they get like that," I say. "I'm sure she loves you."

"We just used to be a lot closer," Katniss says. "I think I annoy her now because she sees me as more of her mom than her sister."

"She'll appreciate it when she's older," I say. "I know she will."

We get to her house and she stops at the door. "Thanks for walking me home," she says. "I really appreciate it."

"It's no trouble at all," I say. "Seriously, I don't mind."

"Are you going to call your dad?"

"Nah," I say. "I think I'll just walk home, it's not even dark yet."

"Text me when you get there," she says. "I want to make sure you get home safely."

"Sure thing," I say. "Have a good night."

"You too," she says. "Bye."

I start to walk home, I'm so happy. I actually got Katniss to open up to me, that's more progress than I've had with her in years. And she cares if I get home safely, that has to mean something. Even if we just stay friends, the fact that she's talking to me at all and seems to like me is more than I could ask for. This made my entire break.

*I'm home* I text her when I get to my room.

Ding. *Good to know :)*

Ugh, I'm so in love with her.

Katniss Everdeen POV

It's Thanksgiving, which I normally don't like. We don't have money to make a lot of food, and we don't have a lot of family nearby. My mom isn't close to her family, they stopped contacting her when she married my dad because they didn't approve of him.

I know that's hard on her, she talks about missing them a lot. They barely even reached out to her when he died. I know I have a lot of resentment, but I can't imagine doing that to my kids. I'm never having any, but I feel like there's almost nothing that could make me disown my kids if I did have them.

We're going to Gale's house for Thanksgiving dinner and spending it with his mom and his siblings. That's what we usually do, it's fun for the kids and helps our moms not have as much stress. It's not as fun for us since we have to do most of the work, but of course that's not what they care about.

"How was your shift at the bakery the other day?" Gale asks as we're prepping food in the kitchen. "I bet it was crazy, being the week of Thanksgiving and all."

"Oh, it was," I say. "It was busy, but the Mellarks were really helpful so it wasn't too bad."

"How was bread boy?" He asks.

"He was fine," I say, rolling my eyes. "He has a name, you know."

"Come on, I'm just joking around," he says, playfully smacking my arm. "Everyone calls him bread boy."

I don't know about that, but I have heard that nickname floating around before. I can't imagine Peeta likes it, and I don't believe Gale was actually just joking around and not trying at all to be a jerk.

"Whatever," I say. "He did ask where you were."

"He did?"

"Yeah," I say. "I think he was a little confused since we almost always work together."

"He was probably glad I wasn't there," Gale says. "I just get in the way."

"I don't know about that," I say. "They can always use more help during the holiday season."

He doesn't respond to that and we keep cooking. I decide not to tell him about Peeta walking me home. It'll just upset him, and I really don't want to gey into that with him. He doesn't like Peeta, despite how nice and helpful he actually is. There's nothing I can do about that.

Posy walks into the kitchen a few minutes later. "I want to help," she says. "Vick is ignoring me."

"That's nice of you," I say. "But I think we're all good in here."

"That's not true," Gale says. He turns to Posy. "Why don't you pour some milk into a bowl and mix it with the eggs for the pie?"

"Are you sure about that?" I ask Gale.

"Please, can I?" Posy asks. "I'll be careful, I promise." Ugh, now I feel bad.

"Sure," I say. "Gale will help you."

Gale gets the milk and eggs out. He helps her crack the eggs into the bowl and beat them. As she starts to pour the milk, I hear a clatter as the bowl falls off the counter. Luckily it was a plastic bowl, but milk and eggs still went everywhere.

"Gale!" I yell, walking over to them with a towel. "That was all the milk we had!"

"I'm sorry," Posy says quietly. "It was an accident."

"Well now there won't be any pie," I say as I start to wipe up the spill. "I knew this would happen."

Posy tears up and starts sniffling, she walks out of the kitchen. She's not even helping clean up the mess she made. I would feel bad if I wasn't so upset, plus I did warn them.

"You didn't have to yell like that," Gale says as he puts the bowl in the sink and rinses it. "You really upset her."

"I'm sorry, but now the kids will be complaining that there's no pie," I say. "And we're the ones who they'll be mad at."

"It's not a big deal," Gale says. "I know it sucks, but I just wanted her to feel included."

"I know she wanted to help," I say. "But I knew she would make a mess."

"Kids make messes," he says. "It happens."

"It just never ends," I say, walking over to the sink and rinsing the towel. "Just one more thing that we have to deal with."

"Hey," he says, making me stop and collect myself. "Take a deep breath, it's going to be okay."

I take a deep breath. "Thanks," I say. "I know it will be."

Gale may be a little controlling sometimes, but he does care about me. We've been through more than most kids our age, and we got each other through it. We're better together than we ever would have been on our own. I wouldn't have gotten through the last few years if it weren't for him. I have to remember that.

We finish up cooking with what we have left, but the mood has been killed for me. I know I should be nicer to the kids, none of this is their fault. I just feel so burnt out sometimes, there's a lot put on me and Gale. Gale has more siblings, but at least he has more help from his mom than I do. I'll apologize to Posy if it makes her feel better, maybe that will help make this holiday more bearable.

Primrose Everdeen POV

I know Rue and I agreed that neither of us would date Rory, but that doesn't mean he and I can't still talk. Plus, we kind of have to since we're spending Thanksgiving at the Hawthornes' house. Katniss and Gale are doing most of the cooking, which I know the moms appreciate. They've gotten pretty good at it, too.

We sit down to eat, it takes quite a bit of effort to get all of Gale's siblings at the table. Rory is being more well-mannered than usual, which I'm taking note of. Ugh, I don't know why he has to be so cute. We sit down and make our plates, we were able to get some turkey and some bread. Katniss even got us a little butter, which is a treat.

"Thank you for dinner," Rory says. "I hope this wasn't too much for you." He's speaking mainly to Katniss and Gale.

"We need to do something special for Thanksgiving," Katniss says. "This is what we could put together."

"This is more than you usually can get," I say. "How did you manage that?"

"Katniss negotiated really well this year," Gale says. "I swear she only gets better and better."

"It's not by choice," Katniss says passive-aggressively. "When you have to fend for yourself, you get resourceful and creative."

The room gets quiet, I can feel that it's becoming tense. I know Katniss is resentful, but she doesn't have to be so negative all the time. I was complimenting her, why can't she just accept that?

We finish up eating and I help clean up the table. As I'm stacking some dishes to take into the kitchen, Rory walks up to me. "Hey," he says. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"For sure," I say. "But you know they're going to make us do dishes."

"Whatever," he says. "Let's sneak out."

"We'll get in trouble," I say quietly. "Shouldn't we at least help a little?"

"We can help when we get back," he says. "I bet they won't even notice we're gone."

I take a look towards the kitchen, Katniss and Gale do look really busy. They would probably just kick us out if we tried to help. "Fine," I say. "Let's go before I change my mind."

We walk out the door and I close it quietly. "I hope you had fun today," he says as we start walking. "I bet it's rough when Katniss is grumpy."

"I just don't know why she has to be so negative," I say. "I was trying to give her a compliment."

"I hope we're not that grumpy in high school," he says. "It sounds miserable."

We walk to a nearby field and sit down. It's actually nice out, it's not too chilly like it usually is around this time.

"So how does Gale like working at the bakery?" I ask. "Katniss doesn't talk to me about it much."

"I don't know, honestly," Rory says. "I thought he'd like it more, but he just seems pissed whenever he gets home from work."

"Why would he be pissed?"

"You got me," he says. "Why would Katniss be pissed when you're just trying to give her a compliment?"

"Fair, fair," I say. "I guess we both just don't really understand our siblings."

There's a pause. I wonder if Gale is upset that Katniss is spending more time with Peeta. It would annoy me if Rory started spending a ton more time with Rue, so I guess I get it since it's pretty obvious Gale has feelings for Katniss to some degree.

"Does Katniss bring you treats from the bakery a lot?" Rory finally asks.

"Not really, she only has once or twice," I say. "What about Gale?"

"Same," he says. "He hardly brings us anything."

"I don't get it," I say. "They work there, they don't have to be so stingy."

"You know how they are," he says. "Always needing to do the right thing and make sure we aren't spoiled."

I chuckle. "As if we ever could be," I say. I pause and look at him. "I'm glad you talked me into coming out here, I needed to clear my head."

"I'll always take any opportunity to spend time with you without my siblings interrupting," he says. "Any chance I get."

That makes my heart flutter, even though he could mean that in just a friendly way. It's still something, I don't think he talks to Rue like that. I hate comparing myself to her, but I think it's obvious that Rory likes me more than her.

I take a risk and lean my head on his shoulder. He doesn't move or say anything, so I don't move my head. My heart is pounding, this is honestly the most physical contact we've ever had. We just sit in silence until the sun starts slowly setting.

"Maybe we should head back," Rory finally says. "Before they start looking for us."

"Yeah," I say, sitting up. "You're probably right."

We get up and walk back to Rory's place. When we get there, everything has mostly settled down. Katniss and Gale are sitting and talking on the couch. They turn around and look at us when we walk through the door.

"Where were you guys?" Katniss asks. I freeze, ugh here we go.

"We just went for a walk," I say. "Did you need help cleaning up?"

"I wouldn't have turned it down," she says. "You could have at least told us you were leaving so we didn't worry." I doubt they actually worried, but whatever.

"Sorry," Rory says. "We just went to the field."

"It's not a big deal, Katniss," Gale says. "They were back before dark."

"Alright," Katniss says. "Just tell us next time."

I can't even be mad that Katniss is upset. She's always upset, but it's more than that. I finally got closer to Rory. It's not much, but I'm starting to feel like maybe he does like me. I don't know how I'll keep my promise to Rue, especially if we both like each other. For now, I'm fine with seeing where it goes and just not mentioning anything to Rue.