Hunger Games: the Boy with the Bread

Chapter 5

The mayor finishes the Treaty of Treason and tells Katniss and I to shake hands. Once her hand meets mine I look her straight in the eye. Then I give her hand a tight squeeze. And pull away looking straight in the crowd.

The moment the anthem ends I can feel peackeepers grabbing me. They pushed me through the doors and placed me in the Justice Building. I look around. Just like my dreams. Exactly like them. I don't like it here. I feel trapped. I grab the door handle trying to get it open but the door is locked. I can feel sweat running down my face as my heart is racing. Then I just close my eyes and stand in darkness because this is easier than facing reality. I'm in here for an hour. I think to myself. Just an hour. But it will be the worst hour of my life.

My parents are the first to walk in. I had no hesitation to run into my fathers arms. I start crying as his arms confort me.

"Take care. Don't let them starve. Please. You can trade them. Please." I cry. I can tell they are confused about who I'm talking about so I began to tell them to take care of Katniss's family. My moms getting mad as my dad agrees to do so.

"Peeta. I promise I won't let Prim starve. For you and for Katniss," he says.

My father is a great man. Kind hearted, hard working, respectful. He has bright blue eyes just like me and ashy blond hair. Broad-shouldered man with burn scars from years in the oven. My father's parents pass down their baking skills and occupations to him. Then my father passed it down to my brothers and I. He grew up in the merchant sections with Mrs. Everdeen. They were both merchant kids around the same age. My father was in love with her. He used to tell me how he wished to marry her, instead she married down in the hierarchical class to Mr. Everdeen. A boy from the seam who had this beautiful voice and contagious spirit. As a kid I didn't understand how anyone would want to run off with a seam boy. But that changed once I heard Mr. Everdeen sing. Then I heard Katniss sing. She was just like her father. And I finally understood why Mrs. Everdeen ran off with Mr. Everdeen instead of my father. My father wasn't mad as he understood how great a man Mr. Everdeen was.

Katniss and Gale. Sometimes Prim often makes trades with my father. They're the only people who actually make decent trades with us. They tend to come when my mother is not around because she has quite a temper. She doesn't want to help them. All she cares about is herself. But I know my dad wont let Katniss's family die. Because he's like me in love with a seam girl and will do anything to keep her alive.

My mother is the totally opposite. Yes she still has blonde hair and blue eyes. But she has an unkind spirit. She has a temper and beats us up. One time I spilled paint on her white apron by accident. She got so mad at me she hit me so hard I passed out. When I woke up I was in my bedroom. I was only 14 at the time. But all the paintings I did were covered in black paint. My mother ruined all of them. I spent months on some of those. As I went cleaning up her mess I spotted one picture behind my bed that she had not touched. She didn't find this one. As I lifted up the painting behind my bed. It was a picture of Katniss with a dandelion in her hand. And flowers in her hair. The background had mockingjay that were singing. Her dark brown hair was pulled in two braids with a smile on her face.

After a while of just standing in complete darkness I opened my eyes. And release my arms that were around my father. I look down and my father is holding a bag of cookies. "There for Katniss," he says. He was never going to let them starve. He was going to help them before I told him to. Finally something good that's happened today.

My mom just stands there looking at the wall. Has not said a word. I scream at her to say something. And that's what she did. "Maybe District twelve might finally have a victor," she says.

What? She knows there was no possible way I could win. None. But then before I can say something she quickly adds. "She's a survivor, that one." Soon I realized she wasn't talking about me. She was talking about Katniss. I can see the anger in my dad as the words come out.