The Hunger Games ~ Peeta's POV

Chapter 7

Ch. 7

***Flashback***

Dark, black rain drizzled from the sky, blackened from the coal dust that had set an endless, dirty cloud wrapped around our district. Here, my hands warming over the glowing embers of the furnace, I felt pity for those who had to stand outside in the cold, mining, day after day.

I sighed and got up. "Back to work, Peeta," I said to myself. I picked up a kneading board from the counter and got out my ingredients. I sprinkled a pinch of flour onto the board so the dough wouldn't stick. I added some salt, an egg, half a bag of flour, a cup of water, and some raisins and nuts, and then kneaded it thoroughly.

Before I baked it over the furnace, I inspected it. It was round, plump, and just so; not too moist, not too dry. Perfection.

I gave a small smile at how good it would taste, but my daydreams were rudely interrupted by my mother yelling at someone just out back. I put my dough down and peered out the back door, my blonde hair sweeping into my eyes.

I saw the back of my mother's head facing someone, and I bit my cheek when I saw who that someone was, about to cry. It was Katniss.

"Get out of here, you worthless brat! I'm sick of having all of you Seam kids putting your filthy paws in my trash! I will report you! Go on, scat!"

Katniss carefully set the lid back onto the trash bin and took several steps backwards, guiltily.

Mother straightened up her wrinkled blouse over her pudgy body and huffed her way back inside. She clacked up the concrete stairs into our house to go read something, probably. But I didn't even look in her direction. My eyes were stuck on Katniss.

For a brief moment, our eyes locked. The usual sparkle in her eyes was gone, replaced instead with a hauntingly dull, agonized look. Shaking, she trudged over to our thick apple tree and sank to her knees, looking defeated.

I stepped back inside our cozy little shop then, because I could take it no more. I couldn't look at her beautiful, pained face without tears pricking in my eyes. The image of her tortured expression still burned in the back of my eyelids, like a stab to the heart. I looked at my perfect mold of dough, and then peeked outside again at Katniss. I knew what I had to do.

I picked up my moist creation, and strode over to the fire. I split it into two loaves, so it would bake better, and then let the flames lick at it's edges, turning the outsides black, but leaving the insides warm and pleasant.

Just as I was pulling them out of the furnace, my mother walked in, suddenly furious. "Peeta, you're such a moron! You're burning money, you idiot!" She looked around for something to hit me with, picked up a metal skillet, and struck me. Hard. My head stung, and my mind was dizzy. But for saving the love of my life, it was worth it.

Mom grabbed me on the ear with her nails and shoved me out of the back door, and I landed in a puddle of mud. "Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!"

I walked over to the pigs and started scraping bits and pieces of the black stuff off and throwing them into the sty. I waited until I heard the door slam loudly, and then I slowly turned my head to make sure that she was gone, and then tossed the bread over to Katniss. I didn't look directly over at her, but out of my peripheral vision, I saw her face light up like Christmas lights.

I kept my expression calm as I made my way towards the door, but after I heard the heavy door thunk shut, I began to smile so hard I thought my face would break.

***End Flashback***