A Never Ending Story ~Everlark~

Dandelions and Roses

Katniss POV~

I awake to a my loud beeping alarm, which of course, I only had about 6 hours of sleep, so this will be fun. But then I remember, I'm getting out early so I can help bake this special cake for someone. I'm not the best baker but I guess I can help do something there.

I roll off my bed and walk over to my dresser. Should I look nice, or wear crappy clothes? After a few minutes of think I decide on a white long sleeve with a sprinkle of glitter in the fabric, black pants and a white pair of shoes. I walk into the bathroom and set my clothes down and get into the shower. After my shower I get dressed in my outfit and braid my hair in my usual braid. I stare into the mirror for a bit. I hate my body. I'm skinny, but I have these huge hips, which doesn't look right for my body. I basically have no curves either. Girls in school have boyfriends who admire them and everything, for some reason, I've never actually thought about have a boyfriend. Ehh I don't care. I brush my teeth and grab my bag and head down stairs.

I see prim with a lot of breakfast at the table. Um...this doesn't seem right. Usually there is only like a loaf of bread and jam, now this? There's bread, eggs, sausage, bacon and....cheese buns? Then I feel at tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see two blue orbs behind me and beautiful curly blonde hair. Peeta.

"Good morning katniss, since you were going to help my father and I today I thought it would be best if I could somehow repay you, with food" he says and let's out a small breathy laugh.
"Peeta, you shouldn't have. I would of helped you either way." I say honestly.
"Yeah but I wanted to do something nice for you." He says with a smile
"Thank you, and I appreciate you did that, at least for prim's sake. But you don't have okay?" I say and sit down with a big pile of food in front of me. Oh my god, it looks amazing!
"I wanted to. You deserve food and GOOD food to be exact." I am human and of course I need food but I'd rather prim eat than me. I'd feel guilty and I'm her big sister, of course id give anything up for her. I shake the thought and start on my breakfast. Of course, the first thing I go for is the cheese buns. I can't get enough of these!

Prim and I soon finish and begun getting our bags and everything set together. Peeta goes outside and waits by his car to drop us off. I feel weird that he is catering us, he is so sweet and nice, and obviously has better things to do than wait around for us. I'm not arguing because of Prim. She reminds me that I'm human, and help is good. Prim and I walk out to Peeta's car with him opening the doors for us. He hops into the drivers seat and we begin on our short journey to school.

We drop prim off in front of her school, I kiss her goodbye and tell her to be good. Then, it's only Peeta and I. It actually isn't awkward, we have the radio going and "Don't" by Ed Sheeran came on. We both start sing  it at the same time and laugh. Wow...I'm really comfortable around him. Maybe this will be an interesting  friendship..

We get to our school and hop out of the car. We walk into the building and go to this principles office and wait patiently for him to come in. While we wait, I stare into space. I notice a painting on the wall. I walk up to it to examine it more. A dandelion. It's so beautifully detailed but not over done, it's perfect. It almost looks real, in my opinion. I hear footsteps behind me and notice Peeta stands right next to me.

"A dandelion." he whispers
"I know, it's so...perfect." I whisper trailing off staring at it again.
"Just the sight of one give you hope. Maybe this is our hope." he says
"What do you mean?" I ask slightly confused. I'm doing okay at the moment and I think Peeta is to, like food and money wise. Well, i once wasn't okay. When I was 11, my father died and my mother went into a deep depression, and basically slipped out of the world. She then didn't go to work, which stopped all income, she wouldn't eat, she wouldn't sleep and it took Prim and I to make sure she stayed alive. I decided I needed to take charge of the house because no one else will, and I needed to be there for Prim. The worst time was at the end of winter. I couldn't hunt or trade anything and I was quickly losing my hope. I went around the rich side of the town, the Merchants, and still nothing. I finally couldn't take it anymore and collapsed by a tree near the bakery. I remember thinking 'Is this it?' 'Is this how I'm going to die?'. Just before anything can happen, I hear screaming from inside the bakery and a door swing open. It takes all of me to look up and I see 2 bakers standing out side. The woman appears to be screaming at her son, he looks around my age. I look at the blonde haired boy with a loaf of burnt bread, when she smacks him. She turns away back into the bakery, and the boy noticed me. He looks over to the bakery to check and see if anyone was watching him and then he did something I didn't expect anyone to do. He threw the bread and it landed right at the edge of my feet. I wanted to say thank you but he was gone before I could conjure up anything. I took the bread and ran home as fast as I possibly could. When I met the boy with the bread, we both remembered. Peeta remembers because I mentioned it the day his mother took off. Ever since that day, I've always had hope that everything would turn out okay.

"For anything life throws at us this week." he says quietly. I understand what he means. He's had a rough time and so have I, maybe not the exact same way but we both struggled. A few moments later the Principal walks in and sits at his desk. Peeta and I walk over to him.

"Hello Mr. Mellark, Ms. Everdeen." He greets us.
"Hello Mr. Lee. I was wondering if Katniss and I could get out early to help my father at the bakery and Katniss works there, we need her help for this big project."
"Hmm....okay its alright with me since it's the beginning of the year, you two won't miss much at all." he smiles and let's us go.
"Thank you." I say
"You're welcome Ms. Everdeen" He says quietly and we walk out.

Peeta and I head outside of the school and into his car. We drive in a comfortable silence and once we get to the bakery he speaks up.

"So..Katniss," he says

"So..Peeta." I say mocking him. He chuckles and continues.

"After were done working today would you like to hang out?" he asks with slight nervousness.

"Sure, i'd love to. Where should we go?"

"Anywhere you want is fine as long as its fun." he says and laughs, and I laugh a long.

We walk into the bakery, facing a few customers, the chaser and finally Peeta's father. He leads us to the back where all of the ingredients are and hands us both 2 flour bags. Peeta got the big ones that you throw over your shoulder and I got the 2 small handy ones. I'm not really weak but I think it's a sweet gesture so instead of being stubborn and bickering about it, I let it go.

We head into the kitchen and set up everything we need. We choose to stay quiet so there is no distraction and mess up. Peeta gets the ingredients measured out and sets them in perfect order, while his father is making 120 roses to drape down the cake. I'm the one I guess who mixes everything together and watches. When Peeta finishes up he gestures me to pour them all in. I slowly pour all the ingredients in, paying closely attention because I know this is big and I don't want it to get ruined. Once I finish, and the batter is at a good consistency, Peeta hands over 4 circular cake trays and we begin pouring them into each pan. Peeta's father is very fast at making the roses, I think he's almost done and is going to work on the frosting next. While Peeta is placing the cakes in the oven, I can't help but stare at his fathers works. The roses are so beautifully detailed, just like the dandelion in Mr. Lee's office. Maybe he was the one who made that painting...I could be wrong also. Peeta comes back over and he gently pulls me out of the kitchen, and out of the bakery.

"Here I want to show you something. My father will know where I am and I know when the cakes will be done so it's no biggy." he says.
"Okay. So where is this place your taking me to?" I ask.
"Somewhere, obviously." he chuckles a little and I do the same. He leads me towards the woods, and we stop at a huge tree.

"You know how to climb trees right?" He asks
"Yeah of course." I say. My father taught me and I would go super high where he would have to set a point where I can only go up to a certain height. I used to make him follow me up and everything. This thought makes me smile and I begin climbing the tree. It's a very good tree to climb and perfectly sturdy. Peeta is above me climbing fast, and he stops when we get to a tree house.

"Katniss...I never showed anyone this besides my father. I wanted to show you cause I saw how you were looking at my dads frosting roses and how you looked at the dandelion I'm Mr. Lee's office. I've always kept this a secret about me because it's sort of strange about me," he says
"Are you ready?" he asks with a shy smile.
"Yeah..I think I am." I smile and climb up a bit more to get to the stairs. I walk up them and open the door of the tree house. Whoa...

When I walk in, i almost lose my breath. There are paintings. Not just paintings, but paintings of dandelions, bread, trees, sunsets and....me..

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Hey!! I haven't updated in a while, only because I was slowly writing this. I haven't felt very creative lately (😱) so I feel that's why it took me so long. I'm sorry though! I'll try and upload more often because I actually do enjoy writing this story, even if I only get a small amount of views. I still appreciate the ones who do read! 🌾

I hope you've been doing well, and if you have any suggestions for future chapters, please comment! 🌅

Love ya 👋🏻😊💖

~Jess