Fight for Me

Chapter 1:

My stomach flips as I stare up at the massive structure before me. 'West Seam High School: Home of the Miners' is blocked out in white letters across the brick facade, and there is bright red paint slathered across the front doors. My eyes dart all around me as laughing teenagers go by on their way inside, and finally my feet start to move forward. I keep my gaze pointed down at the pavement in an attempt to lay low and I step into the lobby behind a large group of boys carrying lacrosse sticks and shoving each other around. 

I breathe a sigh of relief when I make it to the front office because it's one place in this building that appears to be calm. I give my name to the woman at the front desk and take a seat next to a preppy blonde girl whose face is buried in her cell phone. I start to nervously pick at my fingernails, but after a minute or so the woman looks up at me and smiles. "Miss Undersee?" She glances at the blonde girl and then back at me. "This is Katniss. You'll be showing her around this morning." My heart speeds up a little bit. This girl looks like a cheerleader who probably has a million friends. I was never popular at my old school, and I'm sure I won't be here either. This girl is probably already laughing at me in her head. 

"I'm Madge. It's nice to meet you, Katniss." She smiles warmly at me and extends her hand to me. I stand up from my seat and shake it tentatively. 

"You too." I mutter, praying that my voice won't shake and make my fear evident. She turns on her heels and heads for the door and I scramble to follow her in her fast walking pace. 

"So you're new in town?" She asks as she reaches over to examine my schedule. 

I nod. "We just moved in over the weekend. I haven't even finished unpacking." Our move to District 12 was abrupt and kind of rushed, so my mind has been in a frenzy. My mother has all but checked out, so it was up to me to step up and and make sure everything got done, like getting my younger sister, Primrose, enrolled in her new middle school, and making sure the security deposit was in on time for our new apartment. Hopefully once we're all settled in here I'll be able to take a break and rest, but for now I'll do whatever it takes to make sure my sister is okay.

She squints at the double-folded piece of paper and then starts walking a little faster down the hall. "You have history class first. All the english and social studies classes are in the east wing; science and math are in the west. Fine arts and anything else that's not academic will be up on the second floor." Madge rambles on and I try my best to absorb it all. "I'm your peer mentor, so I'll be here if you have any questions or just need a friend." She smiles again and I genuinely think she means it.

"Good to know." I say as we continue down the hall. The bell is going to ring soon and kids are slowly starting to filter into their various classrooms. 

"We'll have second period together, and at lunch I'll introduce you to some other cool people." She stops in her tracks in front of big wooden door and I can only assume that we've made it to my destination. "Enjoy your first class. Miss Trinket is a lot of fun."

"Thank you for helping me out, Madge." I murmur. 

"No problem." She grins and wishes me well again before hurrying off to get to her own first class. 

I open the door and step inside, and thankfully people are still talking and messing around. I slip into a seat the back of the classroom and reach into my backpack to pull out a pencil. The bell rings and people start to settle down at their desks. Right at the last second a boy flies in the door and falls into the seat next to me just before the teacher appears. My eyes widen a little bit. Miss Trinket's hair is wild with curls and her outfit contains at least four clashing patterns. Her pink kitten heels make loud clicking sounds as she walks across the tiled floor and she has two pencils clenched between her teeth and she rifles through her papers. 

Miss Trinket starts to go over the homework from last class and I can't help but feel the burning of eyes on my face. It's obvious that I'm the new girl, and people keep periodically looking my way to see what's up. I catch the boy next to me sneaking a peek and he quickly turns away, his face turning a bit red from the shame of being caught. 

Once they've finished their review, Miss Trinket picks up a stack of freshly copied papers and starts to pass them down the rows. "Our next unit is going to be on local history. We've already covered the country as a whole, so now we've going to focus solely on District 12. For this project, you'll be picking one aspect of the district's history to research and putting together a presentation to share what you've learned with the class." Seeing as I've just moved here, my knowledge of District 12 is pretty minimal so this might prove quite the challenge to accomplish. "Now, since there are ten topics and about twenty of you, you'll be working in pairs." Great, this is the moment you always see in the movies. No one ever wants to partner up with the weird pariah of a new girl. "Everyone pair up with the person sitting across the aisle from you."

I turn back to look at the boy next to me he smiles as we start to push out desks together. "I'm Katniss." I say, trying my best not to sound sheepish and uncomfortable. 

"I'm Peeta."

*~*~*

A/N: What do you guys think so far? Do you think she will get along with Peeta and Madge? This was just a short intro to get into the story, so the next few chapters will hopefully be longer. Should I continue this story? Let me know in the comments :) Let's see if we can get to 10 votes by the end of the week!

xoxo, broadwaygurl18