Since the Beginning

The Meadow

~Katniss POV~

Me and Peeta have been best friends for a month now and I've learned a lot about him in this time. His favorite color is sunset orange. He likes to doubles knot his shoelaces. He's a great artist and always likes to sleep with the windows open. I'm embarrassed sometimes because he's better at tying shoelaces than me, so I sometimes have to ask him to help me. But he smiles and does it gladly. That's another thing I've learned about Peeta. He's nice to everyone. He told me he doesn't like to be mean to people even if they're mean to him. I walk down the sidewalk towards the bakery. Me and Peeta have practically inseparable since we met. I walk inside and beautiful smells fill my nose. I stand on my toes to see over the counter, you can only see my forehead on the other side. I'm not the tallest girl of my age.

"Hi David!" I smile cheekily. He grins. David looks a lot like Mr. Mellark. He has brown curly hair and piercing blue eyes like all of them do. They're all also rather tall. Peeta's nose comes up to about my eyes, but he's not all that taller than me. All Mellark boys are the same. Blue eyes, tallness and thick, wavy hair.

"Whale hello there Katniss. Oy Peetaaaa! Katniss is hereeeee!" he yells over his shoulder. I hear him running down the stairs and he skids into the bakery. He's wearing his usual knee-length cargo shorts and a light blue v-neck. He smiles at me.

"Hi Kat!" he calls, pulling in his converse.

"Hey Peeta! You ready to go?" he stands up and grins.

"Yup! Let's go!" he hops up and grabs my hand, running out the door. We get to Jabberjay Rd. right outside the bakery. "So what do you wanna do today?" he asks.

"Hmm. You wanna go exploring?" I say.

"Sure! Where to?" I grin.

"Follow me!" I run towards the gate that separates the woods from town. We stop at the gate and try to look beyond it.

"You wanna go in THERE?" he whispers. I nod.

"We gotta go exploring don't we?" I say. I hop the fence and Peeta follows behind eagerly. We walk in silence, looking around at our surroundings.

"It's pretty out here." He says softly. I nod.

"Yeah, it is." I see an opening in the trees up ahead. "Hey lookie!" I grab Peeta's hand and start running. We run through the opening and gasp. A huge meadow, full of wind flowers and bright green grass with a beautiful creek at the right. On the outside of the meadow is the rest if the woods, so this place is completely concealed to the rest of District 12. It's beautiful.

"Oh my gosh," Peeta breathes. My mouth gapes open as we walk to the middle of the meadow.

"Good golly i'll bet nobody's been out here ever!" I exclaim, throwing my arms out to it all.

"It's all ours!" Peeta exclaims. I gasp.

"You're right! It's all ours!" We run over to the creek and look down into it.

"Woaaa," he both whisper. I look at him.

"I'm gonna jump it." His eyes grow.

"Don't you dare!"

"I dare." I back up, getting ready to jump it.

"Katniss, don't do it! Please don't do it, it's a LONG jump!" He begs. I scowl at him.

"Peeta, you can't stop me from doing it. I can do it. I just wanna get to the other side." He just stares at me, mentally pleading with me. Then he nods.

"Please make it." He whispers. I smile and nod.

"I will. Don't you worry about me." I back up and take my position. Then I sprint hard and jump as hard as I can. I clench my eyes closed and hit the grassy ground on the other side. I open my eyes and jump up. "I made it! Peeta I did it!" he starts jumping up and down along with me, cheering.