Doe In The Meadow | Peeta Mellark

six

The chariots moved down the long aisle way as the audience cheered and gushed in excitement and thrill. I looked at them, recognizing a few from the city.

I could then see Peeta and Katniss as their outfits burst with flames and then shut off as we reached the podium where President Snow stood his ground, pleased with himself. Those flames, I'm sure, caught his attention. Snow hated the whole shock factor effect. I smirked to myself as the chariot drew to a halt, and the crowd quieted themselves as Snow began to speak.

"Here we go." I muttered to Lando, who smirked to himself. I knew he was beginning to take a liking to me, as I tried my hardest to lighten the mood. But he had to trust me, too, and that would be more of a challenge.

"Welcome," Snow began, eyeing each and every one of us. "We salute the courage of your sacrifice as we wish you happy Hunger Games. And may the odds,"

"Be ever in your favor." Both Lando and I quoted with him, mockingly. Our chariots quickly started up once more and led us down a side aisle, out of view from the audience. They stopped when we were hidden backstage and Lando and I climbed down to be greated by Tallie and Mayneck. "That was it?" I asked. "All of this for that?"

"Yep. Get used to it, kid." Mayneck patted my shoulder. I looked between the gap of him and Tallie, to see Peeta glancing over at me. I shot him a smile and against my better judgement, walked over to him. His and Katniss' mentor and escort stood next to them, looking cautiously at me.

"Pretty cool outfit." I laughed a little, as he proceeded to as well.

"Yeah, I didn't realize what they'd do." He told me, looking down at the black suit he had on.

"Flames not real, I take it." I said, instead of asking. He nodded. I looked over his shoulder to see Katniss still staring harshly at me. I could tell she didn't trust anyone, which made sense. There were 24 of us and only 1 was going to be left. Why should she try and make friends. I leaned in closer to him as he leaned forward to hear and I whispered "I don't think your friend likes me very much."

"Who? Katniss?" He asked. "Don't take it personally. She doesn't like anyone. Not even me, I'm pretty sure." He smirked.

"I get that." I said. "I mean, I get why she doesn't like anyone. I don't get why she doesn't like you." I stammered, realizing I probably just insulted him but instead he continued to laugh at my awkwardness. My fingers fidgeted with the gold cuff around my wrist, nervously.

"I know what you meant." He continued to smile at me.

"Peeta," his mentor began, calling him away from me, as Peeta then turned to him. "We need to get to the room."

"One second, Haymitch." Peeta called to him and then turned back to me. "I'll see you at training tomorrow?" He asked.

"You will." I smiled, with a nod. "See ya around, Mellark." I then proceeded to turn and walked back to Lando and the other two.

"Now that you're done flirting, we can head up." Mayneck scolded, annoyed with me.

"Wasn't flirting." I rolled my eyes as we made our way to the elevator and Tallie went on about the building and when it was built and how we were on floor 6 because we're district 6. I couldn't care less honestly, I was just ready for training.

***

In the morning, us tributes stood around listening to a woman explain the rules of training. "No fighting with other tributes. There will be plenty of time for that in the arena." She informed as a few kids smirked at the thought of that. Brutal, some of these tributes truly were, and it was frightening to say the least. "Now, go, pick your weapons carefully and begin." My eyes glanced around the room, and I looked up to see Seneca Crane and other Capitol members eating and watching us. Seneca stared at me, as I stared back, walking over to a rack of weapons placed about.

I scanned the items, observing each and every one of them. I needed to choose wisely, because I wanted to practice with only one, to make it my weapon of choice. I then noticed a long slender katana peering off to the side. I reached for it when a hand gripped onto the handle. Anger boiled inside me as I looked to see Peeta and a wave of relief soon washed over. He picked it up and handed it to me.

"Nice sword." He said with a weak smile.

"Figured it should do well." I pulled it out of the sleeve it was tucked into and held it up against my cheek. "What's yours?" I asked, before he held out a spear. "Yeah, definitely catch a lot of fish with that." I joked as he laughed at the comment. I couldn't help but look back up at the box to see Seneca looking back at me once more, with an eery look in his eyes. My smile faded and I could feel as Peeta turned to look at what I was looking at and then he turned back to me.

"I hate him." I sneared through clenched teeth, quietly.

"Yeah, I understand." He said in response. But he didn't understand. Seneca and I had a history.