Since the Beginning

Singing In the Rain with Cosette

Chapter 8

~Peeta POV~

We walk hand in hand, wearing our raincoats, rain pants, rain hats and rain boots. So as you can guess, it's raining. Hard.

It's Wednesday, I'm still staying with Katniss and her family. It's been the best thing that's happened to me in such a long time. They treat each other like family should. Like they love each other. That's just to hard for me to comprehend.

We walk down the hill, warm and dry in our outfits.

"Hey, wadya wanna do?" She says, jumping in a large puddle and slurring her words like she does at times. It's cute, actually.

"I dunno. There's not a lot of stuff to do while it's raining." I say, looking up and down the soaked street. She looks slightly up at me.

"Well what would you wanna do if it WASN'T raining?" She asks me. I think about this for a minute.

"I might wanna go to the playground." I say with a nod to finalize my answer. She smiles and pulls me towards the park. "But Kat, it's raining! It'll be all wet and gross and stuff!" I say, pulling her back to stop her. She grins widely.

"But we'll have the place all to ourselves!" She whispers excitedly. I think about this. All to ourselves, with no one to fight for the swings with. No waiting in line for the slide. Just the two of us. The excitement must show on my own face because she grins even wider. "You wanna!?" She says, bouncing excitedly. I nod quickly and we run, laughing down the street to the park.

It's not the biggest park, but it is a park. It's surrounded by trees except for the entrance and it has a play set and swings and a slide, along with benches an paths that go into the thin woods.

We slip and slide to it, grabbing each other's hand for support and laughing when we do. We finally run onto the soaked mulch, all alone with nobody in line for the swings or slide. Just us.

"This is awesome!" I yell. She laughs.

"Yeah it is! Now let's go play!" She exclaims and we sprint to the top of the slide, grabbing the handles more tightly than usual. I'm the first to slide down, positioning and then letting go. With the water, I go ten times faster than normal. I let out a surprised yell when I slide off the end and land three feet from the slide. I laugh and look up at Kat, who's already grinning ear to ear and sitting at the top. "My turn!" She yells, letting go and putting her hands up above her head as she comes sliding quickly down. She comes flying at me and I put my arms out to catch her, her toppling over in my lap, making us both fall back.

"Woa!' I say as we go down. She gasps, than jumps up to help me.

"Peeta! I'm sorry! I didn't know I'd go THAT far!" She laughs, standing me up. I laugh and shake my hat-covered head.

"No, it's fine! I'll be your landing may whenever you need." We both laugh and keep taking turns on the slide until we get bored of that. "Wanna go on the swings!?" I exclaim. Swings are my favorite. She nods, grinning.

"Sure! Race ya!" We sprint to the swings, laughing and I win, slipping into the swing. She laughs along with me when she catches up, plopping down in her own swing. We start pushing her legs and soon we're as high as we can go, flying through the air, and then back again. Then we're propelled through the air again, then pulled back to safety before we go too far.

"Oy Katniss!" I say.

"Yeah?" She calls back.

"I see you getting ready to jump, don't you dare!" I yell.

We've agreed I'm the more careful of the two of us. Together, we're a good balance. Usually.

"But I'll land it, I swear!" She exclaims. When my swing comes to the ground again I slide down onto the ground quickly and run in front if her swing.