The boy with the bread: The back story to Peeta Mellark

Chapter 7

It's hard to sleep when there's someone walking the roads, ready to shoot you if you even take one step outside. From the bedroom he shares with his brothers, he can slightly hear chatter between his parents in the kitchen. What could they be talking about? They're not arguing, which is new, so perhaps something about today. Peeta's curiosity got the best of him, so he plops out if bed trying not to wake up his brothers. He tip-toes around the room making his way to the door, Creek! He stepped on a lose piece of floor and sheets starts to ruffle. Did he wake them up? Peeta stands perfectly still until the ruffling stops. Thankfully it does so he can keep moving.

"-but I'm worried about the bakery!"

"I know me too, but we have to stick to it, we can't give up okay?"

Peeta recognizes who says what.

"The games are coming up, what will he do--" his mother.

"--he's not going to change the rules, don't worry," his father interrupts, "you seem very concerned all of the sudden. . ."

"Of course I'm concerned! Why wouldn't I be, this crazy new peacekeeper comes around and mentions rebelling going on and rebelling equals rebellion which means war." She seems so serious.
"The games are going to be the same as always. Two kids from here go in and lose. Parents mourn for months about their loss, then the next year comes and it starts all over. It's been the same for dozens of years so just because Mandice is here doesn't mean things are going to be more harsh."
Peeta peeks behind the wall and sees his parents leaning against the counter, worry eyed and for now, don't see him. She starts to walk toward him, and he scurries back to his room, as quietly as he can. He tip-toes back in, closes the door and prays that she didn't see him.

* * *

Fires burning. Around him, in front, behind, surrounding his entire space, leaving him no room to escape his potential death. Something stings, it's a cut on his right arm, then a bee sting on his neck and his pants are teared open around his knee. Trying to find a way out, he jumps over twigs that are on fire, careful no to step right on them.

He hears screams. Horror screams, that echo through the forest he is in. Heart beating faster then ever, sweating from head to toe, he runs away from the fire, getting burns here and there. Closer and closer to the screams. A girl. Then a boy, then more girls, they all seem young--perhaps younger then him. Still running as fast as his injured body can take him, he reaches the cornicopia, from what he remembers it looking like. There are kids around it, holding swords and spears with blood covering their frightened faces. They are careers, which automatically makes people scared of them, but that doesn't mean that they have fright building up inside. Peeta looks at them and realizes that he's doomed. Five of them and one of him, the odds aren't in his favor. Life is over. He's going to die on television, without even telling Katniss how he feels. A tall, built boy notices him and starts running in his direction. He's brown haired and full of scars probably from fighting all day. Peeta trys to pull out a weapon to protect himself, but nothing appears. The boy pulls out a knife and walks closer and closer to him, he's saying something to Peeta but he can't make out the words. Peeta tries to back up, but there's only a bush. They boy gets close enough to him to end his life, then --

* * *

Breathing heavily, sweating more then ever, Peeta wakes up and looks around, expecting to be dead. Nightmares never hit him that badly, but he probably dreamt of being in the games because of what he heard his mother say. His heart still pounding, Peeta sits up and dangles his legs off the edge on the bed, hands on his knees, trying to calm down. What happened? All he remembers is running through horror, trying to stay alive. Kids screaming and constant worry that someone would pop out and hurt him. From what little he remembers watching on television, some kids can be very violent.

He looks around the bedroom; both his brothers are still sleeping, so Peeta must of been very silent when going through that nightmare. No screams out loud, no constant moving around in bed. Peeta remembers one of his brothers getting nightmares a few days before being sent to the reaping for the first time. He would yell and scream and kick his legs, waking everyone up. Clearly Peeta is different, he's not sure if it's a good thing that the horror in dreams gets kept in or if it's a bad thing.

To relieve the pain of the night, Peeta decides to get out of his bedroom and just relax in the kitchen for a bit. Looking out the window, its around 6am, so not too early before everyone wakes up. Peeta considers his options: go outside for a stroll around the Seam, but curfew may not be over, so there's a chance that he could get shot by a peacekeeper. No. Stay in bed and try to let sleep find him again. No, the nightmares will come right back to haunt him. Wait around in the empty bakery until his parents wake up, the only option left on the table. So Peeta does this. First he slips back in his room and grabs some clothes to change into for the day. Then quietly walks back into the kitchen, hoping no body heard him. Thankfully, he's quiet enough. Time goes by and thoughts wander through his head. How did I dream about something so terrifying if it's not until two months from now? Or if it never even happened to me? Peeta never has severe nightmares about the games. Sure he never actually sleeps the night before the reaping, but nobody actually talks about what it's really like in the games on television. So his dream could be totally wrong from how he dreamt it. A second later, Peeta hears a door creek open. It's his parents, with baking gear on ready for a day of work and chaos.

"Oh Peeta, good morning," says his father, walking into the kitchen, "Didn't expect to see you up so early. School doesn't start until another hour."

"I um. . . just wasn't tired anymore, I guess." he responds, keeping the nightmare a secret.

"Okay then, that's fine," Peeta notices his mother, crossed arms, and doesn't even glance at him.

After a minute of silence, she decides to speak, "Well you could've done something useful then just sitting around, waiting for time to go by."

Peeta just ignores her comment and says to himself, "I should get my things ready for school. . ." He exits the kitchen to get his rigged old bag with limited school supplies.

The P.A outside announces that curfew is over and for students to start heading to school. Peeta walks behind his brothers, staying close to them. He thinks about weather he should tell his parents about the nightmare. But what would he say? More importantly, what would they say? His mother would probably just ignore him, so she's out of the question. Maybe he'll tell his brothers, they'l understand, won't they?

It's 8:30am on the dot and the three of them arrive on time to class. They separate into their classes, without saying goodbye to each other. Peeta walks in and takes his seat, trying to focus on the teacher, not his miserable night sleep.