Revisions started October 2022.
Top ranking #10 in Hunger Games
Peeta Mellark has loved Katniss Everdeen from the first moment he heard her sing. In his innocence he watched her, hoping to gain enough courage to finally talk to her. One fateful day...
The bakery was a hub of gossip during the weeks following the explosion. Conversations were whispered between his parents and the townspeople. The store did well during this time, with many people purchasing their cookies and cakes.
The explanation from his father was that, "People need to be reminded of beauty and sweetness in difficult times."
Due to the increase of sales, Peeta was asked to help decorate the cookies and cakes. His father patiently showed him how to make simple flower designs with colorful icing. He watched over Peeta's shoulders during the first batches, and finally he placed his hands on Peeta's shoulders, saying, "You have a gift son."
Peeta was completely absorbed by the work. It was like second nature to him, something he didn't need to think about, which gave his mind time to wander and daydream. It often wandered to Katniss.
Picking up the blue, he'd see a Robbin's egg blue. It would remind him of ribbons she wore in her hair. The center of a flower he decorated in a buttery yellow, and that would remind him of a shirt she wore shirt she wore. She radiated like the sun that day.
He began adding leaves to the flowers. Its green was bright like spring. Katniss wore a plaid dress once during a school assembly of a similar green. It fit her poorly, too loose and long, but the color of the green made him think she would standout in any meadow.
Every color he could find its likeness in nature. And Katniss was like that too; she belonged to the natural world around him, like the breeze, the trees, and like the song birds. She was everything good that existed beyond the fence of their District.
It was strange, but those weeks after the explosion were some of his best weeks. He was relieved to discover that his work somehow pleased his mother. She mother complained less about him.
When they were finally allowed to return to school, Peeta felt a burden lift from his shoulders. He missed the smell of fresh air. The oppressive heat from the bread ovens, and flour floating in the air sticking to everything, got to him at last.
More importantly, he knew it was the only chance he would have to see Katniss again. Her family never came to the bakery.
As he walked his familiar path to the school he couldn't help smiling. He didn't notice the disapproving looks, at first, that he was getting from people in the square when he walked by them.
What they didn't realize is he was on a mission. Nothing could stop him from talking to Katniss today. He had so many things he wanted to tell her. All week he'd been imagining telling her about the cakes, and different colors he could create. He wanted to ask her if she ever helped her parents with their work.
Every time the door creaked open he would turn in his chair to see if she arrived. He was eager to see her hoping he hadn't forgot any details, like the way her braids hung down her back.
It helped that a few of his friends came over to chat, even though he missed most of what they were saying. My closest friends understood why I was distracted.
He was crestfallen when Katniss didn't show up that day. Instead he tried to focus on what he would say to her when she did arrive. He continued to daydream the conversation they would have to placate his disappointment.
Finally, lunch. He sat with his friends at a table in the center of the large cafeteria. He set a day-old roll spread with butter, cheese and mashed vegetables, and some dried fruit on his plate. He picked at the roll in front of him while his friends talked together about the week's past events.
"Didn't you notice that none of the Seam kids are here today?" Lacey spoke in a bright conspiratorial whisper. Like the other town kids she had golden hair, which she wore cropped at her shoulders. Her parent's shop sold clothing, and was next to his parent's bakery.
Peeta knew her the longest of his friends. They were always thrown together when they were younger. She wore the cleanest clothes, and when she smiled it was like a sneer.
His heart sped up. The pulse in his neck increased. He concentrated on the roll in front of him, while listening intently to the conversation around him.
" All those people died. Weren't they all from the Seam?" Sam, a tall boy in the year ahead, asked.
"They were, and they all died. Moms, dads, brothers and sisters." Lacey said, "No one survived except those on the afternoon shift, my dad said."
That was why Katniss' wasn't here. Her dad was one of those who didn't survive. How could he be so dense?
A larger kid, who wasn't part of the Seam, but whose parents were the city's garbage collectors, pressed his body forward into the group. When he spoke it was as if he tried, and failed at whispering. "Yeah, well they probably did something stupid to get themselves all killed. I mean you don't exactly need a good education to get a job in the mines now, do you?"
Peeta didn't realize until too late that he was crushing the roll in his hand to dust. Katniss was the smartest one in our grade, by far. "What, and it takes brains to pick up garbage?" It was out of his mouth, and in the same instant he knew he shouldn't have said it.
"Dude, not cool." His best friend Crist put his hand on his shoulders, pressing him in place. He started to leave the bench without realizing it. He relaxed.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it. Just, --" The heat of shame creeped into his cheeks.
Rhetta, another girl from his class, startled him from behind when she said, "Because he's in love with the girl from the Seem. Isn't that right Peeta? The little Miss Everdeen's caught your fancy?"
There was something about Rhetta he didn't like. She had a quality about her that reminded him of his mother; a sneering quality. She was smug. She put others down, and in this supposed superiority, she used it to rise above others while pushing them down. Lacey and Rhetta were close friends.
"I'm going." Peeta collected the lunch he never ate and left, but before doing so he paused, "I'm sorry about what I said about your family. Just because someone's from the Seam doesn't mean they aren't smart. None of us have a choice about any of this."
He left them in silence. This statement was the most rebellious thing he had ever said against the Capital. What he said could even be considered treasonous, to suggest that there was something wrong with the system.
He was sure even his mother would take offense to what he said. She didn't love the Capital, but she hated living in District 12. On several occasions he heard her talking to his father about requesting permission to relocate to the Capital. It was impossible, but there have been several special cases where someone has moved into another district on request. Outside of those rare few exceptions, movement between districts were prohibited.
In District 12 there was a clear line between the Seam and the Town. No one moved between them either, unless it was from the Town to the Seam. Father explained it to him before, but he wasn't sure why Katniss' mother would take the harder life of the Seam, even for love. He wondered whether she regretted it now. If it was true that Katniss' father died, then she had neither a husband or her old life. Would he regret it if he traded the Town for the Seam? And with that, he had his answer. He wouldn't regret it if his life was with Katniss.
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