The New Neighbor

Chapter 2

Katniss' POV

The lunch bell rang. I went to my locker to grab my lunch. Madge was sitting at our table. It was only us two, well it used to be me, Madge, and Gale. "Hey,"
"Hi,"
I sit down next to her and pull out my lunch from my lunch bag.
"Looks like the school and I had the same lunch plans." I say as I pull out a tuna sandwich. Madge looks at the school's tuna sandwich in disgust.
"I knew I should've brought my own lunch." She says as takes a bite from an apple. I grab my tuna sandwich and bring it up to her mouth.
"Open wide Madgy-poo," I tease.
"Ew! No way!" She slaps my tuna sandwich out of my hand and it splats on the ground.
"Oops," she says while looking at the sandwich, on the ground.
"Well thanks, now I'm gonna starve." I say jokingly. We both laugh.
"Sorry." She giggles, then shrugs.
I take out my pear and take a big bite. Madge nudges my arm and says,
"Hey Kat, I see someone checking you out," She smirks. I look at her, confused by who this 'someone' is.
"and that 'someone' is the new boy, across from us." She says. I look up to see Peeta staring at me. He says something to three other boys at his table, then stands up. He starts walking towards us and I feel my cheeks turn bright pink. Madge notices and tries to hide her laughter in. Peeta sits down next to me.
"Hello Katniss, Katniss' friend." He says with a grin. Madge looks surprised. She gives me the 'how-does-he-know-your-name' look. I smile and say,
"Hello Peeta, this is Madge." I say. I bet I confused Madge even more. I grin at her and giver her the 'I'll-tell-you-later' look.
"Well I'm gonna go buy some sandwiches, I'll be right back." Madge says and smirks at me. Great, leave me alone with someone I barely know. Thanks Madge. She stands up and walks away. Peeta and I just sit there in an awkward silence. He finally breaks the silence by saying,
"So uh, how are you doing?" He asks a bit awkwardly.
"Good," I say. "Crazy that we're next door neighbors huh?" I say trying to keep up a conversation. I'm not very good at that though.
"Yeah, we're probably gonna be seeing each other a lot." He says.
"Yeah, so, uh, how do you like it here?"
"It's great." He replies.
He looks down at the floor and then notices the tuna sandwich. He looks at me and gives me a confused look. I start to laugh.
"Oh, um, I tried to get Madge to eat my tuna sandwich, and she slapped it out of my hand." I smile.
"Oh, poor sandwich," he says teasingly. We both laugh and then Madge comes back with two sandwiches in her hand.
"Hey hey, I'm back, did y'all miss me?" She says teasingly. Peeta and I laugh and Madge sits down, giving me a sandwich.
"Thanks," I say receiving the sandwich.
"Well, I'm gonna go back to my table. I'll see you girls later." He winks at me, then stands up and walks back to his table. Madge smirks at me.
"So how do you guys know each other?" She asks.
"Well, um, we met in first period," I say "and we found out that we're next door neighbors."
She looks at me with wide eyes.
"He moved in Gale's old house?"
"Yep," I say and take a bite of my sandwich.
"Looks like you guys are gonna be seeing each other, a lot." She smirks at me. I blush and she giggles.
"You like Peeta, I saw the way you looked at him." She smirks.
"Yeah I like him as a friend, but nothing more than that." I say casually.
"Come on Katniss, admit it, you like him, not as a friend, but more than a friend."
"Fine maybe a little, but nothing more than that. And we barely know each other." I say taking another bite of my sandwich.
"I knew it, Katniss Everdeen you can't fool me," she says proudly.
"Or should I say Katniss...Mellark?" She smirks.
I almost choke on my sandwich. I look at her with wide eyes and blush at her comment. She bursts out laughing, then says,
"Come on, lunch is over." We both stand up and walk to our next class.
School went by slow, but I'm glad it's over. I say bye to Madge and grab my bike. On my way home, a car pulls up next to me. I ignore it and keep going. The car starts to follow me and I see the window roll down.
"Katniss!" a voice yells. It's a familiar voice. I stop to see who it is. Peeta.
"Hey Katniss, do you need a ride?"
"Um, no thanks, I'm good." I say.
"But it's gonna rain." He says.
I look up at the sky. It's cloudy and then thunder booms in the sky.
"It's okay, Peeta, really." I insist.
"No Katniss, come on, I'll take you home." He insists back.
Soon rain comes pouring down and I'm already half way soaked. I look at him and he gestures me into his car. I sigh.
"What about my bike?" I say.
"We can put it in the trunk." He says. He climbs out of his car and helps me with my bike. Once my bike was in the trunk, I climb into the front seat. Peeta sits down in the driver's seat. He gives me a smile and I smile back.
"Thanks for the ride." I say.
"No problem." He says. "So, where do you live?" He asks jokingly.
I hit his arm playfully and say, "don't act like you don't know." We both laugh.
We're finally home, and he walks me to my door.
"Um, thanks again for the ride." I say. He smiles. I start to open the door when Peeta says,
"Uh Katniss?" He says a bit nervously. I turn around to face him.
"D-do you wanna come over to my house for a while?" He says a bit hesitantly. It wouldn't hurt to go over to his house for a while. So why not?
"Okay, sure, um I just need to put my bag inside." I say. He nods and I run inside.
"Prim?" I call out. She comes running down the stairs.
"I'm going to Peeta's for a little bit okay? I'll be home soon." I say putting my bag down.
"Okay, have fun." She says. "But, not too much fun." She says with a smirk on her face. She runs back upstairs and I head outside, to find Peeta waiting for me.
"Ready to go?" He asks.
"Well we do live next door." I say jokingly.
He playfully hits my arm and we both laugh. We walk together to his house in silence. We walk inside and walk to the kitchen. Wow. This place is...nicer. I bet they're the rich family. Peeta and I walk into the kitchen. There's a plate of cookies on the counter and I glance over at him.
"You can have as many as you want Katniss," he chuckles. I take one chocolate chip cookie and bite into it.
"Oh my god. These are amazing! Who made them?" I ask.
"Hehe uh, I did. I'm a baker." He says rubbing the back of his neck nervously. I wasn't expecting that.
"Well that explains your big muscles." I say.
Shit. I didn't mean to say that out loud. I feel my cheeks turn bright pink and I look down. He chuckles and says,
"Um okay." He looks down and I notice that tint of pink on his cheeks.
I give a small smile. After a while of eating cookies, we go into the living room and sit on the couch.
"So...what do you want to do?" He asks. I smirk, grab a pillow and hit him on his head. I start laughing and he grabs a bigger pillow and hits me with it. He starts laughing.
"Oh it's on Mellark." I say and hit him with a pillow.
We have a huge pillow fight and we're both laughing like idiots. He throws a pillow at me and I dodge it. He throws a second one right after he threw the first one. It hits me and I fall backwards onto the couch. We're both still laughing and he walks towards me with a pillow in his hand. He trips on one of the pillows and he falls forwards. He holds himself up with his hands. The only thing I see in front of me, is Peeta's bright blue eyes looking at me. I feel my cheeks turn red. I'm probably as red as a tomato. But Peeta's cheeks are probably even more red. We both look at each other with wide eyes. He realizes that he's still on top of me and he quickly gets off.
"Oh my god Katniss, I-I'm sorry," he says and sits a few inches away from me.
"Peeta it's okay, I-" I get cut off by his brother, Rye.
"'Sup guys what's goi-" he looks at us with a perplexed face.
"Why is there pillows on the ground?" He says looking around.
"Uhh-" Peeta starts.
"And what's with the messy hair and red cheeks..." he trails off.
"Oh my god, Peeta did you and katn-" Rye starts but then Peeta cuts him off.
"No! Uh we're just friends. We um, had a pillow fight, that's all." Peeta says.
Rye still looks confused
"Okay then." He says and walks upstairs.
"Sorry about that, he can be...annoying sometimes." Peeta says.
"It's okay. I better get going, I'll see you tomorrow." I say and walk out the door. That was the most awkward thing that has happened to me. I walk inside to find Prim sitting on the couch, petting that ugly cat, Buttercup.
"Hey Prim. Have you eaten anything yet?" I ask her.
"No, I was waiting for you to come home." She says and stands up.
"Well then let's eat." I say and walk into the kitchen.
"Do you think mother will be home for dinner?" She asks.
I stare blankly at the stove. I blink my eyes to focus on what I was doing.
"I don't know little duck." I say.
She stays quiet. My mother is at work. Instead of being here, with us. But I know she isn't coming home tonight.