Chapter 1: Chapter-1
He Saved Us
A/N: This chapter is the beginning of the story, so it will obviously start off boring. It's a lot of backstory, and how Katniss got to this point in her life, but I promise it will get better. I plan on making Peeta and Katniss become friends before the games, seeing how different her life would be if Peeta handed the bread to her instead of throwing it to her. Basically, this is a "What if Peeta and Katniss talked before the games." I'm debating how I want the story to go. I don't know if I want them to go into the games together still, or change the whole story line. We'll see.
Chapter 1
After my father died in an explosion in the coal mines under District 12, my mother, my little sister, and I were left to survive on our own. My mother became depressed, sitting in her wooden rocking chair my father made for her birthday, staring at the picture of him on the walk with a blank look on her face, leaving me and Prim starving with nobody to feed us, nobody to keep us alive. Nothing Prim or I did brought her back to us. No matter what we said, or did, she just sat there, not acknowledging her daughters at all. I hated my mother for abandoning us, for abandoning Prim. We were grieving just as she was, but it's no excuse to just give up on us. I don't think I can ever forgive her. It was torture watching my 7 year old sister slowly starve to death, while my mother did nothing to help us.
I miss my father. I miss him taking me to the woods, which were outside of district 12. It was technically illegal, but the peacekeepers here turned away and pretended not to notice. The punishment for going beyond the fence was whipping, or death. The fence was supposed to be electric, but because District 12 was the poorest district, the fence was on for two to three hours a day. That's also how long each house gets electricity for. My father would hunt for game to feed us, or to trade in the Hob for any items we may have needed. In fact, peacekeepers were some of his best customers. My father would hunt for turkey, rabbit, squirrel, beaver, anything he could. He'd show me how to gather berries and nuts, and which plants are edible.
He made me my own bow for my birthday one year, so I didn't have to keep using his bow, which was way too big for me. But since he died, I haven't been to the woods. It scares me, being out there without my father. What if a bear attacks me? Who would care for Prim?
I took on the responsibility of caring for Prim, keeping her fed and clothed. If the District found out my mother was unfit to care for us, Prim and I would have been placed in a community home. The home in District 12 was a small building, crowded with the children of parents that died in the mines or were too poor to raise them. Diseases and bugs spread through the home rapidly, and without much food, the children would die because they were too weak to fight off the diseases. I couldn't watch my sister grow up there.
I did everything I could to keep us alive. I sold anything I could in the Hob. The Hob was in the center of District 12, where many of us would go to illegally trade, sell, and buy things. While it was against the law to trade, many of the peacekeepers allowed it because they too were hungry. Because District 12 was the poorest district of Panem, the Capitol didn't pay much attention to what we were doing. As long as we supplied enough coal each year, they left us alone.
All I had to do was last until I turned 12, which was only a couple of weeks away. Once I turn 12, I am able to sign up for tesserae, which is extra wheat and oil to help feed the starving families. Help. You can take tesserae once a month. In return for the tesserae, your name will be put into the reaping one more time. The reaping for the Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games. Every year, children between the ages of 12 and 18 meet in front of the Justice Building, to be reaped for the Games. One male and one female will be reaped from two glass bowls, and become the tributes for their district. You can volunteer to become a tribute, but nobody has ever done that in 12. In districts 1 and 2, however, the children train their whole lives to volunteer, for a chance at victory. If you happen to win, you go home, receive a very nice house in Victors Village, where the victors live. You get paid monthly for being a victor, so you and your family will never starve for your win.
The tributes selected will be sent to the Capitol to be dressed up and paraded around in the Capitol to try and impress the citizens and sponsors. Sponsors are citizens who buy items for you in the arena to help you survive. Your mentor, a former victor who trains the tributes of his or her district, tries to gain you sponsors to help you survive as well.
The tributes then train for the Games in the Training Center, where you can travel between different stations and learn skills to help you in the arena. You'll then show the game makers these skills you learned to be scored between 1 and 12, to help impress sponsors, earn allies, and effectively increase your odds of survival.
Lastly, before you actually get into the arena, you will be dressed up and interviewed by Caesar Flickerman. After the interviews, the tributes are brought to the arena, where all 24 will fight to the death. Only one can exit the arena.
Signing up for tesserae is risky. The first year, your name is entered once, the second year, twice, and so on. While it doesn't seem like much at first, if you sign up for tesserae often, your name will be in the bowl more and more, increasing your odds. But tesserae is the only way I can keep Prim from the community home.
I'm still not old enough for tesserae, and my family is starving. I scream at my mother for just sitting there while her daughters wither away and die. I gather all of Prim's old baby clothes, and head to the Hob. I try to trade them for food, anything to feed Prim, but nobody wants to. It's raining and cold, my clothes are soaked, but I can't go back to Prim with empty hands. I can't even look her in the eye and tell her it will all be okay, because it won't.
I feel weaker by the second, as I'm walking through town. I dropped the clothes I was holding into a puddle a long time ago. Nobody wants old, ripped, dirty clothes. I'm ready to give up, I'm ready to die. But I can't, Prim needs me. So I keep walking. I make it to the Merchant side of District 12, where the better off families are. I wouldn't say they're rich, nobody's rich in 12, but they have more money than the Seam side, where my family comes from.
I start going through the trash of different shops, losing hope every can I look into. Empty, empty, empty. Every can is empty. I've gone through all of the shop's cans but a couple, being chased away by the owners. I've lost all hope as I look into the last shop's trash on the street, the bakery.
The baker's wife comes out the back door, yelling and screaming at me. "Get out of here, you Seam trash! Go look through someone else's cans!"
I run away with what little energy I have left, what little will I have left to do anything. I make my way to the apple tree behind the bakery, and collapse. I've accepted the fact that I'm going to die. I've failed Prim. My one purpose in life was to keep her fed, and I failed.
Even though I've left the bakery, I still hear the baker's wife yelling. She's inside so it isn't at me. I can barely hear what she's saying over the cold rain pouring down on me, but I hear some of her ranting words.
"...Can't you do anything right at all? Nobody in their right mind will buy burnt bread!" says the baker's wife.
"I'm sorry Mother, it won't happen again, I promise," says the boy.
I've seen him around school. He's in my grade, with his blonde hair and blue eyes. He is muscular and stocky, from lifting the heavy bags of flour at the shop. He wrestles for the school, only coming behind his older brother. I don't remember his name, we don't talk much. Well, we don't talk at all, but I see him looking at me in the halls or in class occasionally. When he notices I see him, he looks down and blushes.
"Feed it to the pigs! I'm sick of you always messing up such simple tasks I give you! And tell that Seam girl to get out of our yard!"
I see him walk out of the back door, with a small bruise on his right cheek. I can tell it's a new one, which means his mother hit him after he burnt the bread.
I think of my father, how even when I messed up and scared the game in the woods away by stepping on a twig, or missing a shot with my bow, he'd always tell me it's okay, and that I'll get it right next time. He would never hit me, nor would my mother.
I see him look up at me, and for the first time, he doesn't shoot his eyes back down towards his feet. His cheeks don't turn bright red. He just looks at me, for a couple seconds, and all I see in his eyes are… Pity? No, it's not pity, it's a look of sadness.
He turns around and looks to see if his mom is watching, and when he sees that she isn't, turns and runs towards me. I don't have the energy to get up, so if he's going to yell at me for being in his backyard, then so be it.
As he reaches me, I catch myself staring at the two loaves of burnt bread in his hands. He hands them to me, and they're still warm.
"I don't have any money for these, I'm sorry," I barely whisper to him, trying to hand them back.
"It's okay Katniss, they're on me. They're a little burnt," he says with a small smile, but I can tell he is scared. "Now go on, get out of here before my mom comes back. I can't imagine how angry she'll be when she finds out I gave the loaves to you," He says.
It's okay Katniss. "How do you know my name?"
"Long story," he says with a small laugh, "but I'm Peeta. Mellark. Now get going, I don't want to get you in trouble." I can't help but notice the sadness in his eyes as he says this.
That's when I hear her. Peeta's mother sees him, talking to me. She's angry. No, she's livid. She's throwing things inside the bakery, screaming profanities at me and him. Peeta helps me up from the wet muddy ground, and tells me to go. He says it with such calmness in his voice, like he's been through what happens next.
As I run towards my house, I turn to see Peeta, getting smacked by a rolling pin, over and over, on his face, chest, arms. She doesn't stop hitting him, watching him beg her to stop. It angers me. What kind of mother abuses their kids like this? Why doesn't he fight back? And to think I thought living in the Merchant side of the District was easy, not having to struggle to find food. But it seems like I was wrong, Peeta's going through a different type of starvation. Starvation of love.
I keep running, scared Peeta's mom will hit me, and eventually I make it home, and see Prim, looking at me with hopeful eyes, like she always does when I leave. I pretend to be disappointed, like I normally always am, but she can see right through it, and starts jumping up and down begging me to show her what I got us.
"Calm down Little Duck, I'll show you alright?" I say with a giggle. Prim's the only person in Panem that can get me to giggle.
I pull the loaves out, and she grabs one and smells it. It's raisin and nut bread. I can see the smile on her face, and she grabs me and hugs me. She doesn't let go, I don't either.
When we pull away, I cut the loaves into 10 equal slices each. I'm hoping this will last us until next week, one week closer to my birthday, so I can get the tesserae we so desperately need.
As we eat, I let my thoughts drift. I see Peeta, getting beat with the rolling pin, just taking it. Why would he give me the bread, knowing he was going to get beat? He's always been a kind boy, never getting into trouble. Does that happen all the time? It seemed like it, the way he acted before, like he knew it was coming.
Prim pulls out the pack of cards, a gift I got her for her birthday last year, and we play Go Fish. It's the first time in forever where I forget about everything and just enjoy my time with my sister. I'm normally stressed about our next meal, but tonight, thanks to Peeta, I'm feeling hopeful.
I tuck Prim in after our game of cards, and crawl into the blanket on our small bed too. Prim's already asleep, I can tell by her soft snore she claims she doesn't have. But I can't seem to fall asleep. My mind is all over the place, but one thought stays while the rest go away. Peeta Mellark saved Prim. He saved us.
A/N: Chapter 1 is finished! Hope I started it off right. I figured that, while anybody who reads this has most likely already read the books and knows the story line, It'd be fun to flashback to the beginning, where Peeta and Katniss first officially associate with each other. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Review if you would and give me some feedback, so I can improve this story! :)
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