When you live in a place like district 12, you can't really call it living. You merely exist, biding your time until you starve or die from illness. Or freeze during the relentless winter months. Or disintegrate into nothing when caught in a mine explosion, only your powdered bones left to mix with the coal dust that blankets everything in the hell hole that is district 12. This is where 16 year old Peeta Mellark called home. It certainly was no ideal life. Still, Peeta had it better than most. The youngest son of the baker, he at least lived in the village square and had stale bread to eat. Stale bread was better than no bread. He had looks and charisma that served him well too. He was a beautiful young man. His soft blonde curls always seemed to perfectly fall over his forehead but never covered his incredible sapphire eyes. His dewy complexion with dimples on each cheek made Peeta look younger than 16, but he carried an air of maturity and intelligence that easily compensated for it. Yep, to the majority of district 12, Peeta was simply the charming and innocent son of the baker, but there were a select few who knew his secret, for it was their secret too…

When Peeta was 7 years old, he finally grew bold enough to venture outside the district's fences. The capitol clearly ignored district 12, never providing them with enough supplies, strong security, or even electricity. So climbing over the "electrified" fence was no dangerous endeavor to Peeta. He was too curious and yearned to explore the woods outside his home. He even overheard his father talk about how his one classmate, Katniss Everdeen, and her father always went out to the woods together every Sunday to hunt. The woods couldn't be that bad then, right? Peeta ventured out into the unknown and had been traveling for about a half hour when he realized he wasn't alone.

"Grrrr…"

Peeta's feet froze at the menacing growl and turned his head to see the three pairs of feral eyes staring at him. Wild dogs. The young boy their next meal.

In sheer panic, Peeta's feet unfroze as he bolted from the hungry beasts. "Ahhh! Someone help me!" he cried as he ran as fast as his little 7-year old legs could take him. Who was he kidding? He had ventured too far out into the forbidden wilderness. No one would hear him scream. The monsters barreled down on the frightened boy until he could feel the hot breath from their jowls on the back of his legs. He braced himself for imminent doom.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

The strange sounds caused Peeta to instinctively duck as he dove to the ground. "Why am I not getting mauled right now?" he wondered. In fact, he couldn't even hear their growling. Silence. Peeta cautiously raised his head up from the dirt to find a group of familiar men standing before him.

"What in the world are you doing out here, boy?"

Peeta immediately understood why they looked so familiar. These men lived in district 12 with him. There was Mayor Undersee, one man was the butcher, another man he could have sworn was a peacekeeper, a handful were miners from the Seam he'd seen before, and in the middle was none other than district 12's only surviving Hunger Games victor, Haymitch Abernathy.

Peeta, still startled from his near-death encounter and now confused by all these men before him, stuttered, "I… I-I'm sorry, sirs. I just wanted to explore the woods. I-I know it's against the rules. Are you gonna punish me?"

Haymitch spoke on behalf of the group, "We should as a way to teach you a lesson, kid. If we weren't out here you would have been mauled to death and no one would have ever found your sorry hide. You're a lucky little S.O.B., do you know that?"

It all came together for Peeta then when he observed the group. Several of the men were handling firearms. The "clack" sounds he heard were the guns firing at the dogs, distorted by the silencers attached to them.

"Wait a minute," Peeta exclaimed. "Why are you all out here? And with guns no less. Where did you get those? Isn't all this against the law? What are you doing with-"

"Whoa now boy!" one of the miners interrupted. "Don't be asking questions you may not want the answers to. It's in your best interest to get up off that ground and get your ass home. And as for us, you didn't see anything. Just forget everything that happened here. Do I make myself clear?"

"But," Peeta rebutted, "you all just saved my life. I won't tell anyone about you, I promise. But I'll never forget what you did for me today. I'm indebted to you and I'm not just gonna let that go. Do I make myself clear?"

Peeta noticed Haymitch grin. "Seems this boy's got a little spunk in him. You never did answer our first question. What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to explore the woods."

"You're not afraid of the consequences? You're trespassing, boy. A peacekeeper finds you and you could get 40 lashes for defying the Capital… or worse."

"I don't care what the Capital says," Peeta replied with a mask of arrogance. "They don't care about me and I sure as hell don't care about them. Besides, there's a peacekeeper right there amongst your group. Looks like I've already been caught."

"I'm no ordinary peacekeeper, little boy" the uniformed man smirked. Well duh, Peeta thought.

"I like your fire, kid. You gotta name?" Haymitch asked.

"Peeta Mellark, sir."

"He's the baker's son," the Mayor added. "Good kid. He's in the same grade as my daughter."

"You got something against the Capital?" Haymitch asked.

"Who doesn't?" Peeta answered sarcastically. "People are starving on the streets while the Capital citizens live in luxury. They take everything and work us into the ground. In a couple years, they'll even take me or one of my friends and murder them on national television for entertainment. I've been raised to believe the Capital is everything wrong in this world and I don't care who hears me say it."

At this every man in the group was now smiling. The gears were turning. "Well kid, what if I were to say there was something you could do about it?" Haymitch said. "You said you wouldn't tell anyone about us. Can we trust you?"

"Of course," Peeta exclaimed. "I'm good at keeping secrets. My lips are sealed."

Haymitch turned to the other men who seemed to silently agree to something before he approached the boy. "Us men before you are district 12's leading members of the resistance. We meet in the seclusion of the woods to train and discuss the pending war against the capital. How would you like to become a part of the revolution?"

And with that, little Peeta's destiny was changed forever. He jumped at the chance to be part of something bigger. He would run errands and acted as a messenger between the members of the group. It wasn't as suspicious for the "peacekeeper" to talk to a little boy as it was for him to talk to an obviously disgruntled Hunger Games victor who hated peacekeepers. And once Peeta earned his place, the group let him in on the existence of district 13 and their ties with them. He also learned that every other district had their own secret group of conspirators. Special operatives from district 13 concealed themselves outside the boundaries of each district and worked to create one giant underground network that connected all the districts' rebels together. And now Peeta was a part of it.

He kept up appearances in district 12, going to school and working in his parent's bakery. But every spare moment and several nights per week, he would sneak past the barriers of his crumbling district to condition and train with the special operatives of district 13 that were hidden deep in the woods. Over the years, Peeta excelled in learning hand-to-hand combat, espionage, modern weaponry, and survival techniques. By the time he was 16, Peeta was the perfect secret soldier for the rebellion. He was by far the youngest member of district 12's alliance with 13, but military officials of 13 saw that as a tremendous advantage. The miners in 12's rebel group would rally all their fellow miners, Mayor Undersee would rally the merchant class who lived in the village square, and Peeta would be the one to rally the entire youth of his district when the time came to revolt. He would take advantage of his years of training to increase the odds of his district gaining victory.

Unfortunately, the odds were not in his favor for the reaping of the 74th annual Hunger Games.

"Primrose Everdeen!" The eccentric Capitol escort, Effie Trinket, trilled to the mass of frightened children.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" Katniss Everdeen screamed as she clawed her way through the barrier of heartless peacekeepers and took her sister's place on stage. Peeta's blood was boiling at the thought of how "exciting" this must be to the audience watching from the Capitol. He dutifully extended his left hand in the district 12 salute along with every other member of the sullen crowd.

"Peeta Mellark!"

"You gotta be shittin' me!" He blurted. Whoops. Did I say that out loud? Shit, the cameras were right there. Whatever, what more could they possibly do to me now? Peeta aggressively shrugged off the peacekeepers as he confidently made his way to the stage and shook hands with his own classmate now turned competitor.

Peeta immediately turned on soldier mode. He was soon to be sent into enemy territory and instead of fighting what he always intended to be the enemy, he would have to fight new ones. Kids. He would have to kill kids. Could he do it? Could he participate in the sick event he swore he would one day help end? He really had no choice now as the train he was forced into sped away from the only home he knew. The baker's son met the concerned gaze of Haymitch, his fellow conspirator and now mentor, as he tried to anticipate how he would get himself out of this total clusterfuck.

What Peeta could never had anticipated though was what, and who, exactly was waiting for him as he entered the Capitol.