PEETA'S POV

I can feel the heat of the sun beating on my shoulders as I look at the blisters on my hands and curse under my breath. These will hurt like hell tomorrow when I work at the bakery.

Isn't summer vacation supposed to be fun? Isn't it a time to relax and take a break from school and work? Apparently not, according to my parents. Ever since my two older brothers have moved out, I get stuck doing all the heavy labor duties around the house. And although I know that yard work is something that needs to be done, does it have to be now? When it's almost 100 degrees outside? On a Saturday, no less? I stop for a moment to rest against my shovel and fantasize about jumping into a pool of stone cold ice.

As I wipe the sweat on my brow that is threatening to burn my eyes, I see a moving truck pull up to the Undersee's house. That's weird, I think to myself. Having lived across the street from each other since I was born, I thought we would have heard about them planning to move. I squint my eyes as I brace the afternoon sun to get a better look. That's when I see a small-framed girl with her brunette hair pulled into a braid. Although she hurried into the house from the truck, I know that I've seen her before. I'm about to drop my shovel and head over to their house to see what's going on when I hear my mother calling my name.

"PEETA!" She screams. I swear, every time she talks there are people in China wondering what animal is shrieking in pain. I reluctantly turn around to face the woman who am I obligated to call my mother. She was probably beautiful at one time in her life, but all I can see now is a middle-aged, overweight, miserable woman who wants everybody around her to be just as miserable as she is.

"What?" I ask sharply but not too loudly. I am really not in the mood to be disciplined.
"Don't you use that tone with me, boy! I need you to come inside." She says quickly.
I groan and slowly move my feet towards my front door, taking one last glance at the truck across the street.

"NOW!" I hear her yell as she makes her way back into the house.
I close my eyes and rub my temples, trying to suppress the migraine that is bound to come from listening to that woman.

As I walk into my house, I see my father sitting on the coach, reading his daily newspaper.
"Hey, dad." I say as I make my way into the kitchen for some water.

I love my father. We are a lot alike in many ways. People always tell me how much I look like my dad did when he was my age, but I can never see it when I look at old photographs. It must be the blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hi, son. How was finishing the yard?" He asks without looking up from his paper.
"Not done yet. I guess mom needs me for something and asked me to come inside."

He puts his paper down and looks at me with a questioning look. I give a shrug in response. Looks like we are both in the dark about what my mom wants.

I continue into the kitchen and find my mother there, arms crossed and tapping her foot.

"Took you long enough." She says and I just roll my eyes. Nothing is ever fast enough for her.
"Now, you've finished the yard, correct?" She asks and I just roll my eyes again. Of course I'm not done and she knows it.
"No. I was getting close to the end when you stopped me and pulled me back in here." I respond in a monotone.

"Well maybe if you didn't stand around and daydream so much you would have been done by now! No matter. I have the entire summer to teach you the value hard work and getting it done on time." She moves her way to the refrigerator to stuff herself and I rub my temples again. I would fight back, but it's no use. I'll never win and it's not worth the pain she causes, mostly to my migraine.

"Now, Peeta." She says as she stuffs her face with a cream puff. "Listen carefully. Your father and I have a have very important dinner party tonight..." This I already know. She's been talking about it for months. I begin to zone her out until I hear her say "…so I need you to take over five dozen cupcakes to the Undersees."

"Wait… what?" Did I hear that right? She needs me to go over the Undersees today?
She huffs in annoyance, obviously irritated that I wasn't really listening.
"Gosh Peeta do you EVER listen to me?!" The obvious answer is "hell no", but I keep that to myself.
"I said," she continues "I need you to bake and take over five dozen cupcakes to the Undersees so that they can have them for the party tonight."
"Wait, the party is at the Undersees?" I guess I never caught that, and a strange excitement stirs up inside of me.

"Obviously, Peeta. Jack Undersee is the mayor of the city and the party is for him. Gosh, you can be so brainless. I take that back, you're always brainless. How lucky am I to have you a son?" She asks sarcastically but I don't care. She can insult me all she wants because she has provided me a perfect excuse to see what the hell is going on at the Undersees with the brunette.

I have to suppress a smile so that I don't give myself away as my mother continues.

"They need them by 4 so you better have them over there not a minute later than that. You know what will happen if you don't and believe me, I will know." She gives me a stern look and I just nod, knowing exactly what she is talking about.

"Now, I have to go get my hair and nails done for tonight so I'll be back later. You better get going or you'll never have those cupcakes done in time!"

I just ignore her and get started on the cupcakes as my mother walks out the door. I want to get these done as fast as I can so that I can get over there. I also see my father leave to go check on the bakery. Perfect. A quiet house all to myself.

I love baking. It's the only time when I feel like I really excel at something and feel truly myself. It also is a great way to clear my mind.

As I mix the flour and eggs together, my mind wanders back to a time long ago, a time when I knew the brunette girl with braids.

We were five and just starting school. I was really nervous to begin Kindergarten and was hanging onto my father's leg, worried that I would never see him again if I let go. He was consoling me and trying to give me comforting words when we both saw her in the distance.
My father then whispered in my ear, "You see that little girl with the two braids and the red dress? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner."

"No way, daddy. Why would she want a coal miner when she could have you and your yummy cookies?" I asked and my father just chuckled.
"Because when he sings, even the birds stop to listen." He replied and I gave him a questioning look. There was no way that could be true.

I looked back over to the girl in the red dress and saw that she was looking at me too. Both of our faces turned red and we looked away from each other. I buried my face into my father's leg again, and didn't come back out until I heard him say, "Hello there, Ivy." I looked up and saw a beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes, just like mine.
"Hello, Abram." She replied with a shy smile.
She then smiled down and me and said "You must be Peeta." I nod my head.
"This," she beings as she pulls the girl from behind her back, "is Katniss."

Katniss waves and gives me a shy smile while trying to hide behind her mother again, but her mother keeps her still.

"Why don't you two go into school together?" I look up at my father and wonder why he would say such a thing. I had already told him I wasn't going inside.

Surprisingly, however, Katniss reaches out her hand and to me and I take it without question. As I looked into her lovely gray eyes and watched her face turn red again with a goofy, shy grin, I thought that maybe school wouldn't be so bad.

We walked into school together and stayed by each other side for the rest of the day. We never did talk, but there was some sort of unspoken comfort between the two of us.
Then, at the end of the day, we had a music assembly with all of the Kindergarteners. When we were all together, the music teacher asked if any of us knew the valley song. To my surprise, Katniss' hand shot up without hesitation. She then stood up and sang the song in front of everybody. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. For a five year old, her voice obviously wasn't going to sound perfect. But the way that she was so passionate and so immersed in the song made it perfect for me. She was perfect for me. The way that her body moved to the music and the way that her face would light up when she hit a high note made my heart tug. And I knew there was no going back.

When Katniss sat back down, I knew I had to say something to her.
I sat for a minutes while my heart was pounding before I whispered, "Good job." That was that all that I could manage to say.
"Thanks." She replied with another shy smile and her face turned red again.

We never spoke again after that. Every day I would watch the girl in the braid and I was always too nervous to talk to her. The days of not talking turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. But I always saw her. At school, when she would come into my father's bakery, and, of course, always in my thoughts.

She moved when we were 8. Her father died in a coal mining accident and her mother got remarried. The day I found out she was gone, I didn't come out of my room. When my father found me that night, I was hiding in my closet and had puffy red eyes and tearstains on my cheeks. I thought that he would tell me how stupid I was for crying over a girl I had never talked to before, but instead, he just held me let me cry some more. I had never told him about my feelings for Katniss, but he knew. A father always knows.

It's been 8 years, and now, she's back. Well, actually, I don't know that for sure. In fact, I almost start to doubt myself. Why on earth would she be back? Especially at the Undersees? I shake my head and try to get the thoughts of the brunette girl out of my head to not get my hopes up. Maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me. It's just… she looked so much like her.

I finish the cupcakes and see that it's about 2:30. I could them take over now, but I decide to make some cheese buns as well. They are Madge's favorite and I figure that I could use them as an excuse to stay a little longer at the house.

At 3:45, I make my way over to the Undersee's home with sweaty hands and can feel my heart beating, threatening to fall out of my chest. I knock on the door and see a familiar face answer it. Madge and I have been friends since before I could remember. Being neighbors for all of these years will tend to do that to people. I smile and she smiles back.

"I've been expecting you." She says with a seductive undertone as she leans against the door. I chuckle at her because I know that she's kidding. There has and will never be anything romantic between the two of us. She's like a sister to me. She even looks a bit like my sister with the blonde hair. She, however, has brown eyes. And besides, my heart has always belonged to somebody else…

She laughs and ushers me into the door "Let me help you with those." She says and takes a box from me. We make our way into the kitchen and set the cupcakes on the counter.

"I have a surprise for you!" I say to Madge as I open the top box.
"Well if it's anything like what you got me for my birthday, maybe I should leave the room now."

I laugh as I think back to when Madge opened her present from me. She screamed her off when she looked in the box only to find a long, green snake. It was a garden snake, completely harmless. But she didn't talk to me for a week.

"No, no. You'll like this surprise." I say as I pull out a cheese bun.
She squeals, grabs it from my hand and takes a bite before I have the chance to hand it to her.
"Gosh, Madge, are you hungry or something?" I say with a laugh.
She just rolls her eyes at me and stuffs the rest of the bun in her mouth.

I hear something break upstairs and turn to Madge.
"I'll go see what that was, I'll be back in a second." She says as she skips away, licking her greasy fingers.

As I stand in the kitchen alone, my heart rate picks up again, nervous to find out the truth behind who else is in this house.

I hear footsteps coming downstairs and see Madge coming back into the kitchen.
"Do you want a cheese bun?" I hear her say, but she isn't talking to me.

Behind her, I see the same slight-framed brunette girl come slowly into the kitchen.

"Oh, how rude of me," Madge says as she looks back at me. "Let me introduce you guys. Peeta, this is…"

But as I look at her braid and then to her familiar, beautiful gray eyes, I know exactly who she is.

A/N: Next chapter will be in Katniss' point of view. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review/favorite/follow and whatever else you can do on here! Let me know what you guys think and let me know if you want me to continue! Thanks y'all! :)