First fanfiction! I"m new to the fanfiction world and I really wanted to try writing one! Please review... I need it. Thanks for reading :)

Chapter One

I sit in class, staring out the window. I tune out our teacher, as usual. I don't need to hear how 'wonderful' the Capitol is for the hundredth time this week. Besides, it's only Wednesday.

Ugh, the middle of the week is always terrible. I think to myself.

Before my thoughts begin to wander, a tapping noise brings me back to class. I turn to my right to see Madge doodling in her notebook. Madge is my best friend, even though she's from town ̶ the mayor's daughter to be exact. I turn to my left, to see Shayla ̶ my other best friend ̶ drumming her pen on her desk. The sound annoys me.

I reach over and grab her pen. "It's our first class and you're already annoying me," I growl.

Her brown bangs move out of her face as she looks up, "Oh, shut up," she says rolling her grey eyes.

"You first," I snarl. A smirk paints itself on my face, "Seam Brat," I jokingly spit.

Her eyebrows rise, "Don't go all bakers' wife on me," she laughs a bit too loudly.

"Will you keep your voice down?" I hiss. "Mellark's right there, you know." I nod my head in the youngest Mellark's direction, the son of the baker.

Her head turns to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy that's whispering to his friends. "How can I not? I mean, he's always looking over here," she laughs. "At you," she whispers. I roll my eyes. "Seriously, Katniss. He looks at you all the time…"

"I've never seen him looking at me." I'm lying through my teeth. I have every class with that boy. How can I not see it? I'm surprised he hasn't seen me staring at him. Again, how can I not? Before I can dwell on the subject of Peeta Mellark again, I see Shayla writing something down. "What are you doing?" I lean over and read what she wrote, our desks are fairly close. My eyes widen, "Why are you writing that? And, more importantly, to who?"

She laughs, "Let me fix that for you." She scribbles a few things and clears her throat. "Dear Peeta Mellark, please take a picture, it lasts longer. Yours truly, Shayla Slays." She laughs, "God I hate my last name… Anyway," she says folding up the piece of paper.

"You're not really going to give that to him, are you?" I eye her suspiciously, "Shay…"

She stands up; the teacher studies her. Shayla holds up the paper, implying that she is going to throw it away. The teacher nods, understanding, as she continues teaching. Shayla walks toward the door, heading to the trashcan. She passes the group of Merchant boys who have arranged themselves into a rectangle ̶ this class doesn't have a seating chart. As Shayla passes Peeta, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

Right before I look away, I see the paper still crumpled in her hand as she walks back. She places the paper on Peeta's desk and walks back to her seat. I watch him eye the paper, and then Shayla. He slowly picks it up and carefully unfolds it. I see his eyes widen and his face turn a slight shade of pink. He looks over at Shayla again and his gaze slowly travels to me. Our eyes meet, but he breaks the stare by throwing his head back in frustration as he sinks into his chair.

I turn to a snickering Shayla. "What else did you write? I have a feeling you wrote something else…" She covers mouth as more giggles escape from her sealed mouth. I lightly hit her arm, "What did you do?" I whisper-shout.

This gains Madge's attention. "What happened?" she asks, abandoning her drawings.

"Yeah, what happened?" I ask eyeing my jokester of a friend. I have to say, though, her silliness has rubbed off on me. "What else did you add?"

"Add?" asks Madge. "Add to what?"

"Later, Madge," I say waving my hand in her face.

"Fine," she huffs. "But I want to know everything."

"Yeah, yeah," I say dismissing her voice. I look up to see two of Peeta's friends quietly laughing and playing with a piece of paper. "What did you do?"

She smiles, "Okay, I added something else…" I arch my eyebrow. "I said that if he wanted a picture of you… you know, to do stuff." I interrupt her by punching her arm. "Wait! I'm not finished! There's something in it for you!" The bell rings, signaling the end of our first class. We stand and gather our things as she continues, "If I give him a picture of you, he'll give me one of him for you."

We wave Madge a goodbye; I give Shayla a weird face. "What am I going to do with a picture of Peeta Mellark?" I ask as we head down the hall to our second class.

"Do stuff," she laughs. I tighten the grip on my book. It takes every ounce of control within me to not punch her in the face. She sees the look on my face and stops laughing. "Or you could sell it… I mean, any girl would want a picture of," she bats her eyelashes, "Peeta Mellark," she sighs dreamily.

"What about Peeta?" a high-pitched voice asks from behind us

Shayla and I turn around to see Delly Cartwright ̶ the happiest, sweetest, nicest blonde girl our age ̶ standing with a curious look on her face.

"You see!" Shayla laughs.

Delly stares at her and then turns to me. "Hi, Katniss!" I nod my head, merely addressing her presence. She blinks a few times and continues smiling, "So you were talking about Peeta?" I stare at her and nod.

For being one of the nicest girls in class, she's a bit obsessed with gossiping.

She grins, "Well, what about him?" I turn to see Shayla as she walks past Delly and I. Delly elbows me as we enter our science class, "What about him? I'm pretty close to him, you know!"

Yes, Delly, I know. Everyone knows you're close to everyone.

"I could answer some questions if you'd like," she says as we settle into our seats. I place my books on the two person desk Delly and I share. "We have lab partner trust, you know," she giggles. When she sees my bewildered face, she frowns, "Too far?" I nod as she sighs.

I reach in my backpack to grab a notebook and pen. "Why do you care so much, anyway?" I ask.

She shrugs, "I don't know… just curious, I guess." I nod as I open my notebook. "Are those… dances?"

I look up to see her slightly large figure nosily peering over at my notebook. I quickly close it, "Yeah… nothing special," I whisper.

She nods and pulls her blonde hair into a pony tail. I look around the classroom until I hear an excited, "Hi, Peeta!" from Delly.

I turn to see him standing in front of our desks with books in his arms. He places his backpack down by his chair ̶ he sits right in front Delly.

"Hi, Delly," he smiles. He looks at me and his smile quivers. He flips his golden curls out of his eyes as he settles into his seat.

If you think about it, this class is odd. I'm not in the back like all of the Seam kids. You see, in classes that have arranged seats, Seam kids are in the back and Merchants are in the front. I sit toward the front, the second row to be exact. I'm surrounded by blonde-haired, blue-eyed, spoiled kids. And it annoys me.

One day I asked my science teacher, Mr. Tecto, why I was sitting with all the Merchants and not the Seam kids. He replied, "You have too much potential to be sitting way back there." Potential isn't the word used to describe me. Science isn't even my best subject. I mean, I'm not failing, not now at least, but I'm not acing either. Mr. Tecto said I'm doing better than some Merchant kids, though.

That won't last long…

I'm not smart. I don't study. I don't care. In some things, I'm just naturally good you could say. I guess what we're studying is one of them. Too bad I loathe science. It's so boring.

Delly taps my shoulder; I turn to see her smiling. "We're doing a project!" I frown. "Don't worry, it's just a class-time experiment," she corrects herself.

I nod and we walk to the back of the classroom where we do our experiments. By the time Delly finishes explaining the experiment by repeating what Mr. Tecto had said, I have a bored expression on my face. I know what's going to happen, how it's going to happen and why it's going to happen.

I pick up the worksheet we were given and begin filling it out. "You already know the answers, don't you?" Delly asks. I nod and she smiles, "Show me!"

So I do. I don't mind doing all the work. I mean, it'll go faster this way, and she wants me to show her. After about 15 minutes, we're finished.

"I thought you weren't good at science," she says as sweetly as possible.

"Some things, yeah, I don't get. Other things, though, like this," I say gesturing to our minerals experiment, "are easy."

She smiles, "What about genetics? We're going to be starting that soon."

I open my mouth but close it quickly. We begin walking to Mr. Tecto's desk. "Yep, I'll be failing this class after today…" she takes it as a joke and laughs as we turn in our work.

"Done? Already?" Mr. Tecto questions. "This is supposed to be an all class time experiment."

"It's Katniss!" Delly smiles. "She knew everything! She's amazing!"

Mr. Tecto places our worksheets in front of him. With his red pen in hand, he smiles, "Oh, I know."

After sitting down, I notice a Seam boy named Tyler struggling on his own.

He looks up, 'Help,' he mouths to me.

I look to see Delly fixing her nails; I roll my eyes. "Mr. Tecto," I say timidly. He looks up and I swallow hard. "Can-can I help Tyler? He doesn't have a partner…" Everyone's eyes are suddenly on me. Tyler may be from the Seam, but he's the smartest kid in our grade. Why would he need help? Especially from me…

Mr. Tecto nods and I stand up. I begin walking toward Tyler when he laughs, "Yeah! Katniss to the rescue!"

Some people laugh as I roll my eyes and wave my hand, "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." When I reach the tall, dark-haired, grey-eyed boy, I see he's finished. I frown, "You don't need help."

He smiles, "I know, but I didn't want to be here by myself…" We both look around. "I'm surrounded by blondes," he whispers. We both laugh as I sigh. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, well, I'm doing really well in this class."

He smiles, "That's good!"

"Yeah, but, not for long… I mean, I'm only good at a few things. Soon I'll be back to a terrible grade in this class."

"You could always get tutoring. I'm sure Mr. Tecto will assign you to someone."

"Assign me to someone?" I wrinkle my nose, "Sounds like a burden."

He laughs and I smile at the sight of Shayla. "What are we talking about?" she asks as she stands by Tyler.

"Well, we're talking about getting Katniss a tutor," Tyler explains to her.

She grins. "Katniss need a tutor?" she teases.

"No," I growl.

"You three, sit down," Mr. Tecto instructs. Everyone else has settled back in their seats. "C'mon, class is almost over." Shayla pushes me gently and when I shove her back, I accidently bump into Tyler. "Settle down, you three!" Chuckles spread throughout the back of the class.

"Oh, hush up," I hiss.

"What happened to Katniss coming to the rescue, Tyler?" one of the boys snickers.

"The rescuing comes later, my friend," Tyler grins. I sit down in my chair and face the two boys sitting on the left side of the room. "Isn't that right, Katniss?" he winks at me.

The other boy looks at me, "Please say it's right Katniss. Please, oh please! Let me watch!"

"In your dreams," I laugh. "Seriously, grow some and get yourself a girl." Everyone laughs as my insult-victim sinks into his chair. "I'll help you with that later," I say turning to the front. Mr. Tecto glares at me. "Hello…" I smile.

"What am I going to do with you, Katniss?" he sighs in frustration.

"Sit me in the back of the classroom?" I ask with pure excitement.

He grins, "The exact opposite," He points to the boy in front of me, "Pierce, switch places with Katniss." I groan. "Now."

I pick my stuff up and dump it by my new seat. "Great, the front," I huff.

Mr. Tecto smiles, "Right where I can keep an eye on you."

"No! Please! I'll be good, I promise!" I plead. He rolls his eyes as I kneel down, "I'll even be extra nice to Delly!" Everyone laughs at my failed attempt to move away from the front of the classroom.

"What's wrong?" Shayla laughs. "Don't want to sit next to Mellark?" I can tell the laughter is coming from the back. "He doesn't bite. I think…" That's when everyone starts laughing.

"Thanks for the support," I growl. I slump into my chair and look up to my new lab partner. "She's not as mean as you think," I whisper. He looks down at me and slightly smiles.

"Flirting already?" Shayla jokes out loud. I glare at her and the bell rings. I stand up, mumbling crude things about one of my best friends. On my way out the door, a laughing Shayla joins me. "To the gym!" Walking through the halls, Madge tags along. By the time we make it to the gym, Shayla has stopped laughing at me and Madge is all caught up from this morning. "Isn't that funny, Madge?"

Madge smiles as we settle down a few rows up in the bleachers, and looks at me. "Does he really stare at you that much, Katniss?" I shrug my shoulders and she whispers in my ear, "As much as you stare at him?" I shove her and she nearly falls off her seat. "Hey, hey! Calm yourself. I'm just joking, gosh."

"Girls!" our coach screams. "Get up and change!"

"We're changing out today?" Madge whines as she trudges to the locker rooms with Shayla close behind her.

"What are you waiting for, Everdeen?" asks Coach Den.

"Don't have my clothes," I smile.

She smiles back, "Then I lend you some." I groan in frustration. "Don't give me that attitude, Everdeen." I walk down the bleachers and follow her into her office. She opens a door and rummages through some things and then tosses me some clothes and shoes. "Here, go change."

I hold up the clothes, "You want me to wear this?" I show her the shirt, "This thing is tiny!" I toss it over my shoulder and show her the shorts, "And these! Ugh, they won't even cover my butt!" I pick up the slim shoes. "These are the only normal things!"

She laughs, "It's a tank top and some booty shorts, Katniss. Calm down." I sigh and turn around. She squeezes my shoulder, "The boys will love it."

"Wonderful," I hiss. I walk to the locker room to find it nearly empty. I change and do a few touch-ups on my braid, making sure it won't fall apart. I look at myself in the mirror and frown.

I look like those Merchant girls trying to get a guy…

I walk out of the locker room to find Madge, Shayla and Acasia all talking. Acasia is another close friend of mine from the Seam, but she's two years older than me. The only reason she's in this class is because our gym class ranges in three different age groups, which means 15-17 year olds are in this class.

Shayla looks up and sees me walking toward them. She laughs, "Nice clothes…"

I roll my eyes, "Shut up."

"Sexy," Acasia purrs.

Madge smiles, "Dressing to impress?"

I cross my arms and lean on my right foot. Acasia puts her arm around me and smirks, "Gale will be very pleased." I push her away and she laughs. "Look at him; he and his friends are already checking you out."

"Hey!" Shayla shouts. "Take a picture! It lasts longer!"

I glare at her. "Is that your new favorite phrase?" I shout.

She laughs, "Yes, yes it is."

"Will you girls stop fighting?" Coach Den shouts. "Start stretching!"

I roll my eyes and mimic her, "Start stretching!" I sigh, "Bleh!"

We all laugh and coach screams, "I can hear you, Everdeen!" I like Coach Den, she's from the Seam, but married someone from town. Her husband works at the hardware store and she works here at school. Teaching gym class isn't all she does, though. She's a dance instructor. She's been teaching us dances for our two festivals, the Winter Ball and the Spring Fling, since we were little. This Spring Fling gets complicated; we get partners.

"What are we doing today?" one of the Merchant girls asks.

"I want to see who can tumble," Coach Murphy, the male coach, grins. You hear moans and groans; right now I'm not sure if they're from the stretching or from what we're doing today, but Coach Murphy isn't having it either way. "You want to whine? Fine then, 20 laps around the gym!" The whining continues as we all start our running. "Want to make it 30? Keep going!"

I pick up my pace, leaving my few friends behind. I pass all of the girls and as I jog by Coach Den, I'm in middle of the group of boys. "You can do better than that, Everdeen!" Coach Den hollers. "If you don't push it, I'm going to make you do 50!" I groan and actually start trying. I start passing the boys and, by the eighth lap, I'm actually putting a little effort into it. "You're still not trying! Look! Mellark is right behind you!" I turn to see Peeta casually jogging by me.

I roll my eyes and start running backwards, "Why must I try?"

Coach Den grits her teeth, "Now, Everdeen! You too, Mellark!"

"Someone's on their period," I huff, turning around. I hear Peeta chuckle. "What? What's so funny?"

My voice, directed to him, takes Peeta by surprise. He trips on himself and I grab his arm to steady him. If we were actually running, I swear, he would've fallen straight on his face, and taken me down with him. "Huh?" he says as he regains his balance.

"What's so funny?" I say as we jog through our ninth lap, still ahead of everyone. "I heard you laughing." I turn slightly to see him blushing. "Think I can't outrun you?"

He turns to me and raises his eyebrows. "Is that a challenge I smell?" he smirks.

"I don't smell anything but your sweat," I laugh.

He smiles, "You're on."

I look forward, "All right, after this lap, we run until the end."

"Deal." We slowly make it toward Coach Den. "One," he smiles.

"Two," I grin.

"Three!" we shout in unison as we rush past coach.

"Ada girl!" Coach Den shouts. "A little competition is good! Mellark's gaining on you!"

Peeta's a lot faster than I previously thought. His large build makes him look a bit slow. I mean, he's not fat; he's muscular, really muscular. We flash through the tenth lap, passing those at the end. I pull way ahead by the 14th lap. We're both ahead of all the girls by two laps, though. I slow down a bit and begin passing the boys again when I see someone at the front.

Peeta!

I scowl and push myself. I reach him after five seconds of full out sprinting. We're on the 18th lap and I pass him, slightly. I notice no one's in our way. Everyone knows about our race now. They've all moved to the bleachers, grateful our coaches want to see us run more clearly. Peeta is a few steps ahead of me as we finish the 19th lap. I hear people shouting that there's only one more. Do they think I don't know this? I try to block them out as I focus on my breathing. I close my eyes; see myself in the woods, swiftly moving through the trees. I reopen them to see I'm a few seconds from the finish. I smile when I don't see Peeta ahead of me. Within two seconds I hear cheering and I'm on the floor panting.

I look over to see Peeta, who's also out of breath, lying right next to me. "You're a lot faster than I thought," I say, gulping for air.

He laughs, breathing heavily, "The same goes for you."

We lay there for a while, both sweating and waiting for our heartbeats to go down.

"You two finished ten laps in a minute!" Coach Murphy beams.

"Yay!" I cheer sarcastically. "Who won?" I ask sitting up.

Coach Murphy smiles, and opens his mouth to reply. But before anything comes out, Peeta interrupts him. "Wait!" he says sitting up.

"What's wrong?" I ask, slightly panting.

"Can you give us a minute?" he asks coach. Coach nods and walks away. Peeta turns to me, his chest rising and falling quickly. "If I won, I get something. If you won, you get something. Deal?"

I eye him carefully, "What kind of something?"

"Anything." I open my mouth to refuse but he shakes his head. "Not like that." I nod my head. He smiles, "Cool."

He stands and then helps me up, we both see everyone stretching again. "Who won?" I ask again.

"It was a tie," Coach Den smiles.

I look at a smiling Peeta. Both of his hands are on his sides. "I guess we both get something," he sighs.

"Yeah, I guess so," I slightly smile.

The never-smiling Coach Murphy turns to us. "You two were amazing!" he eyes both of us. "I want you on my team."

"I can't," says Peeta right away. "I have wrestling." Yes, yes he does. I mean, last year, when we were 14, he won third place at the tournament. A 14 year old won third place! His middle brother got second and his eldest got first. The Mellark boys are all athletes.

"It won't interfere," coach says quickly. "What about you, Katniss?"

"I-I don't know," I nervously stammer.

He sighs, "Think about it, both of you."

We nod and walk back to our group of friends. "What was that?" asks Madge.

"What was what?" I ask sitting down on the bleachers.

"You! Peeta! Talk! Race!" she stutters. She sighs, "You talked to Peeta Mellark, and then you race, what's up with you? You're really social all of a sudden!"

Shayla smiles, "And she back talked to Mr. Tecto today."

Madge raises her eyebrows, "I think you two," she points to Shayla and Acasia, "are rubbing off on her!"

I laugh, "Me too."

Acasia stands up, "Well, time to tumble!"

I laugh as we walk down the bleachers. We all stand there, talking, until the coaches separate us. The boys on one side of the gym and the girls are on the other. Coach Den begins going on and on about how stretching and positions is key. She brings up a girl named Ember. She's one of the 'popular', rich, spoiled, merchant girls. Her blonde hair flops in its pony tail as she skips up to Coach Den.

Ember lies on her back and Coach Den pushes her up, putting her in a bridge formation. "You need to be flexible, like this. You're doing excellent, Ember," she complements her. I snort and coach looks at me, "What Katniss?" I roll my eyes as coach helps Ember lay back down.

"Think you can do better?" Ember growls at me as she stands back up.

"Uh, I think my mother can do better," I snarl. I walk past everyone and make it to the front.

"What are you doing, Everdeen?" Coach Den asks me. I smile and she eyes me carefully, "You really think you can do better?"

I laugh, "No. I know I can do better." I stand with my back to all of the girls, facing the boys. I place my right foot forward and sigh. "I haven't done this in a while." I take a deep breathe, looking forward I see that all of the boys have moved back a bit, giving me room. I start running and jump off my left foot. I flip through the air, managing a double back handspring back tuck. I have a huge smile plastered on my face as I land and nearly fall back onto the group of boys behind me.

"Katniss!" screams Shayla. "I haven't seen you do that since we were kids!" She runs toward me and hugs me. "I mean, when we used to dance, you'd do that all the time! But, now, like, oh my gosh! You should have seen yourself!"

I smile as Acasia walks toward us, "I believe I was 13 when I last saw you do that."

Coach Den walks past Acasia, obviously in a rush. "My, my, Ms. Everdeen! You did do better!" I laugh as she stands in front of me. "What is this I hear about you, dancing?"

Shayla grins, "When we were kids, it's all we did…dance. Katniss was amazing. Probably still is," she smiles at me.

Coach looks at me and I smile. "You dance!" she says hugging me. She lets go and grabs my shoulders, "I want you to come by after school, all of you," she says to the three of us standing there. "Oh, Katniss! We could have a team! Ah! This is going to be amazing," she says pinching my cheek. She walks away in one of the happiest moods I've ever seen.

"What did you get me into?" I hiss at Shayla.

"No, what did you get us into?" Acasia hisses.

"It could be fun?" it comes out as a question rather than a statement. She walks away and we both stare at our friend. She then turns around and smirks, "Take a picture, it lasts longer." I sigh as Acasia laughs. We spend the rest of the class watching girls fail at being flexible. We change and walk to lunch together.