Hunger Games: Peeta Mellark

The Reaping

"Peeta!" my mom yells, "Wake up and start getting ready, we have some orders." The morning sun beams on my face so I open my eyes and roll over to check the clock. The red light flashes '9:32'. I groan and rub my eyes, I am not a morning person. I hop out of bed, throw a shirt over my head and walk to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and jump in the shower.

"The delivery man is here, he should have some flour, come bring it in," I hear a voice say from out of my room, my mom. Thankfully, it's a new day, I hope I don't do anything to upset her this time. I walk out the door of my bedroom and walk into the living room where Reece, my brother, is on the couch watching something.

"Morning," I say.

"Good morning," He responds without looking at me, focusing on the tv. I walk across the living room, slip my shoes on, and walk through the door to the bakery. It's pretty convenient to have a shop that I work at connected to my house. House, not home. This is a house, not a home. I want a home, and it's my goal to have one someday, but not here.

My mom is standing behind the counter, looking at a paper. Before she spots me I peek around the corner and see my dad sticking a loaf of uncooked bread into the oven. I shuffle my feet to the outside door, trying to quickly get out before my mom notices. I know she will find some way to be upset, she always does, I need to sneak out to hopefully avoid that lecture. I reach for the doorknob but before I can touch it- "Peeta!" I hear from behind me. Too late for that plan.

"Yes?" I say in defeat as I slide back around to face her. Her arms are crossed across her chest, with a sour look on her face. Yeah, she's not very happy. What this time.

"What took you so long? I told you to get up and get out here. That doesn't mean take 20 minutes!" Are you joking? I had to get dressed, brush my teeth, and take a shower. Sure, I could have been quicker but I just woke up. I look at the clock behind her and it reads, '9:46'. I knew it. I didn't even take 20 minutes, classic mom, but I don't argue. I don't think she understands how this takes longer than just letting me do what she said, but if I argue, it will turn into a 30-minute talk about how I need to step up.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, it won't happen again," I respond.

"That's what you said last time," she sighs, "just speed it up and go get the flour." I turn back around and open the door, this time succeeding in grabbing the doorknob.

My feet make a pitter-patter sound as I step down the stairs outside. I brush my shoes against the ground, the fall leaves crunch under my feet. I kick a stone in the driveway, forgetting my task at hand. As I kick the fourth time at the rock and swing my leg it smashes into a tire. Ouch. The delivery hops out of the truck and says, "Watch it! You pop my tire boy, you're paying for a new one."

"Yes sir, sorry," I spit out. He hands me a clipboard with paper on it and points to a blank spot with a pen. He hands me the pen and I scribble my name on the clipboard. Handing the pen and clipboard back I walk over to the big bag of flour and toss it over my shoulder as if it were a bag of feathers, rather than flour. The man raises an eyebrow, confused how I effortlessly picked up that heavy bag, but as soon as the expression came, he shrugged and hopped back into the car.

I brought the flour inside, and have already completed one breakfast pastry in the time span of 15 minutes. Pretty impressive if you ask me, the fact I have to decorate it to perfection. I pick up the plate and push myself through the swinging door that connects from the kitchen, to behind the counter. Next to the counter is a table that we always have, we set the completed orders here ready for pick up. I set the pastry down and set the recipe next to it.

The computer sits on the counter where people order, I check the computer and click on the last order, that way since they ordered before others, they get their baked good(s) first. It pops up saying the person ordered a three-tier red velvet cake. We don't get red velvet orders often so I haven't memorized the recipe, thankfully for me, we have a setting where if we click on the order, the recipe will show up, so I click on it.