Chapter Text
The first day of kindergarten: September, HG 63
District Twelve Elementary School
The teacher asked, “Does anyone here know ‘The Valley Song’?”
The Seam girl who wore the red-plaid dress, who wore her hair in two black braids, did not answer with words; she simply raised her hand.
Five-year-old Peeta looked around. Nobody else in class had his or her hand up to say he or she could sing “The Valley Song.” Little Peeta certainly did not; Peeta’s father did not sing, and Peeta’s mother played only Capitol music.
Meanwhile, the teacher was asking the black-braids girl, “What is your name, child?”
“Katniss. I’m named after an edible root.”
Dislikable Bruno Berg, whose father owned Berg’s Fruits, Vegetables, and Dairy, called out, “What’s your brother named? ‘Potato’? ‘Carrot’? Har-har-har!”
Katniss calmly replied, “You’re stupid. I don’t have a brother.”
The teacher said, “Katniss, will you stand on this chair and sing for us?”
Little Katniss scowled, but she climbed on the chair and began to sing.
A window was open, and through that window, little Peeta had heard the chirping of birds—till little Katniss sang. She had such an amazing singing voice that the birds beyond the open window went silent.
Little Peeta smiled goofily at the still-singing girl as he thought, Katniss is the girl I will marry someday.
No sooner had little Peeta thought this but little Delly Cartwright began pointing at Katniss, who still was standing on the chair and singing. “Teacher, teacher!” Delly said excitedly. “Katniss has writing on her leg! Why is that?”
Katniss had dark-brown Seam skin coloring; this meant that the white writing on the inside of her right lower leg was easy for Peeta to see.
Katniss stopped singing. She scowled at Delly as Katniss bent down and yanked up both of her socks as high as they would go—which covered up the white writing.
Katniss jumped off the chair. “I’m done singing,” she told the teacher, then she walked back to where she had been sitting on the floor.
The teacher then tried to explain to the class about “soulmarks” and “soulmates.” The more little Peeta listened, the more unhappy he got—
Somewhere in Panem was the soulmate boy whom Katniss would meet someday. Then this boy and Katniss would fall in love, then they would get married, then they would have babies, and it would all be wonderful, because he and she were soulmates. This boy, whoever he was, would know Katniss as his soulmate right when he met her, because her first words to him were already written on him somewhere.
Peeta did not have words written on him anywhere. He was not anyone’s soulmate; he was not Katniss’s soulmate.
Little Peeta wanted to cry. He had just met the girl he wanted to marry, and now he found out that she was going to marry somebody else.
****
Two hours later
After the end of first-day kindergarten
Little Peeta had made a decision. He could not marry Katniss, but he would be Katniss’s friend if she would let him. And hopefully Katniss would let Peeta remain her friend once she fell in love with her soulmate.
So now Peeta walked up to Katniss—talking to her was scary, but Peeta made himself do it—and he said to her, “I’m not your soulmate. Whoever he is, he’s lucky, because you sing really pretty.”
Katniss blushed. “Thanks.”
“I want to be your friend. I’m Peeta. Peeta Mellark.”
Little Katniss’s gray eyes bored into little Peeta’s blue eyes as she said, “I’m Seam. You’re Merchant. Mrs. Mellark hates Seam people—everyone in the Seam knows it.”
Peeta said, “I’m not my mother. I don’t hate anybody. I’d really like to be your friend, Miss Katniss.”
Little Katniss stared into little Peeta’s eyes for only two seconds before she nodded. “Okay. I’m Katniss Everdeen. My daddy’s a miner. Sometimes he finds squirrels and sells them. He sings gooder than me. Mother is the district healer; she used to be Merchant. My little sister Prim has blond hair and blue eyes like you. She can walk and talk now. Prim loves her cat doll.”
Little Peeta was grinning when little Katniss finished talking. Little Peeta thought, This went better than I had hoped.