Chapter Text
Peeta’s POV
Peeta was heading to the reaping with his brothers again, they kept joking that if Peeta was picked they wouldn’t volunteer for him. To 14 year old him that’s what he dreaded. He was just closing the bakery when averyfancy car stopped in front of the store. The window opened to show a little girl with curious grey eyes looking at him,Lee, the little apprentice for Effie Trinket. “Please can I go, I promise I’ll shut up if I can get one or two!” She spoke to a man behind her, he looked like a body guard, “Fine! But you better keep quiet, children are better seen and not heard” the bodyguard said.
Lee opened the car door and jumped out looking at Peeta and his brothers. Peeta felt a knot in his throat. “Hi!” She greeted waving her hand, Peeta’s brothers looked at her with annoyance and walked away to try and make her leave, they hated Capitol children, but Peeta didn’t leave, Lee looked at him with a smile. Peeta then noticed how odd she dressed, or more like odd for a Capitol. Lee wore black and grey clothing, with some leather and spiked bracelets on her wrist, but nothing like a Capitol, just a black graphic t-shirt with grey shorts and sneakers. A pair of little buns on her head decorated with a pair of black bows. She looked nothing like a Capitol, they were all about color.
”Are you still open? I can come back tomorrow if it’s closed.” The little girl spoke with an accent that wasn’t Capitol, it didn’t sound like any district accent he had heard before, but it had a bit of the twang that district 12’s had. Peeta looked at Lee in surprise,she wanted something fromhis bakery when in the Capitol she could have any lavished dessert she’d want. “W-We were just going to leave, b-but I think I can make an exception” he stuttered out an answer, only to get the bright smile of the little girl, this time it was her fangs that were missing. “Thank you!” She said as she seemed to want to flap her arms, but stopped abruptly.
Peeta reopened the door and went in with Lee in tow, her eyes looking curiously around her, “Why did you stop here Miss?” He asked her, she looked at him and simply said “I was curious about how the bread here is, at home everything is too sweet” she looked around at the breads and cakes on display and pointed to a pair of breads, “I like these, they look cool” she smiled up at him as Peeta looked at what she wanted. Peeta was surprised by her picking some of the most simple savory breads they had, Pretzels and Cheese and Garlic buns. He didn’t expect for her to pick such simple things.
”Are you sure? They’re real simple breads, nothing special” he asked her again, Lee nodded very surely, “Yep, They look like the breads my D- I mean, that Effie has got.” The little girl’s curious eyes flashed with anxiousness but quickly returned to the brightness from before. Peeta wondered if maybe she was related to the escort of District 12, they certainly had the same face shape and similar nose, but the rest resembled something he would maybe seehere.
”Well then, here you go, 1 large pretzel and 3 cheese and garlic buns.” Peeta said as he put the breads in a bag, “Do you need me to help you count how much it’ll be? I don’t want you to over pay, even if we are having budget problems” he half joked the last part, as he saw Lee trying to count the amount of money she needed. Lee looked up from her hand but shook her head, “Nope, My teacher taught me how to count money” she answered proudly. The more Peeta listened to the little girl, the less she seemed from the Capitol. She quickly handed him the money and ran towards the car out the door.
When Peeta counted the money he realized she had over payed, by alot,too much. “Hey you ove-“ he was cut off by the little girl putting a finger to her mouth and making a “shhh” sound with a mischievous look on her face, he looked surprised at the girl but smiled as she left.
As he left to the reaping he kept having the strangely familiar grey eyes stuck in his head.
Curious little girl, wasn’t she?
