My Life Is a Complete Mess

By: Peeta Mellark 
As seen in The Hunger Games

 My whole life I thought I would be trapped here. I’ve been working in my parents’ bakery for as long as I can remember. It had never been the most satisfying job, but at least it puts food on the table. My life in the bakery consisted of my parents being my bosses. I was never the greatest baker, and I guess that was what my parents expected me to be. Whenever I burnt a piece of bread or accidentally dropped it, I would get a beat. My parents’ shop served bread to some of the wealthiest people, so of course my father wanted it to be perfect, but sometimes burning the bread was necessary. I live in District 12, the coal district, we are very poor and everyone works really hard to get at least a piece of bread for their family. Starvation was something very common here, sometimes too common. You would see people laying on the side of the road, dead because of starvation. I feel very fortunate that I get food everyday, but when I see the poor, starving people walk by and look for food, sometimes even in the trash can, I feel the need to help. One day in particular, a few weeks ago a girl came by. It was pouring rain and she was looking for food in our trash bins. My mother brought a broom and started yelling at her, I peeked out from behind my mother’s shoulder. She went to my school, yet I did not know her name. She backed away and my mother turned to go back and bake. I stayed. I watched as she slid down a tree trunk and started bawling. I couldn’t stand it, so I burnt two loaves of bread. As soon as my mother saw what I had done, she struck me with the broom, twice. My cheek swelled as she yelled at me, “Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!”. I went outside, ripped off the burnt crust of the bread and I looked back to see if my mother was watching me, but she wasn’t, so without making eye contact I threw the pieces of bread toward her direction and I saw that she caught it and stared back and forth, at the bread, then me. We didn't say anything to each other, I just walked back into the bakery like nothing ever happened. I looked out of the window once more and I saw the gratefulness she showed. Helping someone and seeing their face with happiness is so rewarding to me.

It’s reaping day, and the town is so quiet that I could hear a pin drop. At this point I really don’t know how I’m feeling, my mind is just a mess. I feel anxious, and terrified. Something in me tells me to calm down, I have never needed to get a tesserae, so my name is only in the bowl 5 times. Every year since you turn twelve your name is put into the bowl where they pick the tributes for the games. The Hunger Games take place every year for the last 74 years. It is the capitol’s way of reminding us that if we ever rebel, or even think about rebelling against the capitol’s rule, they have the power to kill us all. In the Games, every district chooses two tributes, a girl and a boy from the ages of 12-18. To sum it up, the games is when all 24 tributes go into an arena and fight ‘till the death, and in the end, only one person survives and is the winner. Everyone was in the square. The twelve year olds in the front and the eighteen year olds in the back. No one said a word, no one even looked at each other in the eye because of the terror of maybe never seeing them again. We all knew our name was in the bowl at least one time, and we all had a chance of getting picked. It was time. Effie Trinket, in her ridiculous outfit, like the rest of the capitol. She comes up on stage and gives her speech like always and they show us a video of all the past Hunger Games, to give everyone grief, and to once again remind everyone that the capitol has all the power; the power to kill everyone and anyone if something goes wrong. Effie picks out of the girls' bowl first. "Primrose Everdeen!" Effie says. It is silent for a few seconds until her sister, Katniss screams, and pushes Primrose out of sight. She yells, "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" Everyone's jaw falls down. No one could believe that she would give her life up. Effie, being herself, is filled with excitement to finally see District 12 have some action. Next up is the boys. My hands start to sweat, and my heart starts pounding as she reaches her hand in the bowl and pulls out one slip of paper. She opens it up slowly, gets closer to the microphone, and reads the name out loud. "Peeta Mellark" What? No, I must have heard wrong. That way my name. I slowly walked forward, not knowing if I was the chosen tribute. I stood up on the stage, right next to Effie. She asked for any tributes, I had older brothers, but why would they volunteer? For all I know they will be glad I'm gone. We go into the city hall building behind us. Now, the journey must begin. 

Training time. It is the first time we will see the tributes without all the fancy outfits. I’m actually pretty terrified looking around at all of them. They are all taller than me, and most of the guys have a bigger build than me which makes everything worse. I also started looking at all of the different stations that they had. Archery, which Katniss would probably go to first. There is also a station to learn how to tie strong knots, maybe that could be helpful. I really don’t have any skills than picking up 100 lb. bags of flour, which probably won’t be a useful skill in the arena. After I thought of everything, I knew that I wasn’t going to survive. I mean c’mon I have no special skill, and I always tend to fail at whatever I try to learn. I follow Katniss to the knot-tying station, since Haymitch, our guide, tells us to do. Since I tell the trainer that I know a little bit about traps, he shows us a simple trap we can place that leaves a competitor hanging form a tree by  foot.  Next, we go to the camouflage station, which ends up being a lot of fun for me. I swirl mud, clay and berry juices to make myself fit into the surrounding of trees and vines. I master this skill easily, and I think it is because I do the frosting on birthday cakes back at home. Throughout the whole day, Katniss and I move quietly form one station to another. We learned many valuable skills like knife throwing, starting fires, and building a shelter. During the week of training I try to make conversation with Katniss, just like Haymitch told us. We finally got a break and were going to bed when I started talking to Katniss, and it felt like the first real conversation we had. She actually started laughing, but she stopped instantly and said that we never spoke again, unless we needed to. It was time for our private session with the game makers, they call the boy first and then the girl. District 12 always goes last so as the time passed, the room got emptier. Until finally it was only me and Katniss. I have ti say it was pretty awkward just sitting there, looking straight forward. Finally they called my name. I went into the gymnasium, and went straight to the weights. I started by picking up the 75lb. weight and threw it across the gym. I looked up at the game makers and only two looked down at me, the rest were fixed on the feast in front of them. Next, I picked up the 100lb. weight and threw it, again it flew across the room and now two more game makers looked satisfied, but the remaining 16 were looking at the pig that had just arrived. I grew angry, so I picked up a 200lb. weight and threw it. It flew farther than I had imagined. Then they all looked up and said, "Thank you." I couldn't help but wonder if they were satisfied or if they thought I was weak. After the training the game makers televise a score publicly to show the people how much potential they think they have. I thought I was only going to get a four, since no one even bothered to look. District 12 was last, my picture showed up and I got an 8! District 12 always rounds up to a 4. I couldn't believe it. Next Katniss came up, she looked very worried. I don't know what happened at her session but I guess it didn't go good. Her picture came up and then her score. . . 11! I couldn't believe it. I don't know whether to be happy for her or jealous. Either way, the games were coming up, and I knew I had to man up and distance myself form her because one the Hunger Games began, there was only one survivor.

"What just happened?" I ask, looking around and seeing no one. I was on a bed, with a whole bunch of wires and tubes poking into my body. I didn't remember much, until I looked at myself and saw how much dirt and blood was on my clothes. I remembered. I remembered everything. It all came flashing through my mind, scenarios so vivid. Everything came back rushing, back; I remember the night before the games, when Effie held my hand and with tears in her eyes, wishing me luck. That night, I realized I hadn't gotten much sleep the entire time I had been there, I tried to sleep but my eyes refused to get heavy. So my mind started wandering. I remember thinking where we were going to be thrown, maybe a desert. I hoped for some where with lots of trees. I also wondered of the cruel traps the game makers have hidden. Maybe hungry, man-eating wolves? Somewhere while I was wandering, I feel asleep. I woke up to the sound of Portia knocking on my door. I woke up and changed into khakis and a plain white t-shirt knowing Portia would have to pick out clothes for me to go into the arena with. We go on the train and in a few hours we get to the arena. We go inside and Portia takes me to our area. He shows me the outfit; dark green pants, a black t-shirt, and a matching green jacket. It is comfortable, and it keeps me warm. Portia gives me a hug and tells me to take care. I walk into a tube elevator as my heart starts pounding, my legs start shaking, my hands begin to sweat and my mind goes racing. There is no turning back now. The elevator shoots up and I stand there looking around. It is a forest, trees is all I see. Every tribute is on their own platform in a circle around a shelter with backpacks and weapons. I look around see Katniss, I stare at her, and we both have the same pale, terrified expression. There is a countdown starting at 10...9...8...7..I meet eyes with a girl from District 3, and she gives me a look and I swear at the moment I knew she would be the one to kill me..6...5...4 everyone gets ready to run, get their weapons...3...2...1..BEEEP! And with that, the games begin.

Peeta Mellark:
I have medium lengthen, blonde hair, blue eyes, pretty short, and a medium build. I am 
My favorite color is blue.
My biggest goal in life is to leave District 12 and start a family of my own.
 I spend most of my time in my father's bakery, my only job I have ever had since I was 12.
I love animals, my family has three pigs and two chickens. I also love dogs, but never really got the chance to buy one.
In school, I only have about two friends, and we are pretty much nobodies. I am an A, B student and math is probably my favorite and best subject. I like listening to music, I more into the Indie Rock. My favorite artists are All Time Low, Arctic Monkeys, and The 1975, which were all bands that existed back when the United States of America existed. 
I like to read about Panem before it actually was Panem. Like when The United States of America existed, and how they rebelled and everything got destroyed.