User blog:ArleneLove'sTHG/Peeta's POV of The Hunger Games!

My platform was risen up. All 24 of us were facing a huge cornucopia filled with items. My hands itched to get on at least a couple items. I knew they would be able to help me during the Games. I peeked at Katniss. Her chestnut brown hair fluttered in the wind, kissing her cheeks. Her chocolate colored eyes darted from place to place on the cornucopia, looking for… whatever. Her eyes lock on something, and I follow her gaze. A bow and arrow. Her best weapon.

NO! Everybody knows that the first confrontation at the cornucopia is a bloodbath. At least half of the tributes die. Katniss catches my eye. I shake my head at her. If she dies, I may as well kill myself. I could not live without her. The buzzer rings. Katniss scowls at me as the buzzer rings. The Careers charge off, grabbing the weapons first, and behind them come other tributes, mainly grabbing food and other necessary supplies. And Katniss! I sprint off after her.

She grabs a couple items, but can't make it to the bow and arrow. The girl from District 2 chucks a knife at the boy standing right next to Katniss, fighting for an orange backpack. He pukes blood on her arm, and I gag.

NO! I see the girl throw another knife, this time at Katniss, but she blocks it with the pack and runs to the woods. I grab the bow and arrow, thinking to give it to Katniss if I see her again, and I'm stopped by Cato.

"So, your girlfriend ran off without you," he sneers. I wince, preparing for an attack… that doesn't come. All the other tributes are either dead or gone. Now it's just me, Cato, and the other Careers standing in front of the cornucopia. Cato laughs at my wince.

"Hey, calm down. I saw your strength in training. You were good. Want to join us? We can win this," Cato says. I nod. I have been watching Cato carefully. He definitely has something in it for Katniss. She DID get a better score than him, after all.

"Good," He nods at the bow, "May I?" I hand it over, wary, because I had wanted to give it to Katniss, but since I was outnumbered, they could easily take me out and I could never see her again. He rolls it over in his hands, all the while nodding. He gives it to the girl from District 1. She puts it in her own pack.

"So…," he puts a hand on my back, smiles, and leads me and the Careers toward the woods, "You and Katniss, huh…"

~TIME PASSES~

After the death of a girl who started a fire in the middle of the woods (not smart on her part), I rejoined the Careers. "She's done with," I say, feeling guilty I couldn't have helped the girl in any way. Cato nods.

"Good. Time to go, anyway." The Careers walk on.

"Hey!" I call, "I dropped my knife! Go on, I'll catch up, I'll try to find it here." I bend over and start running my hands over the ground. The Careers shrug and resume walking. I wait a while, still pretending to look, when I peek at Katniss. The whites of her eyes practically glow, but when she sees me looking at her, she scrambles to escape. She unties a belt tied around her thin waist, but apparently she was hanging partly upside-down. She goes crashing to the ground, but before she hits, I dive and catch her. Her hair is flowing across my left arm, and her tiny body is scrunched in a ball, as if she was preparing for the impact of the ground.

My heart is beating hard, as this is the closest I have really been to her. I quickly put her down after catching her and run off after Cato. Hopefully she doesn't relize her fall was soft because someone caught her...

~TIME PASSES~

My chest is on fire. The wild forest fire that was recently extinguished still left ashes floating in the air, that sear my lungs with every inhale. Not to mention I burned my chest, too.

Walking along the forest floor, I look up, which I have been doing lately, now that I have found out that Katniss most likely sticks to the trees. Soon, we come across a pretty tall tree, and there sits Katniss, near the top, gazing at her hands. Has she been burned? I bite my lip, worried, then stop, and peek at Cato. He shifts his gaze away from me, quickly. She smiles sweetly at us, mainly at Cato, but I see a quick glance in my direction.

"How's everything with you?" she called.

"Well enough," says a boy from District 2, "Yourself?" She taps her chin, pretending to consider this, then says "It's been a bit warm for my taste." I chuckle silently at her cleverness. "But the air's better up here. Why don't you come up?" Then I begin to panic.

"Think I will," says District 2 boy. But Cato stops him. District 2 girl offers Cato Katniss' bow and arrows, but he declines. I see the want for that bow in Katniss' eyes. Cato takes a sword, and starts to climb. He breaks a branch. So do a couple other Careers. I calm down a bit.

Glimmer, the girl with the bow, tries to shoot at Katniss. But Katniss grabs the arrow after it lodges itself in the tree trunk. She waves it, gloating. I smile again.

"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning," I say, harshly, hoping that will repay Cato for him seeing me smiling at Katniss. He squints at me, agrees, and we spread out around the trunk. I sit right below Katniss. But not, you know, in case she might fall or anything…

Night falls, and Katniss is tied safely to a branch. I volunteered to stay awake, as guard, and so I watch her sleeping. I see some movement, but it is too dark to see exactly what's going on. Soon I hear sawing, and the ruffle of a falling branch. It lands away from me, but I get stung by… something.

"TrackerJacker's!" a boy yells. We scatter, running to the lake, and I get a couple stings: one to my cheek, one to my arm, and one to my stomach. I see Katniss looking guilty from above, but I forgive her, obviously. What else is a boy in love supposed to do?