#everlark as academic rivals cuz why not ya know

[toastyeverlark]

“And our top student this year is…Peeta Mellark!”

Peeta Mellark. It’s always Peeta Mellark. Peeta. Freaking. Mellark. Of course it is. When is it not?

It used to be me…Katniss Everdeen, until he transferred here.

Finnick nudges me playfully. “Wow, Katniss. Looks like you’re never going to catch up to him.”

I shoot a dirty look at Finnick. I don’t know why I still have him as a friend if he’s always getting on my nerves. He knows how annoyed I can get when it comes to Peeta, and yet he likes to bring him up just to spite me.

“We’ve never spoken to him before,” Finnick says to me as I’m putting my things away in my locker.

“So?”

“Do you think he’s nice? I’ve heard people say he’s really nice.”

“Yeah, and you thought I was mean because everyone was saying that about me.”

Finnick tries to hide his smile. “Well, they’re not really wrong about that.”

I elbow him and he backs away, laughing. “See? Proves their point.”

I roll my eyes. “He’s probably a jerk, and really snobby and overly confident. They’re always like this whenever they get good grades. Besides, he doesn’t…look bad, so they’ll definitely be crazy over him, which will make it ten times worse. His ego is going to explode. It probably already has.”

“You get good grades and you’re not like that,” Finnick says a little half-heartedly. He’s looking over at something.

I scoff. “Yeah, thanks.”

“He’s coming over,” he frantically nudges me.

“What? Who?”

“Your boyfriend.”

“What? I don’t have a boyfriend - ”

I turn around and come face-to-face with Peeta Mellark.

“Glad to hear that you don’t have one,” he smiles. He’s got one of the most genuine smiles I’ve ever seen. Maybe this is where the ‘Mr Nice’ persona comes from. His smile makes him seem like the purest person in the world. I don’t like it.

“Why are you talking to me?” I frown.

“I’ve been waiting for the chance to talk to you ever since I heard about you.”

“Well, congratulations.”

“You’re Katniss, right? I’m Peeta. Mellark. I’m not sure if you already knew,” he looks at Finnick and smiles again. “Hi, you must be Finnick.”

“Unfortunately I did. Is there anything else?”

He looks slightly disappointed. “Oh, no…I was just wondering - never mind. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too,” I manage to say before I take Finnick’s hand and walk off.

“Katniss,” he yanks his hand out of my grasp when we’re out of sight. “Why were you being so mean to him? This is the first time someone from the male population has taken an interest in you other than me, and I don’t even think you’re that interesting anymore.”

“Why would he talk to me for no reason? He’s never talked to me until today. He’s got to have some ulterior motive. I don’t need to be nice to him.”

“He’s clearly interested in you.”

“Yeah, interested in how he can get to know me so that he can take advantage of it to continue doing better than me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to study for tomorrow’s test. Try not to fail, because I’m not going to tutor you again.”

“At least I’m not a complete loser when it comes to romance. At this rate, I’m gonna have to marry you.”

This makes me laugh out loud. “What makes you think that?”

“Because if you’re always going to be mean, you’ll need someone who’s okay with your meanness. At the moment, no one’s okay with that but me.”

“You’ll need someone who’s okay with how annoying you are, too. I’m not the only one with a problem, Finnick.”

“I guess we both have problems.”

—

“Hi. Katniss.”

I look up from my laptop. It’s him again.

“What do you want, Peeta?”

He smiles and scratches the back of his head.

“Are you studying?”

“I don’t see why you need information on that.”

“Oh. Well, I was wondering if you mind…the other seats in the library are all taken.”

Why does he have to ask me? He could’ve asked anyone, especially since he’s so popular. They would be tripping over themselves to give up their seats for him.

Fine. I’m not going to fight with him for a seat.

“Alright then. I’ll get going.”

“No, no, Katniss, wait. I don’t mean it like that. You don’t have to go. I…wanted to ask if I could share the table with you.”

“It’s fine. I’ve been here for over four hours anyway,” I start gathering my things and shoving them in my backpack.

He stands there without another word, and only mutters a ‘bye’ when I leave.

“I saw that.”

I stagger backwards to avoid bumping into Finnick.

“You scared me. Can you stop popping out of the ground like that?”

“You need to take a hint, Katniss,” he says in exasperation while crossing his arms. “Peeta wants to talk to you.”

“I don’t care.”

“You need to stop being so bitter just because he does better than you, you know. He has never offended you and definitely doesn’t deserve you being so mean to him.”

I have to admit, hearing Finnick say that makes me feel a sense of guilt for all the times I grumbled about Peeta getting better grades and stealing the title of valedictorian from me. Maybe all this while, I have been the problem.

—

“Hi Katniss.”

I’m starting to recognise his voice now.

“Hi, Peeta.” This time, I choose to give him a smile. Just out of politeness. His already bright eyes seem to brighten even more when I do that.

“The other seats are taken…again. I was wondering if I could join you?”

“No, it’s alright. I’ll go. You can have the table to yourself.”

“No, I really would like for you to - okay. I’ve got an extra cup of coffee though. You can have it.”

He places a brown paper cup on the table.

“I only take caramel macchiatos, sorry.”

“It is a caramel macchiato,” Peeta smiles. That smile again. For some reason, it makes me feel a little weird inside. If there was a contest, he would’ve won hands-down for having the nicest looking smile.

“Oh. It’s okay. I don’t want to owe you anything.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about that,” he pushes the cup nearer to me. “I got the wrong order. I wouldn’t have drank it anyway.”

I look at him doubtfully, and he edges it closer towards me.

“Please?” he looks me in the eye when he says this, and I have to look away.

“Okay. Thank you. I’ll…get going.”

Maybe Peeta Mellark really isn’t that bad.