Title: Behind The Scenes

Rating: M for suggestive language and later sexual content

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or Romeo and Juliet (obviously!) No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter: A New School Year

A/N: Hello! Welcome to my newest fic! If you have read my other stories than welcome back! If not, glad to have you! Enjoy! This fic will be alternating POVs. School name and various last names are made up.

Katniss' POV:

Here I am, on the first day of my senior year in high school. I should be excited, thrilled actually. I mean, doesn't everyone always dream about how great their senior year will be? Going to football games, dances, and eventually graduating? But am I excited? Hell no. For me, senior year still means one more year of hell in East Haven High School.

You see, I'm not really one for cheering on our football team or dancing the night away at one of our many school dances. I'd rather be out in the woods, or shooting my bow and arrow at a target.

Which brings me to another point, archery used to have its own club at school and we had competitions in the fall. However, now the school officials have combined archery in with track and field, which isn't until spring. Spring is when our school musical always is as well. I am always in the musical because I love to sing. I never try out for any of the big roles; I'm perfectly content being in a smaller role as long as I get to sing. Now, I will have to try to divide my time between archery and the musical this spring. Oh, and I will have nothing to do with my time this fall or winter.

I'm still brooding on my thoughts when I walk into school.

"Katniss! Over here!"

I glance over to my right and see my friend Madge Undersee waving to me. I smile at her and walk over, slinging my backpack across my shoulder.

"Hey, heading to homeroom?"

She nods. "Damn that alphabetical order stuff! I wish I was in your homeroom."

"Yeah, me too, but we can meet up afterwards and check our schedules okay?"

Madge smiles and pushes some of her long blond hair away from her face. "Definitely, see you then!"

Homeroom goes by quickly and when the bell rings, I jump out of my seat and go to meet with Madge.

We compare our schedules and notice that we have Psychology together first period and Study Hall together third period.

My first two classes go by quickly, and when it is times for study hall, I get a pass to go to the library with Madge.

She is already there waiting for me, along with another one of our friends, Johanna Mason.

When I sit down, Johanna hounds me. "What's your schedule like?"

I show her and find that we have this Study Hall as well as eighth period Astronomy together.

"Sweet! Hey, you know who else is in our Astronomy class?"

I shake my head. "Who?"

Johanna smirks at me. "Peeta Mellark."

Just his name has me blushing and remembering the first time that I met him…

"Outta the way new girl!"

I flinched as some big, burly senior shoved his way past me in the hallway. I had no idea how he even knew that I was a new girl, I must have had a sign on me that announced it or something.

I had just moved to East Haven in the middle of my freshman year of high school. My father had recently died and my mother took a new job several hours away so that she didn't have to be reminded of my father.

It was my first day and most of the other students weren't very nice. Just as I had narrowly escaped being run over by the senior, some bitchy looking junior girl barreled right into me, like she didn't even see me or something.

This time, I wasn't lucky. I fell to the ground and my books and notebooks went flying. A few upperclassmen stopped and laughed at me as I scrambled to get everything back together.

I blushed and hung my head so as not to see their faces as they laughed at me. Suddenly, another pair of hands was reaching down and helping me collect my things. I looked up and saw a guy with shaggy blond hair and the most beautiful blue eyes holding out my stuff for me.

"Here you go, are you okay?"

I nodded, hastily taking my things and getting up.

"Hey, what's your name?"

I peered up at him. "Katniss."

The blond boy smiled. "I'm Peeta, it's nice to meet you."

I was so grateful for his help, but I wasn't exactly the most outgoing of girls, so I muttered my thanks and left.

I bring myself back from my flashback to face Johanna again. "So? Why should I care about him?"

She shakes her head. "Because, brainless…he's sexy as hell."

She's right, he is very attractive, and he isn't cocky like most good looking guys, but that didn't mean that I wanted to go after him or anything. I just wasn't into dating as much as normal teenage girls.

I roll my eyes at her. Johanna has always been all about guys. "How do you know he is in our class anyway?"

"He sits besides me in homeroom so I glanced over at his schedule. That boy is hot, I'd hit that."

Madge gasps. "Johanna! Girls don't usually say those things!"

"Well, I do. Get the fuck over it."

I have to laugh at them. Madge and Johanna are polar opposites. While Madge is quiet and innocent, Johanna is loud and crude. It's a wonder that the two of them get along at all.

Just as the three of us are leaving the library, Johanna notices a flyer on the billboard in the hallway. "Hey, what's this?"

I look down at the flyer and see that it is advertising auditions for the winter play. Now, although I do participate in the musicals, I have never actually been in the winter play due to all of the rehearsals being in the fall when I had archery.

The flyer reads: Tryouts for the winter play 'Romeo and Juliet' will take place this Thursday at 5:00 PM in the auditorium. Anyone interested is encouraged to attend!

"So, you gonna try out?"

I look over at Johanna and shrug. "I don't know, I usually only take part in in the musical so I can sing. I'm not too sure if I'm any good at acting by itself."

"You should do it," Madge says quietly.

Johanna links arms with me as we travel down the hallway. "Yeah, we can try out together, it'll be fun."

I smile at my friends. "Maybe…"

Peeta's POV:

The first day of my senior year of high school is only halfway over and I am miserable already. I mean, the classes seem okay and all, but the one person that I wished to see wasn't in any of them.

Sure, there were plenty of good looking girls in my classes, and I knew that more than half of them would be more than willing to go out with me. However, none of them even come close to her.

"Hey man, how's it going?"

I look up to see my friend Finnick Odair pulling out a chair across from me at the lunch table.

"Not so good."

Finnick snags a fry from my untouched lunch and chews before answering. "Why the hell not?"

I sigh and shake my head. "She's not in any of my classes so far." I know that he will know the she to which I am referring, he is my best friend after all.

He groans. "Day's only half over. Besides, when was the last time you even spoke to the girl?"

I don't even have to think for a second. "May 17th."

"Fuck, you remember the exact day?"

I nod, trying not to give in to my nervous habit of chewing on my lip. "Yeah, she dropped her pencil in English class and I picked it up for her. She thanked me."

"Damn, you've got it bad."

"I know." And I did have it bad. Ever since the first day that I saw her, and then later heard her sing in the school musical, I was a goner.

Finnick goes on about all of the hot girls in his classes and then about how excited he is to be on the football team again.

I am only half listening to him when I see her.

She walks into the cafeteria with her two best friends, but all I can see is her. Her dark hair is in a long braid over her shoulder, and although she isn't dressed provocatively and doesn't have any makeup on, she is more beautiful than any other girl I have seen.

My breath catches in my throat and Finnick looks up. When he sees her and her friends, he waves. "Ladies! Lookin' good!"

The blond one, Madge, blushes and doesn't say anything.

Johanna smirks at Finnick. "You too!"

Katniss, the beautiful and amazing Katniss, just scowls.

I hate that she scowls all of the time. It makes her look mean and unapproachable. I know that she isn't mean though, just guarded.

I wonder briefly why she is so guarded and has such a tough exterior, but my thoughts are interrupted by Finnick. "She so wants me."

I look at him quizzically. "Who?"

He gestures towards the three girls. "Katniss of course."

I feel anger flare up in my chest before I realize that he is chuckling. "Oh, you're joking."

"Of course I am! She's mysterious, that one. I think maybe she's a lesbian."

"She's not a lesbian! She dated that one guy our sophomore year, Gale Hawthorne, remember?"

Finnick shakes his hand in an errant matter. "Yeah, he was a senior at the time. I'm pretty sure they broke up though."

I nod. "They did."

He chuckled again. "You would know…"

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I've had enough of you pining for her from afar. If you don't make a move on her, and soon, someone else will."

I slump down in my chair, knowing that my friend is right, but not sure what to do about it. I'm not the kind of guy who just walks right up to a girl and starts a conversation. Instead, I just watch her and hope that she will notice me someday; that our conversations will be more than just a few words scattered over months at a time.

Later on, when it is time for my last class of the day, I have almost given up on having a class with Katniss. However, as I am walking into Astronomy, I notice that she is there sitting near the middle of the classroom next to Johanna.

My heart does a flip in my chest as I hear her laugh at something her friend has said. Just the sound of her voice, whether it be laughing, speaking, or singing, fills me with joy.

I take a seat diagonally behind Katniss, two rows back. It's just enough to be kind of close to her, yet far enough to not seem like a creeper.

I see Johanna's gaze flicker over to me for a second before she whispers something in Katniss' ear.

Katniss looks behind her and for a brief moment, her eyes meet mine. I give her a small smile, but she whips back around and starts to talk to her friend again.

Johanna is rather loud at times, so I begin to eavesdrop on her half of the conversation.

"You should definitely try out for the play," she says.

Play? What play?

I strain to hear Katniss' response, but she is too quiet.

"Come on, it will be fun!"

This time, I am just able to make out Katniss' words. "Okay, I'll try out."

Unfortunately, I don't have the chance to listen more, because class has begun.

As soon as class is over, I head to my locker to get my things. It is then that I notice the flyer advertising auditions for the school play, 'Romeo and Juliet'. I'm not much of an actor, but for the chance at getting to know Katniss better, I'm more than willing to try out.

A/N: Well, what do you think? Do you like it so far? Please review and let me know! Thoughts for next time: How will Katniss and Peeta's auditions go? Will they interact at all with each other? Who else will get into the mix?