(You put "Peter Mellark" instead of "Peeta Mellark". I was just wondering if that was intentional or accidental. If you want, feel free to skip over some of this, since most of it is from the first book.)
Pearl Mellark"I never told you this before because it was something I never liked to think about," my mother began. "I planned on telling you at some point; I knew I would have to. But I never thought they would return." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "As you probably know, it was Aunt Prim who was reaped to go into the game. One slip out of thousands. What were the odds? I couldn't watch my twelve-year-old sister go into the Games. So I volunteered to take her place. Your father was reaped, and we were forced to go into the Games together. I had only really interacted with him once before. On a cold, rainy day, shortly after your grandfather died. As you know, your grandmother didn't help us for a little while after that. I was trying to do what I could to keep us alive. But I was cold and starving, and the clothes that I had been carrying had fallen into a puddle.
"I had been walking by the bakery and smelled the bread. I looked in their trash cans to see if there was any stale bread when Peeta's mother came out and began yelling at me. I walked away and sat under one of the trees, exhausted and starved. Then, I heard her yelling at me again, but this time inside the house. She and a boy, your father, came out, and she whacked him in the head and told him to feed the bread to the pigs, because it was burnt, and no one who had money would eat it. He began feeding the bread to the pigs as instructed, but then he tossed both loaves to me. I took it home for my mother, sister, and myself to eat. It was just fine, after you took off the burned parts. I never forgot that day.
"So when we were thrown into the Games together, I didn't know whether to trust him or not. At first, I saw every kind thing he did as an act to win in the Games, and that he would kill me as soon as we got in the arena. But then, during the interview before we got thrown in the Games, he announced there was a girl that he had had a crush on since forever, and that winning wouldn't help, because that girl had come there with him. Me.
"I thought he had been trying to make me look weak, and I pushed him down for it, making him knock down an urn and cut his hands from the sharp pieces. It was Haymitch who had tried to assure me that what he had done made us get more sponsors. I apologized later that night on the roof of the training center where we were staying.
"While we were waiting for the Games to start, watching the clock count down, I had noticed a bow and a sheath of arrows. I was thinking about getting it, but just before the countdown ended, I turned and I think your father shook his head no, which delayed me from having a chance to grab the weapon and get out of there. So I grabbed what I could and ran out of there, away from any of the other tributes.
"It wasn't long after that when the Careers came by me. I was up in a tree, so they couldn't see me. But I could hear and see them. It was that night when I found out your father was with them. He had joined up with them to try and find me. Considering they never actually found me until after the gamemakers created a fire to bring us all closer, I don't think he was really helping them. They found me three or four days after I first saw them all together, and I climbed up a tree as fast as I could so they wouldn't kill me, which was hard with the burns from the fire. One of the tributes tried climbing up after me, but he was too heavy and fell. One of the others tried shooting arrows at me to kill me, but she wasn't a very sharp shooter. Your father suggested that they wait for me to come down.
"During the night, Rue, the female tribute from District 11, pointed out a tracker jacker nest to me. I began cutting the branch it was on. I wasn't able to finish the job until the following morning, along with a few of their stings. The tribute who had tried shooting me with the arrows died, and I pulled the bow and arrows off of her. Your father ran back and told me to run away. He had a spear and he could have killed me, but he didn't. That's when I began trusting him again. The tribute that tried climbing up after me, Cato from District 2, had cut your father's leg for doing so.
"I stuck around with Rue for a few days, until she died by the boy from District 1. In those few days, we had bonded and I had blown up the Careers' supply. The land mines surrounding it went off, though, and damaged my left ear. Rue had been setting off fires so that the Careers would go after her. Unfortunately, the boy from District 1 trapped her in a net and killed her. I turned around and killed him. He was the first one that I killed. That night, there was a rule change: if the last two people were from the same district, we would be able to return home together. So I went searching for him. When I found him, he had camouflaged himself. I cleaned him off, but his leg hurt him too much to walk or move, so doing so was a struggle, as was walking to the cave where we stayed until near the end of the Games. He was also sick from being there so long.
"We got a lot of sponsors and help from Haymitch during then. But Peeta wasn't getting any better. So, when the announcement came about there being something that each of us needed desperately, I disobeyed Peeta and left to get it. The girl from District 2 tried to kill me, but the boy from District 11 killed her before she could, although she was able to cut my forehead in the process. I ran back to the cave, but wasn't able to see what was in the bag, although it was a very small bag, and I knew it was the medicine to heal his leg wound.
"After that, he was all better. I went out and hunted while Peeta collected berries and herbs. The sound of a cannon made me stop hunting and go looking for him. On the way, I saw a pile of berries. I picked them up and discovered they were nightlocks. I began looking for him again, hoping that it hadn't been him who died because he ate the berries. We ran into each other, and I was glad to see he was still alive. It had been the girl from District 5 who had eaten the berries and died because of it.
"There were now four of us left: the boy from District 11, Cato, and of course your father and I. A storm began, and we were stuck in the cave. During that time, the boy from District 11 had died. Shortly after the storm ended, the river dried up, and we had to go to the lake. This was the finale. Many muttations came after your father, Cato, and I. We ran to the Cornucopia, leaving our belongings by the river. When Peeta tried getting up on the Cornucopia, one of the mutts bit his leg. Cato had climbed the highest while I continued shooting the mutts. All of them had the characteristics of the dead tributes, and the dead tributes' district numbers on them, so it was hard for me to kill them, but I did the best I could. Unfortunately, whenever one died, another one came in its place.
"While I wasn't looking, Cato had come down and put Peeta in a headlock. Peeta was turning blue from being choked, but I couldn't just shoot Cato, because then they would both go down. Peeta trailed his finger on Cato's hand, making an X. I did as he instructed and shot Cato's hand. Cato let go of Peeta, but they both began to fall. I caught Peeta and brought him back up onto the Cornucopia. Peeta's leg was still bleeding out, so I took off my shirt and made a torqniquet out of it, using the last arrow I had. The night dragged on, and it got colder. Cato wasn't being killed yet because he had body armor on and the muttations couldn't get through it. Just before we froze to death, Peeta suggested that I finish Cato off myself. I took the arrow out of his tourniquet, and shot Cato, ending his life and his misery. We waited for the trumpets to sound, but they didn't. Thinking we had to get away from the Cornucopia before they sounded the trumpet, we headed back to the lake. Still, no victory trumpets sounded.
"Then, the announcement came on. On further review of the rules, they revoked the previous rule change so either your father or I had to die. We couldn't both get out alive. Peeta pulled out his knife, and I thought he was going to kill me, but instead he threw it in the lake. He tried taking off his tourniquet, but I stopped him. Instead, I pulled out the nightlock berries that I had packed in case we could outsmart Cato. I poured some into his hand, and then some into mine. We held them out so everyone could see them, and began counting down. Just as I put the berries in my mouth, we were announced as victors. Peeta and I quickly spit the berries out and rinsed out the juice from our mouths.
"My ear was healed and Peeta got a metal leg because the wound from the muttations had been too big to heal. Haymitch told me that the Capitol saw the act with the berries as an act of rebellion, not love. So I tried convincing everyone that it was love and not a rebellion. Peeta found out about it, though, and didn't talk to me about it afterwards."
Just then, PJ walked through the door. "I'll tell you the rest of the story later," my mother said. I nodded and helped her fix dinner. I understood now why she didn't want to tell me about what happened. And that wasn't even the full story! What was left?
(Told you it would be long!
Sorry if I made any mistakes. I don't have the book next to me, so I'm doing this all from memory.
I'll try to fix them when I can.)