The Hunger Games is currently my favorite guilty pleasure. I read the first two books of the trilogy repeatedly for almost a week, and I can’t wait till Mockingjay comes out in August. When I first read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, I was more involved in the action – the quest to survive, the violence and all that. On my second reading, I started noticing the romance. Lately, I’ve been noticing more of the humor. For such a dark book, there are portions that made me literally laugh out loud. You have to hand it to the baker’s son to always say something funny. Here are some of my favorite Peeta Mellark quotes from the first book.
“What about you? I’ve seen you in the market. You can lift hundred pound bags of flour,” I snap at him. “Tell him that. That’s not nothing.”
“Yes, and I’m sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people.”
Then we move on to camouflage. Peeta genuinely seems to enjoy this station, swirling a combination of mud and clay and berry juices around on his pale skin, weaving disguises from vines and leaves. The trainer who runs the camouflage station is full of enthusiasm at his work.
“I do the cakes,” he admits to me.
“The cakes?” I ask. I’ve been preoccupied with watching the boy from District 2 send a spear through a dummy’s heart from fifteen yards. “What cakes?”
“At home. The iced ones, for the bakery,” he says….
“It’s lovely. If only you could frost someone to death,” I say.
“Don’t be so superior. You can never tell what you’ll find in the arena. Say it’s actually a gigantic cake —” begins Peeta.
“Really, is anything less impressive than watching a person pick up a heavy ball and throw it a couple of yards. One almost landed on my foot.”
Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home.
Peeta hesitates, then gives an unconvincing shake of his head.
“Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what’s her name?” says Caesar.
Peeta sighs. “Well, there is this one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t know I was alive until the reaping.”
Sounds of sympathy from the crowd. Unrequited love they can relate to.
“She have another fellow?” asks Caesar.
“I don’t know, but a lot of boys like her,” says Peeta.
“So, here’s what you do. You win, you go home. She can’t turn you down then, eh?” says Caesar encouragingly.
“I don’t think it’s going to work out. Winning . . . won’t help in my case,” says Peeta.
“Why ever not?” says Caesar, mystified.
Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. “Because… because… she came here with me.”
“What’s going on?” says Effie, a note of hysteria in her voice. “Did you fall?”
“After she shoved me,” says Peeta as Effie and Cinna help him up.
“She’s just worried about her boyfriend,” says Peeta gruffly, tossing away a bloody piece of the urn.
My cheeks burn again at the thought of Gale. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Whatever,” says Peeta. “But I bet he’s smart enough to know a bluff when he sees it. Besides you didn’t say you loved me. So what does it matter?”
My foot has just broken the surface of the water when I hear a voice.
“You here to finish me off, sweetheart?”
I whip around. It’s come from the left, so I can’t pick it up very well. And the voice was hoarse and weak. Still, it must have been Peeta. Who else in the arena would call me sweetheart?
My eyes peruse the bank, but there’s nothing. Just mud, the plants, the base of the rocks.
“Peeta?” I whisper. “Where are you?” There’s no answer. Could I just have imagined it? No, I’m certain it was real and very close at hand, too. “Peeta?” I creep along the bank.
“Well, don’t step on me.”
I jump back. His voice was right under my feet. Still there’s nothing. Then his eyes open, unmistakably blue in the brown mud and green leaves. I gasp and am rewarded with a hint of white teeth as he laughs.
It’s the final word in camouflage. Forget chucking weights around. Peeta should have gone into his private session with the Gamemakers and painted himself into a tree. Or a boulder. Or a muddy bank full of weeds.
“Close your eyes again,” I order. He does, and his mouth, too, and completely disappears. Most of what I judge to be his body is actually under a layer of mud and plants. His face and arms are so artfully disguised as to be invisible. I kneel beside him. “I guess all those hours decorating cakes paid off.”
Peeta smiles. “Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying.”
Within minutes of pressing the handful of chewed-up green stuff into the wound, pus begins running down the side of his leg. I tell myself this is a good thing and bite the inside of my cheek hard because my breakfast is threatening to make a reappearance.
“Katniss?” Peeta says. I meet his eyes, knowing my face must be some shade of green. He mouths the words. “How about that kiss?”
I burst out laughing because the whole thing is so revolting I can’t stand it.
“Something wrong?” he asks a little too innocently.
“You’re such a bad liar, Katniss. I don’t know how you’ve survived this long.” He begins to mimic me. “I knew that goat would be a little gold mine. You’re a little cooler though. Of course, I’m not going. He shakes his head. “Never gamble at cards. You’ll lose your last coin,” he says.
“Tomorrow’s a hunting day,” I say.
“I won’t be much help with that,” Peeta says. “I’ve never hunted before.”
“I’ll kill and you cook,” I say. “And you can always gather.”
“I wish there was some sort of bread bush out there,” says Peeta.
“Peeta,” I say lightly. “You said at the interview you’d had a crush on me forever. When did forever start?”
“Oh, let’s see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair . . . it was in two braids instead of one. My father pointed you out when we were waiting to line up,” Peeta says.
“Your father? Why?” I ask.
“He said, ‘See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner,’” Peeta says.
“What? You’re making that up!” I exclaim.
“No, true story,” Peeta says. “And I said, ‘A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could’ve had you?’ And he said, ‘Because when he sings . . . even the birds stop to listen.’”
“That’s true. They do. I mean, they did,” I say. I’m stunned and surprisingly moved, thinking of the baker telling this to Peeta. It strikes me that my own reluctance to sing, my own dismissal of music might not really be that I think it’s a waste of time. It might be because it reminds me too much of my father.
“So that day, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the valley song. Your hand shot right up in the air. She stood you up on a stool and had you sing it for us. And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent,” Peeta says.
“Oh, please,” I say, laughing.
“No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew — just like your mother — I was a goner,” Peeta says. “Then for the next eleven years, I tried to work up the nerve to talk to you.”
“Without success,” I add.
“Without success. So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck,” says Peeta.
Peeta wriggles back inside, his face lit up like the sun. “I guess Haymitch finally got tired of watching us starve.”
A disturbing thought hits me. “But then, our only neighbor will be Haymitch!”
“Ah, that’ll be nice,” says Peeta, tightening his arms around me. “You and me and Haymitch. Very cozy. Picnics, birthdays, long winter nights around the fire retelling old Hunger Games’ tales.”
“I told you, he hates me!” I say, but I can’t help laughing at the image of Haymitch becoming my new pal.
“Only sometimes. When he’s sober, I’ve never heard him say one negative thing about you,” says Peeta.
“He’s never sober!” I protest.
“That’s right. Who am I thinking of? Oh, I know. It’s Cinna who likes you. But that’s mainly because you didn’t try to run when he set you on fire,” says Peeta. “On the other hand, Haymitch . . . well, if I were you, I’d avoid Haymitch completely. He hates you.”
“I thought you said I was his favorite,” I say.
“He hates me more,” says Peeta. “I don’t think people in general are his sort of thing.”
“So do we hunt on empty stomachs to give us an edge?”
“Not us,” I say. “We stuff ourselves to give us staying power.”
“It was all for the Games,” Peeta says. “How you acted.”
“Not all of it,” I say, tightly holding onto my flowers.
“Then how much? No, forget that. I guess the real question is what’s going to be left when we get home?” he says.
“I don’t know. The closer we get to District Twelve, the more confused I get,” I say. He waits, for further explanation, but none’s forthcoming.
“Well, let me know when you work it out,” he says, and the pain in his voice is palpable.
UPDATE: You can also check out my favorite Peeta quotes from Catching Fire here and my favorite Peeta and Katniss moments from Mockingjay here.
Sunny Feels 
Oh my God, Peeta was FIVE when he started to love Katniss? What a joke.
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O SHUT UP!!!! its cute!
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when of the best lines she said haha 🙂
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i didnt hate gale and all but its DEFINITELY a no brainer that peeta is the one for her but now gale is just destroying stuff or at least was… and gale is only best as a friend for her. now he just messes the whole thing up. im at that part where boggs just died and their hiding in that capitol apartment and when peeta started crying cuz he thought it was his fault that mitchell died, i nearly fell apart 😦 for now the boy with the bread is gone- hey ill take him!!!! ill take him cuz i know he gets better. still sad that he was crying saying they all should return him to the capitol 😥
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aww ik!! my favorite thing boggs ever said was “dont expect us to be impressed. we just saw finnick odair in his underware.” 😉 and i agree i dont hate gale but peeta is waaay better for katniss!
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IK Right Gale is so unconditionally stupid. He can’t see she loves PEETA more. And its so sad when finnick dies. 😦 IMMA PEETAIST there is no words to describe peeta except….. HOT SEXY DEEP SEXY NICE BOY WITH BREAD SEXY MINE SEXY LEVEL HEADED CORDIAL KICK ASS SEXY ALLLLL MINE AND DONT FORGET……WILLING TO DO ANYTHING FOR HIS LOVE WE CALL THAT…..SEXY LOL NA IT MEAN GIVING and it make him sound like he cares more about others than himself HE THINKS HE UNIMPORTANT…. MAYBE HE SHOULD READ THESE POSTS I WISH I WAS KATNISS ALL THE PAIN SHE GOES THROUGH PAYS OFF lol love you peeta…..SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH
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I LOVE PETTA!!!!! HES SO SWEET! OH, WHY CAN’T HE BE REAL????????????
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Peeta is to awesome and nice Nd perfect for katniss. Gale goes better with katniss- not peeta. But I am team peeta 100%%%%%%%%% all the way. I need to find a peeta thats hot and caring and deep and loving and idk just like how peeta is
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I would soo take Peeta’s soul in Gales smexi body….but i would take Peeta’s hair!
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there is no team Gale because in the end like Katniss says Gale is fire and thats not what she needs Peeta’s the only one who knows what the hunger games does to you, hes the only one that could possibly save Katniss from her nightmares.
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you are all losers!!! get a life
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Oh YEAH!!!??? THEN WHY DID U TAKE YOUR TIME TO WRITE THIS IF UR AGAINST THIS YOU HACK! U WOULDN’T KNOW A TRUE LOVE IF IT SLAPPED YOU IN THE FACE!!!
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i like this peetaluver321, they know wat theyre talking about! 😀
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why dont u shut the hell up just cuz we like peeta dosent mean we r losers whore!!!!!!!!!!
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PEETA IS MY LIFE
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ok so katniss cant admit her love to peeta she breaks his fragile heart! he loves her and she couldnt possibly think tht they where acting in the cave! I love peeta!!!!!!!
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i have 7 words to describe Peeta in—-
P. E. R. F. E. C. T.
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sorry people tht im posting so many comments in a row cuz like my com wont let me post a long one haha HUNGER GAMES ROCK
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this book has literally changed me! (ina good way) im always picturing peeta wounded in the sleeping bag katniss in a tree rue with a spear in her stomach cato being mauled (excuse my spelling) katniss and peeta on the couch their long kiss when they see eachother after they win and OMG THIS BOOK I EPIC!!!! xD xD <3<3<3Peeta<3<3<3
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best quote is on pg 263 paragraph 4
Peeta’s struggling to get up when I reach the cave. “I woke up and you were gone,” he says. “I was worried about you.”
AAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
wat i wouldnt give to have peeta say tht to meeeeeeee
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AHH! i know! i cry at night wishing Peeta was there to hold me in his arms!!! (it’s true)
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i know! i cry at night wishing Peeta was there to hold me in his arms!!! (it’s true)
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oops! i didn’t know i said that 2! 😛
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ohemgee me tooo but then i remember tht hes a fictional charcter but then i get sadder!
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i used to think by best friend was insane when she said she was in love with some dude named peeta in a book I was like wat kinda name is tht? plus hes a fictional character! but i read the book….now i totally understand her….truth is….we figfht over him sometimes….im gonna win
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go here! if u love peeta u will love reading this persons version of the book through HIS eyes!!!!!!!!!!! <3PEETA MELLARK!!!
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http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4767311/1/Through_Anothers_Eyes
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yeah thts the website… up there
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That was really good
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Please not the team peeta, team gale thing this book starting out like twlight would make katniss sound like a whore…Just like “kristen Stewart”/bella
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<3<3<3<3peeta
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UGH!!! i wish peeta was real… and anyway, he’s so much better for katniss. gale is just annoying. he gets mad at her all the time and doesn’t really listen… PEETA!!!
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Heyy..ima a guy and guess what? there are real people like that out there..I had to read this book for English and hes nothing different just you girls go after the wrong type of people and expect something special…try giving regular people a chance and figure out that they have so much to offer
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The hunger games is so amazing!!! Me and my class read the first one im gonna read the secong one (peeta is really cute)
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so…. why are you on this website if your talking about Britney spears and not Peeta cause this is a peeta fansite???????
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i could brobably fit the description for peeta based on the quotes said up above
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Ive only read the first book so far and I’m totally on TEAM GALE! i didnt really like Peeta until the end of the book. will my feelings about this change when i read the second book?? i was coming GALE and Katniss would end up together 🙂
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O.o ok watevs more peeta 4 the rest of us. . .
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team peeta ❤ ❤
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I love peeta sooooooooooooooo muchh!!!
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HEs my favorie charector i’m on catching fire omg PEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IIIIIIIIIIII LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU FFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR AAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD AAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
You all can shut up about my husband love him!lol<3
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OMG! I ❤ Peeta! I just finished the series 2 weeks ago but like every 5 minutes i start whining how the series ended!!! I miss it soo much. Thank you skool for showing me the book!!! TEAM PEETA!!
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what the hell. Gale wasn’t even part of the Hunger Games so why are all of you comparing him to Peeta. Unless you’re comparing him to Katniss then that’s another story.
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ur so confuzzled
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to errbody thats flippin sh*t about teams, STFU, THERE CAN BE TEAMS IF WE WANT.
also, team peeta (:
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umm ppl the hunger games series is just a book……im not takin any sides here (weather or not team peeta or team gale) but may i remind u the book is not reality….so calm down on this “team peeta” and “team gale” thing……yah…thats all i got to say XP
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chill ur tits were just having fun!
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If you don’t like the topic, find another site. This forum is for fans ONLY. We love the book, and we can talk about it as much as we want! This is a HUNGER GAMES site, remember?
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Umm excuse me but we get to talk about team peeta or team gale if we want!!! Yur not the king of the world to be telling us wat to do.!! ok.!?? Not to be mean or anything but all yuh guys tht are telling us to chill or stop saying team peeta or team gale, STOP BECAUSE YUH CANT TELL US WAT TO DO OR WAT NOT TO DO!!! TEAM PEETA ALL THE WAY!!!!! I LOVE Peeta with all my heart!!!! ❤
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I know a peeta. . . *sigh and smile into a distance :)* he evan looks like peetas discription and has a cool name like him. . . (lief)
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i read all of the hunger game books and peeta is the one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GALE U R A JERK AND R RUDE TO KATNISS AND PEETA IS SWEET AND KIND SOOO I THINK THAT PEEETAS THE WINNER!!!!!!!!!
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gale is not rude to katniss, if anything peeta is when he tries to oil her for the fourth time…
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i mean kill her, not oil, silly me
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I LOVE Peeta! This is so awesome, i pretty much cry when i think about him!
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Gale is not that bad but peeta is so sweet and nice.
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yes he is!!! did u not read the last book, his only power was hate and anger!!!
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I love Peeta but I also love Gale. You feel like you love Gale in the beginning and then fall for Peeta in the end. It is just what happens.
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i totally agree but in the last book i want to go into the book and beat sum sense into him, ugh, i was happy wen peeta and katniss ended up together tho i wud hv been pissed if they didnt.
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what the hell, i love peeta!!!
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yah, im a hunger game fan, but seriously ur life is so pointless talking about boys and stuff like MOVE ON!!! this is just a book!! its not reality!! sure you can talk about the book..but talking about how dreamy the person in the book?? there not alive!! its all in a book!! Is this ur point of life?? goin crazy over a made up guy in a book? if it is, then u seriously has some problems!! life has more meaning to it!!
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aparently sum1 has no imagination, plus if ur gonna say that y come to this website at all, u obviously didnt move us enough 2 make us stop commenting
i kno it is very immature but a girl can hope can we not?
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I LOVE GALE!!!!! pls dont talk shit about gale!! >_< after all this is my opinion!! 😀
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who gives a crap bout gale, whoevr read mockingjay shud eliminate any shread of like towards him, he’s a murderous guy who-4 tha 5000 time of me saying-doesnt think and will kill people from his own team if it means winning.
tho i do respect ur opinion to slightly apologize because if ur wit gale and thars nothin i can do to change ur mind, then so b it.
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does anyone else not like seeing other people proclaim their love for peeta??
hes mine!!!
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I 100% agree with you, except Peeta is mine. 😉 ❤
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nononono u girls-possibly guys-(hey peeta is luvable enuf 4 a guy 2) hv it all rong, if there is any guy on the planet who is like peeta hes mine. and just like katniss if i evr find him, im never lettin go.
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team peeta all the way!!!!!! i am in love with the hunger games trilogy! one of my all time favorite quotes from all three books is from mockingjay the last lines before the epiouge:
“you love me, real or not real?”
“real”
i love it! its hard to pick a favorite book of the three but if i had to it would probably be mockingjay because i love how peeta’s love for katniss overcame the tracker jacker venom te capital used to make him think he hated her. every guy should be like peeta!!
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no actualy then we would all think peeta is a regular guy. obviously not the case. we all wrote somthin bout our undying luv 4 him rite?
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IM SORRY! ur mistaken!!! hahaahahahhahahahaha TEAM PEETA!!!! 4EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
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I FREAKING LOVE PEETA MELLARK!!!! HE IS MY LIFE!!!!! IM AM ACTUALLY OBSESSED!! I LOVE U PEETA!! PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA PEETA<3<3<3
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I FREAKING LOVE PEETA MELLARK!!!! HE IS MY LIFE!!!!! IM AM ACTUALLY OBSESSED!! I LOVE U PEETA!!
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IF THERE IS A GUY LIKE PEETA IN THE REAL WORLD……IM GONNA FIND HIM!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!!
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ha watevr not b4 me(im already lookin)
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OMG!! have u guys herd there making a hunger game movie!!! i hope the movie is as good as the book!!! >_.<
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they never are tho.
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I LOVE PEETA!!!!!! SINCE I FIRST SAW HIS NAME ON THE BOOK I NEW I WAS IN LOVE <3. TEAM PEETA FOREVER ND EVER!!!! I LOVE PEETA MELLARK!!!!!! # 1 FAN RIGHT HERE ↓<33333
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I LOVE PEETA MELLARK!!!!!!! he has me head over heels in love <333333 sweet, cute, charming, flawless, loving…..yeahhhh
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if another person comments ‘team peeta’ i will klafjklefwef.
i love peeta and prefer him to gale.
but we do not need another team edward team jacob shit going on. please. you’re all getting on my nerves.
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