I wake with a start. I open my eyes and see that I am only hugging the pillow. "Nightmares," I thought. Prim must've woken up in the middle of the night and slept beside our mother. Not a surprise though, since today is her first reaping day.

I get up from my bed and changed clothes. I clean my teeth, put on my father's hunting jacket and boots. Before I leave, I took the goat cheese under the table wrapped in basil leaves: Prim's reaping gift to me.

Before I pass through the electrified fence, I listen to the hum (which means the electricity is on) but right now, it's silent. I slide down the stretch and in a matter of seconds, I'm in the Meadow. With my bow and arrows my father made for me, I run up quickly to the hill that leads to a rock ledge where you can see the valley and where Gale is waiting for me.

"Hey Peet," says Gale, holding a loaf of bread which has an arrow stuck in it and I laugh. I say, "Still warm. I bet this will be so delicious!"

"Yeah, and I had to get up early for that," says Gale.

"What did you trade for this?" I ask.

"The baker traded it for a squirrel. He wished me luck too."

"Before I forget, Prim gave us cheese," I say, holding the cheese.

He looks at the cheese and says, "Prim, thank you so much for the feast!"

"Thank you, Prim. Thanks for being an awesome baby sister!" I say, my hands held up in the air and curled into fists.

Gale suddenly copies Effie Trinket, the weirdly dressed woman who reads the names in the reapings, saying, "Happy Hunger Games by the way! Almost forgot." He picks a few berries form the bushes around us and tosses one towards my direction saying, "May the odds—"

"—be ever in your favour," I say in my best Capitol voice, chewing the berry.

Gale's my best friend; we're almost like brothers, if you ask us (not in terms of looks, though). Prim, our mother and I look like we're from town, not from the Seam. Gale has the typical Seam look: grey eyes, straight black hair, and olive skin, just like my father. Blue eyes and blonde hair? Prim and I got those from our mother, who was originally from town before she ran off with my father. They met when he traded herbs to my mother's family's apothecary shop, fell in love, ran off to the Seam and didn't live happily ever after. I just think of those whenever I see her looking so far away when Prim and I almost died from starvation.

He was preparing our food while I was gathering berries. We just sat there, eating our stomachs out. We didn't even bother thinking about the reaping later.

"We could leave the district behind if we want to," says Gale.

"Huh?" I ask.

"Leave the district and live here in the woods. Without worrying that one of us will be reaped."

"And we can't start our own families. I'd like to have my own kids too, you know," I tell Gale.

"So your dream about you and the baker's daughter getting married and living happily ever after still isn't over yet, huh?" Gale tells me, smirking, his eyebrows wiggling.

I just rolled my eyes, shook my head and said, "That's your dream, only it's with the mayor's daughter. The baker's daughter is taken, all right?

It was his turn to roll his eyes now. But at the corner of my eye, I see his cheeks are flushed. "Shut up Peeta."

Leaving the district would be good. But like what I've said, I'd still like to have my own family. Yeah, with the baker's daughter, if I could. After all, that manly 14 year-old and that skinny 12 year-old sacrificed a lot of their childhood for being the heads of their families. The manly 14 year-old and the skinny 12 year-old met because of their desperation to keep their families away from starvation.

Anyway, if Gale wants his own family, he won't have a problem with that. At school, he's kind of the heartthrob, judging by the way the girls look at him. If I was a girl, I bet I'll have a big crush on him. But I'm just kidding.

After we went hunting, we go to the Hob and get some good stuff for later. When we finish, we go to the back door of the mayor's house to sell half of the strawberries because Mayor Undersee loves them and can pay us a good amount. Madge opens the door for us, wearing her reaping clothes. She's in my year, and if you ask me if she's my friend, yes she is. We're also lunch mates, partners in class sometimes and she's really nicer than you think, knowing she's the mayor's daughter and all.

"Nice dress," I say to Madge.

She smiles and says, "I'd like to look nice if ever I get my death sentence."

"Your chance of getting that is slim," snaps Gale. "'Cause you don't have to enter your name for another time just to keep your family alive."

"Not anyone's fault," I say.

"Not anyone's" says Gale.

Madge looked at him and gave me the money for the berries. "Good luck, Peeta."

"You too, Madge," I tell her and we walk home.

What Gale said was rue. If you're poor and you're 12, you can sign up for tessera, a meager supply of oil and grain for one person in exchange of entering your name another time in the reaping bowl. Unfair, I know.

Before we part ways, we divide our spoils. "See you later," I say. "Yeah, wear your finest," he tells me.