It has been 3 years since Katniss was in the games. 3 long years since the victor, Thresh killed Katniss. 3 years, and now Prim's time has come for the games.
Light streams through the window, but it only wakes up my old cat, Buttercup. I have been up since dawn, and my mother hasn't truly since slept Katniss was killed. I look over at my mother, who looks dead. Her eyes baggy and bloodshot. Her skin pale, because she hasn't been outside in years. She hardly eats, and when she does, it hardly ever stays down. She is skinnier then anyone I've ever seen. She stares straight ahead. I would have died if it weren't for the baker, and Gale.
Looking outside the window, I find people already congregating outside for the reapings. I drag myself out of bed and look for the dress that I wore for last years reaping. I braid my hair back in the way Katniss always had it. Dragging myself to the kitchen, I slice the bread the baker dropped off, and put some cheese from Lady on it. Half heartedly, I try to get my mother moving, but she doesn't even look at me.
Walking out of the house, I hear a momentary silence around me. Hushed whispers that I nevertheless hear, say "She looks like Katniss, I swear they're identical!" I proudly take my place with the fifteen year old girls, my head held high. My best friend Skye beckons me over to stand near her. She whispers to me "Everyone says that you look just like Katniss. Also, I've heard a whisper that they made a surprise rule this year that Snow isn't telling us until the tributes are chosen."
I look at her, surprised, "Do you think that they really did? This should be an interesting Games then."
"I'm not sure whether to believe it or not- -" she's cut short by Effie Trinket saying
"Hello District twelve! It is now time for us to decide our two tributes! Lady's first! She says, and places her hand in the globe with the tributes names in them. She draws out a name with her long, red painted nails and says "Primrose Everdeen!" I swear my heart stops, but I tell my legs to work, and they thankfully move. I try to ignore the sobs of Skye, and of many other adults that remember Katniss. As I reach the stage Effie says, "Any volunteers?" I am not surprised when no one steps forward. Then Effie reaches into the globe with the boys' names in it. She reaches in and reads "Forrest Orwam"
"Forrest?" I think, "Please let someone volunteer for him!" But I know no one will, because he is the oldest of a lot, how many I can't remember. But he's 15, same as me and…I've liked him since… a long time. "Oh gosh, this is going to be like Peeta! Will I die lonely in a cave because Forrest went to save me?" I think, exasperated, and decide not to announce that on live television like Peeta.