Chapter 1

I wipe the sweat off my brow as I chop down the thick pine in front of me. The hot sun burns down on me, but I only have five more minutes until my shift was over. The only good thing that comes out of this job is being so close to the woods, which used to be like a second home to me, until Dad and Travier died.

"Katniss!" Cecily cries out from a neighbouring tree. Her blond head peaks out from a nearby tree.

"Yeah?" I ask, still hitting the tree with all my force. The axe swings, marking the tree in thick lines as it got thinner and thinner. It 's a steady rhythm.

"What time are you heading down to the Reaping?" She asks.

"Um," I start, but the axe missed it's mark. I drop it on the ground, "2, maybe? That's when it starts."

"Can I come with you?" She asks, sounding nervous. I didn't know why she was asking me this, we've lived on the same street for years, but we were never close.

"I can't. It's Prim's first year," I explain, bitterly. For the past week, Prim had become incredibly nervous, which was normal for anyone who was in Reaping, but the amount of nightmares she gets scares me, even this morning, she had woken up crying about how she was picked. I only have two years left of the Reapings, but Prim still has six ahead of her.

"Oh. It's just that Jana turned nineteen this year and Bryant and Rudy are already out," She tells me, sighing. Cecily is the youngest of four kids. She's always had an older sibling to volunteer in her place, although considering the amount of times a younger sibling gets reaped and the older one doesn't do anything, Cecily has incredible faith in her family.

"You'll be fine," I tell her. Cecily is lucky enough not to have to get tesserae. Since she has three siblings working as well as her parents, her name is only in there five times, compared to the twelve that mine in. I hear the bell ring and the entire shift starts walking towards the town. Cecily starts going off with them, before realizing I'm not with her.

"You coming, Katniss?" She asks.

"It's only ten. I have three hours to spend before Mom wants me home," I tell her.

Cecily frowns, but doesn't say anything about it, "Alright then, bye." She runs off to catch up with the other workers.

I creep back into the woods, going into the darker and denser part. Finally, I arrived at the fence that separates District Seven with the outside world. It's not much, just electrical with a bit of barbed wire on the top of it. Travier had dug a tunnel to the other side and peacekeepers either never found it or didn't care enough about it to fill it. I missed Travier a lot. He had been two years older than me and his family were great friends with mine. Even though he had a younger sister my age, it had always been Travier and I, until the seventy second games, when he got reaped. I remember thinking that District Seven was going to win that year, that Travier was going to become a victor. He had been great with an axe, I couldn't name the amount of times that he it his target straight on while we hunted. The last thing I had of him was a little mockingly pin. It was gold and he had bought it on the day of his reaping, claiming it was good luck. Once he'd been reaped and I visited him, he gave me the pin and instructed me on all the best places to sell meat in the District. I tried to give it back, but the peacekeeper pushed me out before I could.

I crawl through the hole, before heading down to the rotten log where I stored my bow. When I got there, I see that it's exactly the same as I had left it. I spot the pin I'd kept in in the log since the seventy second games and on a whim, I pocket it. I take the bow out and pull the string a few times. It's been a week since I last used it.

It's not like I'm trying to do illegal things. I do what i have to do to survive. Since my Dad died four years ago, Mom hasn't been able to keep a job. She had started a laundromat of sorts in the house, but it barely pays the bills. My family relies on my hunting and job to survive. It used to be better when Travier was alive, because we could go together and split the meat, but I'd learnt to deal.

I hold my breath as I spot the deer. It's large, with enough meat to sell for a good price. I aim the bow, but at last minute I remember how full the District is of peacekeepers and how easily I'd be sent to prison for going over the fence., much less hunting down a deer. I hesitate for a second too long. The deer catches my eye and runs off.
I decide to start heading back home. It only takes me an hour, but as soon as I see the faces of the towns people, all the calm and peacefulness that hits while I hunted is gone. Most people are well dressed and look miserable. I can't blame them. At 2 o'clock, two more teenagers will be sent to their deaths and two more families will be destroyed.

So, I hope you liked. I'll be updating once a week.