Its warm out, Its 6 o'clock and the sun is already up. I pull my shirt sleepily over my head, it's the same grey shirt I always wear. It's slightly worn on the shoulder and with a few blood stains that I acquired from my days of hunting in the woods that just don't seem to come out.
I pull on my trousers and put on my socks and shoes, which are covered it dirt, grab my game bag and sneak out the house to the hole in the fence just behind Rooba the butchers. As usual the fence isn't charged so I slip under it and make my way into the woods following the path of snares I set the day before and re-setting them carefully. Its not a bad haul today four large rabbits and two squirrels.
"Hey Gale." The words make me jump although I know who it is before I even turn around. "Did I make you jump?" I brush my hair out of my eyes. Urh, I really need my hair cut. It's really beginning to irritate me.
"Hey Catnip." I say quietly as she walks up to me, she looks happy, but then again she always is when she's in the woods. I look down at her full game bag. "You look like you've had a good haul today."
"So do you." She says trying to get a better look at the game in my open bag. "What have your snares produced for you today Mr Hawthorne?" she asks looking quizzically at it.
"Just a few rabbits and a few squirrels, What about you, Miss Everdeen? What have you shot today?" A huge grin crosses her face
" Just two wild turkeys." I think I must of pulled a funny face because she begins to laugh at me as if I've said something funny. "Don't believe me? Have a look for yourself."
Sure enough there are two wild turkeys shoved into her bag
"I'm surprised they actually fit in there" I told her.
"Me too" she says.
We sit and clean our kills as we usually do, shove them back in our game bags and head back to the hole in the fence to trade some of our game to Rooba. She sees us before we even get to her shop and comes out to greet us.
"What have you got for me today then you two" she says in her usual friendly voice.
"A wild turkey and a rabbit." I say back, mimicking her tone as we trade the game. Rooba always gives us a fair price for our game. We say our goodbyes and we head down to the Hob.
I like to keep conversations short and sweet when I trade with people, usually because I'm running out of time. I have to be at school for half eight and I never seem to get out of the woods until that time anyway, so I usually just give the game to Katniss to go trade and then drop off what we want to keep to our houses seeing as her school days don't start until nine.
I never did understand why the older you are, the earlier you start school. I wonder if it's like that all around Panem or if its just a District 12 thing, but today I have the time to go with Katniss to the Hob and still make it to school on time. I like going to the Hob. It reminds me of when my father used to take me when I was younger. It's appearance has changed very little over the years. It's still covered in coal dust, but every now and again a few new stalls pop up as people get more and more desperate to make money to feed there families.
So many children drop dead of starvation in District 12. Once we arrive in the Hob me and Katniss part ways. I give her the game to give to Greasy Sae and she gives me the game she wants me to drop off for her family.
"See you later Catnip." I say before I leave to head home so I can drop off a rabbit to my mother. I wonder round the Hob for a few more minutes saying hello to a few of the people that I know well from my many years of visiting the place and then I head home, walking quickly as to make sure I'm not late again.
The school is really getting strict with me for my repeated lateness, so now they have punishments for me. If I'm late to school once in the week I have to stay behind for an hour. If I'm late twice it's two hours. Three times it's two hours AND I have to help clean the entire school. Four times and it's two hours and I'm on kitchen duty the next day and if I manage to be late five times a week, I have to stay behind for two hours and do kitchen duty all week and the next week .
I don't know why they've put this in place now when it's my last year, but I really can't afford to stay behind after school when I have to help my mum look after Rory, Vick and Posy. When I finally get home I hand the game to my mother, give her a quick kiss on the cheek and quickly get changed out of my hunting clothes and put on my school clothes. They're the only clothes I own that that aren't blood stained, and then I walk across the Seam to Katniss' house where Prim is outside milking her goat Lady.
I smile to myself remembering how Katniss actually managed to get that goat . How she knew it would help feed her family even though the goat was practically dying at the time. She still took a gamble on it and it paid off in the end.
"Hey prim, could you give this to your mum for me?" Prim looks up at me from where she's perched on a stool next to Lady.
She really does look out of place in the Seam with her blonde hair and blue eyes. You can tell her mother was from the town. Prim looks like her mum whereas Katniss looks like her dad and fits right into the Seam. Practically everyone from the Seam resembles each other with the same olive skin, dark hair and grey eyes, but there are the odd few like Prim and her mum who look completely different.
"Sure Gale." She says as she takes the wild turkey from me and heads inside.
"Make sure you're not late for school today" I call after her. Prim blushes like she always does when she's embarrassed.
"I'll try." she giggles and disappears inside to give her mum the turkey.
As I approach the rusty school gates I see Madge Undersee standing there and I know automatically that I'm late. Shit not again. It's the second time this week and quite frankly, I'm not in the mood to stay behind today. As I walk past Madge I give her a friendly smile, she smiles back and then quickly looks down at her feet making circles in the ground with her shoe, her hands held together behind her back.
I don't know what it is about the Mayors daughter but she intrigues me. Perhaps it's the fact that she's so innocent and shy, or that I don't really know much about her other than the fact that her family is the most powerful family in the District, but I've never had the chance to speak to her seeing as our lunch break's are at different times, and she goes straight home after school.
I've never really seen her with people in school, well other than Katniss. I think she just likes to keep herself to herself. She's actually rather pretty. Probably one of the prettiest girls in the school. This could be a contributing factor as to why I'm intrigued by her. Maybe I should actually talk to her. I make a mental note to actually talk to Madge next time I see her, but right now. I should probably get to my lesson.
As I walk into the classroom, I notice that my teacher doesn't look too happy. I sit down in my usual seat and try to focus on what she's saying but its difficult as it's so boring. Why do we have to listen to this every day? Yes I'm aware this is a coal mining District. Yes I know that next year I will be working down in the mines. No I don't care how coal came to be, nor do I care about how many years it takes to form.
And then when she's finished speaking, she decides to make us write an essay on the usefulness of coal. What the hell? It's the exact same thing every day. Why can't we learn about other things like the other Districts? It would defiantly be more interesting than listening to a teacher talk about coal all day. I've come to the conclusion that District 12 is the most boring place in all of Panem. I end up completely zoning out and I begin doodling new ideas for snares which is considerably more interesting than writing that essay.
At the end of the lesson when we are asked to hand in our papers I look around to see that everyone besides me has something to hand in. When everyone else had left, the teacher moves over to my desk. There's no doubt in my mind what she's come to talk to me about.
"Gale, would you care to share with me why you haven't written your essay?"
"I didn't feel like it." I say, without taking my eyes off the sheet of paper with my drawings on it.
"You can't keep doing this Gale. The work needs to be done." Her tone is sympathetic but it irritated me to no end.
"I know, next time." I mumble.
"You said that the last two times. Next time I expect the work to be done."
"Okay." is all I say.
I walk out the room to my next lesson; History of the Coal Miner. No. Just no. This is one of my least favourite lessons. I don't even care for coal. It's so pointless! I don't even understand why its actually a lesson seeing as there's only so much you can learn about the History of Coal Miners… and that's not a lot. But I go to the lesson anyway and daydream until we get to leave for lunch.
Finally lunch. Finally something I care about. I join the line for food and just as I've been served Callsia, a girl from my year, calls me over to sit with her. I accept her offer and sit opposite her. She's quite pretty and definitely from the Seam. Her curly hair is dark brown and falls just onto her shoulders. And her grey/blue are highlighted by her long, dark eyelashes. A few others have joined us by now but I don't turn my gaze away from her. She's smiling as me the way she always does.
"Hello Gale." she says in her calm, soothing voice.
"Hey Callis." Her smile broadens. Callis is the nick name I gave her a while ago when we had hooked up a few times but I haven't really spoken to her since. "How have you been?"
"I've been okay, what about you?" God, I can really see why I liked her even her voice is seductive.
"I've been okay too." I can't help but smile around her. She brings back some good memories.
I notice that Tobiah, a tall, stocky boy with curly, blonde hair from the town who when you first set eyes on him, appears quite chubby but upon looking closer you realise it's all muscle and Dayton, a small and very scrawny boy from the Seam who is possibly one of the funniest people I have ever met have joined us on the table, along with Evelina a short blonde haired girl who is incredibly skinny but still has a nice pair and Amaris who is taller with longer blonde hair which ends half way down her back both of which I have hooked up with at some point in the past year.
There's some general chit chat at the table but I don't make an effort to get involved in it. I nod and agree occasionally but that's the most I contribute to the conversation. I glance up at the large window in the dining hall that overlooks the small playing field and see that there is a P.E lesson going on outside. On closer inspection I see that the class contains Katniss and Madge. Katniss says they're not really friends but they seem to spend all there time together in school. Well at least when I see them they're always together, but never talking. It's strange.
They're playing volley ball. My eyes are transfixed on Madge. The way she goes on tiptoe and stretches to reach the ball and when she bends down to pick it up. Damn. I spend the remainder of lunch staring out the window at Madge because quite frankly I couldn't care less for the conversations going on right now.
"hello, Earth to gale"
"huh?" I snap back into reality as I'm pulled back into the conversation
"are you coming to the meadow tonight, Ripper sold me some alcohol and we were going to go to the meadow tonight and drink it." 'Meadow parties' are the norm in district 12. Whenever someone can get Ripper to sell to them which is quite often apparently seen as there's one almost every weekend I don't always drink because I have to get up in the morning to go hunting , besides rippers stuff is strong half a bottle is more than enough to get two people drunk.
"sure, why not"
"Great" I swear Callisia has one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. I glance at the window and notice that the P.E class is coming in now and that must mean my lunch is over and now I have to sit through an hour of capitol propaganda. Great. I hate the capitol with a passion. I can't even put into words how much I hate it, Katniss thinks I'm crazy when I rant about it to her in the woods, I think she's too young to understand what the capitol does besides kill innocent children for entertainment. I suppose it doesn't help that the propaganda brainwashes the people in the district to think that the capitol is some sort of saviour and that we should be grateful that there here for us when in reality they leave the districts… well at least district 12 in poverty and stand by and do nothing wile innocent children drop dead of starvation every day. I stand up and go to put my tray on the pile when Callsia comes up behind me and chucks her tray on the pile and leaves the lunch hall. For a district 12 girl she's got a really nice figure, Most of the girls in district 12 are stick thin but not her, she looks healthy which doesn't surprise me as her family are probably one of the few families in the seam that have actually managed to grow food in there small garden and seen as its just her and her mother at home they have more to eat than they would if she had siblings.
As I leave the lunch hall and head towards my next lesson I see Madge standing in the corridor waiting to go into the lunch hall, Katniss isn't with her. I have to walk past her to get to my lesson anyway so I might as well say hi.