First Encounter
It all began on that warm summer night. The night I met him and my life was changed forever. I was sitting in the Meadow, which by the way is outside of my District so it's illegal for me to be there but I was anyway. I was watching the sunset when I heard a rustling coming from behind me. I stood up quickly and ran to the nearest tree and climbed up it. I sat there in silence trying not to make a sound so I wouldn't give myself away. Suddenly the rustling stopped and I peeked out from behind the leaves that were keeping me hidden from the stranger. There he was a tall blond haired boy sitting just feet away from where I just was. He couldn't have been from District 12. He was too strong and muscular looking. Without making a sound I climbed down from my perch in the tree and tried to get away hoping he wouldn't notice. Sadly, my attempt failed.
"Hi," he said in a shocked voice not knowing that someone else was out here with him.
"Hi," I responded. "What are you doing out here, because you definitely don't look like you live here in District 12?"
"Oh, sorry if I was disturbing you. By the way I'm Cato Alexander."
"You weren't disturbing me I was just startled by having someone else out here. And I'm Katniss Everdeen. How come you're out here anyway?"
"Well, I'm from District 2 and I'm a Career in training, so as part of our training we have to visit the other Districts for a month. I was trying to get away from my trainer for I awhile he can be a huge pain sometimes."
"You're going to be a Career? Do you know what Careers do to the other tributes who can't gather enough weapons from you guys to at least have a chance to survive?"
"I do know what happens in the Games, but that's what we do to win. You would too if you were in the same position to fight for your life."
"I guess you're right. Well I have to go see ya around Career boy," I said in a teasing voice.
"See ya around Miss Shadow."
From that day forward I saw Cato just about every year. Each year we grew closer together. When I was 14 Cato finally asked me if I wanted us to be more than just friends. Of course I said yes. This was the boy, other than Gale, who was there for me when I needed him. Sure he wasn't there every day, but he still helped me bear through all the pain I went through. Like when I was 11 my dad died in a mine explosion along with Gale's dad. When Cato heard about the accident he showed up the day after it happened to help me cope with the loss. Cato was like my everything, he comforted me when I was sad, he made me happy just knowing I would see him soon, he sent me letters every week saying how much he missed me, what else could he have done to make me love him even more than I already did. What I didn't know that was one day soon in my future our world would come crashing down.