Chapter 1
My eyes bolt open and I sit up screaming. My brother wakes up and covers my mouth with his hand to stop me. I look over at him to see his expression is calm as he pulls me into a hug. "Its okay Tart, everything will be fine." He tells me. My name isn't really Tart, it's Carter. Tart it's just a nickname of mine. Today is the day of the Reaping or Reaping day. This is where the whole district goes into the square and kids of the age of twelve to eighteen names' get drawn. One girl and one boy are sent out with twenty-two other kids in an arena to fight to the death. Tributes is what they're called, only one can survive... sad isn't it? What a wonderful thing to teach kids. I've never understood how my brother Tobias could possibly be so calm on Reaping day, this day drives me nuts and Tobias is only two years older than me! I get up and get changed, I can't stand laying down anymore. "What do you think your doing?" Tobias asks. "I'm going hunting of course" I shoot back at him. "No your not, not today. The peacekeepers will kill you if they find you" he gets up and grabs my shoulder. "Well they won't find me, and besides some of the peacekeepers are our best customers." I snap. He just nods unsure of what else to say. "Be careful then" he says quietly. "I will, I'll be back at around noon" I whisper as I walk out the door.
As I step out I feel the spring wind on my face and breathe it in. It feels good to be alone. I run to the fence that separates the woods form district twelve. I climb under the fence and run, it feels so good to just run and let go of everything. A smile sneaks across my face as I slow down next to a stump and grab my weapons. All I have are two knives and a bow with arrows. I walk farther into the woods as I hear two people behind me, I climb the nearest tree next to me as fast as I can. Today is not a good day to be found by anybody. When I get to a good steady branch I sit down and watch a boy and a girl with weapons stop right under my tree. "Why couldn't they have stopped at some other tree?" I think to myself. I soon realize the two from school. For awhile they just talk, and I slowly start to fall asleep. Before I know it I've made impact with the ground and the wind is knocked out of me. I gaze up to see I landed right in front of the two. For a moment they study me and finally help me up. As soon as I stand up I feel dizzy and start to lose my balance but the boy catches me before I can fall. "Who are you?" The girl asks coldly. I cough a before I speak, "I'm Carter Eaton, the real question is who are you?" I speak with hoarse voice but try to sound strong. "I'm Katniss and that's Gale" the girl or Katniss tells me. "What are you doing here in the woods?" Asks Gale. "Hunting for food like I normally do. What about you, what are doing here?" I shoot. "Same as you, getting food, how come we've never seen you before in here?" Katniss asks. I roll my eyes, are they really not that smart? Why else would they not have seen me here? "Do you seriously not know the answer to that?" I ask. The boy Gale has had his eyes trained on me the whole time, and its starting to feel uncomfortable. "I'd better get going now, I have to continue to hunt, and besides today is Reaping day." Gale grabs my arm and before I can think I punch him, right in the center of his face and I hit him hard too. I turn and run, I run from my stupidity and I run from them.
After awhile when I'm sure that they hadn't followed me, I slow down. Wait I hadn't even collected even a morsule of food. Crap, how stupid can I really be today? I find a few turkeys and shoot them with my arrows. I gather greens that will go with the turkey. I leave the woods and head to the Hob. The Hob is pretty much the main place for trade, Tobias and I go there often to trade game for stuff we need.
I leave the Hob with one turkey, half the amount of greens then when I started with, salt, shoe laces and a lot of other stuff we needed and head home.