A/N: Hey, this is Rina! Here's my first story on here- All I Wish For. I'm not really a KatnissxGale person, but I wanted to do this so I started on it. Please review! :D
I hate all seven days of the week.
The reaping has ruined every day of my life, beginning from when I was born.
Yet again, the new year brings in a new "exciting" Hunger Games. I'm shooed into a pen with about ten other eighteen year olds. They have skinny, olive skin, with dark brown, almost black hair and eyes. The classic Seam look. The other kids, twelve through seventeen are all in pens too, like wild animals in the North American days. I scan the massive sixteen-year-old pen until I find Katniss. Katniss Everdeen has been my best friend for at least three years. I like her as more than a best friend, and there's a possibility she could too. Just maybe.
We are all gathered for the reaping out in the main town center. Effie Trinket, District 12's escort's hair is a shock of hot pink. The Reaping's glass bowls hold thousands of names, most of them repeats of others. Mine is in there, on 42 slips of paper. We all suddenly hear a loud thudding noise, and the crowd parts to reveal Haymitch Abernathy, the victor for District 12 fifty years ago; the second Quarter Quell. He was obviously drunk, and he jumped off the stage; Effie spouts out a bunch of nonsense about the rebels and the Capitol. I only pay attention until she says, "And now... the female tributes!" She moves her hands around the pink glass ball until her hand rests on a slip of paper. "Primrose Everdeen!" My eyes widen. No, no, no! The sister of Katniss Everdeen cannot go into the Hunger Games. I can only imagine the cannon going off, Prim's screams being heard by everybody in Panem.
I hear the voice of Katniss ringing out. "I volunteer! I volunteer, as tribute!" The Peacemakers are all around us. I can't jump out onto the stage and sweep Katniss and her family away, away from Panem, somewhere safe where Katniss and I could marry, and have children and none would get reaped into the Games. Somewhere, where it wouldn't be illegal for us to hunt every day and feat on the food we got. But I know that there is no such place. Katniss bravely goes up the steps onto the stage. "Oh! Katniss Everdeen! You must be Primrose's sister! Not wanting her to steal the spotlight, eh?" She playfully elbows Katniss, yet the expression on Katniss' face is unchanging, frightened. I wish I could wring her teeny- tiny Capitol neck. She stares down at her shoes. "And now.. The male tribute!" She digs around for about five seconds. I hope it isn't me. "Peeta Mellark!" The boy gets up, trudging up the creaky steps. He's about a head and a half shorter than me, his hair blonde and stopping at about his eyebrows. He nervously looks at Katniss, with a sad expression on his face while Katniss is doing the same thing. How can Katniss know this kid? Peeta is the baker's son. From what I know about her, which is a lot, Katniss never visits the baker. But she does know that the baker could have married her mother. The thing is, all I wish is that Katniss wins.
The tributes, Katniss and the Mellark boy are pushed into a Capitol vehicle by the Justice building. I remind Katniss of every way for her to survive. "If you can't find a bow, make one."
She's an excellent archer and hunter. I lean in closer to her. "Just remember, Katniss Everdeen. I-" The vehicle drives off, and I am left coughing in a fog of gray smoke. I try to finish my sentence, although she will never hear me.
"Katniss Everdeen, I love you!"