Chapter 1

*Katniss' POV*

I lay silently in my bed alongside my sister Prim. Not yet fully awakened, but laying there cherishing the last possible hours with Prim. I know this is harder on her than me, especially because of what happened last night.

"Katniss! Katniss! Where are you?!" Prim's scream echoes through the hub. There, I was selling squirrel to Mr. Mellark, the town Baker.

"Prim?" I thought to myself. "Prim...Prim! Where are you?!"

"I'm coming!"

I see Prim emerge from the roaring crowd of people. Someone pushes her over as she is running toward me. Despite my anger towards her right then, I still help her up.

"Primrose! You know better than to be here the day before the reaping! It's packed in here! You could've been kidnapped! Are you crazy?!"

"Katniss…I-I didn't know where else to go…"

I realized something is actually wrong. I begin to worry, and put my hand on the side of her face.

"Prim, I'm sorry. I really overreacted. What's going on dear?"

"The Peacekeepers came to the house and gave me my tesserae report. My name had 29 tesserae drawn out! Which means my name is in the reaping 30 times! I panicked and ran to you because mom wouldn't unlock her door…and I just… I didn't know where to go." Prim says hesitantly and begins slurring her words.

I cannot believe mother let this happen. She knows better than to have Prim draw tesserae so many times.. At least she should, considering what happened to my older sister, Anna, a few years back. Anna got reaped and the boy tribute from 12 killed her with the help of his alliance.

Anna only had her name in the reaping ball the one mandatory slip. Father never let any of us take out tesserae, even if starvation was in our future. Anything, to him, was better than to b a piece in their sick games.

When father died, Mom became less self-sufficient and kept making Prim draw tesserae, since I am a year too old and Prim is finally the right age of 12. Little I know that a lot, actually equaled 29 times. Once a child is the ages of 12-18, they have a mandatory name slip placed in the reaping. Myself being 19, I am free from this burden, even though I wish I could say the same for my baby sister.

"Prim, honey, just calm down," I say, trying to get her to stop crying, "everything will be alright." I begin wiping the tears from her face with my plaid sleeve. "Let's go home." She finally cracks a smile and walks home beside me.

We walked through the busted out doorway to our kitchen. I noticed mother was still locked in her room. Deciding not to tell mother our big secret, we fixed bowls of rice and went to our room. As we are getting into our pajamas, Prim asks me what would happen if she were to be reaped tomorrow.
The answer to the question I hoped she'd never have to ask was nowhere in my mind, nor had I thought about it.

"Prim, you know that will never happen," I reassure her, not confessing my real thoughts on the matter.

"Katniss, you are crazy to think I won't be reaped. My name is in there THRITY times!"

""If anything were to happen, I'd make sure you got out of there alive and everything at home was okay. I promise."

Right about now, she starts trying to hold back tears. She isn't successful because tears begin to pour from her bright blue eyes. I pull her to my chest and tell her everything is alright. No matter what happens, I will still love her and to remember that dad is watching over her. I hear the crying begin to fade away as Prim pulls her head back from my chest.

"Thanks Katniss. I don't know what I would do without you."

"It's okay Prim; you don't need to think about that. Go on and wash up, Can't have you looking like that for the big day tomorrow." I say, trying to change the subject.

Prim walks off to the wash bucket. I wash her dress in the spicket and hang it out on the line to dry. It's really starting to hit me again. This is possibly the last time I will see my sister. I may never get to see her angelic face In the mornings when she wakes me up with the most adorable smile on earth. I may never get to hear her sweet voice again. The one that tells me she loves me every morning and evening. I won't get to see her and her friends play by the bakery in the town square. And most of all, I'll never get to see the small body of my baby sister ever again. She means everything to me and I-
"Katniss? Are you alright?" Prim startles me and I slightly jump.
"Yes baby, I'm just fine. Meet you inside for bed." I say brushing away the forming tears from my eyes.

We go inside and lay down for the night. I look at her and say, "I really love you Prim. You mean the world to me, and I'll fight for you.

"Thanks, Katniss. I love you too. I just want to get everything over with so we can get back to what we call normal."
"I'll make sure of it, little duck."

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