CHAPTER 1

To say I knew her was an understatement. I actually knew her, ever since we were little. Across the meadow from her District is mine. And that is where I first met her. She danced around a tree as her father leaned against it singing a song. All of the birds fell silent as she started to sing along. Her dark brown hair pulled into a braid that trailed behind her with every turn she made. I didn't make myself known, I didn't have to. Because she was the first of the two to notice me. And they treated me like one of their own, from their own District. I sat and watched as she danced and he sang. My life at home wasn't the greatest, dad was making me train for the games and mom was as transparent in the family as the window was in the wall. But these two, the father and his daughter, made me feel like I was part of a family.

So, the girl and I kept in touch all these years and met in the meadow every chance we got. I soon introduced her to my friend Clove as well and we all got along. Her father treated Clove like a third daughter. But when her father died in the mines, we started to grow distant. Our letters got spread out more and more until there were none at all. And our visits grew less and less because she had to provide for her family, and every time she did, she risked her life in the process. The less I saw of her, the more I grew angry at what ever god there was in the world. And I took my rage out on the dummies in the training center back in my District. It turned me into a brutal killer, a strong, mean, brutal killer that can easily dispose of anything with a flick of my wrist. The girl and her father started to become a memory of mine, one that I started to forget. I prayed that I would see her again, I just never thought I would remember her, and see her again, like this. She was my family regardless though, and I will do everything I can to protect her, despite my feelings for the girl on fire.

I never forgot about him, not once. I never forgot about the boy that I met in the meadow when I was dancing around whilst my dad sang one of his songs that I loved so much. I was the first to notice him standing there watching us. I was scared at first because of the District he came from, but my father wasn't. He treated him like he was my brother, like he was family. And I knew that the boy like that feeling. Every time I was with him I felt safe, I felt safe next to the blond haired, blue eyed boy that my father grew so fond of. We saw each other whenever we could and wrote letters to each other. I had met one of his friends as well, a close friend he called Clove. Father had made it feel like she was another sister to me and we became close.

But once the day that my father had passed, we saw and heard from less of each other. I was loosing my friend. I had to provide for my family and made a new friends in the process, but Gale never replaced him. I had lost my friends from the meadow. My illegal friends as dad called him. Not many people know others from other Districts, but my dad always said that despite that fact, he could see the boy and I being together for a very long time. He teased me about it relentlessly. He said that the boy and I would get married and have a life together. But I never believed him. Marrying outside your District is uncommon at best. But I never forgot about him. This boy that had intrigued me and was my friend for so long never left my memory. He was a memory that never faded. He never faded and neither did my feelings for him. If only he knew about them.