The Hunger Games
Authors Note: I'm writing this story based off of what I think would happen if Gale had been chosen instead of Peeta.
Chapter 1: Hunting Katniss PovI made my way to the fence that marked the Distract 12 boundaries. As usual there wasn't a buzz, meaning that the electricity was off. The Capitol was too cheap to supply us with, well mostly everything, but in this case it was a good thing. I followed the fence until I found the little hole in the bottom where I always crawl through. Before long I'm on the other side of the fence, and on my way to meet my best friend Gale for our hunting trip. If we got caught, gosh I don't even want to think about how much trouble we could get in. But luckily our Peacemakers were not all that strict; they knew we were up to something, because we always came into the Hob with some sort of game. As I approached our meeting spot I was shocked to see that Gale was already there. Usually He's the one that's late. When I got closer to him I realized he was holding a cloth with something in it.
" Glad you could get away." He said jokingly
" I would eventually. What's in the cloth?"
" The blackberry bushes were sagging with the weight of all of the blackberries."
" Oh. I have a small bit of bread, looks like we will have a really good lunch after we catch something." I said
" The game won't catch itself." Gale said
With that we put the bread and blackberries in a tree trunk and covered the hole with a rock. And went out to get our bows' and arrows. As we creped along in the forest we suddenly saw a deer. On cue Gale notched an arrow on his bow. But that's when I put my hand on the bow to lower it.
" What?" he mouthed In response I pointed to a small fawn a little bit behind it's mother. Gale nodded. With that we turned and went the other way. We have this thing where we can't shoot an animal if it has its baby near it. After a while Gale dropped and started to make a trap. He had shown me before but his traps would always catch something, and mine might trap something, but it would always get away. When he was done we started out again and this time we were more successful; we got a couple of wild turkeys, a couple of squirrels, and Gale's trap caught a rabbit. When we had caught our share we went back to where we had the blackberries and bread. Before we ate we skinned our catches and laid them out to dry.
" These are so good!" I said with berry juice starting to seep through my lips.
" Good." Said Gale looking quite pleased with himself
" It's feels so good," he said " to get away from every thing."
"Yeah." I said
When we were done we grabbed our catch and headed for the Hob. When we entered, a strong smell meets us. Greasy Sae turned to us when she heard us come in.
" Katniss, Gale," she exclaimed " What do you have for me today?"
" A rabbit and some squirrels." I answered Greasy Sae makes soup for anyone who wants it. Whenever someone has a little extra of anything the give it to her and she puts it in the soup for the day. She was in a mining accident in which she lost her arm, but she was smart enough to find a way to stay alive. We gave her the rabbit and squirrels and sat down at the counter. Sae gave us each a bowl of the stew just as one of our Peacemakers came in. He sat down next to me and Sae gave him some stew.
" So Katniss, Gale tomorrow is the reaping, hope your not picked. If you are who is going to give us our meat for our stew every week?" He said jokingly
" Chances of one let alone both of them being picked are very small." Said Greasy Sae
" Not when you have your name in the drawings forty-three times." Gale said
"Or twenty-six." I added
"Have a little faith." Said Greasy Sae
As we finished our soup, we listened to the adults talk about our only living victor,(and possibly our only victor) Haymitch. He has a nice house in the victor's village, but he is always to drunk to do anything. If you ask me I have no idea how he won. But I think the games messed with his head, whenever I see him he is always murmuring people's names or he will randomly start screaming. When we were done with our stew we walked out of the Hob.
"Katniss." Gale began " I want you to know, that what ever happens tomorrow…" He trailed off
" What Gale?" I asked gently
" I love you." He said quietly
" Gale." I said, " I love you too." And that night under the dark blanket of sky we had our first kiss.