A/N: Hey everyone! Just letting you know, Gale is Katniss's older brother in this story. Enjoy! Disclaimer: Only doing this once but Suzanne Collins wrote and owns the hunger games trilogy and anything from it.
Chapter 1:
I awoke to the sound of Prim's high pitched screams from the bed next to mine. I swiftly and quietly got up and went over to her. I shook her awake gently and whispered words of comfort into her ears.
"It was me Katniss," she cried.
"It's ok Prim, it's only your first year, you're going to be fine," I comforted her. "Now go back to sleep."
Just as I finished putting Prim back to sleep, my older brother Gale appeared in the doorway.
"Everything alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, she was just having nightmares," I explained.
He nodded in understanding. With the reaping this afternoon, every child between the ages of twelve and eighteen had the same nightmare. Being picked for the hunger games. To be sent to an arena to fight to the death with twenty-three other tributes. All for the entertainment of the Capitol, the rich centre of Panem. We live in district twelve. The most outlying district and also the poorest. To be reaped for the hunger games here is pretty much being sent to your death.
"Well since we are both up, do you want to go hunting?" Gale asked me.
I nodded in agreement and we both went to grab our stuff.
Hunting was Gale and I's thing. Our father taught us to hunt when we were little. He would take us out into the woods where he taught us to shoot a bow, set snares, and live off of the wild. This was before the mine accident.
When I was eleven and Gale was thirteen our father was killed at work in a mine explosion. After that our mother completely shut down. The responsibility of running our family fell onto Gale and I.
When I got to the door Gale was already there. We slipped outside silently and started to head through town to the meadow. When we got there we crossed over to the small gap in the fence. We bent down to listen for the small thrum which let us know the fence was electrocuted. It was silent as usual. We rarely had electricity here in twelve.
We slid under the fence and headed into the woods. We gathered our bows from their usual hiding spots in a big hollow tree and headed out to hunt. Gale and I make a great team. We work silently and with such great precision. An hour later our bags were filled with game and we headed for our usual spot on some rocks overlooking the valley below.
As soon as we sat down, Gale pulled a big loaf of bread out of his bag. "Hungry?" he asked me.
"Gale!" I gasped. "How did you get this?"
"Traded the baker a few extra squirrels yesterday so we could have some bread for our little feast today."
Every year on the day of the reaping, Gale and I head into the woods for a 'feast'. It's our little way of resisting the Capitol. Eating illegal food in illegal territory, our own little rebellion.
We ate the bread with some berries I had gathered while we were hunting. While we ate we joked about the Capitol and the fancy dressed up escort Effie Trinket who came to district twelve for the reaping's each year. "May the odds be EVER in your favor," I joked saying her signature line in the goofy Capitol accent. We both laughed.
"It's so nice and peaceful out here," said Gale. "I wish I could just stay out here sometimes. To run away into the woods and never come back. Escape the Capitol's rules, the games, everything. We could make it you know, you and I."
I just sat and thought about what Gale had said for a minute. The idea of freedom that we've never had. The idea is so tempting though I knew we could never go.
"What about Prim?" I asked. "Who would take care of her? Definitely not mom. We are all she has, we could never leave her and the woods are no place for her."
"I know," sighed Gale.
We just sat there in a comfortable silence staring out over the valley as the sun rose higher in the sky. Eventually I broke the silence. "How many entries do you have?"
"Forty-three," he answered with a sad look. "You?"
"Twenty-two," I replied. Gale and I had a combined total of sixty-five entries. The odds definitely weren't in our favor.
After another silence Gale spoke up. "We should probably go back and get ready for the reaping," he said. "Mom and Prim will be waiting for us."
We stowed our bows in their usual places and headed back to the fence. After checking for electricity, we quickly crawled under and headed for the hob.
The hob was a sort of black market here in district twelve. Gale and I came here to trade our game and gatherings from the woods in exchange for other goods and even some money.
We were very careful as we went along our way today as there were more peacekeepers around for reaping day. The usual district twelve peacekeepers keep quiet about our crimes as long as we give them some of whatever we catch. However since leaving the district and poaching are both illegal, we have to be careful not to get caught by the additional Capitol peacekeepers.
When we got to the hob we did our usual rounds trading for what we could before stopping by Greasy Sae's stall for some food. Today she had made a stew with some meat, possibly wild dog. We paid and thanked her.
After we finished we headed back home to get ready. When we got there Prim was already in her dress and mom was just finishing putting her hair back into two perfect braids. Her blonde hair which was so uncommon for a child from the seam made her shine.
Prim's blonde hair and bright blue eyes were so different than Gale and I's dark hair and grey eyes, the normal for those from the seam. She got hers from our mother. Our mother was from the merchant part of town before she met our father. She was the daughter of the healer.
"You look beautiful Prim," I said going over to her. "But tuck in your tail little duck," I said tucking in her top at the waste in the back. She giggled.
"I laid something out for you guys too," said our mom.
I nodded and Gale thanked her, then we went to wash up. After cleaning up, I put on the dress my mother had laid out for me. It was one of her own from when she lived in town.
"Oh Katniss, you look beautiful!" exclaimed Prim when I came out.
"Here," my mom said and she came over and did my hair up in a braided style.
"We better be going," said Gale. "Wouldn't want to be late."
I took hold of Prim's hand and we all headed out to the village square where the reaping's would take place, all of us nervous.
A/N sorry it's a little repetitive right now just have to get things going. It will get different but still follow the events of the books for now. Thanks for reading!:)
