Chapter 1

A warm ray of sun awoke me to another "wonderful" day here in the peachy town of District 5. The sun stained the gray walls of our double room, light house a light shade of yellow. "Ben wake up we have to go to school now!" I said and rolled over shaking the Ben shaped ball on his mattress. He slowly opened his aqua blue eyes and groaned. "No, tell Ms. Vaness I'm sick."

"Oh no you don't, I have to go to the forest today to get you food and I need you to cover for me," I said sternly.

"Again?" he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he wiggled out from his blanket cocoon, shaking his already messy blond hair. "I'm starting to think that you're going to disappear on me one day in there and never come back," he said in a whiny voice. But I heard the distress underneath.

"No I would never leave you," I said soothingly trying to wipe away the lines of worry and stress that a 5 year old boy should not be able to create on his little tan face. Carefully, I helped him put on his school uniform, gave him breakfast, and started his lunch together.

"Lily?" came Ben's small voice from under the old table in the middle of the small kitchen that consisted of a tinny sink, a rickety old table, and wild game food space, hidden behind an old picture frame.

"Yes Ben," I said as I cleared the table.

"What would happen to me if you didn't come back?"

"Oh Ben I would always come back, but if the impossible did happen you would pack all you have and run as fast as you could to Jared's house and live there," I said seeing the dark shadow cross his face. I quickly added, "You will never be alone and I will never leave you, and if you promise to be a good boy I'll get you a candy bar from the pub on my way home." His little face brightened with joy and high pinched squeals came from his mouth as he nodded his head so hard that he toppled out of his chair and collapsed into a fit of giggles.

I laughed to has he rolled on the flour getting his uniform full of dist. Pulling him up and dusting him off.

"Now go to school and your friend Nick wants you to come over. Don't forget!" I said as I pulled on my jungle- camouflage jacket and grabbed a brown sack from the dingy closet by the door.

After sneaking through the boat yard and slipping unseen into the dark jungle I felt much better. Silently l ran further into the forest felling the humidity dew up on my face, like it always did in the rainforest.

I stopped running about 4 miles in and checked my first trap. Dang! Empty. Carefully resetting it, I went on to the second one. Empty again. On the 6th trap I struck gold, a wart hog and its kin had fallen in. Searching through my coat I found my blow gun. Carefully, I loaded it with a dart that contained the toxins that could kill a full grown man in seconds. "Withunk, withunk, thunk!" I hit my targets dead on. Within seconds the animals fell and lay motionless at the bottom of the pit.

As I was loading the pigs into my sack I heard the sound of feet on the wet jungle flour. Quickly I covered the hole, and scuttled up the nearest tree. Loading my gun with another dart, that only paralyzed its victims. I waited for the intruder to appear. A figure materialized from the shadows, tall skinny, and now sitting on the bottom of my pit. I silently swung down and walked over and looked down.

"Hey can you help me out of here Lil?" said a very familiar face, with fly away blue eyes, a smile that could dazzle even the capital people, and bleached hair that looked like it was constantly being blown by a gale wind. Jared was my best friend since even before I could even remember. we've always been together sitting at school together, hunting in the jungle that had become my second home, or just caching a swim in the ocean after school.

"I'll have to think about it Jared maybe I'll just keep you here till the end of the reaping tonight," I teased.

"Oh come on their serving cat fish! I love cat fish." He replied with a smile in his voice.

"I know that you love food," I said with a grin "And check out what I caught!"

"What?" Jared said as he struggled to get out of the pit. I reached down and grabbed his very buff arm and hosted him up. But instead of pulling him up so that he would land on the muddy ground I slipped on a stupid jungle root, and fell flat on my back with Jared landing on top of me.

"Wow, you sure know how to make your move." He said smiling as I wheezed for air.

"You... stupid... freak... get...off...me!" I said trying to get air into my lungs, but with his big boy weight on me it was easier said than done.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to suffocate you." He said rolling off me. I sat up still trying to breathe again. "You are not going to believe what I killed," I said after I got my breathing back to normal.

"What?" he said walking over to the now bulging sack. His eyes widen with wonder. "How do you do it?"

"The trap that you fell into-"

"Shhhhh!" He point to an opening in the trees and just as a hover-craft pass over.

"Oh no the reaping must be close to starting!"

"We got to go now or were going to have to wait till all the fishers are gone, and that could take forever. I have to be home before Ben gets home. He gets so worried." I said as I started to run.

"Ya, I sure know that Vanessa doesn't like it when we're out to long" he said with a dreamy voice. I started laughing oh him and his girlfriend are too cute. It doesn't bother me like it would other people that my best friend was dating another girl.

"See ya sucker" I said and ran faster through the jungle to the place where two kids where going to be picked to fight to the death on live T.V. What a lovely world I live in.