Cold air rushes into my room and wakes me from my nightmares. I smile as I see that Prim is with my mother, they look so beautiful together when they sleep, Prim looks so young and so does my mother, but what I love seeing is how happy they look. I go down to the kitchen after changing into my hunters jacket and boots and sitting on the table are two cheese buns. I smile to myself, Peeta. He must have brought them this morning, he always does this every Sunday, leaving me and Gale a plate of baked goods. Then all the air is sucked from my lungs. Seeing my mother and Prim this morning has made me forget that today is the day of the reaping, the growing feeling of fear rises up in my throat. My name is in the reaping bowl twenty times, there are twenty little slips with my name carefully printed on them in swirly handwriting.
I push this thought from my mind and force myself into the freezing weather outside. Immediately the wind forces itself on my face turning my lips into icy blue. I let my boots tread silently through the snow until I reach the fence, the silent fence that should be buzzing with electricity but rarely works. I slip through the weakest spot in the fence where all the wires have been corroded from each other by the bad weather and head over to the rock where I will meet Gale. I wait always wanting to hear Gale coming before he announces his presence but I never do. Behind me comes his voice that makes me whip around,
"Hey Catnip." He smiles at me, this isn't really my name, my name is Katniss but ever since I've known Gale he has called me Catnip but that's a long story. In his hand he is holding up a rabbit, the arrow is still in it and I smile. The first kill of the day. "The thing practically ran across my feet."
I laugh, he is obviously worried for later because I can see the crease between his brow, but I say nothing because I know say things won't help, saying things won't change that his name is in the reaping bowl forty two times.
Then I remember what Peeta left us, I retrieve the buns from my pocket and show them to Gale. He dislikes Peeta, so I know his reaction to them being from Peeta won't be great but food is food and when it's this good no one will resist.
"Well how kind of your friend to think of us today." His reaction shocks me because even though I know he dislikes Peeta he never snarls when he is referring to him. The way he says the word friend also annoys me. He says it in such an accusatory way that he catches me off guard. I never understood why they hated each other so much but Gale makes fun of me being with him as often as he can. The other week he almost told my mother I was seeing him, which would cause a natural disaster. My mother would create a storm so huge over the fact that I was seeing Peeta that they would still be picking up the pieces after the ninetieth Hunger Games (we are currently on the seventy fourth). Especially after the bomb that would be detonated when she told Peeta's mother who has hated my guts for about five years. I glare at Gale but he just laughs, of course he does because he thinks that nothing he says bothers me but it does. The more he hints to my mother about it the angrier I get and the closer I come to hunting on my own.
After we eat we walk along our snare line, collecting a few squirrels and rabbits. A descent haul but nothing to exciting, for a brief moment my eye caught site of a deer but then it disappeared from my view immediately, cowering at human presence. We took a brief trip to the Hob (the black market trading area in district twelve) and sold all our goods quickly. Then we parted, Gale went home to help all his brothers and sisters get ready for the reaping, whilst I went to see Peeta. We decided to meet at the school gates because most people would be hiding in their homes, calming young children and hoping so much that it wasn't their child's name reaped out the bowl to become a tribute in Hunger Games. Meaning that their child would be thrown into a vast arena where a boy and girl from each district (twenty four tributes in total) would be force to fight to the death in penance for the uprising that took place 74 years ago.
I arrive at the school gates, and there he stands his blonde hair shuffling in the rain, his blue eyes sparkling in the sun. I hid my smile as much as I can but for all I know this could be the last time I see him so I decide to let my smile show, a little. I can see him smirking at me the way he always does when I try to pretend I am not overly happy to see him. As I get closer and closer that feeling of longing within me starts to grow stronger and stronger until I think I might burst. Then I rise onto my tip toes and kiss him. There is a warm feeling that radiates from his lips, spreading through my body until it reaches the tips of my toes and fingers. Then I release myself, untangling my hands from his hair. He smiles down at me,
"Well, good morning to you too." He seems so calm, and why shouldn't he be when his name is only in the reaping bowl five times, the possibility of him being reaped is so minimal that it is easily ignored.
He leans his forehead into mine looking at me as if he is trying so desperately to read my expression.
"I love you Katniss Everdeen." He smiles.
"I love you too Peeta Mellark." I finally let a smile escape onto my lips and then with a light kiss, he wishes me luck and tells me he will see me later tonight. I suppose it would have made everything easier if we had just met after the reaping when there was more time, but I will not tempt fate, if we planned to meet tonight then one of us get reaped and that is the unthinkable.
I rush home, practically bursting through our shredded door and into our coal dusted kitchen where I find Prim and my mother ready to go. My mother is as usual out of her emotional coma for the reaping day, the only day where I think she seems normal.
"Where have you been!" She almost screams at me, I am taken aback. "Did you forget what today was or were you just not going to bother to show up at all?" She sounds far too normal to be my mother she sounds like a caring parent instead of an absent minded body. "I have laid out a dress on your bed, I have also made you a bath, now be quick you have only one hour to scrub all the coal from you." I sigh and head out to my room.
In my dress is a beautiful knee length blue dress that was obviously one of my mothers before she moved from the merchant side of town to the seam to live with my father. This gives me a glimpse of how much she must have loved him she would make that move from well fed to starving. This gesture of the dress is clearly my mother trying make up for the fact she is barely awake for the other 364 days of the year. I get in the bath and make an attempt of removing all the coal but it is in vain, there is no way this is coming off. Then I slip myself into the dress and go out to show my mother. She smiles, it is the first time she has smiled in years and then she braids my hair into an exquisite and complex braid. Then I take my sisters hand because I can see she is trembling and we go to the main square. I kiss my sister goodbye as we reach the signing in centre and then once my finger has been pricked I push my finger onto the relevant square leaving a spot of blood so they can keep tabs on our population and go over to where all the other sixteen year old girls were.
I caught sight of Peeta standing close to Gale, where as Peeta looked as vacant as my mother does and then Gale looking ferociously confident and looking straight at me, he gives me a smile and then looks away again. There is a tap on the microphone up ahead and Effie Trinket stands up on the stage with her shocking pink wig and Capitol accent. She is obviously overly happy because she wants to appear as a great escort so she is promoted to a better district. Coming from the Capitol which is the richest area in Penem (our country) which has everything whist we have nothing. The Effie announces
"Welcome welcome! Now we have an exciting video brought all the way from the Capitol." Her accent is unbearable missing letters whilst using harsh tones on others. She gestures to the large screen where President Snows voice starts to boom out all the speakers. He tells us about the war and the uprising of the districts and about how now all the districts are being punished for what happened by a pageant called the Hunger Games where 24 children a boy and girl from each district would be sent off to the Capitol to fight in a vast arena to the death. The lone victor surviving with the weight of twenty three dead on his shoulders. He doesn't talk about the weight of the death tolls but he tells us of the glory you will receive if you win.
The video is then cut off and all eyes are back to Effie Trinket. At this moment Haymitch the only living victor from District Twelve stumbles onto the stage and falling into his seat. My face immediately moulds into that of scorn, our only victor and he is drunk day and night, no wonder we never have victors when we have him mentoring all our tribute. Effie interrupts my thoughts,
"First, the girls." She walks over to the girls reaping bowl and extends her spidery long fingers into the bowl. She opens the slip of paper and as my heart is thudding out of my chest she reads out, "Primrose Everdeen."
