Disclaimer: don't own the Hunger Games, never have, never will sadly.

Madge wasn't a stupid twelve year old, far from it actually. Yes, maybe in public she put on her dumb daddy's girl facade, waving and smiling and generally fawning over the few Capitol attendees that stayed in her house every few months, but she was capable of so much more than that. She had size on her side, her small frame made her a stealthy spy and meant she could fall into the shadows with ease, something that she'd quickly learnt useful when gathering important information. She looked innocent enough to share secrets with, stupid enough to be unsuspecting and young enough to be incapable of involvement in something so big as a rebellion.

Her father though, well he wasn't as invincible. Madge worried that one day his obvious lack in strict law- enforcement would mean more than a stern telling off, which is all she'd gotten when she was caught, and more of a death penalty. Still, he insisted on helping the miners, hosting small meetings with what Madge had dubbed "the leaders" of the Seam workers, every few weeks. She tried to listen in of course, bending down on the floor with her ear pressed against the crack, desperately struggling to make out words from the quiet muffles that echoed off the walls. She caught the odd word though, ... strikes ... starved ... rebellion, and it terrified her what her father was associating himself with so openly and publicly. Yes, Madge was all for change but not when the price was her father's life. He didn't stop though, even when she begged him to in between heart wrenching sobs.

It started small of course. They stopped sending medication for her mother, her poor migraine crippled mother, who's screams served as haunting warnings to her father of what would come if he did not stop. The miner's kept coming though. Then it was new peacekeepers and with them came new laws. Curfews were imposed, gatherings of more than three were banned. Still the miners snuck in. Whispers of rebellions reached Madge at school, children of miners told of how their brave father's were going to strike soon, how they'd win. Madge knew the outcome would be different.

Plans of the strike reached the new head peacekeepers ear on the Saturday. Her father was hung on the Sunday. It had gone so achingly slow yet fast all at once. Men clad in inform had stormed her house on the Saturday night, breaking the doors and furniture of her house as they rummaged for any documents or evidence against her father. She had known what was to come, evidence or not, and she'd cried into her brave father's chest as they sat on the three seats they had been forced to sit in while the search took place.

"My sweet magpie,"he'd kissed her forehead,

" I'm so sorry, I really am. But one day you will understand why I must be taken from you today." Her sobs now retched through her petite frame, shaking it against her father's chest where her fingers gripped onto his shirt. He smelt of expensive cologne as-well as this sweet distinctive smell that she was sure belonged just to him, a mixture of pipe smoke and scotch with a hint of fresh coffee, the one she'd made him every morning before he'd left for work.

" I don't want you to go, please, don't go. I ca.. cant look after mum on my own." Her whispered cries fell on deaf ears though, her father had accepted his fate.

"You will do great things one day my little mockingjay, I believe you will live to see a free world, nothing like the one we live in now. So you must fight. Promise me you'll fight"

"I promise!" At that he was ripped away from her, labelled a traitor for committing treason against the Capitol and the very next morning, hung in the town square. Her and her mother were put into custody in the justice building, separated of course and not told a single word about the other, but Madge had to believe her mother wasn't dead. That both her parents hadn't left her alone to fight in this world.

4 years later...

"Gale, you idiot, I can't believe you pushed me in! Now I'm gonna have to wash my hair before the Reaping!" Madge chuckled from her spot downstream, watching as Katniss flicked her wrist upwards from underneath the current to send a splash towards a smirking Gale. The larger of the two stood unaffected though, flicking his hair out of his face, where the water had pushed it into his eyes, so he could continue to poke his handmade "spear" under the water, looking for an unsuspecting fish to pass by. She noticed his smirk had also stayed unaffected. Typical.

"Apologise to me, Gale Hawthorne, or I swear I'll..."

"Awww Catnip, I was just having a bit of fun, forgive me, pleassseee." He dropped to his knees suddenly, effectively drenching his pants in water, whilst also sending a large splash Madge's way. Already wet through, from when Gale had thrown her in before, Madge didn't even flinch at the cold touch of the droplets hitting her skin and instead chuckled at his pitiful, not to say sarcastic, apology. Katniss however, didn't find it so humorous, replying only by wringing out her top, making sure to deliver a pointed glare at Gale when quite a bit of excess water poured out of the worn down fabric.

"You'll dry off in no time Kat, it's summer, calm down." Madge reasoned with her scowling best friend as the three of them sat to eat their pathetic excuse of a lunch, the one fish MADGE had caught, much to Gale's annoyance. They'd caught more game than that obviously, but they all knew that they had to stop by to trade later, and she needed the money more than her stomach needed the extra "unnecessary" food.

They all understood the struggles of starvation, of having to stay hungry so each of their family's wouldn't have to. It was one of the things that had brought them together. It had taken time however, for them to trust each other this much, for them to depend on each other this much, a long time indeed. Of course Katniss and Gale had their father's bringing income in to their households, which put less pressure on the other two to make as much from their trades, but for Madge this was all she had for now. She was too young to work in the mines and her mother was bedridden most days, barely able to walk and talk coherently due to her crippling headaches, never mind keep a paying job for more than a week. Madge was the sole provider of her household, albeit that her family was much smaller than say Gale's.

That's one thing Madge was glad about, being an only child. Yes, it was lonely sometimes having no siblings, especially when her mother was knocked out on some cheap drug Madge could barely afford, but being alone meant less mouths to feed and less worry for the Reaping. The Reaping that afternoon. It would be Gale's last, Rory's first, Katniss' fifth, Prim's first and Madge's fifth. The odds weren't exactly in any of their favour, especially the older of the eligible kids.

"Enjoying your last weeks above earth, Hawthorne, last weeks of freedom?" Madge broke the silence that had settled between them whilst they had been eating, looking up at Gale from where she now laid in the grass.

"Freedom." He muttered under his breath, shaking his head as he chuckled quietly at her question.

"This isn't freedom Madge, being kept inside the fence, being taught all about the "amazing Capitol", children being Reaped every damn year. The mine's... well, they're just another reminder of the freedom we never had, fuck them." Gale stares at her, not harshly like he had when he first met her but instead with a sad smile at her naivety. Of course they weren't free.

"Wow, you're an optimist Gale." Katniss joked from where she sat, rolling her eyes at the pair who had been talking just seconds before. Madge knew how much Katniss didn't like deep conversations, especially treasonous ones that could get you killed, just like her father had been.

"It's called being realistic, Catnip. Think about it, how many slips have we each got for today, 42 for me, 20 for you, Katniss and 13 for you , Madge. Then add on the fact that we hunt outside the fence and have younger siblings. The odds aren't exactly in our favour, never have been, never will be."

Madge can't help believe what he's saying, the odds truly haven't been in her favour for a long time, and with being a descendant to a Capitol traitor, Madge is left thinking if her luck will run out sooner rather than later.

They start home after that, they'd caught enough that morning to keep their families fed for a few days, and they knew how long trading would take them, especially with the people from town, who liked to change their prices depending on their mood that day, which Madge knew pissed Gale off quite a bit. That's why Madge normally dealt with the customers in town, many of them holding a sweet spot for the girl who they remembered from a long time ago when she would buy whatever she wanted from their shops. A time that Madge had tried to forget. Still she smiled at them, used her Mayor's daughter charm that she hadn't lost over the years to lower their prices. Of course a few thought it funnier to taunt her instead, make fun of her dead father and sickly mother, mock her change in status. Katniss had quickly learnt to trade with them in Madge's place, especially after that time Gale had thrown a dead squirrel's heart at the Baker's horrid wife. Funny for Madge, yes, funny for their reputation, definitely not.

Madge didn't think Katniss minded trading at the Bakery anyway, mostly because of the way the baker's youngest son Peeta and her, Katniss not Madge, made goo goo eyes at each other every time he'd answer to trade with them. Which had unsurprisingly, gotten more and more often as of recently. Gale on the other hand, looked thoroughly unimpressed by the whole situation, grunting his disapproval regularly which earned him a few elbowing in the ribs from Madge herself. She assumed he was jealous of Peeta, Madge was certain that Gale had a bit of a crush on their best friend, which hurt her a bit more than it should have. A lot more than it should have actually. It was true though, Madge had always held a little flame for her tall, dark and extremely handsome friend despite how much she tried to convince herself she didn't. She knew it would never become anything more than a fantasy, so in her mind she believed there was no point in dwelling on it. Of course she was fine with being just friend's with him, more than fine actually, and she had never hurt much over the girl's he was rumoured to have taken to the slag heap, but Katniss was different. Katniss was her best friend in the world, her sole confident and the first person to befriend Madge when the going had gotten really rough. She doesn't know what she would do if the two went off together, and bitterly she cursed Gale, he had already stolen some of her heart, she wasn't going to let him take her only other friend too. She never said this out loud though, she wouldn't do that to them. It's not like Katniss reciprocated any of his feelings anyway, that much was clear from the way she looked shyly at Peeta Mellark when he opened the door that morning.

"What have you got for us today?" He smiled at Katniss, which had her friend blushing the same colour as Darius' hair on a sunny day and tripping on her words as she replied not quite as smoothly as the young baker had.

"Ummm... squirrels, yes, we have umm," Katniss quickly rummaged through the bag before carrying on, " two squirrels, that's what we usually trade, right."

Peeta nodded quickly, turning around to grab a few coins from somewhere behind the door that Madge couldn't quite see from where she was standing against the gate of the bakery's pig enclosure. He returned quickly though, holding out seven silver coins instead if the usual six that they paid in his outstretched palm. Madge watched Katniss mull over whether to argue about the overpay or not, smiling to herself when her friend quickly took the coins from the boy and swapped them for two quite plump squirrels. They quickly said their goodbyes, Katniss fumbling them out eventually and Madge waved to the boy over her shoulder as Katniss dragged her away in an obvious hurry.

"Someone's in a bit of a rush." Madge pointed out as Katniss practically ran away towards the Seam, pulling Madge behind her.

"I promised Gale we'd meet him before we went home to get ready for the Reaping, which may I point out is in 2 hours. We need to rush Madge, specifically now that we have to go down backroads to avoid the crews setting up in the square." Point taken. Madge rolled her eyes in defeat, jogging quicker to catch up with the quick pace that Katniss had been going at for the past five minutes.

They reach the Hob faster than normal, albeit a bit out of breath, where Gale is waiting outside the building, picking at his nails absentmindedly.

" You guys took your sweet time." He pipes up but keeps his eyes down on his permanently grey stained hands, his hunter's instincts obviously kicking in when he had heard their footsteps approaching.

"Yeah, well Katniss here got a bit distracted." Madge pointed the blame at Katniss, smirking when her cheeks flush strawberry once again.

"Did not!" She defended herself like the stubborn girl she was.

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Shush, both of you" Gale rolled his eyes at the squabbling pair. Katniss and Madge rarely argued, unlike himself and Madge, but it was always funny when they did. He wasn't really in the mood for their petty too and fro's today though, he had to get home soon.

" Let's just split the money and food and go, we need to get ready, these clothes stink from the river water." He continued when the girls had stopped fighting and instead started scowling at him.

"Wonder whose fault that is? Hmmmm." Madge mumbled under her breath as she grabbed the coins she had collected from their trades out of her back pockets. Twenty- four in total, eight each.

That should buy Madge's mother another dose of sleeping pills and get Madge some more sandpaper to sharpen some of her blunt blades of her knives.

"We've got a squirrel, 2 pheasants and a grouse"

"Well the pheasants are quite big so what about 1 pheasant each for two of us and the third gets the squirrel and the grouse." Madge suggested, looking to her partners for confirmation on her idea.

"Yeah, I'll take a pheasant, my mum needs their feathers for some weird thing she's doing with Prim, something about some salve for sore joints, I don't really know." Katniss quickly agreed, looking around for any peacekeepers before grabbing a pheasant from Madge's bag and placing it in her own.

"Well I'll keep the squirrel and the grouse, more meat will last longer in my family, if that's alright Madge." Gale looked to her for agreement to which she nodded in response, tightening the stings on her own bag which held her pheasant.

"I'll see you two at the Reaping then." She hugged them both tightly before heading off towards her house, which was situated on the opposite side of the hob to the other two's.

"Wear something pretty, princess." She heard him shout as she walked away from them.

"Not a chance, Hawthorne!" She smiled to herself at their inside joke. What had started out as a pointless jab at her old wealth when they were younger had turned into a somewhat tradition for the two of them when they departed on Reaping day. What hadn't changed though was the faint pink blush that she spotted all the way home, if anything it had gotten worse.

Her house was old and rickety, a one bedroom shack with creaking floorboards and a broken porch light. It felt like home though. Yes, it wasn't the mansion she used to live in all those years ago, it had no luxurious ensuites or butlers, didn't even have a working hot water system, but Madge felt like she'd earned this house. She'd put her heart and soul into it, tireless hours to make sure it wouldn't fall down in the winter storms and that the furniture was as clean as she could get it. She was proud of it.

Stamping her boots outside first, Madge entered to find her mother sitting in her chair, an old rocking one that Madge had been told was Madge's great grandmothers when she was alive. She was reading one of the few books her and her mother had been allowed to keep when she'd gone to collect the little stuff from their old house that they'd actually owned, Little Women it was called, and both her mum and Madge loved it.

"Ohhh, Margaret, your home." Her mother raised her head slightly so her eyes peaked above the aged pages of the book, staring dreamily at her daughter who stood in the kitchen. Madge swiftly placed her game bag down by the table leg, kicking it out of the sight of any nosy peacekeepers, before she hurried to her mother's side. The page, she noticed, was still page 1, exactly where it had been when Madge had arrived home last night after hunting all of Saturday.

"Yeah, I'm home, how've you been mum? You feeling okay?" Madge lifted her hand to her mother's forehead, lightly dabbing it to check for a temperature, which was a common occurrence with her mother. She was very warm.

"Did you have your medication this morning mum?" She gnawed on her bottom lip as she made her way to be back room, before she shuffled through the containers on her mother's bedside table. Dammit, she hadn't.

"My head hurts sweetie, I need to lay down for a bit." Her mum muttered to herself quietly which caused Madge to rush to her side again, gently lifting her up and guiding her to her bed. She got her tucked in and she miraculously managed to coax her mother into swallowing a sleeping pill before she fell asleep, which she knew would help keep her knocked out through the Reaping until Madge got home, if Madge got home that was. No, no, no she needed to stop thinking like that, like Gale, it's getting to her head, she'll be fine, she had to be fine. Breath.

The bath tub was fashioned from tin and beaten into shape with a flat hammer. It was just big enough for Madge to sit in, seeing how short she was, and the water was never more than tepid. It never flowed from he faucet either, instead deciding to splutter and spit out in sporadic bursts. She didn't mind though, she'd gotten used to the squeaky pipes and pattering tune that the water made as it hit the basin of the tub, plink plink plink, learnt to love the drumming sound of her dirty fingernails against the metal lip of the bath.

She submerged herself under the water once the tub was full, letting the water rush against her limbs which prickled with goosebumps in the cold. Her eyes squeezed shut, lips sealed tightly in a line and hand come down to clamp on her nose so to prevent any inhalation as she rested on the bottom of the tub. She stayed there for ten seconds, feeling the water against her scalp as her hair blew around her like it did in the wind on a winter's day. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. She pulled herself up quickly, letting her lungs inhale deep breaths of "fresh" air. Fresh being a relative term in the Seam.

Her hair cascaded behind her, long and golden in the small beams of sunlight that entered through the small cracked window to her left. Her fingers scrubbed harshly against her scalp in an attempt to relieve it of some of the dirt it had gathered over the past week, while her opposite hand rubbed a small bar of soap in between the crevices of her body. The water had turned murky with all the grime by the end of it, and Madge smiled proudly at her pristine pearly skin in the mirror. Of course, she didn't have the darker complexion that marked the Seam people, like Gale and Katniss had, nor was her hair dark or eyes grey but the Seam people had slowly learnt to accept her, smiling at her in the Hob and sitting with her and Katniss at lunch. It was nice. Being accepted.

Many from town had renounced her and her mother after her father was hung, not wanting to be associated with a treasonous family like the remaining Undersee's had been dubbed. It was stupid really, and it had hurt her twelve year old self. Her few friends wouldn't sit with her, wouldn't even look at her, and it hurt. It hurt a lot. She'd learnt to ignore it by now, she had a new life and new friends. Better friends actually. Ones who didn't use her for money or try to marry her off, ones who weren't afraid to argue with her and her beliefs every once in a while. Boys who weren't afraid to kiss her becomes of who her father was, girls who didn't bitch about her behind her back. Still, she wondered what she would have turned out like had she grown up on the the other side of the divide. The side she was born to.

AN: basically in my mind Katniss and Gale's dad weren't killed in the mines because the mayor took the fall for them which meant that Katniss and Gale are both a bit less serious and a bit more fun, just to clear up any confusion. If you guys have any other questions about the back story of any of the characters or would like to know what happened in between this chapter and chapter 1 please PM me or review. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you did please fav, follow and review, it means a lot. Also, who do you guys think should be reaped?

Love you guys GB xxx