Chapter 1
May the Odds ever be in your favor
I walked through the woods, the sun shining on my back. I held a long-dead rabbit in my hand. It's ears still slightly warm in my sweaty hands. I can't remember summer ever being this hot before, but that does not matter as the deed has been done and my family will eat well tonight. A tall dark haired boy, who towers over me even from a distance, is walking beside me. He has two rabbits, as he has twice as many mouths to feed as me. The history of the friendship between our too families goes way back, even further back than our father's death in a mining accident about six years ago. The memories of the mine exploding are as fresh as if it were yesterday. My back hot from the sun, I want to reach home and comfort my sister. Today is the day of the reaping. My sister's first reaping and she has been dreading it ever since she was old enough to understand the disturbing events that took place every year, in some other godforsaken place. I have been lucky for four years, but there is the chance that I won't be this year.
I knew the boy walking beside me. His name is Gale Hawthorne. He sees my sullen expression and smiles sadly at me. He knows that I am worried about my sister, and about him. He, like me has taken many teserae but his name is in the draw a lot more times than mine. I could sense the worry oozing out of him and I know that he is just as worried as I am.
'Come on Catnip. Try and stop thinking about it for one minute and pretend that you are in a different world!' He has already read my furrowed brow and is anticipating my retaliation. This boy is the only person in the whole of Panem that can read me like a book. He knows that I will not stop worrying until the reaping ceremony is over, and no-one that I love has been selected.
'How can I when Prim, or you or any of your brothers and sisters could be reaped? Another two children's lives, some barely old enough to enter, from our district are going to taken for the entertainment of idiots. It makes me feel physically sick.' I stopped. I shouldn't have said those things; even the forbidden woods have ears. I resist the urge to scream with frustration. I meet Gale's eyes to see that he feels the same way. He smiles at me sympathetically. Anyone else in the Panem, except from Prim, would have had a steely glare in return. Not Gale though, I know that he is simply understanding me hatred of the Capitol. He places his rabbits on the ground and beckons for me to do the same. I dropped my catch on the ground with a soft thud, and then stepped into my friends arms. This was the only place in the world that I ever felt safe. He held me tightly and stroked my hair gently. I closed my eyes and inhaled his sent. I wanted to remember this moment. Hugs from Gale are an extremely rare thing as he like, not unlike myself, does not like to show emotion to people that he does not want to lose. Without having to say it, I know that he does not want to lose me, as I do not want to lose him.
After a while I pull away and give Gale a thank you smile. I feel more stable now, and don't have the same urge to scream anymore. Gale has always had that effect on me, which is why he is not only my hunting partner, but my best friend too. We retrieve our carcasses from the muddy ground and the wander back towards the Seam. The Seam is the unofficial name for where all the poorer people (basically everyone) live. This also happens to be where Gale and I live as well. If you asked a Capitol, or even a District 1 citizen what sprung to mind at the word Seam, they would screech in horror and tell you to plug your nose. Yes it does smell a bit, but not in a stale sewage kind of way, more like a sweaty and irregularly washed bodies kind of smell. Whatever, this place is my home. My house is situated just a meadow away from the gap in the fence that Gale and I regularly use to sneak into the woods. As we reach my house I meet his eyes once more before saying:
'See you after the reaping,' what is the point in thinking negatively? He starts to walk away, his shoulders slightly hunched. I call after him.
'Gale!' His head snaps up. 'May the odds…'
'Ever be in your favor.' He ends in a mock capitol accent. He turns away with a sad expression of deep thought on his face. He doesn't turn around again, and I don't call him back to tell him what I had really wanted to say, I just watch him walk further away from me and into the distance until he seems like a distant memory.