Hi! This is the first chapter of my first ever story! Please read and review! I don't mind flames, but please, no cussing! I am a Gale/Katniss ship, (sorry, Peeta! :) and this will be an adventure/romance. I'll try to put out one chapter a week, if not more! Here's a summary!

What if things had turned out differently? What if someone had volunteered for Peeta? What if that someone had a better chance of winning the games than Peeta? What if they were the perfect boy to team up with the Girl on Fire? The Girl on Fire has a new partner, and it's not the Boy With The Bread!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games! Anything you recognize belongs to Suzanne Collins. Everything else, I made up!

We Are The Star-Crossed Lovers

Chapter 1

My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am 16 years old. Today is the day of the Reaping. My sister Prim is 12 this year, her first Reaping. I am not scared. I am scared-for her.

I live in Panem, the remains of the United States of America. In 2045, the United States fell due to the third world war. What arose from the rubble was Panem. Twel-No, thirteen districts surrounding the Capitol. A dictatorship, in which the citizens of the Capitol live lavishly while those in the districts starve away.

"Good Morning, Catnip." says Gale, my hunting partner, also known as my best friend. It's a little hard not to be friends with someone when you risk your lives together daily. Gale and I could be executed daily, but we feed on the hunger of the peacekeepers to keep us safe, since we feed them too.

"Happy Hunger Games!" I reply. Gale laughes, and tosses a berry at me.

"And may the odds..." I catch the berry in my mouth, chew, and reply.

"Be ever in your favor!" I mimick the exaggerated Capitol accent that we hear every year during the Hunger Games.

"Don't have much time this morning, Catnip. We'll have time for the snare run, but not much more." Normally this would mean we'd not have dinner, since Gales got five mouths to feed, and I've got three. But as today's Reaping day, we'll have a celebration dinner tonight, assuming we're all alive at the end of the day. Gale's got Vick in the pot, and I've got Prim. But we've gotten through every year all right so far.

Gale and I make the snare run, only getting 3 squirrels and a rabbit. We stop by the Hob, and trade with Greasy Sae for our lunch, beef soup-or so she says. We'd be fools to think it was actually beef. We take the squirrels to the bakery. Mr. Mellark opens the back door when we knock. In return for our squirrels, he gives us two loaves of bakers bread, white and fluffy. I guess he feels generous today, but Prim's got goat cheese and we'll have a feast tonight.

Prim's my little sister. She's twelve years old, and she's the most important person in my life. My mother has been sick, but she's getting better. It's not a normal sickness, she's a healer, she would have been able to heal herself if she knew what it was.

It was a normal spring afternoon, everyone was in school, when the sirens went off. Everyone knows what happens when the sirens go off. There's been a mining accident. My father worked in the mines. I ran to Prim's classroom, where she'd been sitting at her desk, waiting for me like she'd promised to do if this ever happened. We ran together to the mines, where the crowd was gathered. We quickly found my mother, she was standing alone, waiting for us. She told us no one had come up yet. We waited for hours, when the elevator began to move. It came into view, crammed tight with about 15 miners. We watched as they reunited with their families, not minding the coal dust that flew everywhere. Load after load came up, but it was only a fraction of the hundreds of miners that went down that morning. Most of them would never come back up. Someone gave me a blanket and a cup of tea, and sent me home. I remember I must have waited all night for news. When it finally came, it wasn't good. They had a list of deceased-Evanson, Everdeen, Falcott, Grayden, Hawthorne-that was as far as I read. A peacekeeper came to the house that morning.

"Mrs. Everdeen, we need your oldest child to come to the justice building at 10:00 this morning." My mother turned to me.

"Well, Katniss, go ahead." I got up, and followed the peacekeeper to the Justice Building. I was herded into a room with many other kids. I remember I recognized a few from around the seam. They called us in groups of five. I was presented with a medal for being the eldest child of a deceased miner. That's when it sunk in. My father was dead. Dead, and not coming back. My mother would have to feed us, take care of us. When I got home my mother had gone into some kind of shock. She was just lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. That's when I knew she was gone too. Not physically gone, but emotionally, her heart was somewhere buried under the collapsed mines. I had to take care of the family.

My father had taken me hunting a few times, out past the electric fence. I knew how to use a bow and arrow, and I could catch animals. I decided then to take care of my family.

Gale and I part ways, going home with our spoils to prepare for the mandatory Reaping. When I get home, my mother has one of her dresses laid out for me. She grew up a rich merchants daughter. She doesn't belong to the Seam. She braids my hair and lets me wear the dress. Prim is dressed in my first Reaping outfit, a blouse and skirt. It's too big, and the back of her shirt is untucked, like a little ducks tail. "Tuck in your tail, little duck," I say. She giggles and tucks in her shirt, and we set off down the road.

When we reach the town square, we sign in, and I write my name on 20 different slips of paper, which are then put in the glass ball. I see Gale with a huge stack of papers. His name has been accumulated 42 times over the years, and this is his last reaping. It's because of all the tesserae he takes. You can take tesserae, a years supply of grain and oil for 1 person, in exchange for an extra slip in the reaping.

We all enter our respective areas, divided by age and gender. I catch Gale's eye, but there's a new look in his eyes, one I've never seen before, and I can't place it. Effie Trinket steps on stage. She is the representative for District 12, today she is decked out in an all pink outfit, complete with bright pink curls. She calls "Happy Hunger Games!" There is no reply. She turns the stage over to Mayor Undersee. He reads the standard speech about the fall of North America, and the Rise of Panem. He also explains about the Huger Games. "There has been one rebellion in the history of Panem. The districts rebelled, and in return, District 13 was destroyed in a bombing. Nothing left, just smoking rubble. Now, to remind them of suffering, each district must send 2 tributes, one male and one female, to the Capitol. They will train, and then go to the arena, where the 24 of them will fight to the death."

Effie comes back on stage. "Ladies first!" she chirps. She crosses to the glass ball, and plucks one slip from the thousands. She reads the name loud and clear.

"Primrose Everdeen"

Well, there it was! Please review, and don't be afraid to criticize! If anyone wants to Beta this, please feel free to PM me!