Chapter 1
Katniss thought about the reaping. It was her second to last one, although it really wasn't. Her sister Prim still had four reapings left, but at least she was almost done. The sweltering heat during the ceremony didn't help with her thoughts either. The longer it went on, and the more children being herded together made her nervous.
She looked at her sister standing nearby with her friends. It reminded of her the conversation the two had earlier that day. Prim had just had a nightmare, and she was there to comfort her in the early hours of the day.
"What's wrong, Little Duck," she asked. Prim replied, "I had a nightmare that I'd be reaped and that I'd die in the arena." "I wouldn't let that happen to you," she said. "Your name's only been in there once, and I've taken out more tesserae than you have. Trust me, you won't be picked." Feeling reassured, she was able to rest for another hour or two before they had to arrive in the Town Square for the mandatory Reaping ceremony.
Katniss knew that there was some truth in that statement, but she couldn't guarantee nothing would happen to her. Just as she finished her thought, Effie Trinket appeared on stage. Without any formal introduction, Effie Trinket uttered with much enthusiasm and her Capitol accent, "Ladies first!" It was in this moment, Katniss' heart began palpitating. Please don't call on Primrose Everdeen. Please don't call on me. Please don't call on Vick, Rory, or Posy, she thought. And while thinking these thoughts, Effie Trinket called out, "Elizabeth Darby!" A young, blonde-haired and blue-eyed girl, similar to Prim, walked up on stage in tears, unable to keep her composure. Katniss normally would've felt bad for the girl, and would've been shocked by the similarity she shared with Prim. But she lacked any sympathy in the moment because she immediately thought:
She didn't pick Prim. She's safe for another year. I'm safe. At least until winter comes, Katniss thought. Except, she didn't fully have to time complete this thought because she still had the boys to worry about. Gale, luckily, was already eighteen. Which was beyond the reaping age. So he was safe. But his younger siblings Vick and Rory weren't. As Katniss prayed for their safety and hoped the odds were in their favor, her eyes caught someone she hadn't thought about for awhile.
Peeta Mellark. She hadn't heard that name for quite a bit of time. How could she forget about someone so influential and important to her life, especially on a day like this? In her current haze of the Reaping, Katniss so carelessly forgot that he was of age just like she was. How could I forget, she pondered. Peeta Mellark was a Merchant, a Townie others would say. But to Katniss, he was so much more than that. Though she had only encountered him once, he changed the course of her life.
"Mom, you can't leave me. You can't leave Prim," she pleaded. Her mother, catatonic, did not respond. As she and Prim were slowly starving, and as her mother was slowly fading away after the death of their father, Katniss knew something had to be done. Even after selling the majority of their possessions to those at the Hob, there was still not enough money to keep the family going. And Katniss, being eleven and ineligible to sign up for tesserae, meant that she had to resort to desperate measures in order to survive.
With that being said, she conjured up the courage to go to the Town and attempt to sell some of Prim's old baby clothes. It was raining and Katniss had no potential buyers. Giving up and using the last bit of energy she had, she sat down at the base of a large apple tree by Mellark's Bakery. While sitting there, underneath what should've been a scenic and beautiful sight, Katniss awaited death. It seemed nice and quite welcoming.
Just as she began to close her eyes, she heard commotion coming from the back of the bakery. And suddenly, as if in a dream, a blonde-haired boy appeared from the back door bearing burnt raisin-not loaves. He ripped apart the most burnt pieces and tossed them to the pigs in the nearby pen. Then, without a single glance, he tossed the majority of the loaf in her direction.
As he walked back to the bakery, Katniss sat there in shock and wondered if he had really meant to give her that loaf. And when she looked at the bread and back towards his direction, he was gone and it seemed as if he never really appeared.
From that moment on, though Katniss didn't like to admit it, she had been forever changed. After she grabbed that raisin-nut loaf, her whole perspective had shifted. The next day at school, she meant to thank him for saving her family's life. And when their eyes met, she noticed a large bruise on his right cheek. At the same time, however, they both looked away. When she did, she noticed dandelions on the ground and remembered something. Dandelions are a source of food, and can be used to make a dandelion weed salad that would pair perfectly with the raisin-nut bread, she remembered from her father.
Going home that day with a newfound perspective of life, Katniss realized that he not only gave her food to go on, but also gave her hope. Hope that life can go on. From that moment on, Katniss realized that she was going to keep her eye on the Boy with the Bread.