Chapter 1

"It's alright, Prim. It was only a dream." I tell Prim and she calms downs a bit but she carries on crying.

"I dreamt that I got reaped and you volunteered and went into the Game." She says between tears and sobs.

"Your name is only in there once. You won't get reaped. There are thousands of slips in there. You won't get picked Prim." I say and start singing a lullaby that soon calms her down and she finally closes her eyes and goes to sleep again.

I get up and get my hunting boots and my father's hunting jacket and head to the woods. Today is the day of the reaping and even though I shouldn't worry, I have a feeling that something bad would happen today. I don't worry about Prim because she only has her name in there once and I don't worry about myself but I worry about Gale. He has his name in there forty two times. The chances are that he will get picked.

I slip under the fence and head to our usual meeting place. It is quite early for hunting but Gale is already there.

"How long have you been here Gale?"

"About half an hour." He says and shrugs as if it is no big deal.

"You've been here half and hour and you still haven't started hunting. Don't you know how much Game you could have caught if you hunted for half an hour?"

"Calm down Catnip. You know that I do my best hunting with you and I was too busy eating this." He says pulling out a half eaten loaf of bread and three other loaves."There were two more but I ate them." He says.

"You started without me. How dare you." I tell him but he just smiles and hands me over a loaf. I start eating. "How did you get these?" I ask him.

"Traded five squirrels for them. I know it isn't a fair trade on his behalf but today is the reaping so he felt extra kind."

"And how did you get the squirrels?"

"Yesterdays snares of course."

"Oh." I say and we continue eating out bread in silence. After I finished a loaf, Gale breaks the silence.

"We could do it you know. Run off live in the woods."He says and sees my expression so he quickly adds "Only if we didn't have that many children." I was shocked at first. Thinking of how we could leave our families but then I see what he means. If we run away, we will be free. No Hunger Games to worry about. No mouths to feed. No Capitol. It would be a great idea but our families would starve. I look up to him and see that he is waiting for an answer.

"I know what you mean Gale and it is not that I think we couldn't survive in the woods. It's that we can't leave our families. They will starve and they have us to provide them with food." I tell him and he nods understanding and continues with his loaf.

"After the reaping if everything is alright, why don't we go over to my place and celebrate." I nod and agree."But if we want to celebrate, we would need food."He says and looks at me. I get up and tell him lets start to hunt.

We did incredibly well today. We caught six squirrels, four rabbits, two turkeys and the best of all a buck. This would be enough to feed our families for a whole week but we are planning on using half of what remains after we trade on the celebrations after Gale's final reaping.

Gale swings the buck over his shoulder and I take the rest of the Game and we go to the Hob. There are a lot of Peacekeepers already because today is the reaping but we get to the Hob unseen. We trade two rabbits for Greasy Sae's special soup, two squirrels for more loaves of bread with the baker, the turkey for some money and parts of the buck with Rooba and some other customers.

We split our earnings and head home to get ready for. "Wear something nice for the reaping Catnip." Gale tells me and I nod and walk home.

Prim and my mom are already ready. I see Prim and she looks wonderful but the expression she had when she had her nightmare still hasn't left her face. I walk over to her. She must be terrified because this is her first reaping. "Don't worry Prim. You won't get picked." I tell her and she nods. I didn't add that if she gets reaped I would volunteer for her in an instant.

I walk towards my room and I see that my mum had left something for me to wear. It was a beautiful blue dress that I think she used to wear when she was going to the reaping. Gale told me to wear something nice but I don't think he meant something like this. It was incredible.

My mother walks into the room then. Even though I don't usually accept anything she does for me, I will wear this because this is the first time since my father died that she is actually trying to be a mother. "Here I'll help you put it on." She tells me and I accept.

I wore it and tied my hair in my signature braid. I look into the mirror. I look amazing. I thank my mum for the first time in years and head out to the town square. Prim is holding my hand and is trying not to cry. I tell her one more time that she won't get reaped but this time she doesn't calm down but keeps the same expression on her face. I couldn't blame her for being scared because on my first reaping, I didn't put my name in there once like Prim did but put it in there multiple times. I didn't actually care that I was putting my name in there more then once because we were getting a good amount of grain and wheat but on the day of the reaping I was petrified. I thought I was going to get picked but luckily I didn't.

We reach the town square and I go to the sixteen year old section and Prim goes to the twelve year old. I look over to the boys section and see that Gale is staring at me. He gives me thumbs up saying that I look incredible. I don't know why but I blush at what Gale is saying. Gale sees this and smirks.

I see Effie walk over to the stage. I still feel like something is going to happen today. "Ladies first," Effie says in her ridiculous Capitol accent. She puts her hand in the glass bowl with the ladies names on and digs deep. The feeling that something bad is going to happen hits me hard and I am full of worry.

Effie reads out a name that I don't catch properly and think that it is Prim or me but the crowd all look of at a girl from the town with blonde hair and blue eyes. She walks up to the stage with tears running down her face. She would easily be a bloodbath but I couldn't care less. I let out a sigh of relief that it isn't me or Prim but the feeling doesn't leave me and I start to worry that Gale would be picked.

Effie then puts her hand in the glass bowl with the boy's names on and unlike last time, she picks up the first name she reaches. I silently pray that it isn't Gale.

"Peeta Mellark."

I let out a sigh of relief that it isn't Gale. I was worrying for no reason. I look over to see who the unlucky boy is and then it hits me. It's the boy who saved my life. The boy with the bread. Why did it have to be him? I wouldn't get a chance to repay him now. Why am I thinking like this? I should be happy that Gale didn't get reaped and I push the thoughts of Peeta out of my mind.

The tributes shake hands and are taken into the justice building. I thought of visiting Peeta but it would look weird and I and he aren't even friends and he would have forgotten about the bread incident anyway.

I forget about visiting him and look over to find Gale in the huge crowd. I see him and run over into his hands. He hugs me and I hug him back. After a while a pull away because Prim finally found me in this huge crowd. I see that some girls are giving me dirty looks that I run into Gale's arms but I couldn't care less. I hug Prim and tell her that I told her it would be alright. Things did turn out alright today after all.