Today is the day of the annual ball at the castle. It's mandatory for all the citizens of the kingdom including me, but being the rebel I am, fat chance of me dressing up in luxuries I don't have and can't afford, being splattered with paint, and shoved into a crystal room full of snobs and grabby teenage boys.

Name's Katniss. I'm an illegal huntress who fends for her 7-year-old...sister.

Six-years-ago, my dad was murdered before my young silvery eyes. 4-years ago, my mother died fighting sickness and depression; leaving me to fend for my 3-year-old sister. I had to grow up at a very young age. When you have to learn how to become a mother at the age of 12 you lack a certain maturity that is lost with the desire to be a child once more. So for 4 years I've been taking care of Primrose and myself, making sure we don't end up separated by the king's child services. For four years I have made sure that Prim and I safe and well fed meaning that we don't step within a 10 mile radius of the King's castle. Instead, every year on the holiday's I make Prim and myself look our very best with my mother's childhood and adult dresses and spiffing ourselves up with her old make up sets that won't expire for years to come.

I adjust the ribbon on Prim's pink dress and allow her to play with my ebony hair, her majestic blue eyes looking back into my grey ones.

"You're going to look so beautiful in your dress," she says eyeing the sunset orange gown glistening in the light of the window.

"Not as beautiful as you look anywhere, anytime," I tell her and she giggles. I pick her up and I take her to our room in the old abandoned log house. I place her down on our mattress and give her one of her expensive dolls and one of mother's beauty kits. "You play up here while I'm gone and remember the rules."

"Don't let anyone in. Don't open any windows. Don't let anyone see me. If anyone comes in or anything goes wrong run," she recites.

"That's my little flower," I say placing a kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back soon." And with that I make my way to the woods with two buckets, and my archery set.

I kill a turkey, collect berries and fruit, and fill the other bucket with water.

"This is going to be a feast for the two of us," I say and make my way back to our hovel. Instead of being greeted by the vision that is my sister when I enter the doorway, I am ambushed by the king's guards. This is when my lack of maturity escapes the cage it is locked in and roars louder than the strongest lion. "LET GO OF ME!" I shout kicking and thrashing. Either way, I'm small bodied and no match for them. They shove me into a carriage and haul me away where they will no doubtly turn me into a slave.

I could care less if they ripped out my own tongue and used it to strangle me, but what I couldn't live with here or in the afterlife is if something, even if it's the smallest scratch, laid a hand on my dear sweet Prim.

Hi! This is my first Hunger Games fanfic. I'm pretty new to the fandom but I just love Everlark fanfics. My pen name is Becca and I turned thirteen last Monday. I hope you enjoy my fanfic.

Love,

Becca!