Chapter 1: - Three Years Later

There was a rule in my district, within all the districts of Panem; if a male chose you as his wife, you couldn't deny his request. Our district had even made an annual festival—every year, on the very same day, at the Choosing Festival, a man would go up to a woman, tell her what he wanted, and it became official once someone from the government wrote the two names down inside The Book.

Men only wanted one thing: a woman he could play with and then forget about. A man would treat a woman with indifference, as if she did not matter, as if she was only there to entertain him. I wanted to believe that all men weren't like that way but I had been a witness of my father's bad treatment towards my mother. Therefore, I lived with the belief that all relationships, marriages and affairs were the same.

My father had fed my mother all these lies and one day, he up and left her for a woman that worked at a bakery, figuratively slapping my mother in the face for loving him so much.

I glanced around my "polished" district, or town, and couldn't help but be grateful of my disability, as men commonly called it. I was incapable of bearing children and that was why I managed to avoid being trapped. Men rarely looked my way and I was fine with that. To other people, I was seen as a loose woman that lived with a hundred cats.

With nothing else to do, I hopped off the tree branch, catching myself on the next lowest tree limb, climbing down the rest of the way to the ground. I shot arrows on my free time and shot bullets the remainder of the time, when I wasn't sleeping or hanging out with my best friend; that was basically my day. I walked away from the forest to my town where anything interesting seldom happened. Pretty soon my feet took me into my home; I stopped only for a few minutes to ready for my shift as a police officer.

I wasn't the type of girl to go off to excel at the local college. So, I decided to join the police forces. My life was dull for the longest time until I finally learned how thrilling being a police officer could be: You could walk on the world and nobody could say anything because you were the law. Being a police officer, I could keep the men away. And as a policewoman if a man continued to "harass" me, I could easily arrest him. Being the only police woman in town, I was often given glances filled with disapproval. A woman doing what should be a man's job was very uncommon.

But I wasn't very common.

A few hours into my shift, I got a bit hungry. I hurried away from the activity of the normal townspeople—the constant shopping, the gossiping, and the mingling with civilians and ran inside my favorite shop—or tried to run inside the store. Before I could walk inside the shop, I saw something that really set my blood to boil. I saw my sister, Prim—she had been chosen at the raw age of sixteen to marry one of the richer merchants of town that only saw my sister as an object rather than a person.

The most horrible part was that my sister was completely in love with the man, despite him treating her a tad bit better than an unwanted cat would be treated. I tried to save her but she was already lost in his false charms and as a result, the Great Wall of China came in between us.

Pissed, I entered the place where the best treat in my town could be purchased.

Boys are stupid. Stupid boys. They should all die. . .just die. Fall into a sewer pit. Get eaten by dinosaurs.

The gun I carried only seemed less dangerous than it originally looked. I was almost positive my anger could do more damage than any gun. Stupid, stupid boys. Anything male—detested. Absentmindedly stroking my gun, I turned, calling out for my best friend's attention.

Blue eyes landed on me, moving to where my fingers touched the gun.

There was a smile already forming on my face, upon seeing him.

My best friend and I—we met in first grade, the inability to take care of himself concluding to the fact. Many of the school's student body bullied him because he was such a bright man. Me, being the unholy person I was, I befriended him and benefited from his intelligence for a while, until I realized he was actually a great person that always had me laughing and smiling throughout the days, despite what hardships I was going through.

I saw a question in those blue eyes, and I continued with what I had been itching to say.

"What really pisses me the most is the way men slap women around, showing their power, claiming them as prizes. That makes me mad. Sets my blood to boil. Men do what they please and women, we have to please men or else we're screwed. Shortening my rant, and let me tell you, I have a lot to say, but keeping things short and sweet, I hate the way a man can choose a woman as if he were picking out a choice of meat from the market. I was one of the lucky few. I am still single, but if a man ever chooses me, I know my life will be ruined. I don't want—"

"I have nothing left in this world, Katniss. My mother went off with another man, my father is not himself lately, and my brothers are all off and married and happy. I need someone who makes my life simple and complete."

Those blue eyes acted as an inhibitor, by the way they warmed my insides—I wasn't so fired anymore.

"The Choosing Festival is today," my best friend, Peeta, informed me. "Maybe I will choose someone today. I don't have to be so alone anymore."

The double meaning of his words went unnoticed by my ears but I definitely saw it in the way he looked at me.

I glanced at Peeta, shocked. Peeta was the most awkward guy in town, most certainly not the ugliest because finally after many years of knowing him—I took a long look at him; he made me want to blush. To keep things simple, I sometimes forgot Peeta was male. But goodness gracious—the way he looked at me made me sure he most definitely had a strong masculine side and a great dose of testosterone fueling his inner man.

If a person took the time to stop and look, amazement would not be a failure.

The thought of the way her husband treated my sister came back to me and my anger went off again. But behind the anger there still was a blushing girl whose hormones longed for the attention of a male, a male like one of those portrayed on a romantic movie or something comparable to an affectionate man on TV. Maybe, just maybe there still were good men out there.

Peeta stopped whatever he had been doing and came up to me. "I could choose you," he told me. "As my wife, you could do what you wanted. We'd be equals."

"I would never want to be with you," I spat out. "You're my best friend and I intend for it to stay like that."

"I choose you to be my wife." Peeta looked at me for a second, grinning thereafter, reminding of the day I had met him.

I crossed my arms over my chest, shaking my head. "Stop with those pathetic jokes. You can't ever make me marry you or anyone."

"I can because the rules in this town say you cannot deny a man's request."