A/N:

I'm sure the Prologue seemed pretty familiar to most. It's taken from The Hunger Games book, not edited whatsoever. Not copywrited whatsoever, just there to set the scene. The rest is purely my own writing from now on.

'There's always that Peeta boy too. You two could form an alliance!' Prim cries out in excitement. 'You'd definitely win then!'

I can't win, even with the help from Peeta Mellark. Somewhere, deep down, Prim must already know this. She's just trying to give us both the false sense of hope we need. The competition will be far beyond both mine and Peeta's abilities. All the kids from the wealthier districts, in which winning is an honour have trained their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a knife. Oh, there'll be people like me too. People to weed out before the real fun begins.

'Maybe,' I whisper, because I can hardly tell my mother to carry on if I've already given up myself. Besides, it isn't in my nature to go down without a fight, even when things seem insurmountable. 'Then we'll be as rich as Haymitch.'

'I don't care if we're rich. I just want you to come home alive. You will try, won't you? Really, really try?' asks Prim, her eyes intensified, as if she's trying to figure out my thoughts. I nod at her quickly, as I can see she hasn't finished whatever she's got to say. 'I know about that Peeta boy. Make sure you follow your heart, but don't get yourself killed protecting him.' I give her a confused glance, covering up the thoughts circling my mind. We'd discussed him so many times; he was a regular concept in my head.

Mother turns her head abruptly as the door swings open and a Peacekeeper storms in, signalling the end of my final meeting with my mother and Prim. I turn to them both, tears threatening to leave my eyes. 'I love you. I love you both. Stay alive,' I stammer, loud enough for them to hear me, over the sound of Prim's sobs. I give them both a final squeeze as the Peacekeeper drags them out the door and slams it shut on me. And then I'm back to being alone again. I throw myself down on the couch, sighing deeply. Surely the only visitor left would be Gale, and then I could leave.

Someone else enters the room, and when I finally look up, I'm surprised to see it's the baker, Peeta Mellark's father. I can't believe he's come to visit me. After all, I'm sure he's aware that I'm going head to head in a brutal fight with 23 other kids, including his son, who I'll probably have to kill. But we do know each other, and he knows Prim even better. When she sells her goat's cheeses at the Hob, she puts two of them aside for him and he gives her a generous amount of bread in return.

The baker sits awkwardly on the edge of one of the plush chairs. He's a big, broad-shouldered man with burn scars from years at the ovens. He must have just said goodbye to his son. 'Did he send you?' I whisper to him, as he looks up at me, carefully. His face suddenly relaxes and his lips briefly pull into a friendly smile and he gives a sharp nod, before he realises where he is and where both Peeta and I are about to go.

'He told me to give you this,' the baker mutters, pulling a white paper bag from an inside pocket of his tattered jacket. He holds it out to me, but it takes me a while to retrieve it. I give him a puzzled look and he shrugs his shoulders as if to say he has no idea either. 'He loves you, you know.' He whispers, casually. From that moment, I realise what the baker has been sent to do, and a blush forms on my cheeks.

'No...' I croak; my voice rather hoarse. Then I can't think of anything to say, and neither can he, so we sit in silence, waiting for him to be collected. My thoughts wander off to Peeta. Could his father be telling me the truth? He wouldn't exactly lie to me when I'm about to die, would he? The Peacekeeper swings the door open, just as last time, summoning the baker. 'I'll watch the little girl, make sure she's eating.' He announces, waving his hand at me one last time before exiting out the door. My chest tightens and I inhale far too sharply. Maybe there will be enough fondness in the district to keep Prim alive after all.

The door swings open again and the next guest is also unexpected. Madge walks straight up to me, no emotional pauses. 'They allow you to wear one thing from your district in there, Katniss. Promise me you'll wear this?' She announces, and I can't tell if it's her asking me to, or her telling me that I have to. It's a golden pin, quite small and impossible to see from a distance. She's already pinning it to my dress before I can register what's going on. 'You have to wear this in the Arena. I'll explain everything when you get back!' She tells me, her eyes are darker than usual, her face unreadable. I nod once before she turns around and storms out. It's the strangest moment I've experienced, and the puzzlement overrides me right up until the last visitor enters.

Maybe there isn't anything romantic going on between me and Gale, but when he opens his arms for me, I don't hesitate to go into them. His body is rather familiar to me – the way it moves, the smell of wood smoke, even the sound of his heartbeat I know from quiet moments on a hunt – but this is the first time I really feel it, lean and hard-muscled against my own. 'Listen to me, Katniss.' He says. 'Get a knife, that should be pretty easy, but you need a bow to survive. With that, no one stands a chance.'

'They don't always provide us with bows,' I say, trying to count how many bows have actually been used in The Hunger Games in the past years. Not enough.

'Then you can make one,' says Gale. 'Even a weak bow is better than no bow at all.' My father used to make bows, but it was a very delicate process and a lot of the time, he even had to scrap his work. Without any of the right tools, I have no idea how I'm meant to make one. If it comes down to it, I'm going to have to stick with a knife. I glance up at Gale for a long moment, biting back my tears. 'Katniss, listen. It's just hunting. You're the best hunter I know,' he says.

'But Gale, it's not just hunting. They're armed, they think. They're not just going to run, they'll fight back!' I say.

'So do you. And you've had more practice. Real practice,' he says. 'You know how to kill.'

'Not people,' I whisper.

'How different could it be, really?' says Gale grimly. The awful thing about it is, if I can forget that they're human, it would be no different at all. The Peacekeeper returns too soon and Gale begs for extra time, but they're taking him away and I start to panic. 'Don't let them starve!' I cry out, clinging onto his hand.

'I won't! You know I won't! Katniss, remember, I –' he says, as they yank us apart and slam the door on me. I realise that I'll never know what it was that he wanted me to remember. I inhale deeply before setting myself down on the plush seat and pulling my knees up to my chest. Who knows how long I'll have to sit in here for. My thoughts wander off back to Peeta, the other tribute from my district, probably in the room next to mine. 'I have to help bring him home,' I whisper to myself. 'If I don't come home, he needs to.' I'm sure there's no chance that any other tribute would be able to help look after my family from their districts, but Peeta… Peeta had it in him to do what was right. He'd help Prim and my mother, more than anyone could ever expect of him.

A/N:

Thanks for reading, please make sure to get your reviews in, good or bad. I'll make room for your improvements. There will be more, alot more and longer chapters too!