Crud, guys, I am SO SORRY. It's been almost two months since I posted the prologue! Please, pleeeeeeeease forgive me.

Also, I included some book quotes and all the book dialog. Please don't say you would have wanted me to "be more creative." It's just that often, Suzanne Collins is too incredible for improvement.

When Katniss wakes, the other side of her bed is cold. She reaches for her sister, Prim, but finds there's nothing there except the rough mattress cover. She probably had nightmares and slept in their mother's bed. It's likely – today is reaping day.

A dim light fills the room. Katniss props herself up on an elbow, looking at her mother and Prim, curled up together. Her mother seems years younger when she sleeps – worn, but not so beaten down. Prim, of course, looks beautiful, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. People say Mrs. Everdeen looked like that once. Katniss doesn't believe it.

Sitting at Prim's knees, guarding her, is a creature Katniss considers to be the world's ugliest cat. Half of the tom's ear is missing, his nose is mashed in. His eyes are the color of rotten squash. His coat is a muddy yellow, contradicting the name Prim gave him. Buttercup. Unlike the bright flower, he hates Katniss. Or at least distrusts her. Perhaps he still remembers when Katniss tried to kill him, after Prim brought him home. He was a horrible, scrawny little thing. Belly swollen with worms, crawling with fleas. The last thing Katniss needed was another mouth to feed. But she couldn't resist poor Prim's begging and pleading, and had to let him stay. It turned out all right, in the end. Their mother got rid of the vermin, and Buttercup was born to be a mouser. He even catches the occasional rat. They tolerate each other, mainly for Prim's sake. Sometimes, though, when Katniss cleans a kill, she feeds Buttercup the entrails. He doesn't hiss at her anymore.

Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest they will ever come to love.

Katniss swings her legs off of the bed and into her supple leather boots. They've molded to her feet, and are quite good for when she's hunting. She dresses quickly, tucks her braid into a cap, and grabs a forage bag. There's a wooden bowl overturned on the little table. Underneath it is a lump of goat cheese, wrapped in basil leaves. It's Prim's gift to Katniss on reaping day. She slips it carefully into her pocket and heads outside.

Katniss lives in the part of District 12 nicknamed the Seam. If this were a normal day, it would be crawling with coal miners on their way to work. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to clean the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces. But today, the black cinder streets are empty. The shutters on the squat gray houses closed. The reaping isn't until two. May as well sleep in. If you can.

Katniss' home is almost on the edge of the Seam. She only has to pass a few houses to reach a scruffy field people call the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the woods and enclosing the entire district is a chain-link fence topped with loops of barbed wire. It's supposed to be electrified at all times to keep the predators out – and the starving citizens in – but since an occurrence like that would be like snow in July, it's typically safe to touch. Even so, Katniss always takes a moment to listen for the telltale hum of electricity. Right now, she can't hear a thing. She flattens out on her belly and slides under a clump of bushes and a bit of fence that's been loose for as long as she can remember. There are many weak spots like this one, but it's so close to her house she always uses it.

A bow and sheath of arrows waits for Katniss in a hollow log just inside the trees. In the woods predators roam freely, and there are other dangers such as venomous snakes and rabid animals. But there's also food if you know how to find it. Katniss' father knew. He taught her how before he was killed in a mine explosion. There wasn't even a body to bury. Katniss was eleven then. Even five years later, she wakes up screaming for him to run.

Being outside the fence except for officially sanctioned duties is illegal and hunting carries a severe penalty – death – but many more would do it if they had weapons. Katniss' bow is rare beyond measure. It and a few others were made by her father long ago. Katniss keeps them hidden, carefully wrapped in waterproof covers. Her father could have gotten rich selling them at the Hob, District 12's black market, but if the officials discovered it, he would have been executed for inciting a rebellion. Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few who hunt because they want fresh meat as much as the rest of them. In fact, they're among Katniss' best customers. But anyone considered to be arming the Seam would be killed.

In autumn, some sneak under the fence to pick apples. But always in sight of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. "District Twelve," Katniss mutters, "where you can starve to death in safety." Then she casts a quick glance behind her. There are ears everywhere, sometimes even here.

When Katniss was small, she would scare her mother half to death with the things she would say about the people in the far-off city called the Capitol, almost as large as a district, who rule their country, Panem. Eventually she realized that this would just lead to trouble and so learned to hold her tongue. Do her schoolwork quickly and quietly. Make only polite small talk in the public market. Talk about little more than trades in the Hob, where she makes most of her money. At home, where she's very slightly less pleasant, she doesn't discuss serious topics, like the reapings, or the common food shortages, or the Hunger Games. She fears Prim would start to repeat her words, and then where would they be?

As she scales the hills, Katniss can feel her pace quickening, the muscles in her face relaxing. On a rock ledge overlooking the valley is the only person with whom she can be herself. The sight of Gale waiting for her brings a smile to her face. He says she never smiles outside of the woods.

"Hey, Catnip," says Gale. When Katniss first told him her name, she barely whispered it. He'd thought she'd said Catnip. It became his official name for her when a lynx began following her around when she was hunting. Katniss eventually shot the lynx because it scared off game. She had enjoyed the company, but she did get a good price for the pelt.

Gale shows her an arrow with a loaf of bread stuck on the end. "Look what I shot," he says, and Katniss laughs, grabbing it. It's not the flat, dense stuff made from grain rations; it's real bakery bread. Gale must have been at bakery before dawn to trade for it. Katniss pulls the arrow out and holds the warm crust to her nose. The aroma makes her mouth water. Fine bread like this is for special occasions.

"Mm, still warm. What did it cost you?" she asks.

"Just a squirrel," Gale replies. "Think the old man was feeling sentimental this morning. Even wished me luck."

"Well, we all feel a little closer today, don't we?" says Katniss. She doesn't even take the time to roll her eyes before pulling out the gift. "Prim left us a cheese."

His eyes light up at the sight of it. "Thank you, Prim. We'll have a real feast." Suddenly he's talking in a Capitol accent, mimicking Effie Trinket, District 12's escort. Most are sure that she's required by law to be so maniacally upbeat and make the reaping seem like the world's greatest party. Funny, since she's the one who reads the names, selects the children who will be going to their deaths.

"I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!" Gale turns and picks a few berries from the blackberry bushes surrounding the ledge. "And may the odds –" He tosses one in a high arc to Katniss.

She's had practice at this. The berry lands squarely in her mouth, and sweet tartness explodes across her tongue as she bites it. "– be ever in your favor!" she finishes with equal verve. The jokes get old, but the only other option is to be scared out of your wits. Besides, no one in the districts can resist using the Capitol accent on occasion. Almost anything sounds funny in it, it's so affected.

As Gale pulls out a knife to slice the bread, Katniss watches. They could be twins. They share the straight black hair, the olive skin, the gray eyes. They're in no way related, though. Most of the Seam families look like this. That's why Katniss' mother and sister seem so out of place with their blond hair and blue eyes. They are. Mrs. Everdeen's parents were members of the merchant class that sells to officials, Peacekeepers, and the occasional Seam customer. They ran an apothecary shop in the nicer part of District 12 – the part outside of the Seam and mine entrances. It's quite small, containing just the square, the mayor's house, and the school, and the areas surrounding each. Many consider it a mini-Capitol, where people are happier and completely oblivious to the people of the Seam. A few do care, though. Annabeth Undersee, the mayor's older daughter, goes to the Seam frequently. Mostly to see her boyfriend, but she helps others when she can. The Everdeens see her a lot, when she brings them medicines from her mother. It would be hard to run the apothecary shop without her.

No one can afford doctors in District 12, so apothecaries are their substitution. Katniss' parents got to know each other because her father would sell her mother medicinal herbs brought back from his hunts. Katniss knows how much her mother loved her father, and tries to remember that when all she sees is the woman who sat by, blank and unreachable, while her children turned to skin and bones. She wants to forgive her, for her father's sake, but she's really not one to forgive.

This turns her thoughts back to Annabeth Undersee, even less forgiving than Katniss. She has a sister a year younger than her named Madge and a boyfriend from the Seam named Percy Jackson. Both know not to get on her bad side – she'll either hold a grudge for days or grab your arm and flip you over. No one knows where she learned that trick. She'd be good in the Games, Katniss thinks.

Gale snaps his fingers below her nose. "Catnip? Anyone home?"

She starts. "Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking." Looking around, she sees Gale's already spread the cheese onto bread slices and carefully placed a basil leaf on each. She hurriedly begins stripping the bushes of their berries.

As she busies herself, Gale asks, "About?"

"Just the Games," she says. "Annabeth Undersee might make it, with her flipping thing."

He nods, probably remembering the last time Annabeth had flipped him. It was last year, when he was 17 and she was 16. He had been pretending to flirt with her, and she had missed the "pretending" part. Despite his size and weight compared to hers, it was hard for him to walk for a week. She still hasn't apologized.

I know that chapter ending sucks, but I'm at about 2,000 words and I've kind of hit a wall ;-; Percy's going to be next. If you have any tips or suggestions on his POV, PLEASE offer them. I'm not so awesome at writing as Percy. Also, the next chapter will be out in less then two months. :)