ONE

Me and the male tribute who I hadn't paid much attention to because I

was numb ever since my name was called. And honestly, I don't really

care.

My mind suddenly swept over the looks of our train. What was this

thing? I hadn't ever seen the inside and... It was amazing. There were

bright colors I'm sure I had never even heard of and foods set on a

table that hardly looked like they were edible. So beautifully

decorated to a point that they had a plastic effect to them. I

wondered briefly if I hadn't been called in the reaping, who would. It

suddenly felt wrong that I was the one on this train, standing next to

the quiet blonde boy.

"what's your name?" I ask almost robotically. I'm looking at the wall

in front of me not at him next to me, but when there's only silence in

response I turn to see why not. He's looking at me like I'm stupid. No

surprise there.

"You weren't listening at the reaping?"

I laugh. "How could I? It was my death sentencing, you wouldn't have

been listening if I were second either."

"Peeta Mellark."

"Nice name." I snort. "So baker's son right? Yeah I've seen you. Lemme

tell you, you live in a GREAT part of town." and to his surprise I

wasn't being sarcastic. I live in what they called the seam. Peeta and

the whole Mellark family lived a little upper level then we could

afford.

"you're making fun of me? Excuse me, but you're name consists of a

bird and a poisonous berry." Is he really trying to pick a fight with me?

"Your point?" I say with an edge to my voice.

"Stop bickering." A voice groaned behind us. Oh yes. The joy of this

party. How could I forget?

"Fine." I shrug. Peeta glares at me. Well then, I see how this is

going to go. But I find myself not blaming him. He was also most

recently sent to his death and I was in no place to make it worse.

Later at dinner, I found myself warming up to Haymitch, our mentor,

more and more. Sure, he was incoherent and and rude at times, but

sober, he was a good man... Sorta.

"What a big, big, big week we have." says Effie clasping her hands

together. She goes off on how she has planned every last detail down

to the bone.

"Yes Effie, we know how much you're in love with planning things."

Haymitch rolls his eyes. "How is the happy husband anyways, Well I

assume." he says tapping her calendar.

"Hush now Haymitch, it's rude to interrupt." she straightens In her

chair.

I slowly picked at the meat I didn't recognize on my plate. The fork

brushed against it softly tearing it into small pieces.

"What's wrong dear? Don't you have an appetite?" Effie asks. "Its

just... I'm not entirely sure how to eat all this." I say my cheeks

red being the only one in the room who didn't know how to properly use

a fork and knife. Of course, Peeta, being the baker's son would know.

Then suddenly it dawned on me. Of course I knew how to use a knife,

when it came to skinning and hunting. Which was something else I did

that was almost rebellious. I broke the law to go into the woods every

now and then when we need food. I'm not the only one either. Once -and

only once- I had encountered someone in the woods, though I can't

recall there names. Well I can the boy, his name was Gale. I knew

cause sometimes the girls in school would talk about him. I never did.

I had two friends in school. Chimmey and Kayden. Chimmey was six year

younger than me, and Kayden at seventeen, was eight years older than

her. Do the math.

I wondered if they were okay now. I wondered what their thoughts were

at that very moment. I wished my mind would just calm itself down.