Chapter 1: Awakening

My eyes shot open, when I heard my mother calling my name, breakfast time. I reluctantly got out of bed, and walked down the hallway to open get Rye up, "Get up Rye." I said groggily, "Good morning to you too Willow." He muttered, I rolled my eyes, and walked the rest of the way down the stairs.

"Morning Duck." Said my Mother, as she noticed my presence. "Mm" I groaned, I was tired of her calling me Duck, I was sixteen and didn't need it anymore. "Morning Willow." My Dad said excitedly, "What are you so excited about?" I asked, sitting down at the table. "We're going to see Uncle Finnick and Aunt Annie in District four.

At that I perked up, Finn was Uncle Finnick's son, and we never got to see them because of their distance from district 12. "Amy will be there." Said Mom, my face lit up, District Seven, (Where Amy lives) is thousands of miles away. Immediately after Breakfast, I dashed up the stairs, burst into my room and threw whatever I thought I'd need into my sack, it took me less than ten minutes to pack for a two-week trip.

We hopped into the monorail system and sped down to four, it took us six hours, but we finally made it, the monorail double-doors opened to reveal Uncle Finnick and Finn waiting for us, Finnick embraced my Mother and Father, and hugged me and my brother, I smiled at Finn, and he smiled back, Finn was seventeen, and he looked almost identical to his Father, except for a slightly different face sculpt.

"Catch anything good lately?" I asked, Finn was a Hunter and a Fisher, "Not particularly." Said Finn, "Two deer and a few Catfish." For those unknown, there is nothing better tasting than those two, Rye, Finn, and I talked the whole way home, filling each other in on what happened over the six months of not seeing each other.

When we finally got to the Odair's home we unpacked in our respective rooms, I sat down on my bed, and a few seconds later, Finn burst into my room, breathless, "I just caught a huge moose on my trail came." He panted, in response I pounced up and grabbed my bow.

"Let's go kill some Moose." I said, Finn led me out the house and into the woods around back his house, they were beautiful, and had hundreds of thriving trees everywhere, when I visited four for the first time, Finn had tried, tried, to teach me how to swim, after my mother deliberately told me not to go to the pond, I nearly drowned, but Uncle Finnick saved me right before it.

"Where is he?" I asked, For Finns birthday, his Mother had given him trail cams, that at motion, shoot a tracking dart, that was connected to a watch, "Two hundred meters." He said, "Get your bow ready!" I notched an arrow onto the string of my bow and pulled back, I had only ever encountered two moose, and I only killed one, the other sent me to the hospital.

"Fifty meters." Said Finn, I slowed down to a quick walk, and tried to make as little sound as possible as the leaves crunched beneath my feet, "Twenty-five." Whispered Finn, he pointed, and I saw it, at least seven feet, and it had foot long antlers, "That's a beauty," Whispered Finn, "Mockingjay JR, would you like the honor of first shot?" "Yes, I would Finnick JR." I replied, I aimed my arrow my arrow, Breath, Exhale.

I let go of the arrow and it flew into the side of the moose, which instantly came charging at us Finn pulled back an arrow and hit it straight through the Moose's neck, which flopped over dead, Finn pulled a rope out of his pocket, and tied it to the moose's neck, threw one part to me, and picked the other up himself.

After an hour or two, we finally got the thing home, but were stopped by my Mother and Father who had petrified looks on their faces, "Drop the moose, get inside" Said my Dad, we rushed into the house, and my Mom shut the door behind us.

"What's going on?" Asked Finn, "Peacekeepers are swarming everywhere!" Said Uncle Finnick "How?" I asked, "The peace keepers were all wiped out years upon years ago." My Mom sat us down and told us" "Angela Snow, the daughter of former President Snow, took out Paylor, she put herself in power by threating to gas all of Panem, she is in control, and the games are back."

"No." I stuttered, "They can't be back they can't!" My Mother hugged me and kissed me on the forehead, and then embraced Rye as well, Finn ran to his parents, wanting love as well, "We are going to need to train you even harder now." My Mother said, "Five hours per day, two and a half on combat, two and a half on passive methods. Because I regret to say that, most likely everyone in this room will be picked for the Hunger Games.

I went to bed with tears, Finn came in to comfort me, but he couldn't do much, even my Mom was upset, I could hear her crying, and my Dad trying to comfort her. Even the next morning we all looked out of shape, later in the day, my friends from District seven came over, Amy Mason, and Tyler Hawthorne.

"We came so we could train more." Said Amy, "Mom says that we're going to be here for more than two weeks." Said Rye, we were all thoroughly depressed at the moment until my mother came in and told us to get ready for training, we put on our gymnast suits that we had been gifted every year since we could walk, and went to the basement, which had been modeled to look exactly like the one in the capitol.

After two hours of training with a bow, my Mom told me to go on something I wasn't fresh at, but there was nothing, I had been trained in every weapon in the facility, not the scythe, said my mom, but I was doubtful of being able to kill someone with a tooth on a stick.

After another thirty minutes, we moved on to "Passive Methods." Which are really just survival skills, they had us practice knots, traps, fire starting, and they even took us out swimming, after an hour, they let us practice in our own ways, so Finn took me back to the pond, and we worked on my swimming for an hour and a half. After a long day, we were ready to collapse into our beds, and so we did.

"Worst day ever." Said Amy, "Well we have about eighty-nine to go." Said Tyler, it was true, ninety days until reaping day, and I wasn't doubting that we would continue to train if we weren't picked. We all went to bed, skipping dinner, except for Rye, and dreamt of the bloodshed to come.

Hello everyone, thank you for reading the first Chapter in the series, and I hope you enjoyed it, but don't worry the chapter will get longer, but this one was kind of rushed because I couldn't type over Thanksgiving Break, and I just have one question, who do you like more, Cinna? OR Prim? ;) Let me know in the review, and have fun reading the next chapter

-HiddenForNow