Chapter 2

"School starts in two weeks," Essa said with a sigh. We were both lying in the Meadow, side by side with our hands laced behind our necks.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss summer," I said, blowing a few strands of black hair out of my eyes. "Hey, are you coming to Gabriel's party tonight?" Essa's little brother, Dayton, was Gabriel's age, and they were also best friends.

"Yeah. My mom and dad said they could make it, too." We were silent after that, both of us contentedly looking up at the sky, enjoying these last days of freedom. Our silence was quickly broken by an arrow that randomly shot out of the nearby woods and lodged itself by Essa's side, missing her by barely two inches. Essa shrieked and scrambled away from the area, Essa's shrieks startled me and made me scream, and a deep voice echoed from the woods.

"Hey, did I hit anyone? Are you okay?" A boy ran out of the woods, running in me and Essa's direction.

"That's the Ray guy," Essa hissed at me, quickly straightening up. She patted down her hair and smoothed out her dress, trying not to look as freaked out as she probably felt. I gave her a funny look, wondering why the sight of a near stranger would make her do that.

I immediately realized Essa's reason for collecting herself like that. As soon as Ray walked into my view, I realized how strikingly handsome he was. He was well over six feet tall, with a defined jaw and high cheekbones, dark hair and light eyes that I could now see were gray. "You forgot to mention his looks," I whispered to Essa while Ray was still far enough away not to hear us. Essa shrugged, but I could see the faintest of blushes tint her cheeks pink.

"Are you two okay?" Ray asked sheepishly, even though it was obvious now that neither me or Essa had gotten hurt. An awkward silence took place, and even usually chatty Essa was tongue-tied.

"So, what were you doing out there?" I finally asked, and Ray looked up from kicking the dirt.

"I hunt out here," he replied simply. This guy clearly did not talk a lot.

"That's cool. My mother used to hunt, too," I said, the words slipping out before I could take them back.

"Oh," Ray replied, "Can you hunt?"

"Yeah," I said, wincing inwardly as soon as I said it. That was a huge lie. My mother had tried to teach me how to hunt numerous times, but I was too loud and clumsy for hunting and ended up scaring all of the game away. I had absolutely zero hunting skills. I expected Ray to drop the subject, since he didn't seem like a very social person, but instead his eyes lit up, and he actually continued talking.

"We could go hunting sometime together. It's kinda lonely out there alone," Ray said. Why did the only thing he seemed to be interested in talking about have to be hunting?

"Of course," I replied, flashing him my best smile. He continued to talk to me about different types of traps and bows and arrows and snares, while I tried to make intelligent comments about everything. Even though I was the one conversing with him, Ray's gaze flitted to Essa every few minutes, and I got the feeling Ray was only continuing the conversation to sneak looks at her. Essa was lying lazily in the grass, as if she knew that Ray was watching her. I felt the need to outshine Essa, to make Ray pay more attention to me, so I did the worst thing I possibly could.

"Hey, let's go hunting tomorrow. You can choose the time and place," I said. I knew it was a big mistake, but I didn't care at the moment, just as long as Ray didn't keep looking at Essa.

"How about right here, at about seven? My father told me that's always the time he used to hunt," Ray said, finally cracking a smile. I felt a surge of triumph as I saw Essa frown a bit, not wanting to be left out. She opened her mouth to say something, probably, I want to come too, or something like that, but I dragged her away before she could say anything.

"See you!" I called out, linking my arm with Essa's and acting as if nothing was wrong. Ray nodded and headed back into the woods after retrieving his arrow, probably to go back home.

"What was that?" Essa asked me angrily as soon as were out on the path to town to drop Essa off.

"Nothing," I said as nonchalantly as I could, but my own mind was racing with the same question. Oh my god, Ruella, you stupid little liar. How are you going to hunt with Ray when you own mother gave up on teaching you? What am I supposed to do now? You can't just improvise tomorrow.

Essa stepped back a bit to glare at me, and the sunset cast pinkish light over her, and for the first time I realized just how pretty she was. Her curly, almost flawless golden hair framed an oval face with light greenish blue eyes, and she had long eyelashes that almost touched her eyebrows. No wonder Ray was staring at her and not me. "You were flirting with him," Essa said accusingly.

"I was not."

"Was too."

"Was not!"

"Don't deny it, Ruella."

"But I wasn't!" I insisted. I really wasn't. Had it sounded that way? Gosh, then Ray probably thought I was just a silly, giggly girl. With no hunting skills, as he would quickly realize tomorrow. Then another thought occurred to me as I took notice of Essa's pout.

"You're jealous."

"Am NOT!" Essa shrieked louder than me. Her eyes widened, realizing her mistake.

"Are too!" I said, chuckling. "See you at the party!" I called over my shoulder, walking towards my house and ignoring Essa's cries of denial.

The party was in full swing by seven that evening.

Boys were running everywhere, yelling and poking each other, throwing things around and generally making a giant mess of the place. My father was working on finishing cooking the food, the aroma of it flooding the entire house. My mother and Essa's mother, Mrs. Relley, were setting the table. Mr. Relley was trying to keep the pack of boys under control so that they didn't actually burn the house to the ground.

Essa and I were decorating cupcakes with all different colors of frosting and a million different types of candies and sprinkles. We had frosting on our noses and faces, and Essa stuck sprinkles on top of the frosting, making us both look like desserts ourselves. We were laughing and having a good time ourselves, our little argument forgotten.

When the table was finally organized and all of Gabriel's friends were each sitting calmly in chair, dad brought out the cake, and I followed with the cupcakes. Mom stuck a candle in the middle of the cake and lit it up, looking more cheerful and worry-free than she ever had before. All of us started singing happy birthday off key to Gabriel, and just as he was about to blow out the candle and cut the cake, the doorbell rang.

Everyone froze for a moment, expecting someone else to go and answer the door. Then all at once, my mom, Gabriel, dad, and I went for the door. "I'm gonna get it! It's my birthday!" Gabriel yelled, and mom let him, while the impatient boys started attacking me and Essa's cupcakes, devouring them all within minutes.

"Is Katniss there?" I heard a man ask, and I could hear Gabriel ask him who he was. I didn't hear the reply though, and Gabriel yelled from the door.

"Moooom! It's for you!" My mother furrowed her eyebrows, looking at my dad, who in turn shrugged and nudged her towards the door. The cupcakes were all gone and the kids were eyeing the cake now.

It was silent as we all listened to my mother's footsteps fading down the the hallway. "Oh. My. God," my mother gasped from the door as soon as she got there, and my dad and I both ran there at the same time, afraid that mom would start hyperventilating and have another fit.

My dad reached the door first, and the person outside of it was obscured from my vision. I could see my dad visibly tense though, as a medium sized package wrapped in blue paper was handed to him.

"Gale," my dad greeted, his voice expressionless. My mother whimpered and leaned on the door for support.

Thanks for reading, guys! Suggestions, ideas, comments, and criticism are always welcome :D

Check out my other story, While I Live, too, if you like :)