Hey guys! Here's chapter two! Hope you enjoy it!

Running, just running.

Running from the rebels who had formed a mob around my house, running from the men with guns who stole my parents from their bedroom in the middle of the night and were searching the mansion for me next. Running to get away from the man who caught up to me in the ballroom and grabbed me by the hair before he forced me outside, to the center of the mob, to watch as a firing squad lined up in front of my terrified mother and father.

Then, there was no more running.

There was screaming.

My parents were screaming out my name, screaming for the rebels not to hurt me. I was screaming for them to spare my parents' lives. The rebels were screaming, yelling in rage, over the fact that the three of us were alive.

They wanted our blood, plain and simple. It was the only thing that would stop the screaming and stop the running.

The one who was pulling me by the hair pushed me down so I was on my knees, staring into the faces of my parents. My mother was crying and my father looked as if he were close too. I kept shifting my gaze from each of them, wishing I could say something but they were too far away to hear me.

I began to cry then.

The men with the guns took their aim, pointing at both my mother and father. An older woman stepped out in front of the gunmen and started counting.

"One!"

"Please don't do this." I said to the man holding me.

"Two!"

"Please! I'm begging you!" The gruff man didn't answer me, just pulled my hair tighter and caused me to cry out in pain.

"Three!"

"NO!"

"No! Please, stop it!"

"Serena, wake up!"

Someone was shaking me really hard and I couldn't help but think it was the man who dragged me out of my house that fateful night. I couldn't open my eyes, my sight still frozen on the sight of my parents' bodies dropping lifeless to the cold brick streets. I started scratching, clawing, kicking, and doing anything I could to make them let go of me.

"Serena! What the hell is the matter with you? Wake the hell up!"

Then suddenly the voice registered in my mind; I knew who this person was. My blue eyes slowly opened to see the gray ones of Gale Hawthorne, my reluctant bodyguard. My breathing came rapidly as I pulled myself from the thickness of the nightmare. The sight of my dead parents began to disappear and all that was left was Gale. I took a deep breath and pushed my hair out of my face. "Sorry." I said.

He grunted before reaching up to inspect a nice scratch that had began to bleed on his left cheek, courtesy of my thrashing around. "Just get up. I'll meet you in the dining room in five minutes."

Gale got up and left then, nothing more or less to say. "Good morning to you, too!" I shouted at him as I listened to the sound of his combat boots pound down the marble hallway.

I sighed as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and pushed the covers off of me. A slight gasp escaped my lips when I realized that I was in nothing but my underwear and Gale had just been in here. Had he seen anything? I really hoped not.

I pulled the covers back up to my chin for a second, knowing that Gale had left my bedroom door wide open and he could be out there stalking, guarding, whatever it was that he did, but when I heard him out in the kitchen, fiddling with something I figured that I would have enough time to make a break to the bathroom.

I ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Taking one more deep breath, I finally started to feel my fast beating heart slow down to a normal rate. I went over to the sink and splashed cold water on my face in an attempt to wake me. I was not really sure what time it was but based on how groggy I felt it has to be very early; before the war I wouldn't get out of bed before ten in the morning and now I felt like I awoke earlier and earlier every day.

This lack of sleep was definitely starting to show too. There were dark circles under my puffy blue eyes and my face looked sunken, shallow. I looked exhausted because I was exhausted. I sighed, thinking how awful I looked, and decided to do something about that. Digging around in the drawers, I thankfully found some basic makeup supplies—the only ones that were allowed by the rebels now.

There was some concealer, a tube of liquid eyeliner, and mascara. It wasn't much but enough to make me feel slightly more human that I did without anything on. Once I applied the makeup, I turned the focus to my long red hair, wondering how I should style it for training.

A ponytail would probably be the easiest, most acceptable way of doing it but wouldn't I want to stand out some to the Gamemakers? Standing out was key to getting sponsors—not that I was expecting any—and it gave you an edge over the other contestants.

"Any time, princess!" I heard Gale's annoyed voice call to me from the bedroom. I wrinkled my nose in disgust back at him, even though he couldn't see me, and decided on French braiding both sides of my hair back into a low ponytail that I threw over my left shoulder. It wasn't stylist perfect hair, obviously, but it wasn't hideous either. I finished my morning routine by brushing my teeth and rummaging in the closet for the designated training uniform. The uniform consisted of a pair of spandex/polyester blend pants and a top of the same fabrics; both pieces were charcoal gray and had red stripes down the sides. I threw on the shoes next—a pair of ugly combat boots—and then took a step back to check myself over in the mirror.

I decided I looked presentable…barely. But I supposed that was my life now, barely making it through. It was not ideal but it was what it was and that was something I was going to have to live with, that is, until I die.

I shrugged to myself in the mirror before opening the bathroom door and exiting my room. I head in the direction of the kitchen where I assumed Gale was waiting for me impatiently. Sure enough, the man was sitting at the table with a plate of food in front of him and a gun in his hand that he was cleaning.

Gale offered me a quick glance before returning his gaze to his gun. "I would ask you how you slept but it obviously wasn't well."

"Obviously." I said as I crossed my arms in an attempt to keep my anger in check. I approached the table to see that there was a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon at an empty seat across from Gale. It wasn't the typical meal the cooks would make and I was slightly confused. "Did they really send this up?" I asked him, wrinkling my nose at it.

Gale shook his head but didn't bother to look at me. "No, princess, they didn't. The tributes aren't getting special treatment this year. No cooks, no stylists, no mentors. Just guards." He gave me a sarcastic smile. "I did something miraculous this morning called getting up early and making my own breakfast."

My gaze shifted from him to the food and then back again. I sat down at the seat and poured myself a glass of orange juice from a pitcher on the table. After I took a sip, I picked up my knife and fork and stared down the unappetizing meal in front of me.

I heard Gale drop the gun, causing me to look up at him to see that he had his arms crossed across his chest as he waited for me to take a bite. Oh, so he thought this was funny? That I was a big joke because of the way I was raised?

Yes, since I was born I had a cook in my home and that's just how it was. It's what I had come to expect and a lifetime of habits could not be broken in one day's time. I pursed my lips as I looked back to my eggs, cut a piece, and picked it up with my fork. Quickly, I stuffed it in my mouth and chewed, my eyes on Gale the entire time. This 'princess' wasn't backing down.

"So?" He asked, sounding completely uninterested.

I continued to chew the piece of egg slowly. "So, I think you are the one who is trying to kill me now." I teased him before taking a sip from my orange juice glass, washing down the taste of the eggs.

The man raised an eyebrow at that comment. Was he actually insulted? It turned out that he was because the next thing I knew he stood up, reached across the table, and stole the plate from me. He scoped the contents onto his own plate before placing it back in front of me. Gale piled a huge amount of eggs on his fork before shoving it into his mouth. He chewed the food with a smile on his face.

I leaned back in my chair as I watched him eat both my breakfast and his. He continued to eat as if to rub it in my face but it had no effect on me. In fact, I thought I had a great impact on him, instead. Finally, I let out a little laugh. "I don't believe it."

"And what's that, princess?" His mouth was full of food when he spoke.

"That you can dish out the insults and comments but you can't take them." I told him, causing Gale to stop chewing. "I mean, you have been insulting me since we met and now I say something in retaliation and you feel like you have to get back at me."

Gale swallowed his food, wiped his mouth off with a napkin, and stood up. He took his gun and tucked it into a holster on his hip before coming around to my side of the table and leaning down so close I could feel his hot breath on my neck. I'm assuming it was an attempt to intimidate me and, to be honest, it was kind of working. "And what makes you think you have any effect on me?" He paused, not really looking for an answering, before continuing. "Let's get one thing straight right here, right now. I am here for a job. Nothing more, nothing less. Once you are in the arena, I get to leave this city and never look back but until then we are stuck with each other, got it? So, don't make the mistake of thinking that we are friends or that I am doing you favors because I'm not."

He pushes himself off the table, sending my juice glass tumbling and a river of liquid to run down the table and onto the floor. I stayed seated for a moment, not knowing what to think because no one has ever talking to me like that. But after a second I realized that I was furious and I couldn't help myself; I had to react.

I stood up then, hearing as my metal chair scrapped across the marble floors. "Then what the hell are you doing here, Gale? You've made it painfully obvious that you hate me just as much as everyone else does, so why even bother with me? What did you do to get saddled with me?"

Gale stopped his retreat down the hallway and spun to look at me. His eyes were narrowed and dark. "I'm stuck with you because they think that people will be less likely to attack you if I'm here. I helped bring down your grandfather and they think that people won't want to risk a 'hero' as collateral damage." He paused to scoff. "Now, if we are done with the whole bonding thing would you get your bony ass over to the elevator? We are already late for your first training session. I'll be back in a second." Gale didn't even wait for a response before stomping the rest of the way down the hall to his room.

I felt the need to stomp my foot as well and throw a mini tantrum, but wouldn't allow myself too. Gale would just love that and I wasn't giving him the satisfaction. Instead I resorted to balling my hands into tight fists and swearing under my breath. As much as I didn't want to, I went to the elevator and waited for my escort to return.

It's strange though, that I was angry in this moment instead of nervous for my first day of training. It wasn't like this was going to be summer camp but boot camp, meant to prepare me and the other kids, most of whom are younger than me, to kill each other. It is safe to assume that none of us have even held a real weapon and would look absolutely ridiculous. But, then again, I suppose it would be easier to see who was strong and who was weak but it would still be pathetic.

"Are you going to push that?" Gale said, coming down the hallway with a blazer on over the customary white shirt and black slacks of the new guard force. He was doing the top button of his shirt up as he walked and then started to straighten his black tie.

"Oh, um, yes." I told him, pressing the down button a little harder than necessary. We stood awkwardly for a moment before the doors opened, revealing an empty glass elevator that overlooked the courtyard outside of the training building. I made a move to board when Gale puts his hand out to stop me. He stepped on first, checking the corners and the button panel before waving me on, giving me an all clear.

I raised one eyebrow at him curiously before entering the elevator. For someone who claimed to not give a damn about my safety Gale did a very thorough job. Stepping onto the elevator, I saw Gale roll his eyes. "Oh, I can't wait to hear this one." He whispered under his breath.

The elevator was now moving down towards the basement and I turned to face him. "I just don't understand why the government is going to such great lengths to keep me alive. It seems like everyone's main concern is that I will die…why not just let some one kill me and be down with it?"

"Because that's not the point." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Because it's not about you dying…it's about getting closure for the districts."

I scoffed, feeling like everything he had just said was a total lie. "This isn't closure for the districts. It's payback and we should stop pretending otherwise."

"Well, if you knew the answer than why did you ask?" Gale snapped back at me right as the doors opened to the training center.

I dared a glance his way before walking out and stepping into the cold basement bunker-like area. To my immense surprise, my bodyguard stepped out after me. I spun at him. "What are you doing?"

He took a deep, frustrated breath. "Do you realize that you ask a billion questions? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm guarding you."

"But here?" I asked, looking around at all the others kids who were already staring at me like I was the odd man out. "No one else has a babysitter."

"Well you do, princess. Get used to it because do you see all those shiny, pointy objects? Those are weapons and some one could very easily kill you with one of those. I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen at the same time as I watch you make a fool of yourself while you train, got it?"

I pursed my lips and nodded my head reluctantly. What was the point of arguing with him anyway? Gale Hawthorne did what he wanted regardless of what anyone, especially me, thought.

I walked over to the other kids, who were already being lectured by the black haired man in charge of training named Gideon Hammond. He didn't say much, just the basics: we needed to use our time wisely and try every station, not just weapons. I would have thought weapons were the most important but apparently they didn't stress those as much as survival skills. It was an interesting way of handling the games but if it was a good enough strategy for the trainers then it was a good enough plan for me.

The man sets us loose and told us we were allowed to start wherever we would like. Most of the kids, despite his warning, went straight for the weapons because that is something they knew less than nothing about. Two girls, twins, around the age of fourteen, go over to the edible food station while the little boy who stood next to me at the reaping, Lawson, I think it was, stood awkwardly in the middle of the room before deciding to go over to the camouflage station. I suspected that he did this because of Peeta Mellark and how well he had managed to survive because he couldn't be found.

And then there was me…and Gale. I looked around the room, trying to find something that I could do while keeping an eye on my competition; I wanted to be able to see what everyone was capable of. It was a tactic I decided on using last night to measure my competition. My best bet, I decided, was to go over to the knot-tying station. I was actually quite good with knots and could get away with paying little attention with doing them while studying the other competitors.

Without saying anything to Gale, I went over to the knot station and smiled at the instructor who seemed content with ignoring me like everyone else. Gale came to the table and leaned against it, looking out at the other tributes to make sure that none of them tried to throw a spear at me or anything like that. I grabbed a length of rope before turning to join him. Absentmindedly, my hands began to twist the coarse cord into an intricate design meant to start the construction of a net.

My fingers moved by themselves for a moment as I watched as three sixteen year old boys, whose names I wasn't sure of yet, failed at knife throwing before I suddenly stopped when I felt eyes on me. I glanced over to see that Gale was studying my hands with a raised eyebrow, showing his confusion.

"What?" I asked with a little more bite to my tone than I meant to.

"Where did you learn to do that?" He asked in return, taking the knot from my hands and looking at it closely. It was actually a pretty perfect start to a net; I was surprised I remembered how to do that so well.

"Finnick Odair taught me." I explained, taking the rope back and undoing it. I walked away from Gale to go over to a pole, seeing if I could make another complicated knot that was meant to aid a climber up a tree. Gale followed me and began talking while I tied.

"You knew Finnick Odair?" He asked, now seriously confused.

I nodded my head, my eyes still trained on the movements that Finnick had showed my over and over. "Yeah, he was my escort to the games every year since I was thirteen…well, except the last year, of course." The knot was finished and I gave it a final tug before trying to heave myself up. I made it about two feet off the ground while holding onto my handle before giving up and falling back to the ground. I sighed. "He taught me a lot."

Gale's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, I bet he did."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" I asked, now starting to feel defensive. Why was he always trying to pick a fight or taunt me? It seemed too persistent; he was attacking me way too often for someone who just hated me. If he hated me he would just ignore me completely but no, he had to get his jabs in, didn't he?

Gale shrugged. "Nothing, I just know about Finnick's reputation in the Capital before the war and, well…if he was your escort then…"

My jaw dropped and I felt outraged. "I didn't sleep with him if that's what you are insinuating. Finnick was my friend-"

"Finnick Odair was your grandfather's whore that he liked to loan out. He wasn't your friend…He didn't care about you." Gale shot back, making me feel even angrier if that was possible.

I had always known that Finnick was a ladies man but when he started escorting me to the games, I found out that he was actually really sweet. Finnick would tell me stories about District Four and show me how to tie different knots while in the VIP rooms, sipping campaign. He would explain to me why different tributes acted and responded to different situations in the way that they did and he was really patient, like when I was younger and it took me a while to understand why the games would play out the way they did. It wasn't until Finnick came out with the propaganda commercial, revealing why he was always in the Capital in the past, that I found out what my grandfather had done to him.

I had told Finnick some of my secrets over the years; it was so easy to do when you looked into his beautiful eyes that were so inviting and seductive. But he didn't tell any of them when he ousted everyone else in the Capital who told him there deepest, darkest secrets. It is for this reason that I continued to think of him as my friend, that he wasn't acting with me.

So when Gale said that he didn't care about me, egging me on. I snapped, unable to control myself any longer. "Just like Katniss doesn't care about you, right?"

Right as the words left my mouth I regretted them. It was a low blow, one I knew I shouldn't have even tried to deal back. I was one of the few people in the Capital who realized that Katniss Everdeen and Gale were not cousins, that they were friends and kind of in love with each other. And now that she was back in District Twelve, and with Peeta according to the rumors, it had to hurt Gale to hear what I just said.

But then again, why should I care that I hurt his feels when he tries to pull the same stunts with me every moment? The answer is that I shouldn't feel bad…but I still did.

I was about to apologize when Gale's face completely fell. He wasn't wearing the usual scowl that accompanied seeing me, instead he just looked hurt, like I had found the one button to push that would set him off and I had completely demolished it. The man nodded slightly, his jaw clenched the whole while. "Yeah, princess, kind of like that."

Gale turned his back on me and we didn't speak for the rest of the day.

I sighed as I took my rope and quickly fastened a noose, wondering if I would be able to hang myself before anyone noticed. My eyes flinted back to Gale who was still only three feet away, turned away with his arms crossed, and acting like nothing had happened. If he didn't even come back with a snippy comment about me being a Capital brat or hated by anyone then I must have really, truly hurt him.

I felt terrible.

I shouldn't feel terrible.

But I did feel terrible.

What was wrong with me?

I sighed again before undoing my noose and going over to try my hand at the swords, Gale followed several steps behind me wordlessly. He was my ghost, ever haunting me physically and mentally.

I hope you enjoyed it! I realize that this seems like a very "A and B" kind of story but I'm just highlighting how isolated Serena really is from the world around her. Plus, I wanted to get in some background information on both of them and why they are where they are. In the next chapter Serena will be getting to know some of the other tributes, I promise! Please let me know what you think and thank you for reading!