Oh my gosh, I already have a favorite and a review!

I know it's a small accomplishment, I'm just so proud!

Happy reading!

~Ashley

Chapter 2

"Gale! Wake up!" I heard Posy screech. She is jumping up and down beside me on the bed. I stand up and carry her down from the bed.

"Gale! You have to get ready in your special suit! " She yells in my ear. Posy is so pure. So immune. So innocent. She doesn't even grasp what exact day it was. She didn't know it was the reaping. I sulk into the kitchen, where Rory and Vick stood being total pains in the ass. Hopping around, yelling and playing silly made up games that involved hitting another ones hand when they least expect it. It was one loud, annoying chorus of "Ouch!" and "Hey, stop that!" Mom is trying desperately to get them to settle down, but nothing is working and she looks so stressed. I take over.

"Guys, settle down!" I yell to quiet them. "Go get ready, guys. Do any if you even remember what day it is?"

"Oh, right. I'll go um, change." Rory says. This is his first year being in the reaping. My name is in the glass bowl about 25 times for tesserae. If you put your name in extra times for the reaping, you get grain and oil, called a tesserae. A pretty common thing when one's starving. Little Rory is only in once, I told him not to get tesserae. Vick calms down a bit and I tell him to go get changed, too. I run to my room and find the dress shirt and pants my mom wants me to wear. We only saved these pleasantries for very special occasions, and so far, those only included the reapings. Rory sulked out of his room in his nice outfit.

"Gale, do you think I will be reaped? Please be honest." He asks me.

"Rory, to be honest, anything can happen. My name is in way more times than yours, there's a very slim chance for you to be reaped." I tell him. He sulks to the kitchen cabinet to get some fruit for breakfast. Posy bounces out of her room she shares with mom and Vick. She's wearing a little faded yellow dress.

"I can look pretty too, you know!" She says.

"You're not even in the reaping yet, Posy! You don't have to dress nicely like us." "Well, I want to! " She yelled, stomping her foot.

"Okay," I said. "Jeez, I'll leave you alone, your highness!" I say sarcastically as I leave the house to go to the Hob. I still have an hour before the reaping left, might as well make use of it. The Hob is a place in the Seam, the poor part of District Twelve, where people can come to trade and eat and, it was illegal. No one really cares, anyways. The peacekeepers here aren't very strict. Hunting in the woods outside of District Tweleve is illegal too, but I did it anyways. I begin to walk out of my house.

"Darn it, not again." I walk back inside to put on my shoes.

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"Hey Gale, honey. Would you like some soup?"

"Sure, Sae." Greasy Sae ladles a good serving of wild dog stew into a bowl, and hands it to me with a spoon.

"Is this the dog I shot yesterday?" I ask.

"Yup. Prepared it just this morning." She said with a wink. Greasy Sae can make just about anything with anything. She can even make wild dog palatable.

"I have I surprize for you." I say. I reach into my game bag and hand her a freshly shot turkey.

"I was hoping for a turkey!" She says, taking it eagerly.

"Just shot it this morning. You know what to do with it." I say with a wink.

"Oh, Gale, who could not just love you?" She says. Everyone enjoyed my company in the Hob. Even the most irritable people sometimes.

"Good luck at the reaping, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" She exclaims.

"Thanks, I'm gonna need it." I say.

"You just be careful, alright?"

"Sure thing, Sae." I open the door and walk towards the Justice Building, already alive with Hunger Games anticipation.