I opened my eyes slowly. As soon as I did, I wish I could close them back up. The Reaping was only a day away. I wasn't worried for myself, but for Elissa. Her name was in the reaping bowl eighteen times. Luckily, my family had always had enough food because we worked at the bakery, so Elissa had never had to put in any tessarae. She was eighteen years old, though, and her name was in there eighteen times. If she survived this reaping, however, she wouldn't ever have to go in the games. My name was in there three times now, since I was fourteen. I looked older than I actually was, so people regularly thought I was seventeen instead.

I crawled out of my bed, my back aching. It had been four days since I'd been whipped, and though my back was feeling much better it still hurt.

I looked around for the rest of my family, but they were gone. It was usual that they were gone, however, since they usually got up before me to head to the bakery.

I'd tried working at the bakery before, but I ended up dropping a sack of flour (which got everywhere), burned three pieces of bread, and then I tried some of the bread and ended up being allergic to it. It took two weeks for my face to stop swelling.

So I just wasn't cut out for being a baker. But that was alright. I slipped into my clothes and headed over to Gale's house. I had to thank him; he'd saved my life.

People stared at me as I walked through the streets. Of course they did; they'd all seen me get whipped... and none of them had helped me. Not one of them.

I held my head high and walked proudly through the streets, though my back ached with every move. I reached Gale's house and knocked on the door lightly. It swung open and Rory stood at the doorway.

"Hi," he said. "What do you need?"

"I uh... was looking for Gale," I replied.

"He's... um... not here," Rory said. "What'd you need?"

"I just wanted to thank him," I said. "For... uh..."

Rory raised his eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.

"You know, I can just come back later," I said, not waiting for an answer and walking away. I could hear his front door close behind me and I didn't look back. I wanted to thank Gale, not someone to thank him for me. It wouldn't be the same. I sighed and started walking blindly around. I didn't know where I was going, and I quite frankly didn't care. I ended up by the fence. I looked around and saw a tree sitting by the fence. I climbed the tree, grabbed an apple, and then slid back down. I bit into the apple and the juicy flavor filled my mouth. My back hurt even more from the climb, but the apple was worth it. I sat down and leaned against the trunk as I ate the apple. I saw movement from the corner of my eye and turned around to look at none other than Gale Hawthorne... on the other side of the fence. Behind him was Katniss. They slid under the fence and started walking toward the Hob. They've been in the forest! I thought. They've gone under the fence!

"Hey!" I called without thinking. I got to my feet and quickly ran toward them Katniss and Gale whirled around to face me. "Hey!" I shouted again. "What were you just doing?!" I saw something dead in Katniss's hand and realized it was a squirrel.

"What do you mean?" Katniss said, hiding the squirrel behind her back.

"You just came from the forest!" I exclaimed. "How did you? I thought the fence was electrocuted!"

Katniss and Gale looked at each other, than at me.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" Katniss asked me.

I blinked.

"You didn't answer my question," I said.

"Ah!" Katniss exclaimed. "You're the girl that got-"

She abruptly stopped speaking. I knew what she was going to say, and so did she, but she'd stopped.

"-Whipped," I finished for her. "It's okay. I don't mind that I got whipped; the peacekeepers are just cruel. Now, please answer my question."

"We can tell her, Catnip," Gale said muttered. "We can trust her."

"How do you know?" Katniss whispered.

"She stood up for that man," Gale said.

Katniss paused for a moment.

"Alright," Katniss said.

"You know," Gale said, walking up to me. "I never did get your name."

"I never had the chance to give it to you," I said. "My name is Melany."

"Melany," Gale said. "That's a nice name. Now, I'm going to tell you something that you can't tell anybody else, okay?"

"You don't have to talk to me like I'm five years old," I said.

Gale blinked then nodded.

"Alright," he said. "Me and Catnip hunt in the woods to feed our families."

"What?!" I exclaimed, backing away.

"Shh!" Gale said. "Katniss's family almost starved to death! They couldn't just sit there and wait to die!"

I turned away and tried to gather my thoughts.

"We had to survive," Katniss whispered.

I turned my head up and looked at her.

"Alright," I said. "I won't tell anybody, though I don't think what you're doing is right."

"Thank you," Katniss said. "We really must be going, though. My mom's waiting for me..."

"Alright," I said.

They started to walk away.

"Gale!" I shouted as he walked away. He turned to look at me. "Thank you! For saving me!"

"You saved yourself," Gale said, grinning back at me.