Chapter 7

I wake up the next morning with a huge knot in my stomach, it's a Monday but I don't have to go to school we have the day off in honour of the first day of the hunger games. We have to celebrate it, and at 5:00 they'll be playing a re cap of the first day. I can't do this I think sinking back into bed since I was lucky to get 20 minuets of sleep last night between nightmares.

When I finally force myself out of bed I just go out to milk lady in my night dress, when I enter the stable I walk up to my beautiful lady, pull up my stool and get to work, when I've got my bucket full I pat her on the head give her some food and go inside to see how mom's holding up.

I walk into the kitchen and she seams fine I know she's hurting on the inside but she's being strong for katniss and for me, she sets down a delicious breakfast of pancakes and fresh milk from lady, then we just sit in the living room together, until someone knocks on the door, we open it and find a tired, sad, and terrified boy we used to call gale

"oh no gale what's wrong" I ask

"same as you" he replies "haven't slept all night, tired, worried, and furious with the capitol" he finishes

"awesome you'll fit in perfectly, welcome to our pity party" I say gesturing to the living room so we all just sit their upset for about an hour until we all get to antsy to sit anymore, gale runs off to go hunt, mom starts cleaning the house from top to bottom, and I decide to go walk with buttercup.

I get out there with buttercup at my heals and start walking around district 12, as we go people either say their sorry, toss buttercup treats, or just avoid eye contact, because what can they say. I decide to just stay out of where people are, which means walking around the fence, and then it happens I see two peacekeepers walking with that witch towards the woods,

and I just hear her saying "yup I saw em with my own eyes I don't know who it was but I saw them slip under the fence, she finishes and I know that while she may not know it was gale that that Darius and Cray who are with her do. I'm standing in the meadow when they approach

"hello prim what are you doing so far out" asks Darius, as the witch marches back to the bakery

"I just wanted to get away, you know and I'm really sorry" I say doing my best at acting remorseful

"for what" asks Cray

"it was me that she saw" I say

"why on earth would you be in the woods prim" asks Darius

"well I was walking and my buttercup ran under the fence, and those woods are so scary I couldn't let him go in there and get eaten by wild animals or something, he's all I have now I'm so sorry" I say beginning to cry and the tears are real

"well prim you know that's against the law" says Darius gently

"I know I'm really sorry I just couldn't let anything happen to him, I'll take my punishment" I say, knowing the worst they'll do is take me home and tell my mom

"well I suppose she wasn't really IN the woods just a little beyond the fence and I mean she's only twelve" says Darius to cray

"yes but she still broke the law" argues cray

"well are you really going to have her whipped or shot I mean come on it's prim" he says back

"I know we can't just let her go though" says cray

"who's going to know, we'll tell the witch that we couldn't find anyone" says Darius

"okay your right" says cray then darius turns to me

"okay prim we're gonna let you off with a warning, just don't go in there again okay" he says

"no no I won't thank you so much!" I say pretending to be grateful, even though I suspect they know it was gale as well as I do, or they will tonight when he comes to the hob

when I get home around 1:00 mom has lunch ready,though neither of us really eats, we just push food around on our plates until someone knocks on the door, I open it and my spirits lift 1000 fold, because I know that because of his brother he knows what this first day is like. we go sit on the couch and when he puts out his arms I sink into him feeling everything about him, his sweet smell, his strong hands,his comforting gaze,

"physalis she could be already dead, she could be on her way home" I whisper terrified

Ii know, I know I've been there I understand" he whispers back and I love having someone who's been there, someone who will let me cry and not tell me to be strong because I don't want to be strong I want to just sink into him farther and freeze this moment until the hunger games are over and pray my sister returns

"it's okay, it's okay" he continue's to whisper trying to comfort me, even though it's not okay, it will never be okay again

at 4:O'Clock we are dressed and headed for the square we go sit in our roped off area right at the screen, aren't we special! and then the show begins… we watch from the perspective of a tribute, as though we are her being lifted like an animal from the the waiting room into the slaughter house, and then they pan the arena settling on the golden horn with the life sustaining supplies, and then we hear Claudius templesmith's booming voice "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN LET THE 74TH HUNGER GAMES BEGIN!"and then they're off some tributes run for the horn others for the woods, then I see katniss she is grappling with a boy who I think might be from district 8 or maybe 9, they fight a while then I see the girl from district 2 with a handful of knives and she throws one at the boy and he dies instantly, then katniss uses the pack to block the knife thrown at her skull, then she runs into the woods, and out of our view so many people die that first day, the boy from district 2 leaps up behind the boy from 5 and snaps his neck, the girl from 3 gets into a fight with the boy from 10 and gets herself a knife in the chest, both tributes from 6 and 7 die though i miss how the girl from 10 gets a poorly aimed arrow to the arm from the incompetent district 1 girl, then the boy from 4 finishes her off it goes on and on it's horrible, but i haven's seen katniss so that's a good sign by the end of the day the girl from 9 and the boy from 8 have also been killed.

during this time something happens something strange in the fight the boy from 2 was almost overthrown by the boy from 4 and then peeta killed him and joined the careers! ugh that is horrible why would he do that, then we see katniss walking through the woods, she goes through her pack and finds some food, water purifier, an empty water bottle, a box of matches, some kind of metal wire, some kind of sunglasses, and a sleeping bag.

not a bad haul but she didn't get any water, which is something she's going to need, then they show a few other tributes doing the same as her, then they sign off for the night. well she's alive, so there's still hope, I must be strong

"well it's okay for know right she has supplies, and she's alive" says gale behind me

"but all she has is a knife for weaponry" says mom

"don't worry she knows how to handle herself, I mean it's katniss she has to be all right" I say

"of course, she'll be fine" says gale then I realize that physalis isn't talking, and I'm not sure if it's that this makes him think about his brother, or he just can't stand to lie to me because, he knows that it's not okay, and still remembers all the people who lied to him.

when we get home it's around 6:30 but all I want to do is just go to sleep, we all just come in and talk for awhile, then mom says I can go make the call to haymitch about the sponsorship money, and since we don't have a phone all sponsorship calls must be made at the city hall so me and physalis head over to the mayor's house and I pick up the slim black phone and dial the number 666 for the capitol sponsorship line

"hello" says a woman in that funny capitol accent

"hi, I would like to sponsor katniss everdeen, please" I say

"okay let me put you through to her mentor" says the woman

"hello" says the gruff voice that can only belong to haymitch

"hi" I reply

"how much would you like to sponsor?" asks haymitch, and between the start we had from physalis and another collection the hob started, but everyone pitched in we have quite a bit of money, but we've been instructed to only give half now and half closer to the end when she'll need it more

"$1500" I say

"wow district 12 must be working hard, hu prim" says haymitch

"how'd you know it was me?" I ask

"well you speak with a district 12 accent, you're a young girl, and I just guessed seeing as how she's you sister" says haymitch

"oh well, yes we're all working hard and this is only half, we're reserving the rest for later when she needs it more" I say

"well what about peeta" asks haymitch

"his parents also have a collection and if they allied or something we'd just pool it all together, or that's the plan at least, just haymitch, please tell me if she's okay?" I ask

"yes she's a lot better off than most and her and peeta both have quite a few sponsors"

"ya well another thing is district 12 is kinda mad at peeta about the whole career thing" I say

"well keep watching and we'll see what happens with that" says haymitch as though he knows something I don't, then just says goodbye and leaves me floundering about what he meant.

When we get home I tell them all about my conversation with haymitch, mom seems confused by what haymitch has said, it's late so physalis and gale head home, and I get into my bed and let my mattress be my boat to a different world, a happy world, with no hunger games.

okay so the games have begun! in the next chapter we'll learn about why analia wants to watch the games all the time! and we'll see the next day of the games, and prim's relationship only gets stronger, unfortunately the next chapter won't be up for about a week, sorry! please review!