Chapter Two/Gale's POV

It's almost two o'clock. My siblings aren't yet old enough to enter the Reaping, so I don't have to worry for them. I worry about myself, with my forty-two entries, and more importantly, Katniss. I search the crowd for her now and see her pointing Primrose to a section with the other twelve-year-old kids while she stands with a clump of others from her grade.

I turn my attention to the podium, where the mayor sits on a chair next to the Capitol's very own Effie Trinket, who this year has a wig of pink hair. The third seat is empty. Not surprising, honestly. Haymitch Abernathy, the only living victor of the two that have ever won the Hunger Games from District Twelve, is a complete drunk and is probably hammered right now.

The clock strikes two and Mayor Undersee steps up to the podium, beginning his speech. It's the same one every single year. The speech is Panem's history, telling about the amazing city that rose from the ashes of a place that was once named 'North America.' It tells of droughts, floods, storms, fires, rising seas that swallowed land, wars fought over the remaining sustenance. Then came Panem, with its superficial, artificial, rainbow capitol ringed by thirteen districts.

The mayor's voice lowers when he talks about the Dark Days, when the districts rebelled against the Capitol. Twelve of the districts were defeated, but District Thirteen was completely abolished. The Capitol came up with the Treaty of Treason, which gave Panem the Hunger Games. These Games are meant to make sure that there's no repeat of the Dark Days.

Hunger Games rules are fairly easy. The twelve districts provide a girl and a boy 'tribute' - who are more commonly called 'corpses' here in Twelve - to compete in a hellish arena that can hold anything that the sick Gamemaker minds come up with in a fight to the death. There's only one victor, the last person left alive. The tributes range in ages from twelve to eighteen.

It's sick, the way the Capitol treats the Games. They force the districts to think of it as a sporting even pitting us all against the others, celebrating. The Capitol citizens really do celebrate. Disgusting bastards.

The mayor tells that it's both a time for repentance and a time for thanks. Right.

He reads us the list of District Twelve victors - only two, and only one still alive. That man appears on stage right now, drunk off his ass and yelling something unintelligible. He falls into the third chair. When the crowd applauds, he gets confused and attempts to give Effie Trinket a hug, which lists her bubblegum hair severely to the side. The mayor tries to bring some order back to the stage by introducing Effie.

She canters up the podium and gives the line that's so familiar I mouth it along with her, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" in her silly Capitol accent. Even though we all know that she hates being assigned to District Twelve, she tells us what an absolute honor it is to be here.

I turn my head slightly and find Katniss again, a small smile on my lips. She sees me and presses her lips in a smile, too. But then I remember the twenty slips with her name on them and my face darkens, and she must be thinking the same of me because her face constricts to a scared look.

Effie Trinket hops over to the girls' glass ball, with thousands of slips that contain all the twelve-to-eighteen year old girls names in them. Not Katniss, not Katniss, please not Katniss, I can't lose my best friend, I think, terrified, as Effie says briskly, "Ladies first!" She digs into the bowl, grabs a slip, and goes back to the podium. She opens the paper and reads, "Primrose Everdeen!"

I'm so startled that at first nothing registers. Then I look back to see Prim walking forward, looking as terrified as is possible, and then I see Katniss fall back. A Seam boy catches her arm and she watches, eyes glazed, as her sister walks towards a beckoning Effie Trinket.

All of a sudden, her eyes clear and she lunges forward. Everyone jumps out of the way for her and I step towards the gap in the lines too, unsure of what to do. "Prim! Prim!" Katniss cries out, her voice strangled. She shoves Prim behind her with a single sweep of her arm. "I volunteer!" she shouts. "I volunteer as tribute!"

And just like that, I feel my world dissolve.

End of chapter two