I spent the rest of the morning shivering in my bed, nibbling on the piece of bread while wondering if I could silently slip out of District 12, just to miss the Reaping. Nevermind, I'd get caught. They'd kill me, or torture me, or whip me 50 lashes and give me electric shocks and pull out my nails and cut out my tongue and have my ears and lips and nose and hands off and... Nope. I don't think I'm going to try to escape.

"Primrose, come here." Ma pulled off the rough covers, leaving me under the cold force of the open air. I guess it's not really that cold, I'm just overreacting.

I walked over to Ma, and she held a white blouse and a dusty, grayish-brownish skirt. Katniss's old outfit, only used on special occasions.

"Well, it doesn't fit perfectly but it will do for now." By 'it doesn't fit perfectly', Ma basically means 'it could possibly fit you if you grow really fast over the next 3 years'.

I got dressed quickly, and Ma did my hair in two long French plaits. "We want you looking the best you can today." I remained silent. Ma stood back to admire her work. All of a sudden the door flies open and Katniss walks in, carrying strawberries and fish.

"Oh, you look beautiful!" She exclaimed. I tried to force a smile on my face but the fad dread of the reaping forced it down. Katniss knelt down and gave me a reassuring hug, while completely ignoring Ma.

"I laid out something for you, too"

Katniss jumps up to glare at Ma. I wish she would stop it. It wasn't Ma's fault that Papa died.

See, what happened was that my father used to work in the mines. Go down every morning, before the sun rose, work hard, get paid feeble amounts, and return home well after dinner time. I hardly ever saw him, but when I did, he was a kind and loving man. But one day the mine exploded. Poof. Gone. He was dead, and we were suffering. It was an emergency, and everyone had to evacuate our school. All my class mates rushed out, but Katniss and I had organized that I would wait for her in my classroom. So I sat there, looking as calm as I could, while Katniss tried to find me. "Prim! Come on!" she screamed. She was crying. Why?

Well, now I know why. And I know why Katniss hates my mother as well. When someone you love dearly dies, it isn't the person who died that suffers forever after. It's the people who are still living.