I am so very sorry you guys! I know, I haven't updated in like a month. I'm having the worst writer's block -for this and for my Jacob story- but I am going to try my hardest to keep writing! Your reviews are my inspiration :) I hope you enjoy, since I rushed the ending a little in order to post tonight.

Chapter Two: The Offer

And I fell into pieces,
and she fell into me.
Saying, play me a song
it's been too long since I've heard,
you sing.

Shayla elbowed her way through the crowds, intent on getting to the Justice Building to speak to Peeta for one last time. She had no fantasies of Peeta coming home, not with the Careers, not with Katniss being out there too. Shayla knew he would give up his life for Katniss if he had the opportunity. She entered the building and headed for the chamber where her brother had been kept, where all of the boys go. She was met by two peacekeepers, guns hanging from their belts. They blocked her from reaching the door, hands resting on their Capitol-manufactured weapons.

"Family first," the peacekeeper to the right informed her. Shayla shook her head, disgusted, but obeyed and turned to sit on one of the lounges that littered the hall. She watched as Katniss's family entered to visit her for one last time. Next, Peeta's family entered, his father noticed and nodded to her in a distracted sort of way, and then they were gone too. Lastly, Gale entered, he looked even angrier than the time Rooba had offered him only a few silvers for a whole buck. It had been during the winter, so pickings were slim, and money was almost non-existent.

After rushing toward Katniss's room, Gale was told that Katniss's family was inside and that he could see her afterwards. Gale bit back a retort and turned away from them, a curse on his lips. It was then that he noticed Shayla, and came to sit beside her. Shayla watched as he approached, thinking of the last time it had happened.

"I guess I know how you feel now," Gale said as he sat down on the lounge beside her. He ran a hand through his dark hair, sighing. "We're both the wrong gender, huh?" Shayla lifted her gaze from the door that sheltered Peeta from her and looked into Gale's eyes.

"Yes, for the second year in a row." She answered curtly. Gale nodded slowly and turned to stare at the door behind which Katniss was saying her goodbyes.

"Would you take Peeta's spot, if you could?" He asked quietly, still watching the door for any sign of it opening.

Shayla closed her eyes briefly, not knowing the answer to the question. "I don't know. I doubt he would let me. Would you take Katniss's place?"

"In a heartbeat," he replied without hesitation. Shayla knew he hadn't even considered the question. He hadn't considered his own family. She knew that, given the time to really think about it, he wouldn't have traded spots with her. Katniss was either the bravest, or the stupidest, person alive.

Gale pulled his gaze from the door to look at Shayla again. "You remember what I said last year, about Aren?" Shayla clenched her teeth and jerked her head away from Gale, not wanting to look at him. She remembered; there was barely a day that went by where she didn't ponder his words.

Shayla and Rooba sat on the edge of their seats as they watched Aren and the other twenty-three tributes rise out of the ground on silver plates. The arena had the appearance of a desert, a ruined city sat off in the distance and a small stand of palm trees could be seen in the opposite direction. The thirty seconds of countdown were torture. Aren was gazing back and forth between the cornucopia and the stand of trees.

"Don't do it, Are," Rooba whispered as she watched Aren's face turn to the cornucopia and rest there, a look of determination taking over. "Get out of there."

Shayla gripped the edge of the seat, a sickening feeling gripping her insides. The horn sounded, and the tributes were off like a gunshot. Aren leapt from his plate, dodging in and around the other tributes; but he was too slow. The Careers had already reached the cornucopia. He skidded to a stop and changed his mind, bolting in the direction of the stand of palm trees.

Shayla let out a small breath. She knew by now that most tributes died during the fighting at the cornucopia. The cameras didn't stick with him; they were concentrating on the bloodbath at the horn. Shayla averted her eyes at the worst parts. She hated watching the killing, though the Careers seemed to revel in it.

There was a small feeling of victory for the District when Madeline managed to grab a tarp and a bag of bread from the outskirts of the cornucopia as she headed for the ruined city. Though it didn't make Shayla and Rooba feel any better; Aren was out in the middle of the desert with no food, water, or shelter.

He wasn't shown on camera for a long hour; the bloodbath was much too interesting. It kept Shayla and Rooba in a state of anxiety. They reassured each other by saying things like "they would have shown him if he had died." It wasn't the most cheerful thing, but it was truthful.

It was nightfall by the time the killing at the cornucopia was over with. The Capitol then showed flashes of the tributes still alive. Madeline had made it to the ruined city, her hair was plastered to her forehead and she was leaning against partially fallen-in husk of a house. She was clutching her bread and tarp with all of her strength, but it wasn't hard to tell that she was in dire need of water. Aren, on the other hand, had found that the small forest was bountiful in coconuts. He was sitting at the bottom of one of the great trees, bashing a coconut with a sharp rock he had scooped up.

"Thank God," Rooba whispered, pressing her fist to her mouth. Shayla felt as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and she permitted herself to smile.

Their relief was short-lived. It wasn't half an hour later that the canon shots sounded, indicating the showing of the dead tributes faces in the sky, that Aren was killed as he watched the projections. The female Career from District Two, Laurel, had grabbed him from behind and slashed his throat.

Rooba screamed, launching at the TV as if she could shield her son from death. She shook the screen, cursing, screaming to have her son back, and damning the Capitol. Shayla watched as her mother seemed to cave in on herself in her grief. She shrank into a ball and wailed a long, continuous, heart-wrenching lament.

Shayla slowly stood up, not quite sure she believed her brother to be dead, her hands and legs shaking. She turned away from her mother, not bothering to try and comfort her. She was too far gone by now. Instead, Shayla turned and walked calmly out of the house. She wasn't sure where it was that she was going. She just felt the need to be away.

The cool night air caressed her skin as she walked through the village, keeping her head low. A few people who were close to her mother were running back in the direction of the house, but Shayla just turned her head away from them. They didn't even notice her, they were too panicked, too intent on reaching Rooba.

Shayla had reached the meadow on the outskirts of the village when it finally hit her. She sank to her knees in the waist-high grass and sobbed. She buried her face in her hands, shaking her head from side to side. "No!" She screamed, drawing her hands down her face. She punched the ground, shrieking, battering a hole in the dirt.

"Why?" She whispered into the night, when she had finally lost feeling in her knuckles. "Why Aren?"

"The Capitol does it to keep us in line, that's what they say in school, isn't it?" The voice startled Shayla and she whirled around, bringing a hand up to wipe the tears from her face. Gale Hawthorne stood before her, a burlap sack slung over his shoulder. He lowered the bag to the ground, concern in his eyes. "They got him, didn't they?"

"Got him?" Shayla repeated, furrowing her brow. "What the hell do you mean; got him? Some Career bitch killed him. She snuck up on him. She didn't even give him the chance to defend himself!" Shayla had begun screaming. "It isn't fair! He didn't deserve this! He was the best of us, he was. It should have been me. It should never have been him." The tears were running freely down her face again.

"It isn't right." Gale agreed. He knelt down in front of Shayla, uncertain of exactly what to do or say. "The Capitol needs to pay for what they've done to us here. Those of us who aren't starving are killed in the Games, or in the mines, or by peacekeepers..." Gale took a deep breath. The memory of their fathers still weighed heavily on his shoulders. "We could do it, you know. If the whole village rebelled, we could overtake the peacekeepers. We could probably live in the woods. Katniss and I can hunt, we could teach the others." Gale flicked his gaze to the ground, as if embarrassed by admitted his thoughts. "We could destroy the Capitol, if we tried."

Shayla laughed, "You could certainly try, but you'd die before you made it out of Twelve." Shayla shook her head, amazed at Gale's words. "We couldn't do it without help from the other Districts." Shayla picked at the grass at her feet. "I can't believe I'm talking to you about a rebellion." She let out a humorless laugh. "This is completely crazy. There will never be another rebellion, and that's because of the Games. That's why they exist. The Capitol could crush us in an instant."

"You really don't think we could do it?"

Shayla looked up into Gale's grey eyes, so much like her brothers, and her breath caught for a minute. Could we actually do it? She thought, and for an instant, seeing the conviction in those eyes, she believed it. "We could," she whispered. "But it would take a hell of a lot more than my brother's death to convince anyone."

"What about it, Gale?" Shayla hissed, eyeing the peacekeepers who were watching them silently. "We shouldn't talk about this here, you know." As soon as the words left her mouth, the peacekeepers turned and opened the doors to both chambers, ushering the two families out. Gale jumped up, not bothering to look back at Shayla as he crossed the hall to see Katniss. Shayla stood up slower, wary of seeing her best friend for the last time. Why would Gale bring that up again after so long?

She crossed to Peeta's chamber with her heart falling somewhere around her ankle's. The peacekeepers allowed her to pass them and push open the door this time, and she did so with a feeling of dread. Peeta was hunched up on the couch, shaking. She rushed over to him and threw her arms around him, all thoughts of Gale fleeing her mind. It was exactly like Aren's final day.

"I don't want you to go," Shayla whispered into Peeta's shoulder as he returned her embrace. "I don't know what I'm going to do without you." Peeta had been everything to Shayla since Aren had gone to the Games; a brother, a friend, a confidante.

"You'll be okay, Shay." He said in a shaky voice. "Take care of yourself, don't worry about me." He pulled out of her embrace and Shayla could feel the tears threatening to spill. Peeta already had tear tracks running down his cheeks. He took a deep breath and whispered, "I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure Katniss comes back."

"I know you are." Shayla replied quietly, rubbing a palm over her eyes. "But I want you to come back, not her."

"Do you realize what you just said?" He asked, furrowing his brow. "This is what the Capitol has done to us, don't you see? They've turned us against people who used to be our friends, people we've grown up with." He shook his head, looking away from Shayla. "I don't want that, Shay. If Katniss comes back..." He swallowed noisily, visibly shaking. "If she comes back... tell her... tell her what I did, okay?" The doors were being opened; Shayla grabbed Peeta by the shoulders and embraced him tightly for one last time. "Be nice to her, don't blame her for..."

"I know,"

"I love you, Shay."

"I love you too, Peeta." Shayla whispered as the peacekeepers grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her out of the room. She could do nothing but watch as they closed the doors on Peeta, blocking the last view she thought she would ever have of him.

Shayla was escorted out of the building by the peacekeepers where they deposited her, alongside Gale, on the steps and closed the doors with a resounding bang. She didn't move for a long moment, she just stared at the recently washed white-marble stairs. Every other day of the year they were coated in coal dust. It was different on Reaping day. Everything was different. The Capitol doesn't want to see what it's really like out here, she thought. They just want their Games; they don't want the citizens to see how bad it is for us. Heaven forbid they feel guilt.

"We need to do something about this." Gale whispered. Shayla raised her gaze from the stairs to peer into his grey eyes. "We can't keep letting this happen."

"You think we're letting this happen?" Shayla hissed, moving closer to Gale so that their conversation could be slightly more private. "I don't know about you, Gale, but nobody here wants this to happen. But no matter how much we want it to happen or not, it's going to keep happening. There's no way to stop the Capitol." Shayla turned away from him, and quickly made her way down the stairs. She refused to have this conversation again, especially in the middle of the village.

Shayla found her mother waiting for her on the outskirts of the square. Rooba gently touched Shayla's arm and gave her a sad look. She didn't need to ask "are you okay?" and Shayla didn't need to answer. They both knew she wasn't, and that she never would be. Instead, Rooba took her daughter by the arm and led the way back to their shop, to their home.

Shayla didn't bother eating lunch or supper. Instead, she did what she always did when she couldn't bear to hold back any longer. She crawled into her bed and burrowed deep under the blankets, letting the waves of sorrow wash over her. She cried until she couldn't cry any longer, and slowly sank into a deep sleep.

The next day was a painful experience, as she hadn't stuck around long enough to watch the train take Katniss and Peeta away. She had to face the reproachful looks that the citizens of Twelve sent her way when they glanced into her shop. It was tantamount to treachery to not see the tributes off. Shayla knew Peeta would understand, and that was all that mattered to her.

She spent the next night the same way as the previous, curled in the fetal position, waiting for sleep to take her away from the nightmares of reality. All she could see when she closed her eyes were images of Aren's death, of Peeta's inevitable demise, and the hateful looks of the citizens. She couldn't bear to watch another Hunger Games, not one where someone else close to her would die.

The morning came slowly, dawn creeping into the window of Shayla's room before she had even managed sleep. She wearily got out of bed anyway and put on her clothes. She was not looking forward to the long day she envisioned ahead of her.

Rooba was waiting for her in the kitchen, slowly chewing on a strip of beef. She had left out a few slices for Shayla, who sat down across from her mother and snatched a piece up. She chewed the tough meat without tasting it, gulping down a glass of water with it. Rooba finished before Shayla, and told her that she would be in the back room if she was looking for her. Shayla nodded and grabbed another piece of beef.

By the time Shayla was downstairs and opening the shop, the sun had risen fully. Tomorrow marks the beginning of the interviews. Shayla thought as she gazed out the front window of the shop. I can't get out of that. I'm going to have to watch, just like everyone else.

The day passed slowly, without much incident. Shayla lounged behind the counter in the shop, wishing desperately for some miracle that would spare her from watching the required programming in the morning. She cleaned the counter, the windows, the floors, anything to keep her from thinking about Peeta and the Games. Yet it wasn't nearly a good enough distraction.

It was sunset when the knocking came at the back door. Shayla jumped up out of her chair, surprised that Gale was still out hunting when Katniss was being held hostage in the Capitol. She rushed through the back room and yanked open the door, wondering what the Game would look like without Katniss's expertise. To her surprise, the game bag was filled just as it always was. Gale set it down on the doorstep and pulled out what looked like a whole warren of rabbits.

Shayla poked and prodded at the rabbits, taking in their plump size and relative health. She nodded, "they're decent for the time of year." Gale nodded his agreement, "I'll give you five silvers for the lot, and throw in an apple." Shayla told him, tossing in the apple at the last minute. He needs just as much comfort as I do, and something special like that could be helpful.

Gale allowed a small smile to grace his features, "you're not trying to make up for running off on reaping day, are you?" Shayla raised an eyebrow at him.

"Certainly not, there's nothing to make up for." Shayla reached into the back pocket of her pants and pulled out a tiny wallet that her mother had given her for meat-procuring purposes only. She counted out the five silvers and handed them over. "The apple's upstairs, you can come in for a minute while I go get it if you want." She offered as she scooped the rabbits into her arms.

Without waiting for a response, Shayla hustled over to the table where Rooba was working on a stack of venison. She set the rabbits on the table, told her mother who they were from, and turned to the stairs. Shayla hurried up them and grabbed the apple that she had spied earlier in the day. Her mother must have bought it yesterday when Shayla hadn't been paying attention. She won't be happy about this.

Shayla turned and thudded down the stairs, finding Gale waiting patiently at the bottom. She handed him the green-skinned fruit, which he took with a look of wonder on his face. Shayla grinned at him and escorted him back to the door. "I have a question," Gale ventured as he picked up the burlap sack. Shayla nodded. "Why did you give this to me?"

Shayla stood there for a second, not comprehending, as payment? She knew he hadn't meant it like that though. She, nor Rooba, had ever given anything as expensive as an apple to a customer or trader before. It just wasn't a normal occurrence. "I just felt that you could use a little bit of happiness." Strange, how a small fruit like the apple could bring someone joy.

Gale smiled a little bit at the thought before throwing the bag over his shoulder. "Thank you, Shayla." She gave him a small smile in return, as he was about to walk away.

"Hey, wait," she called after him. He turned back around, raised his eyebrows, and waited for her response. "How are you going to catch enough game to feed your own family and Katniss's?" He furrowed his brow.

"I'm not sure yet."

"Teach me how to hunt. I can help." Shayla blurted out without really thinking the whole thing through. Sure, her family could use the extra food, and it would be a handy skill to learn, but would he actually teach her? Or would he think she was just being silly?

Gale pondered her for a moment, "if you can meet me in the meadow at sunrise tomorrow, we can talk." He offered her another smile before he turned and set off in the direction of his house, the apple clutched tightly in his hand.

Please review guys! I hope you enjoyed! And, again, sorry for the long wait!