Hey guys! I'm lovin the comments! Seriously! I love hearing from people who love Gale like I do!
Now, I'm too lazy to go grab the book from my room, so the conversations will be different.
And you don't have to read the book and/or watch the movie to read this. :)
Thanks for reading!
Chapter One
The woods have always been the same.
They've stood for years, never changing; keeping the same qualities that people like us could only dream of possessing; strength, bravery, rebelliousness, courage. Things that people in District 12 could never have.
Out of all 12 districts, District 12 seemed like the loser district to me. Coal miners, one victor. Peacekeepers who slack off for something as simple as a dead squirrel. People starving in safety. The Capitol didn't give a damn about us, and frankly, I wouldn't either. But District 12 is my home. It's where my mother and father were born. My brothers and sister too. It's where my best friend and her family were born.
It's where my father died.
My father was killed in a mine explosion while trying to support his family. People from the Seam never had enough to eat, and he was trying to change that. It's our fault. If we didn't live in District 12, we would all be fine. Maybe if we were in the power districts, like 1 or 2. Hell, if we were in the Capitol, too.
But District 12 isn't all bad.
Like I said, here you can starve in safety, which is saying something compared to some of the other districts. Here, the Peacekeepers will encourage mine and Katniss' illegal hunting, whereas maybe in other districts those who leave the fence will be whipped severely. But we'd never know. I only focus on the other districts during the time of the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live tv.
Each year, on Reaping Day, two names are drawn out of two glass bowls; a male and a female between the ages 12 and 18. Your name goes in there once at 12, twice at 13, and so on, unless you sign up for more to be put in to acquire more food for your family. It's never much, but it's something.
This year, my name is in there 42 times. 42 slips of paper with the name 'Gale Hawthorne' on it in careful handwriting in that glass bowl. 'Katniss Everdeen' written messily on 20 slips. And Prim, her 12 year old sister, in there once.
The only thing good about this Reaping day was that it is my last one. The bad part was that Katniss still had two more years, and I can't help thinking that with 20 slips, the odds were not in her favor today.
A slight bristling to my side heightens my hunter senses, and I turn sharply, ready to attack whatever animal is. But the cause of the noise emerges from the brush and I see that it isn't an animal. It's Katniss.
She smiles when she sees me and lets her arm holding her bow drop to her side. I smile back. Katniss only ever smiles in the woods.
"Hey there, Catnip." I say, using my nickname for her.
I know her real name is Katniss, but when we first met she had whispered her name, and I decided to tease by calling her Catnip. She's never lived it down.
"Hey Gale." she replies, stepping closer to me.
Katniss and I met when she was fourteen, and I, sixteen. There were really no boundaries between us, no lines we couldn't cross. Except, no romance. Katniss seems to have issues with love. Maybe it has to do with her mother. After her father was killed in the same explosion that killed my father, her mother basically stopped living. At least my mother tries to provide for us.
Her problems could also come from the Reaping. Falling in love could lead to marriage, then to kids. If there's one thing you could not do as a parent, it was protect your kids. There was nothing stopping the Capitol from taking your kid if their name was drawn.
"Have you caught any game yet?" she asks, as she starts to walk deeper into the woods.
I watch her backside as she walks away from me, before I shake myself out of it. Focus, Gale.
"Not yet, I was waiting for someone to roll out of bed on this fine Reaping morning." I reply, walking on behind her.
She laughed as she walked along, the bow in her hand almost itching to be shot. "That's funny Gale, because I vaguely recall having to wait for a certain someone before also."
I laugh with her, before quieting down as to not scare the game away. I see a bird fly by and land on a branch right as she sees it, and I get the pleasure of watching the muscles in her arm and back flex as she shoots an arrow right into its heart.
After she shoots, she turns her head to give me a challenging smile and a raised eyebrow. I raise mine back and smile.
The games begin.
We spend the next hour hunting for some game to sell at the Hobb for money and for our families. With her bow, and my snares, we make an unstoppable hunting team. Hunting partners are hard to find. I really don't want to lose mine.
After we finish, we still have some time to kill before we have to be back to change into our Reaping clothes. So we sit down in an empty patch of grass, leaning back on one elbow.
"We could do it, you know." I say, taking a risk, as I look out away from her.
"What?" she asks.
"Run off. Leave the district. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it." it's silent for a few seconds after I speak, so I add, "If we didn't have so many kids."
It's silent again, and I feel as if I've crossed the line. I can't help the feelings I have, though.
"I'm never having kids." I hear her say.
I turn to her, but she's looking away from me. "I might." I say. "If I didn't live here."
"But you do." she argues.
"Forget it." I snap, ending the conversation.
Time passes and it's time to face the harsh truth of Reaping day. We brush ourselves off and walk out of the woods, crawling under the fence again. It's an electric fence, but it's almost never on.
"Wear something pretty." I mutter to Katniss dryly as we part ways, but I'm not sure if she heard me.
Okay, so I was going to continue from there, until they draw Prim's name (like in the actual Hunger Games) but I'm suffering from like, serious writer's disease, where everything I write feels so bland. Sorry :/ Forgive me. Anyways, tell me what you think, because I actually read EVERY SINGLE comment! :D Love ya!