Effie Trinket, escort of the District 12 tributes had already drawn a name from the males' glass ball, and Peeta Mellark, a baker's son was chosen.

Katniss looked made eye contact with her sister, who was with her own age group. "It will be okay," she mouthed, though she didn't believe it herself. The president had removed her name so that she wouldn't be picked, but he hadn't done the same for Prim. She would do anything, anything, to make sure Prim wasn't sent to the games.

Effie reached her hand into the glass ball, and Katniss trained her eyes on her hand as she drew the small slip of paper. Effie smiled, as if she wasn't about to give a child a death sentence, "Primrose Everdeen!"

Katniss froze and her eyes darted to Prim. Prim's face was horror stricken, and she took a small step forward. The guards calmly stalked towards Prim and grabbed her arms, dragging her to the stage, tears glistened in Prim's eyes. Katniss pushed her way through the crowd to the narrow walkway, her lungs screaming. She screamed, "Prim!"

The guards restrained her, keeping her from her sister, and she could barely process what was going on. Before she could even think it through, she screamed again, "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"

The guards stepped away from her and she rushed to Prim, hugging her briefly, "Go, run to mom now. Go, run as fast as you can."

Prim screamed and pushed her away, but Gale was there in an instant, dragging Prim away. Tears ran down her face.

"Well, it looks as though we have a volunteer," Effie said, and Katniss disgustedly faced her. Four guards, one one each side, escorted her to the stage.

Katniss walked, stunned at what had just happened, but Effie spoke, as if it were not the Games she was talking about, but a party. "District 12's first volunteer. I'll bet my hat that was your sister, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"Well. Katniss Everdeen," Effie clapped, and the crowd clapped with her, but a few people in the crowd didn't clap. They put their hands up in the three finger salute.

Effie gestured for Peeta Mellark to stand beside her, and Katniss finally looked at him, and she remembered.

She was laying against a tree, but the bakery. The President had left days earlier, and her family had begun to run out of food. Katniss had been leaving the rations to her family, and she hadn't let them know that she hadn't been eating.

A young boy stepped out of the bakery, and Katniss looked up. His mother was screaming at him, and then she shut the door. He hurried away and threw bread to their pigs. Then he noticed her by the tree. He looked behind him as if making sure his mother couldn't see him, and threw a loaf of bread to her.

Katniss gasped, but shook his hand. He was the boy that had saved her life years earlier.

Katniss was in a small room with just a projection on the wall. She was to say her goodbyes to all her family and friends.

The projection hummed to life, and the President's face appeared on the screen. She smiled, a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. She didn't say anything, but he spoke for her. "Why did you volunteer?" he spoke in his quiet, pissed off tone.

She shook her head. "Prim was chosen."

"You know once your chosen I can't take that back, don't you? I can't show favoritism. Especially since you wish to keep our relationship quiet."

"I couldn't let that happen to Prim," I whispered.

The rage was evident on his face. "You should've told me to remove her name as well, Katniss," he hissed. His hand reached across the screen, and it flashed off. The room was quiet once. Again.

A while later, Gale Hawthorne stormed in. Katniss sighed in irritation. "What now?" she asked.

Confusion flashed across his face, "has anybody visited?"

Katniss froze. "No…?"

Gale gazed at her with suspicion. "Well, I wasn't coming her to scold you, if that's what you thought it was. I came here to tell you that you were brave. You saved your sister. I would've done the same for you… if you were the same sex as I."

Katniss's face flushed red. "Gale, take care of my family."

He nodded, and he was about to say something, but the door opened and a guard came in. He escorted Gale out of the room.

Effie Trinket came in the room hours later, and escorted Katniss out of the room. They walked outside to a large train, and entered it. A man she recognized as Haymitch Abernathy, the last District 12 victor from many years ago, sat at a table, with Peeta Mellark seated across from him.

Haymitch grinned at her a gestured for her to sit. Effie Trinket retreated from the room while Katniss sat. She came back with plates of food and alcohol. She place the food on the table and sat in the chair opposite from Katniss's chair.

Haymitch and Effie automatically started their own conversation, completely ignored the two children seated beside them.

Katniss only wondered if she would survive.