Hey there! A few people have responded to my story and it made my day for real! So a huge thanks to my first follower's singmesoftkitty1673, kbalius, and watermelongirl97 thank you guys so much! I hope you like this chapter and I will try to update regularly! So enjoy!

Suzanne Collins is the real mastermind behind all of this!

Chapter 2: The Reaping

I wake up early today, earlier than usual. I surprise myself that I am not up because of worry that my sister and friends could be reaped, but because I can't wait for my date with Peeta. I need to calm down, this isn't me. I don't want to get married because that leads to having kids, and I will not bring a child into the world only for that child to die by the Capital's hands. Then I hear it, "Katniss?"

It's Prim, "Yea?" I answer as I get up to go over to her on my mother's bed.

"I'm scared, Katniss. I am going to get picked! I know it!"

"No, you don't know that,"

"Do you?" Do I? Well no. But I know that if she did, I would do everything in my power to prevent her from being reaped. Even if that means volunteering.

"I do little duck. You won't go into that arena, I promise,"

"Ok. Katniss? Can you sing?" I used to sing a lot. With my father mostly, but now I only sing to comfort my little sister.

"Deep in the meadow

Under the willow

A bed of grass, a soft green pillow," after this line in the song, she joins me.

"Lay down your head

And close your sleepy eyes

And when again they open

The sun will rise" I glance over behind my sister to see my mother standing in the doorway. Watching her daughters singing.

"Here it's safe, here it's warm

Here the daisies guard you from every harm

Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true

Here is the place where I love you" We finish the song and I gently kiss Prim's forehead.

"I have to go meet some people, but I will be back before we have to leave"

"Alright," she says this with a smirk on her face.

"What's the smirk for?" This only makes her smirk more.

"Oh, nothing," she gives me a kiss on the cheek and runs out of the room. I roll my eyes, figuring out what she meant and get my jacket and boots on to go meet my friends for our tradition. We always sit in the meadow, eat bread courtesy of Peeta, and spend time together because we know that it could be the last time all three of us can. I am not the first one there; Peeta is sitting on the grass with a piece of bread wrapped up in a towel. He sees me and smiles. I do too.

"Well hey there," he shouts out.

"Hey to you too, are you nervous?"

"Yea, always am, but a little less because last year was Toby's last year so it is a little weight off my shoulders. You?"

"Absolutely, it's Prim's first year,"

"I forgot about that! I thought she had at least one more year,"

"She was so scared this morning, I sang to her to make her feel better,"

"I love it when you sing, all the birds stop to listen when you sing,"

"They did for my father," We then sit in silence for a minute, all to well remembering when we all went up to the cabin in the woods when my father taught the three of us how to swim at the lake. We were so tired afterwards that we just lay on the grass in silence, when he started to sing. It is one of my favorite memories. Just then Gale shows up.

"Look who came back from the dead," says Peeta.

"I can still whoop your butt being sick Mellark"

"Sure you can Hawthorne"

"Boys! It's not the day to see which one is stronger. How are you feeling Gale?"

"Eh, I am still sick as ever but not sick enough to miss the reaping apparently"

"Well I'm glad you could make it, I brought bread with the berries Katniss gave me yesterday," We eat the delicious bread Peeta made and lay out in the morning sun. We talk and laugh, but Peeta and I don't mention a word about the 'D' word to Gale. I think it's best he doesn't know. I don't think he will know unless something big happens, which it wont.

About an hour later we hear the clock above the Justice Building chime 1 o'clock. That means we have an hour to go home, get ready, and hope for the best.

"Well, may the odds be ever in our favor," I say just like Effie Trinket.

"She cracks me up every year because she looks so strange, last year she had blue hair!" says Peeta.

"Yea, she and Caesar Flickerman were matching," I reply.

"Well I think she is ridiculous and somehow rigs the drawing so that the town kids always get picked," says Gale.

"Not always," I reply. "Remember Lily Beet? She got picked four years ago,"

"She lived on the edge of the seam," he says.

"We better get going. The way you are talking is getting me nervous," says Peeta.

"Sorry dude, it's just what I think," says Gale.

"Peeta's right we got to go, see you later boys," And with that I give them each a hug and leave the meadow. When I get back home I see one of my mothers dresses from her merchant days. It is blue with a matching sash across the waist, and it buttons down to the bottom and is a little longer than knee length on me. After I take a bath and put the dress on my mother comes in and pins my hair back into an intricate braid. Everyone dresses up for the reaping just in case you get picked and are on television, we want to make it look like District Twelve isn't all drab and terrible.

After tucking in the bottom of Prim's shirt about six times we leave to go to the main square in front of the Justice Building. This is where my life could change forever. Prim and I sign in then Prim goes to the front with all the other twelve-year-old girls and I go with all the sixteen-year-old girls, and I soon find Madge Undersee, the mayors daughter, and stand with her. We usually pair up in gym and work on projects together; she is a good friend, not snotty or stuck up like a mayor's daughter should be. I see Peeta with the sixteen-year-old guys, and when I look back I see Gale with the eighteen-year-old guys. It makes me feel a little better to know that it's Gale's last year, even though he has his name in the glass jar 42 times, Peeta's name is in the glass jar 18 times and mine is in the girls jar 20 times, and Prim's name is in there once. As Effie Trinket and Mayor Undersee take the stage the last thought to cross my mind is "And may the odds be ever in our favor. Mayor Undersee says the same old speech of how the rebellion lead us into the dark times and how the Hunger Games, a match to the death between 24 children ages 12-18 helped bring us together. I can tell he hates this just as much as the rest of us. Then Effie takes over, "Welcome, welcome! Now, the time has come to select one courageous young man and woman, for the honor to compete as a tribute in the 74th annual Hunger Games! As always, ladies first." Every time her heels click on the stage my heart begins to beat out of it's chest, and all I can hope is that it's not me, not me, not me.

"Missy Waller," says Effie Trinket. I sigh with relief, Missy Waller is the only girl in District Twelve who walks around acting like she is from the Capital and probably hoped to get picked, and her parents own the jewelry store in town. She struts up to the stage and is smiling, smiling! The crowd lightly applauds, and Effie walks down to the boys bowl, my mind is screaming "Not Peeta, not Peeta, not Peeta," when Effie pulls the slip out of the bowl, she gently pulls apart the tape. I am about to march up there and do it myself when she does it and says the name I never wanted to hear,

"Peeta Mellark." My heart sinks into my chest; I want to fall to the ground and cry, when it happens.

"I volunteer, I volunteer as tribute!" screens Gale. I can't look, I am actually on the ground, and Madge has a hand on my shoulder. I can see from between people's legs that they hug and Peeta is talking to him silently, and Gale seems to be arguing with him. Gale eventually pushes Peeta back into the crowd and walks up onto the stage.

"Well, what a dramatic turn of events here in District Twelve. Now tell me what is your name?" Effie asks Gale.

"Gale Hawthorne,"

"What is Peeta to you?"

"He is my best friend," he shyly says.

"Didn't want him to steal all the glory huh? Well let me present this years tributes of District Twelve, Missy Waller and Gale Hawthorne." As they go to shake hands Gale sneezes into his elbow, just great he is going into the arena sick. They are escorted into the Justice Building when it sinks in,

Gale just saved Peeta, my kind of love, from death. And I may never see him again.