Chapter 1

Katniss looked in the mirror at her body, she had bruises on both her arms when they held her down, and a bruise on her face for being home late. She left her bronze hair down and flipped to the side to attempt to cover the bruise. She thought about last night, she was in the woods late trying to get more food to please mother, but along the way she got shoved into an alleyway.

If Peeta hadn't come down the ally when he did, the men would have taken more then a few buttons off her top. She knew tomorrow there will be a new story about her, she should be used to this she though, all the men trying forcefully to get with her, her mom's abuse, the bullying at school.

Tears welled up in her green eyes, she wished her adopted father would have left her to die in the woods when she was a child. Then everyone's lives would be better. She didn't remember much about before she was found in the woods, but she sure remembered someone because the only word that came out of her 5 year old mouth was Finnie.

She wondered what she did as a child to make her family leave her in the woods to die. The other kids' hurtful words come to mind, "why don't you just die, nobody would miss you any way." She thought about how true it is, she would kill herself but Prim needs her, Katniss knows she hates her to but if she died nobody would put food on the table.

She put a hand over her locket, it was comforting because it was from home the seashell with a k pendant on one side and a seahorse one on the other on the inside was a picture of her and an older boy who she assumed to be Finnie. She was on his back, and they were smiling, they looked so happy, she wondered if he missed her, or was looking for her in some way.

"Katniss." Mrs. Everdeen shrieked pulling her out of her thoughts, here we go she thought. She looked in the mirror one last time before bending down to pickup her shirt. She put it on before leaving the tiny bathroom to face the horrors of the day. She walked into the main room and the first thing she hears is "why is there no food on this table, I thought we had an agreement. You put food on this table and you can stay here." Mrs. Everdeen states

"I did put food on the table, I put it there last night." Katniss argues "I don't care about last night," Mrs. Everdeen shouts as she stands up and makes her way over to Katniss "I care about this morning, why is there no food in this house right now." She ends the sentence with slap across her cheek.

Katniss puts a hand over her stinging cheek "I hadn't had time to go hunting today, mother." She says in a wavering voice. "I am not your mother, you might live in this house but you are nothing to me," grabbed her hair "from now on you will address me as ma'am, you hear me." "Yes, ma'am," she replied quietly "Good, now you better get food on this table, before you go to school, and before Prim wakes." growls "yes ma'am," is all she says as she turns and leaves the house.

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Katniss walks through the woods with her game bag pretty much empty except for a few skinny squirrels, she looks and sees she has about an hour before wakes up Prim. She decides to go to the bakery then head home, when she reached the Bakery's back door, Peeta opens the door and starts talking before she even knocked, "Katniss are you ok, after they tried to-" "I know Peeta I was the one they tried to rape, but thanks for helping me out most people would have left me." She replied gratefully. Peeta is the only person in the district other then Madge who treats her well. "I have some squirrels to trade." Katniss tells him "and I have some bread for your squirrels." He replied with a smile, and for some odd reason Katniss smiled back. She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear. "Well let's get back to trading." She chuckled nervously.

Katniss traded three of her four squirrels for a fresh loaf of bread, and as she was walking away she heard Peeta call out to her "Katniss, wait." She turned to face him as he was running to catch up with her, the sight put butterflies in her stomach. He stopped in front of her, "I have a question, to...um..ask you," he stuttered "yes, Peeta," she replied urging him to continue.

"wi-will...you..um, how do I say this," Peeta kept stuttering "it's ok Peeta, just say it, no need to be all jittery about it." Katniss reassured him, Peeta took a deep breath before continuing "Katniss, will you-" he gets cut off by Leevy a girl from school who mainly bullies her "eww Peeta, I can't believe you stooped down so low to come to the district whore." She exclaimed.

Katniss' eyes dropped to the dusty coal covered dirt road as tears stung her eyes. "Didn't you hear she slept with three guys last night." She said in a condensing tone. She should have guessed that they would say that she slept with them, it always happen with the guys that try. It's the same story they toss her in an alleyway and she fights them off, but they tell everyone that she slept with them, after all she had to get the title whore from somewhere.

Leevy turned to her and started making jabs at her, "how much did you pay him to pretend to care about you," Peeta tries nicely to make her stop but it doesn't work "you know because nobody could ever love you, you own family left you to die, why don't you give them what they wished for years ago." She goes to make another rude remark about her, when Peeta yells "enough, you know nothing about her life, why don't you go pick on someone else for a change."

Leevy snorts " must have been a hell of a lot of money you paid him, or maybe it wasn't even money at all, slut," she turns and walks away but before she does she turns to Peeta," I expected more from you."is all she says before she walks away. Peeta goes to tell her none of it was true but, but she couldn't get the question out of her mind, would everyone be better off if I just die.

AN: thank you for whoever is reading this, I hope that you will leave comments, ideas. Thanks again