p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She's so light on her feet now that I don't even hear her coming. Not until she's pushing her way through the berry bushes and into the clearing where I've been waiting. I turn, just in time to see a shaft of sunlight turn her dark, braided hair a dazzling red in its glow. There's a distracted look of concentration on her face. Katniss, the only person who has ever successfully crept up on me. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I pull my legs up and over the rock ledge and stand to greet her. "Hey Catnip." I use her nickname even though there's not a lynx trailing her today. Which is a shame, since Peacekeepers pay good money for their pelts. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Her brow flattens and her pursed lips relax into a smile. Katniss only ever smiles in the forest. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Today though, I want to do better than a smile. I want to hear her laugh. So I raise the loaf of real bakery bread that I stuck an arrow into before she arrived, and say, "Look what I shot." /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It works, she laughs. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She takes it from me and I watch with fondness blooming in my chest as she tears the loaf and inhales deeply. "Mm, still warm," she sighs. "What did it cost you?" /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Just a squirrel," I lie. Because otherwise she will feel guilty for sharing it with me. "The old man was feeling sentimental this morning. Even wished me luck." It's believable because everyone knows Mr Mellark, the baker, is the most generous of the merchants. Though the same cannot be said for his wife, who charged me a rabbit and half a bag of raspberries for this loaf. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's worth it though. I'm happy to pay the steep price to watch the way Katniss's eyes close in delight as she sniffs the warm bread again. This could be the last meal we ever share together. Since I'll never convince her to leave this place with me. It should be special. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We could do it too, I know we could. She's nothing like the emaciated 12-year-old I found poking at my traps four years ago. She's skinny still, we both are. But she's strong too and her grey eyes are bright and sharp with life. It gives me hope just to look at her. I'm certain of it, we could really make a life out here together. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Well, we all feel a little closer today, don't we?" A joke. Nothing separates The Seam from the merchants more than Reaping Day. The odds are never in our favour. "Prim left us a cheese." /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Buying Prim that goat was the best gamble Katniss ever took. The cheese is always thick and creamy and I attribute Posy's pearly row of healthy teeth to the milk Lady provides. "Thank you, Prim. We'll have a real feast," I say, taking on the Capitol's stilted affect. Then with a smirk, I tell her, "I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!" I pluck a couple of blackberries from the bush that shelters us from the rest of Panem and chuck one in her direction. "May the odds," /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She catches it in her teeth and when she bites down the dark juice stains her lower lip. "Be /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"ever/span /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"in your favour!" She too mimics the accent of our Capitol escort Effie Trinket. With the same jolly tone the maniac always uses to summon our district's children to their deaths. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I prepare our meal, spreading the thick white cheese on hunks of the warm bread and garnishing it with basil. Katniss strips the bushes of their berries so that we can sell them at the hob or to the District Mayor who always pays prettily for strawberries. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Tucked in a nook in the rocks, we can preside over the woods like wildcats. Out here, we are powerful, dangerous, free. Top of the food chain. It's a stark contrast to our position in District 12. The Seam is the poorest part of the poorest district in Panem. We spend most of our lives trapped underground, mining for a substance that is slowly killing us. Inconceivably, this slow decaying of the lungs is the death most of us hope for. When the other option is to be crushed to death, far far underground in a mine collapse like our father's were, that becomes a little more understandable. Me and Katniss have spent time ranking preferable deaths. We both agree that the bullet to the head we would surely get if we were caught poaching, is far preferable to slowly starving to death. I want to die with the sun in my eyes like it is today. Running away. That's the only way I could ensure that fate. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""We could do it, you know?" I say, assuming Katniss will read my mind. She's one of the two people who can, the other being my mom, Hazel. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""What?" She doesn't. She's got a lot on her mind today herself, with it being Prim's first Reaping. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. We could make it, you and I." I say it casually, but my heart pounds in my chest. The frown she usually saves for our return to 12 wrinkles her forehead. I amend quickly, "If we didn't have so many kids." /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"There are four of them. Not our own, but as good as. Katniss has Prim, who turned 12 this year. I have two brothers, Rory and Vick, then the baby, Posy. None of them can hunt. We won't allow them to risk taking Tesserae. They have been completely dependent on us since our fathers died. Then there's Katniss's mom. Mrs Everdean haunts their meadowside home like a pale blonde ghost. There's no way Katniss could ever entrust Prim to her care. Hazel, even with her Seam grit, can't join the workforce in the mines with the little one to take care of. She picks up what precious work she can find, laundry mostly, but without my tesserae and game, she too would be left destitute. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I never want to have kids," Katniss says. Her cool grey eyes are fixed on a distant mountain peak. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I might. If I didn't live here," I say. My own Seam eyes are stuck on her. For the past six months, it's been like this. I just can't seem to look away. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We have known each other for a long time. Years. But it feels different now. I'm not so naive as to not understand why. We are almost grown and Katniss is easy to admire. Smart, determined, beautiful. Completely unaware of the effect she has on people, on me. That only makes her more endearing. These qualities have always defined Katniss, but it's only this year that she has begun to define me. I haven't told her this. I don't know if she feels the same. And today is not the right day to ask. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Her lip curls in irritation when she argues, "But you do." Katniss has many admirable qualities, but imagination is not one of them. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I snap, "Forget it." I'm not sure if it's shame or embarrassment I'm feeling. /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Of course/span/spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;", I would never leave our families to fend for themselves. But I don't understand why it vexes her so much to hear me dream when dreams are all we have. When she is the only person I can share them with. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Only some sullenness remains in her voice when she asks me, "What do you want to do?" She's changing the subject. That's for the best, probably. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We fish. By the time we have returned our poles to the brushy hiding spot near the lake, we have at least a dozen. If we survive the day, our families will celebrate with our catch tonight. Hunting keeps my hands and my mind busy. I am aware that this is the exact same technique The Capitol uses to control the districts. But it's effective. If we had enough time to really acknowledge that we are being worked to death, we might start to think to do something about it. I don't share these thoughts with Katniss today. But I have them a lot and sometimes I do. Because with her, out here in the woods is the only time I can free my ever-simmering rage. I worry that I'll explode where I could hurt the people I love if I don't. Katniss weathers my storms, but I think she would prefer for me to keep my ideas to myself. When she shushes me, she tells me it's because I'm scaring away all the game. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Katniss has a temper too. I've been stuck with the pointy end of it enough times. But it doesn't quite match the force for which I am named. Gale. Hers isn't eternal like mine. It comes in flashes, here then gone. A struck match on a cold night. And usually, her ire is more practically minded. Irritation at me scaring off dinner, for example. To her, my philosophical rants are a waste of hunting energy. It's not that I don't see her point. But if I didn't have my rage, some days, I don't think I would be able to get out of bed at all. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We leave the woods with enough time to trade at The Hob before we are expected back at home. The Hob is District 12's black market. Overlooked by the Peacekeepers who get fed on our game, the old, officially abandoned, coal warehouse is the most reliable place for us to sell our poached goods. It is also the closest thing in The Seam to a community hub. Despite its seedy reputation, I feel at ease here. Amongst the coal dust and the home-brewed liquor and the unwashed, haggard occupants, who have always welcomed me and Katniss as part of their own. I am never scared to come here. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I feel most out of place in the merchant's neighbourhood. Where they accept our trades but look at our coal-stained olive skin and pitch-straight hair with disdain. We are a district divided. It is those disgusted looks that prickle the hairs on the back of my neck as we pass through the high street in search of the Mayor's house. We Seam kids are unlucky. Today even more so than usual. I scratch the back of my neck with rough fingernails and scowl. I should have taken my opportunity to scream and shout in the woods when I had it. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The pale, oval face of the Mayor's daughter, Madge Undersea greets us at their back door. She's already dressed for The Reaping in a pristine white dress. It appears the coal dust doesn't blanket every surface this far into town then. I stare at the droopy pink ribbon tied in her blonde hair and try to imagine Katniss wearing something similar. I can't. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Pretty dress," I tell her. My voice is carefully neutral. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The smile she greeted us with remains, but a perplexed pucker of her fine brow gives away her unease. She can't tell if I'm making fun of her. When I give nothing away, she presses her lips into a thin pink line before surprising me by saying, "Well, if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don't I?"/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"My nostrils flare and a small excess of breath that could be mistaken for a laugh escapes me. Kids like Madge are never Reaped. "You won't be going to The Capitol," I scoff. There's no use in pretending we all stand the same chance. My eyes drift to the real gold pin that adorns her dress. I had to trade three day's worth of meat to buy Rory shoes without holes this winter. It's insulting. "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""That's not her fault." Katniss interjects protectively. This annoys me. The Mayor's daughter, the wealthiest girl in District 12, does not need Katniss's protection. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""No, it's no one's fault," I agree. "Just the way it is." This does nothing to lighten the mood. Madge hands Katniss the coins for the berries, wishes her luck and we are on our way. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We walk in silence, anger rolling off of us both. I know what she's thinking. That I shouldn't let them get to me. I know the Tesserae system is just another tool to keep us hating each other and not the state. When I scratch at Madge I play right into their hand. But Katniss should forgive me for it on a day like today. When the system affects the kids like me and her most. At sixteen years old, Katniss' name is in the girl's Reaping Bowl twenty times. Mine is written more than double that. Today either one of us could be ripped away from our families, leaving them to starve. Whilst Madge, in her pretty white dress and real gold pin, clutching the fresh strawberries that we collected, makes light of the occasion. If I've upset her, well, good. Most of us are upset today. She will live on and get over it. So I don't feel guilty. And it bothers me, that Katniss is taking her/span span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"side. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Back in our territory, we split our spoils. Fish, bread, greens and berries to feast on tonight as well as a small amount of cash and other essentials we traded for in The Hob. It's not a bad haul, for a holiday. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""See you in the square," Katniss says once we're all packed up. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dryly, I tell her to, "Wear something pretty." Which almost earns me an ironic laugh, but not quite. Maybe if I'd said it in the woods. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Back at home, I let Hazel fuss at me like I'm a child. The remaining water in the tub isn't exactly clean after three grubby children have been bathed in it. But it's not quite as dirty as I am and it's full of suds, so scrub myself with the grey water without complaint. At least it's summer. Trying to wash in the winter without contracting hypothermia is as unpleasant as it is stupid. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The only smart clothes that fit me are my father's dress shirt and pants. They're the ones he wore the day he married my mother. For a moment, she looks at me like I'm a ghost and I consider changing back into my filthy hunting clothes just to make her stop. I don't care much about looking decent for The Capitol and their cameras anyway. But then Hazel pulls me into a tight hug and tells me how proud she is of me right into my ear. Suddenly I'm glad to have something of his to wear to The Reaping. I imagine myself soaking up his strength through the worn fabric. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We gather and herd the kids out of the house with only minor difficulty. They know what today is, even though none of them are eligible to be entered this year. They know two children will be chosen this year and every year to be sent to die in the Hunger Games. They know that I could leave them today, never to return home. This knowledge has manifested itself in an abundance of hyperactive, attention-seeking behaviour. Pinching and hair pulling and attempts to trip one another up on the walk to the square. Hazel scolds and sighs at them. But part of me is glad to see them behaving so much like children. Besides, they straighten up as soon as they see the bright white uniforms of the Peacekeepers that are registering our entry to the square. We part ways after a quick kiss on the cheek and a ruffle of the kid's dark hair. Then I head to my assigned pen at the front with the other 18-year-olds. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I spot Katniss before she spots me. She gives Prim, who is eligible for the first time this year and terrified, one last tight squeeze. Then she marches forcibly down the aisle to the 16-year-old's pen. They make space for her, a couple of girls even nodding their respect as she settles into a spot. Katniss doesn't seem at all aware of her reputation as the district's best hunter. She just stares ahead stonily as the proceedings begin. It takes me a second to notice and erase the small smile on my lips. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"On the stage, my attention lands on a rather concerned-looking Effie Trinket. She and Mayor Undersea seem to be discussing the empty third seat on the stage. They're waiting for Haymitch Abernathy then. District 12's sole surviving victor. No doubt he's fallen down drunk in some ditch again since that's where he can usually be found. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"When the clock strikes two, our Mayor steps up to the podium to begin without him. Reaping Day follows a very strict schedule so that it's not inconvenient for the people in the Capitol to watch us be taken from our homes to die. Haymitch's drunken antics will not get in the way of the state putting on a good show for us today. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I tune out as Mayor Undersea prattles through the history of Panem. There used to be a whole world out there until we destroyed it with greed and war. Much of the land that once was North America has been swallowed by the sea. All that remained of the world was The Capitol and its 13 Districts. Then more war. The Dark Days, when the 13 Districts rose up in defiance. District 13 was destroyed, the rest of us defeated. Then came the Treaty of Treason and the games. Seventy-four years later each district is still sending one boy and one girl to fight to the death to remind us that we only exist at The Capitol's mercy. The whole thing is heavily televised and we are all required to watch. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"District 12 never wins. We've only ever had two victors in the entire seventy-four-year run. It might seem odd that this is a point of pride to me. But I like that we don't play into their games here. They can kidnap us, imprison us, even kill us, but they can't make us play their game. Not that we ever really stand a chance anyway. br /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The Districts that win the most are what we call Career districts. They are made up of Districts 1,2 and 4. Career tributes train for the games from a young age and then volunteer usually around 18, though not always. Finnick Odair is one of the most infamous living career victors and he won his games at just 14 years of age. With one of the highest recorded kill counts too. Now he lives his life as a celebrity heartthrob. Because that's the catch, if you win the games you don't just leave the arena with your life, you win fame and fortune too. It's /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I'm not saying I won't try to win if my name is called today. I still have a family to feed. I'm sure I would kill too. I'm a good shot after all and trapping people is only minorly different to trapping game. But to volunteer for the Hunger Games? Only a monster would do that. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I'm pulled out of my reverie by an unsurprisingly drunk Haymitch clambering onto the Reaping Stage and shouting something completely unintelligible. There's a smattering of applause which seems to confuse Haymitch, then he tries to pull our escort, Effie into a hug. It's unsuccessful. Effie pushes him away in disgust. I bet she'll be burning that outfit tonight. I turn to catch Katniss's eye to laugh, but her attention is still fixed on the stage. She must be worrying about Prim. We'll debrief later. Our Mayor, realising that once again, our tiny joke district will be the laughing stock of Panem, resigns the podium to Effie Trinket and her lime green suit. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Effie, recovering quickly from Haymitch's assault, totters up to the podium with her usual maniacal grin. With her pink hair and powdery skin, she looks like she's from a completely different species from the rest of us. Yet everyone in The Capitol seems to have decided that this is what qualifies as attractive. All its citizens are artificially died, bloated and stretched into vague caricatures of humanity. I don't think they realise just how hard the rest of us find it to even look at them. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!" Chirps Effie. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Once again, I find my attention drifting back through the crowd to Katniss. This time, she looks back. Our eyes connect and I'm punched in the gut with the reminder that she could be taken from me today. Her lips part and I realise she's thinking the exact same thing. Either one of us could be called today. Our names are in there enough times. My stomach twists. I look /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"As Effie proceeds towards the girl's Reaping Bowl only one thought rattles around in my head. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Not Katniss, not Katniss, not Katniss/span. Then Effie reads the card in her taloned hand and it's not Katniss. It's worse. It's Prim./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I pull my legs up and over the rock ledge and stand to greet her. "Hey Catnip." I use her nickname even though there's not a lynx trailing her today. Which is a shame, since Peacekeepers pay good money for their pelts. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Her brow flattens and her pursed lips relax into a smile. Katniss only ever smiles in the forest. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Today though, I want to do better than a smile. I want to hear her laugh. So I raise the loaf of real bakery bread that I stuck an arrow into before she arrived, and say, "Look what I shot." /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It works, she laughs. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She takes it from me and I watch with fondness blooming in my chest as she tears the loaf and inhales deeply. "Mm, still warm," she sighs. "What did it cost you?" /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Just a squirrel," I lie. Because otherwise she will feel guilty for sharing it with me. "The old man was feeling sentimental this morning. Even wished me luck." It's believable because everyone knows Mr Mellark, the baker, is the most generous of the merchants. Though the same cannot be said for his wife, who charged me a rabbit and half a bag of raspberries for this loaf. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's worth it though. I'm happy to pay the steep price to watch the way Katniss's eyes close in delight as she sniffs the warm bread again. This could be the last meal we ever share together. Since I'll never convince her to leave this place with me. It should be special. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We could do it too, I know we could. She's nothing like the emaciated 12-year-old I found poking at my traps four years ago. She's skinny still, we both are. But she's strong too and her grey eyes are bright and sharp with life. It gives me hope just to look at her. I'm certain of it, we could really make a life out here together. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Well, we all feel a little closer today, don't we?" A joke. Nothing separates The Seam from the merchants more than Reaping Day. The odds are never in our favour. "Prim left us a cheese." /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Buying Prim that goat was the best gamble Katniss ever took. The cheese is always thick and creamy and I attribute Posy's pearly row of healthy teeth to the milk Lady provides. "Thank you, Prim. We'll have a real feast," I say, taking on the Capitol's stilted affect. Then with a smirk, I tell her, "I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!" I pluck a couple of blackberries from the bush that shelters us from the rest of Panem and chuck one in her direction. "May the odds," /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She catches it in her teeth and when she bites down the dark juice stains her lower lip. "Be /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"ever/span /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"in your favour!" She too mimics the accent of our Capitol escort Effie Trinket. With the same jolly tone the maniac always uses to summon our district's children to their deaths. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I prepare our meal, spreading the thick white cheese on hunks of the warm bread and garnishing it with basil. Katniss strips the bushes of their berries so that we can sell them at the hob or to the District Mayor who always pays prettily for strawberries. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Tucked in a nook in the rocks, we can preside over the woods like wildcats. Out here, we are powerful, dangerous, free. Top of the food chain. It's a stark contrast to our position in District 12. The Seam is the poorest part of the poorest district in Panem. We spend most of our lives trapped underground, mining for a substance that is slowly killing us. Inconceivably, this slow decaying of the lungs is the death most of us hope for. When the other option is to be crushed to death, far far underground in a mine collapse like our father's were, that becomes a little more understandable. Me and Katniss have spent time ranking preferable deaths. We both agree that the bullet to the head we would surely get if we were caught poaching, is far preferable to slowly starving to death. I want to die with the sun in my eyes like it is today. Running away. That's the only way I could ensure that fate. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""We could do it, you know?" I say, assuming Katniss will read my mind. She's one of the two people who can, the other being my mom, Hazel. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""What?" She doesn't. She's got a lot on her mind today herself, with it being Prim's first Reaping. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. We could make it, you and I." I say it casually, but my heart pounds in my chest. The frown she usually saves for our return to 12 wrinkles her forehead. I amend quickly, "If we didn't have so many kids." /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"There are four of them. Not our own, but as good as. Katniss has Prim, who turned 12 this year. I have two brothers, Rory and Vick, then the baby, Posy. None of them can hunt. We won't allow them to risk taking Tesserae. They have been completely dependent on us since our fathers died. Then there's Katniss's mom. Mrs Everdean haunts their meadowside home like a pale blonde ghost. There's no way Katniss could ever entrust Prim to her care. Hazel, even with her Seam grit, can't join the workforce in the mines with the little one to take care of. She picks up what precious work she can find, laundry mostly, but without my tesserae and game, she too would be left destitute. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I never want to have kids," Katniss says. Her cool grey eyes are fixed on a distant mountain peak. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I might. If I didn't live here," I say. My own Seam eyes are stuck on her. For the past six months, it's been like this. I just can't seem to look away. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We have known each other for a long time. Years. But it feels different now. I'm not so naive as to not understand why. We are almost grown and Katniss is easy to admire. Smart, determined, beautiful. Completely unaware of the effect she has on people, on me. That only makes her more endearing. These qualities have always defined Katniss, but it's only this year that she has begun to define me. I haven't told her this. I don't know if she feels the same. And today is not the right day to ask. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Her lip curls in irritation when she argues, "But you do." Katniss has many admirable qualities, but imagination is not one of them. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I snap, "Forget it." I'm not sure if it's shame or embarrassment I'm feeling. /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Of course/span/spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;", I would never leave our families to fend for themselves. But I don't understand why it vexes her so much to hear me dream when dreams are all we have. When she is the only person I can share them with. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Only some sullenness remains in her voice when she asks me, "What do you want to do?" She's changing the subject. That's for the best, probably. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We fish. By the time we have returned our poles to the brushy hiding spot near the lake, we have at least a dozen. If we survive the day, our families will celebrate with our catch tonight. Hunting keeps my hands and my mind busy. I am aware that this is the exact same technique The Capitol uses to control the districts. But it's effective. If we had enough time to really acknowledge that we are being worked to death, we might start to think to do something about it. I don't share these thoughts with Katniss today. But I have them a lot and sometimes I do. Because with her, out here in the woods is the only time I can free my ever-simmering rage. I worry that I'll explode where I could hurt the people I love if I don't. Katniss weathers my storms, but I think she would prefer for me to keep my ideas to myself. When she shushes me, she tells me it's because I'm scaring away all the game. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Katniss has a temper too. I've been stuck with the pointy end of it enough times. But it doesn't quite match the force for which I am named. Gale. Hers isn't eternal like mine. It comes in flashes, here then gone. A struck match on a cold night. And usually, her ire is more practically minded. Irritation at me scaring off dinner, for example. To her, my philosophical rants are a waste of hunting energy. It's not that I don't see her point. But if I didn't have my rage, some days, I don't think I would be able to get out of bed at all. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We leave the woods with enough time to trade at The Hob before we are expected back at home. The Hob is District 12's black market. Overlooked by the Peacekeepers who get fed on our game, the old, officially abandoned, coal warehouse is the most reliable place for us to sell our poached goods. It is also the closest thing in The Seam to a community hub. Despite its seedy reputation, I feel at ease here. Amongst the coal dust and the home-brewed liquor and the unwashed, haggard occupants, who have always welcomed me and Katniss as part of their own. I am never scared to come here. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I feel most out of place in the merchant's neighbourhood. Where they accept our trades but look at our coal-stained olive skin and pitch-straight hair with disdain. We are a district divided. It is those disgusted looks that prickle the hairs on the back of my neck as we pass through the high street in search of the Mayor's house. We Seam kids are unlucky. Today even more so than usual. I scratch the back of my neck with rough fingernails and scowl. I should have taken my opportunity to scream and shout in the woods when I had it. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The pale, oval face of the Mayor's daughter, Madge Undersea greets us at their back door. She's already dressed for The Reaping in a pristine white dress. It appears the coal dust doesn't blanket every surface this far into town then. I stare at the droopy pink ribbon tied in her blonde hair and try to imagine Katniss wearing something similar. I can't. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Pretty dress," I tell her. My voice is carefully neutral. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The smile she greeted us with remains, but a perplexed pucker of her fine brow gives away her unease. She can't tell if I'm making fun of her. When I give nothing away, she presses her lips into a thin pink line before surprising me by saying, "Well, if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don't I?"/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"My nostrils flare and a small excess of breath that could be mistaken for a laugh escapes me. Kids like Madge are never Reaped. "You won't be going to The Capitol," I scoff. There's no use in pretending we all stand the same chance. My eyes drift to the real gold pin that adorns her dress. I had to trade three day's worth of meat to buy Rory shoes without holes this winter. It's insulting. "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old."/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""That's not her fault." Katniss interjects protectively. This annoys me. The Mayor's daughter, the wealthiest girl in District 12, does not need Katniss's protection. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""No, it's no one's fault," I agree. "Just the way it is." This does nothing to lighten the mood. Madge hands Katniss the coins for the berries, wishes her luck and we are on our way. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We walk in silence, anger rolling off of us both. I know what she's thinking. That I shouldn't let them get to me. I know the Tesserae system is just another tool to keep us hating each other and not the state. When I scratch at Madge I play right into their hand. But Katniss should forgive me for it on a day like today. When the system affects the kids like me and her most. At sixteen years old, Katniss' name is in the girl's Reaping Bowl twenty times. Mine is written more than double that. Today either one of us could be ripped away from our families, leaving them to starve. Whilst Madge, in her pretty white dress and real gold pin, clutching the fresh strawberries that we collected, makes light of the occasion. If I've upset her, well, good. Most of us are upset today. She will live on and get over it. So I don't feel guilty. And it bothers me, that Katniss is taking her/span span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"side. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Back in our territory, we split our spoils. Fish, bread, greens and berries to feast on tonight as well as a small amount of cash and other essentials we traded for in The Hob. It's not a bad haul, for a holiday. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""See you in the square," Katniss says once we're all packed up. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Dryly, I tell her to, "Wear something pretty." Which almost earns me an ironic laugh, but not quite. Maybe if I'd said it in the woods. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Back at home, I let Hazel fuss at me like I'm a child. The remaining water in the tub isn't exactly clean after three grubby children have been bathed in it. But it's not quite as dirty as I am and it's full of suds, so scrub myself with the grey water without complaint. At least it's summer. Trying to wash in the winter without contracting hypothermia is as unpleasant as it is stupid. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The only smart clothes that fit me are my father's dress shirt and pants. They're the ones he wore the day he married my mother. For a moment, she looks at me like I'm a ghost and I consider changing back into my filthy hunting clothes just to make her stop. I don't care much about looking decent for The Capitol and their cameras anyway. But then Hazel pulls me into a tight hug and tells me how proud she is of me right into my ear. Suddenly I'm glad to have something of his to wear to The Reaping. I imagine myself soaking up his strength through the worn fabric. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"We gather and herd the kids out of the house with only minor difficulty. They know what today is, even though none of them are eligible to be entered this year. They know two children will be chosen this year and every year to be sent to die in the Hunger Games. They know that I could leave them today, never to return home. This knowledge has manifested itself in an abundance of hyperactive, attention-seeking behaviour. Pinching and hair pulling and attempts to trip one another up on the walk to the square. Hazel scolds and sighs at them. But part of me is glad to see them behaving so much like children. Besides, they straighten up as soon as they see the bright white uniforms of the Peacekeepers that are registering our entry to the square. We part ways after a quick kiss on the cheek and a ruffle of the kid's dark hair. Then I head to my assigned pen at the front with the other 18-year-olds. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I spot Katniss before she spots me. She gives Prim, who is eligible for the first time this year and terrified, one last tight squeeze. Then she marches forcibly down the aisle to the 16-year-old's pen. They make space for her, a couple of girls even nodding their respect as she settles into a spot. Katniss doesn't seem at all aware of her reputation as the district's best hunter. She just stares ahead stonily as the proceedings begin. It takes me a second to notice and erase the small smile on my lips. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"On the stage, my attention lands on a rather concerned-looking Effie Trinket. She and Mayor Undersea seem to be discussing the empty third seat on the stage. They're waiting for Haymitch Abernathy then. District 12's sole surviving victor. No doubt he's fallen down drunk in some ditch again since that's where he can usually be found. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"When the clock strikes two, our Mayor steps up to the podium to begin without him. Reaping Day follows a very strict schedule so that it's not inconvenient for the people in the Capitol to watch us be taken from our homes to die. Haymitch's drunken antics will not get in the way of the state putting on a good show for us today. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I tune out as Mayor Undersea prattles through the history of Panem. There used to be a whole world out there until we destroyed it with greed and war. Much of the land that once was North America has been swallowed by the sea. All that remained of the world was The Capitol and its 13 Districts. Then more war. The Dark Days, when the 13 Districts rose up in defiance. District 13 was destroyed, the rest of us defeated. Then came the Treaty of Treason and the games. Seventy-four years later each district is still sending one boy and one girl to fight to the death to remind us that we only exist at The Capitol's mercy. The whole thing is heavily televised and we are all required to watch. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"District 12 never wins. We've only ever had two victors in the entire seventy-four-year run. It might seem odd that this is a point of pride to me. But I like that we don't play into their games here. They can kidnap us, imprison us, even kill us, but they can't make us play their game. Not that we ever really stand a chance anyway. br /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The Districts that win the most are what we call Career districts. They are made up of Districts 1,2 and 4. Career tributes train for the games from a young age and then volunteer usually around 18, though not always. Finnick Odair is one of the most infamous living career victors and he won his games at just 14 years of age. With one of the highest recorded kill counts too. Now he lives his life as a celebrity heartthrob. Because that's the catch, if you win the games you don't just leave the arena with your life, you win fame and fortune too. It's /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I'm not saying I won't try to win if my name is called today. I still have a family to feed. I'm sure I would kill too. I'm a good shot after all and trapping people is only minorly different to trapping game. But to volunteer for the Hunger Games? Only a monster would do that. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I'm pulled out of my reverie by an unsurprisingly drunk Haymitch clambering onto the Reaping Stage and shouting something completely unintelligible. There's a smattering of applause which seems to confuse Haymitch, then he tries to pull our escort, Effie into a hug. It's unsuccessful. Effie pushes him away in disgust. I bet she'll be burning that outfit tonight. I turn to catch Katniss's eye to laugh, but her attention is still fixed on the stage. She must be worrying about Prim. We'll debrief later. Our Mayor, realising that once again, our tiny joke district will be the laughing stock of Panem, resigns the podium to Effie Trinket and her lime green suit. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Effie, recovering quickly from Haymitch's assault, totters up to the podium with her usual maniacal grin. With her pink hair and powdery skin, she looks like she's from a completely different species from the rest of us. Yet everyone in The Capitol seems to have decided that this is what qualifies as attractive. All its citizens are artificially died, bloated and stretched into vague caricatures of humanity. I don't think they realise just how hard the rest of us find it to even look at them. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!" Chirps Effie. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Once again, I find my attention drifting back through the crowd to Katniss. This time, she looks back. Our eyes connect and I'm punched in the gut with the reminder that she could be taken from me today. Her lips part and I realise she's thinking the exact same thing. Either one of us could be called today. Our names are in there enough times. My stomach twists. I look /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"As Effie proceeds towards the girl's Reaping Bowl only one thought rattles around in my head. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Not Katniss, not Katniss, not Katniss/span. Then Effie reads the card in her taloned hand and it's not Katniss. It's worse. It's Prim./span/p