Holding on ( A hunger games story)

The Reaping

A/N: OH MY GOSH! So like I didn't even realize how long its been since I updated! Don't hate me!!!!! I have decided to make this chapter really long and really good because its been so long! I had some people give me tribute names so those will be used, thanks guys! So in case you forgot.. lets recap!

1. The Capitol Games is happening.

2. Peeta is completly cured of everything President Snow had done to him.

3. Romance between Katniss and Gale is starting to pick up.

Those were the three main points.... but anyways lets begin!

I stand backstage talking with Haymitch, Gale and Johanna, discussing strategies and alliances. We don't know the tributes yet but we figure a little planning could do no harm. A breeze blows toward the stage, causing the curtain to go backwards and brush against my hand. I jump around thinking someone is behind me and the three others look at me strangely.

"Sorry, I guess I'm a little jumpy!" I said embarresed and Gale threw is arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer. I was nearly as tall as him and only came up to his neck, so it wasn't very hard to place my head onto his shoulder and breath deeply.

"We are all jumpy catnip, this is what any of expected." Gale said and stroked my hair. Ever since we had both found out about the games, we had been comforting each other at our weakest moments, and to be honest there had been a lot of those.

"He's right Katniss, none of us expected the Capitol to actually start another game." Her emphasis on the word didn't show how truly disgusted she was. I could tell because she had told me I don't even know how many times.

"You guys are both right, but that doesn't change anything. The games are still going on and this time there will be no stopping them. Now we have to talk strategy, before they announce the names. So what does everybody got?" He rubbed his hands together in an eagerly way, even though everyone was aware of how much Haymitch hated the games. I figured that even though it had been years he has fallen back into the old system. I suspect it won't be to long before he comes stumbling out of a room drunk on the nearest thing he can find. I sigh quietly and only Gale seems to hear and he glances at me.

"We have to pick strong tributes, that means you Katniss." He said it strongly and with such force that I was taken back and stepped slightly away. "Look here is how I see it, you three have been in the games. I haven't but I have watched them and I have been in war. There was a reason they choose me to be a mentor as other people who fought. All three of you have seen how the games are in person and though I have only seen through a screen I still know what qualities the tributes have to have."

I looked at him with almost a terrified experission. This wasn't the Gale that held me when I cried or took care of our children. This is the Gale that told me that I had to win the games, the one that demanded things and expected to get them, because they were neccesary.

"Katniss he is right again. We have what it takes to win games, obviously. We have to pick the tributes that have a chance, it isn't fair to them if we don't. We are probably the trainers there are, and if we all go for the ones that don't have a chance then how is that fair to the ones who do? We could help them, make them better, we could actually help them win. Look, I don't like this any more than you do but in the end... do you want a tribute that you can help win, or someone you are just going to give false hope too?" Johanna said with a tone of comfort in her a voice.