The Hunger Games: No Mercy

One

I wake up in bed alone. Prim, my 12-year-old little sister moved to Moms bed. Of corse she did, it's reaping day. Every year the Capitol forces 12-18 year olds into a death battle until there is only one remaining tribute. two from each twelve districts as a reminder of The Dark Days when we all rebelled against the Capitol.
Prim woke up screaming. I rush to calm her down. I took her in my arms. "Hey, Prim. Calm down okay? Your names only in there once. They're not gonna pick you." I assured. How could they? there are thousands of other names.
She nodded. I wiped the tear tracks from her blue eyes. She looks like our mother, blonde hair, blue eyes. They stand out from the rest of District 12. I myself have more of a Seam look. Black hair, grey eyes, and olive skin.
The Seam is a small part of District 12 that we nicknamed ourselves. But its home. I grab my jacket. It was my fathers jacket. But he died in a mining explosion. My mother locked everyone and thing out and stayed in her own little world.
She left Prim and I to fend for ourselves. I remember begging and screaming at her to come back but she just sat there in the wooden chair. So I became the head of the family.
I put on my hunting boots and walk out to the kitchen. "Katniss," I turn to Prim. "I left some cheese for you on the counter." she directed my attention to the basil-wrapped cheese on the counter. "Thank you," I said. I got her a goat a couple of years ago. It was supposed to die but Prim took good care of it.
She, like my mother, is a whiz with healing. I take the cheese and put it in my pocket. On my way to the back door I pass Buttercup, Prim's nasty old cat. He's named Buttercup because Prim thought the flower was somehow similar to his coat.
We'll never have a good bond. He was a waste a good food but when I tried to drown him Prim started crying and I couldn't turn her down. He hisses at me. "I should have drowned you when I could have." I hiss at him. I toss him a little piece of meat I had. No hissing= Food, No hissing= No problems. "But I'll still cook you."
I start the half an hour long trip it takes to get to the fence. When I get there I listen for the hum of the fence's life. Nope. Its supposed to be on full time. But its not. Crawl under it on my belly. I get to the log where a stash my bow and arrows and look for any prey. My father taught me everything.
I saw a deer and raised my bow. It must have sensed me for it hid. I lower my bow and grabbed some leaves. I crumpled them in the wind to cover my sent. I still couldn't find shoot the deer at this angle so I shot a stone a tree.
The deer moved and I raised my bow. I was about to shoot but then Gale came out and shouted something scaring it away. "Damn it Gale!" I shouted at him. That wasn't very helpful but he did scare away that deer. "What were you gonna do with a big Ole' deer anyway?" he challenged. "I was gonna sell it." I snapped. Gale and I have been best friends for years. He's a couple years older than me. I'm 16 and he's 18. We met when I was 12. I hadn't been very good at traps but I saw a rabbit hanging in the air and I tried to take it down, figure out how it worked. He caught me and thought I was stealing. But something kind of just clicked that day.
"Here," he murmured. Ge threw a rock and lots of birds flew ti the sky. I shot at them and hit a few. They fell. He collected them and I smiled. We went deeper in the woods. theres a pond there. We fished for a bit and then picked some berries. Gale found a patch and set some snares up to keep animals out. When we were done we sat on our rock.
Gale pulls a roll out of his pocket. "Oh my god, is this real?!" I split it with him. It's still warm. "I'd hope so, it cost me a squirrel for it." He said. "Oh, Prim left us from cheese." I unwrapped the cheese and split that. It melted in the bread. We also split some extra berries. He started his rant
about the Capitol. "We could do it you know," He suddenly says. "Do what?" I ask. "You know, live out here. Just keep going and never look back back." "We wouldn't make it 5 miles. And I couldn't, I have to take care of Prim. And you have your brothers." I said. There was a silence until we picked back up. " I'm never having kids." I said after a while.
" I might... if I didn't live here." he said. "But you do." "I'm just saying if I didn't."
We left the woods and I went to the Hob with my half of our hunt. The Hob is the black market we built out of a building for coal overload. Its illegal marketing, so I belong here. I get home soon.
I walk in and Prim's almost ready. She wears her hair in two braids. She also wears an oversized white blouse and a bland skirt. "Look it you!" I say.
I bend to her height. "Better tuck the tail in little duck!" I tuck the rest of the blouse in her skirt. "I laid something out for you, too." my Mom says to me. I get in our tub and take a cold bath.
When I finish I moms fancy blue dress in laid flat on the bed. This is special to her. But she wants me to wear it. I get dressed and my mom braids my hair and puts it in a twist. Then we leave.
Prim's in front of me as we walk as a crowd to the pens. But I get to her and pull her aside. "They're just gonna prick your finger a little, Okay? It doesn't hurt much." I assured. She nods. "Okay." She goes to the twelve year old's pen. I go to the sixteen year old's pen. We watch a video on the Dark Days and the reason for the Games.
Effie Trinket comes up stage to begin. She's Twelve's escort. "Good afternoon!" she begins. " Welcome to the 74th Hunger Games and May the odds be ever in your favor!" she says cheerfully. "Now as always..." she walks over to one of the glass bowls with thousands of names. One of them says Primrose Everdeen. She moves her hand to around, and then grabs one. Effie unfolds the slip of paper. With a deep breath her announces,
"Primrose Everdeen!"