The hunger games but it's what primrose saw

Chapter One

When I woke up, I moved away from katniss. My fingers were too cold, I was seeking some warmth, or anything really. I'd had bad dreams and climbed in with my mother. Well, obviously I did, todays the day of the reaping. I was still pretending to be asleep. There's too much light in the bedroom to even go to sleep. My big sister, katniss, was propped up on her elbow looking at me. I knew what she was looking at, my mother. In sleep, she looks younger, still old, but not as sick of life. My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me. Sitting at my knees, guarding me, is the worlds most beautiful cat. It has a beautiful ginger nose, it may have lost an ear at some point of its existence but it was still just as beautiful to me. Not to katniss, she still hated it. It had beautiful brown eyes. Just like my sister. I named him buttercup, because his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower. It loves me. Or at least accepts me. He hates katniss. Even though it was years ago she tried to drown him in a bucket when I brought hi home. Beautiful kitten, belly as fluffy as clouds, it's face as beautiful as the night sky. My sister says the last thing she needs is an extra mouth to feed. But I begged so hard, I even cried, she was forced to let him stay. It turned out okay. My mother got rid of vermin and he's a bourn mouser. Even catches the occasional rat. Sometimes, when katniss cleans a kill, she feeds buttercup the entrails. He'd stop hissing at her. Entrails. No hissing. That's the closes they would become to love. Sister swung her legs of the bed and slipped into her hunting boots. The shoes fitter her perfectly, even moulded into her feet. She put on trousers, a shirt and tucked her long dark braid up into a cap and grabbed her forage bag. I made katniss a gift last night, there it was, sitting there, under the table, I tried to protect it from cats and rats, it was a perfect little goats cheese  wrapped in basil leaves. My gift to her on reaping day. She put the cheese in her pocket then slipped away outside. I was just imagining what it would be like out there. I was always too scared to go out there, especially on reaping day. Our part of district 12 was called the seam, usually it's crawling with coal miners heading out to there morning shift. People were scary, they had hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles and they'd all stopped cleaning their nails and their faces years ago. But today the midnight-black streets would be empty. Shutters on the rusty gray houses would be closed. The reaping wasn't until two. May as well sleep in. If you can actually sleep. Our house is almost at the edge of seam. I remember watching katniss go out in the morn no everyday. She only had to pass a few gates to reach the ragged field called the meadow. Separating the meadow from the woods, in fact enclosing all of district twelve, is a really tall link fence topped with curly loops. It's meant to be electrified twenty four hours a day so the wild-dogs, cougars, bears can't get in, but obviously it isn't. But we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evening, it is usually safe to touch. Even that won't convince katniss she's always there for about five minutes listening carefully for the hum it produces. Right now, it is silent as stone I can tell, by her face. I can't see where she goes from now on, except for behind a clump of bushes, I know there are weak spots in the fence, I have seen them before, even heard about them, while she was tali get to gale, of course. Electrified or not, that fence has kept a lot of the animals out of district twelve. Inside the woods p, they go where they want, but obviously there are no paths along. But there's also food if you know how to find it. Father taught katniss and I used to watch them do it, that was before he was exploded in a mine. Katniss says there was nt hing left of him to bury. I was only six then, katniss was eleven. She still wakes up, five years later screaming at the wall to run. Even though trespassing in the woods is illegal and poaching carries the worst of penalties. More people would risk it if they had more weapons. But I never see people go in there with just a knife. But katniss has a bow, father made her one that she told me she lost ages ago. I don't believe her, I think she keeps it in the wood. Father could of made money selling it, but instead he gave I to katniss, and he would of been publicly executed, so maybe he should of given it to katniss. Most of the peacekeepers turn a blind eye to my sister who hunts because there as hungry for fresh meat st the rest of them are. She said that they were in fact, there best customers. But the idea that someone might be arming the seam would never have been allowed. In the autumn, I would see people sneak into the woods to harvest apples. But always so they could see the meadow if they looked behind them. Always close enough to run back to the safety of district twelve if trouble arises. 'District twelve, where you can starve to death in safety' Eveybody says. My sister is always cautious of me repeating what she said as a child. But she won't tell me what she said, so why tell me not to say anything? Gale, he talks to katniss all the time, he always tells her 'you never smile except for when your are in the  woods'. He calls her catnip, I don't know why, never asked, never cared. He always makes her laugh, pretending he shot some water and other funny things like that. He always used to speak like Effie trinket, the manically upbeat woman who arrives once a year to read out our names at the reaping. He always used to say 'and may the odds, be ever in your favour'. He could be katnisses brother, straight black hair, olive skin, even the same grey eyes. That's why me and mother, with our light hair and blue eyes, always look out of place. We are. My mothers parents were part of the small merchant class that caters to officials, peacekeepers and the occasional seam customer. They ran and apothecary shop in the nicer part of district twelve. Since almost no one can afford doctors, apothecaries are our healers. My father got to know my mother because on his hunts he would sometimes collect medicinal herbs and sell them to her shop to be brewed into remedies. She must of really loved him to leave her home for seam. I try to remember that when all I can see is the woman who sat by, blank and motionless, while her children turned to skin and bones. I try to forgive her for my farthess sake. And it's quite easy for me to. Unlike katniss. Gale had two little brothers, he was always saying we would someday run off with them, me in the woods, as if. Gale was two years older than katniss, when I met him, he already looked like a man. He's good looking, he's strong enough to handle work with the mines, and he can hunt. There they are, they were finally back from the valley, they didn't know I waited here, if they did, they would kill me. They went by the hob on there way home, it was a black market that is set up in an abonded warehouse that once held coal. When they came up with a better system that transported coal straight from the mines to the trains, the hob took over the place. Most businesses are closed on the reaping day, but the black markets always busy. They go to the mayors house afte they go to the hob, they do this every day. And that Madge always answers the door she's in sisters hear at school. She's actually alright though, she just keeps to herself. Once they were done at the mayors house they would always walk back, but today it was in silence. Probably taking about the reaping system, it is very unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. You become eligible for the reaping when you become twelve. That year your name is entered once, at thirteen, twice. And so on and so on until you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, your name goes in the pool seven times. That's true for every citizen in all twelve districts in all twelve districts and the entire country of panem. But here's the catch. Say you are poor and starving, as we are. You can opt to add your name more times for tesserae. Each tesserae is worth a meagrez years of oil and grain for one person. You may do this for each of your family members as well. So at the age of twelve, sister had her name entered four times, one because she had to, and three for me, herself and mother. In fact, every year she needed to do this. And the entries cumalotige. So for me, at the age of twelve, my name will only be in there once. Gale, who is eighteen and has been either helping or single handed lay feeding a family of five for seven years will have his name in forty two times. I saw gale and katniss walking up, so obviously I got myself ready, and helped mother, now we were just waiting for katniss. Mother was wearing a fine dress from here apothecary days. I was in katnisses first reaping outfit, a skirt and a ruffled blouse. It's a bit big on me, but mother has made it stay with pins. Even so I'm having trouble keeping it tucked in in the back. A tub of warm water waits for sister. After she had had her bath she saw the dress mother had laid out for her, a soft blue thing with matching shoes. She wasn't sure, this dress was from mothers past time, it was special for her. She's putting her hair up now. "You look beautiful" I tell her in a hushed voice "and nothing like myself" she replies, hugging me, because she knows these next few hours will be terrible for me. My first reaping, I'm about as safe as you get, since Ive only entered once. Katniss wouldn't let me take out any tesserae. But I'm worried about her. That the unthinkable might happen. She protects me in every way she can, but she's powerless against the reaping. The worry I feel in my chest, she feels it to, but for me. " Tuck your tail in, little duck" she says smoothing the blouse back into place. I giggle and give her a small "Quack" "Quack yourself" she says with a light laugh. The kind only I can draw out of her. "Come on lets eat" She says as she plants a small kiss at the top of my head. The fish and greens are already cooking in a stew, but that will be for supper. We decide to save the strawberries and bakery bread for this evenings meal, to make it special, we say. Instead we drink milk from my goat, lady, and eat the rough bread made from the terrasa grain, although no one has much appetite anyway. At one o clock, we head from the square. Attendance is mandatory unless you are about to die. This evening, officials will come around and check to see if this is the case. If not, you'll be imprisoned. It's too bad, really they hold the reaping in the square- one of the few places in district twelve that can be pleasant. The squares surrounded by shops, and on public market days, especially if there's good weather, it has a holiday feel to it. But today, despite the bright banners hanging on the buildings, theirs an air of grimness. The camera crews, perched like buzzards on rooftops, only to add to the effect. People file in silently and sign in. The reaping is a good opportunity for the capitol to keep tabs on th population as well. Twelve to eighteen year olds are headed into roped areas marked off by ages. The youngest at the back, the oldest, like katniss, towards the front. Family members line up around the perimeter, holding tightly to one another's hands. But there are others, too, who have no one they love at stake, or who no longer care, who slip among the crowd, taking bets on who's twos names will get picked. Odds are given on their ages, whether their seam or merchant, if they will break down and weep. Most refuse dealing with the racketeers but carefully, carefully. These same people tend to be informers, and sister says who hasn't broken the law. She could be shot on a daily basis for hunting, but the appetites of those in charge protect her. Not every one can claim the same. Anyway, gale and sister told me that is they had to choose between dying between hunger and a bullet to the head they would choose a bullet to the head, it would be much quicker. The space gets tighter, more claustrophobic, as people arrive. The squares quite large, but not enough to hold distric twelves population of about eigh thousand. Latecomers are directed to the adjacent streets, where they can watch the event on screens as it's stelivised live but the state. I find myself in a club of 12s from the seam. We all look at each other, worried for our life, the focus our eyes on the temporary stage set up before the justice building. It holds three chairs, a podium, and two large glass bowls, one for boys and one for girls. I stare at the paper slips in the girls bowl. One of them has Primrose Everdeen written on them in careful handwriting. Two of the three chairs fill with mayor under see and his daughter. He's a tall balding man and Effie trinket, district 12s escort , fresh from the capital with her scary white grin, pinkish hair and spring green suit. They murmur to each other and then look with concern at the empty seat. Just as the clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. Katniss says it's the same story every year. He tells the history of panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lifts the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance reamined. The result was panem, a shining capitol ringed bu thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Them came the dark days the uprising of the districts against the capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteen obliterated. The treaty of treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the dark days must never be repeated, it gave us the hunger games. The rules of the hunger games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the  death. The last tribute standing wins. Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch. This is the capitols way of reminding us we are totally at there mercy. How little chance we would stand of  surging another rebellion. Whatever words they us the real message is clear. We want to kill you. Katniss says it makes it worse, they make you treat it like Christmas. The tribute who lives will get tin,Ive life happy. I wouldn't risk it. Then he says Lucy grays and haymitch Abernathy a middle aged man who didn't care. He looks drunk. The mayor looks distressed, probably because this is all being televised. I blanked out for the rest of her speech. I was too scared. Until I heard.
Primrose Everdeen

ALL RIGHTS GO TO SUZANNE COLLINS THIS IS JUST A HIT OF FUN. IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM AM I STEALINH