No. Not her. Why her? Katniss' sweet innocent sister. The sweet girl who drags Katniss to see the cakes I decorate for the bakery's front window everyday. Her name is only in there once.

I know what will happen next before it even happens. And I'm powerless to stop it. I watch as the crowd of girls opens up for the small twelve year old to make her way to the stage. The back of her blouse is untucked creating a sort of duck tail, the reason Katniss calls her little duck. It pains me to see what happens next.

"Prim!" I hear Katniss' strangled cry. She begins to make her way through the crowd."Prim!" The others make room for her as she rushes to her sister. She reaches Prim just as she reaches the steps. She shoves Prim behind her and Speaks the words I never wanted to hear leave her lips though I've heard it in my nightmares many times.

"I volunteer!" she gasps, "I volunteer as tribute!" No! Why? She's going into the area by her own choice. I knew she wouldn't let Prim go but I hate it. It's very unlikely she will come back. In District 12 tribute is pretty much the same word as corpse. Why Katniss? Why are you so selfless as to put your sister's life before your own?

"Lovely!" says Effie, "But I believe there's a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers, and if one does come forth then we, um..." she trails off clearly puzzled.

"What does it matter?" says the mayor. He looks at her with slit recognition. Has he traded with her before?"What does it matter? Let her come forward. " Prim begins sceaming. She clings to Katniss tightly.

"No, Katniss! No! You can't go!" she cries.

"Prim, let go," Katniss says harshly, obviously trying not to cry, "Let go!" Gle goes over and picks Prim up and she trashes in his arms. He says something I don't quite catch to Katniss before carrying Prim back to her mother. Katniss climbs the steps, her face expressionless.

"Well, bravo!" gushes Effie. "That's the spirit of the Games! What's your name?"

"Katniss Everdeen." she says steadily.

"I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we? Come on, everybody! Let's give a big round of applause to our newest tribute!" trills Effie.

Not one person claps. The whole of District 12 respects her too much for that. Instead there is silence. Then I start something that you can tell Katniss did not expect. I touch the middle three fingers of my left hand to my lips and raise up to her. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means goodbye to someone you love. One by one, others join me until the whole district is raising their hands to her in a sort of salute.

She looks about ready to cry, but the Haymitch chooses to come staggering across the stage to congratulate her. "Look at her. Look at this one! Lots of ...Spunk! More than you!" he starts staggering to the front of the stage, "More than you!" he shouts pointing at the camera. Is he really so drunk he's taunting the Capital? Then he tumbles off the stage and knocks himself unconscious.

When the cameras all turn to him, I see Katniss release a sob before composing herself back to a stone like state, her hands placed behind her back, her eyes trained into the distance looking at the woods that have become her safe haven.

Haymitch is carried away and Effie Trinket tries to take back the attention of the crowd. "What an exiting day!" she says cheerfully, much to my distress. "But more excitement to come! It's time to choose our boy tribute!" She struggles to hold the ugly mass she calls a wig on her head and plucks the first slip she encounters. And my heart stops when she reads the name.

"Peeta Mellark!"

No! Why me? Why with her?
Katniss watches me like a hawk, her stormy gaze following me as I reach my place on the stage, my blue eyes meeting hers for a brief moment and I see the recognition in her eyes. She remembers! Effie asks for volunteers but no one steps forward. My brother does not care for me as Katniss does for Prim. As the Mayor begins reading the Treaty of Treason- it's required- I begin to allow my thoughts wander back to that day on the rain, five years ago.

Katniss' father had died earlier that year and her family was starving. She had become so desperate she had been digging in the trash bin for scraps for her starving sister and depressed mother. It was raining heavily and I had begun to make the bread my mother had told me to put in the oven under threat of a beating when I heard a commotion out back.

I peered past my mother to see the skeleton-like Katniss putting the cover back on the trash bin and backing away slowly. She scrambled behind a tree across the muddy path. My mother pushed past me to go help a customer. I went to take the bread out and thinking back to that beautiful face that had always been so full of hope and cheerfulness, now sunken in with dull eyes, I drop the loaves at the edge of the fire, burning some the outside black. My mother began screaming again and hit me with a rolling pin. She pushed me out the door and pointed at the pig pen. "Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burnt bread!"

I began tearing off burn parts trying to save the good parts for Katniss and when the bell rang my mother disappeared to help the customer. I could feel Katniss staring at me, he desperate eyes curious, not knowing this is what I had planned even if it meant the beating.

I took one look back at the bakery, and then turning back to the pig, I looked at her out of the corner of my eyes and threw first one then the other loaf of bread at her feet. I knew she would question it, but in her situation she wouldn't turn down that bread. After I closed the kitchen door, I saw her through the window, desperately stuffing the bread in her shirt and ran as fast as she could towards the seem.

The next day, I watched her at school. I caught her staring at my now black eye, asking me why with her eyes. To not betray her, I didn't acknowledge her. When she collected her tiny sister, She caught me staring at her. Our eyes met for a second, but I turned my head away knowing I would never have the courage to answer the question she asks with her eyes. When I looked back to her, she had bent down and picked up a dandelion, a small smile crossing her face, a hopeful look in her eyes as she took Prim's hand and sprinted home.

Since that day, she caught me staring at her several times. I feel like I should talk to her but I can't. She is like a wild animal. Always defensive and very solitary. The only person she talks to is Gale Hawthorn. They both lost their fathers in the same accident and have become hunting partners to take care of their families. Ive heard rumors that they are dating, but I've never seen any real proof. Not that I'd want to.

The mayor finishes the treaty and motions for us to shake hands. Her small shaky hand is warm as I fold mine gently but firmly around it. I look into her eyes and give her hand a reassuring squeeze. An unspoken promise to protect her. I will kill as many as I can before I fall to try to give her a better chance to make it home to her sister. I just she's not the one to make me fall.

But the odds haven't exactly been in my favor lately.

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Hey took me forever but I updated again. I lost interest but I got inspired again and will update as often as I can when basket ball ends. This story is harder to write because I want to make it right. I'm taking all the dialogue from the book and I don't want to miss details. I love Peeta and want to get his feelings right. I'll update as soon as I can. Until next time. See you all soon. I'm also updating help me make it through the night today to so make sure to check that out. Thats getting updated more often than this, which makes me feel bad to have neglected Peeta's story.

Love y'all
Rock on!
-Kayla