Gale's Story (Hunger Games fanfiction)

The Hunger Games: Chapter 2

This chapter is dedicated to CamCamtheGeek for obvious reasons. :D I try to make this as accurate as possible. I got my own copy of The Hunger Games right next to me to go by. And just by chance, does anyone happen to know the names of Gale's siblings? I wasn't sure if the books told us so I just made up some names. If you know them though, please tell me. 

--LilGreenLeprachaun

I own nothing of The Hunger Games

Chapter 2: The Reaping

Katniss and I do pretty well fishing and gathering. By late morning, we catch twelve fish, a bag of greens, and a gallon of strawberries. I love strawberries.

We stop by the Hob, the black market of District Twelve, and trade six fish for bread and two for salt. In exchange for half the greens, Greasy Sae, a bony old woman who sells soup, gives us a couple chunks of paraffin.

Then we go to the mayor's house. He loves our strawberries and can afford them. Madge, who's the mayor's daughter, opens the back door when we knock. I don't know her that well, but I think Katniss does. They're in the same year at school.

She wears an expensive white dress, and her blonde hair in a pink ribbon. She's very pretty, in a doll kind of way.

"Pretty dress." I say genuinely.

Madge shoots me a look I can't decipher. Does she believe I'm genuine? "Well if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice don't I?" she says.

I can't tell if Madge is being serious or just joking with me. "You won't be going to the Capitol." I reply. Then I eye a small circular pin she wears. A mockingjay. During the Dark Days, the Capitol generated jabberjays as a weapon to get the districts' information. But they mated with mockingbirds, and so the mockingjay was born. The pin was real gold with beautiful details. That could feed my family for months. "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old."

"That's not her fault." Katniss steps in.

I shrug. "No, its no ones fault. Just the way it is."

Madge ignores me as she pays Katniss for the strawberries. "Good luck, Katniss."

"You too." she replies, and the door shut.

We're silent as we walk toward the Seam. Its obvious that Katniss is mad at me, but I'm right. Reapings are unfair. Your name is entered only once your first year, when you're twelve. And every year, another slip is added. That means I have seven slips in since I'm eighteen, right?

Wrong. You can add your name in more times in exchange for tesserae. A tessera is worth a meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person. You can do this for all of your family. So, my first year six pieces of paper had my name. And they're cumulative. So that means my name is entered forty two times this year, my last. Katniss, at sixteen, has her name in the reaping twenty times. The odds are not in our favor, while they are in Madge's.

I know its not Madge's fault. Its the Capitol's. They make things unfair so that we're divided. That we're angry at each other.

We walk back towards home, and as we do, I can feel Katniss' eyes on me. She thinks my anger is pointless. After all, the only thing I do about the Capitol is yell in the woods. Very pathetic. But one day, it won't be for nothing. We will get rid of the Capitol.

Katniss and I divide whats left, two fish, a couple loaves of bread, greens, strawberries, salt, paraffin, and some money.

"See you in the square." Katniss says.