1. Chapter 1 (2/2)

"oh shut-up." she says in response.

"nice come-back babe." says will, resulting in another whack on the head. although, this time it was a little harder.

i shake my head side to side while smiling. "so have you caught anything" asks zeke.

"one turkey, two squirrels and four ferrets?" all my friends stared at me in awe.

"how long have you been out here for?" uriah asks.

"uuuum, what's the time now?" i reply.

"about 9:30." i count off the time in my head.

"roughly four hours." to this i get weird stares, i simply stick my tongue out at them.

"told you she lost it." christina says to will. he only nods his head; his face has a look of deep concentration.

"hahaha" i say with as much sarcasm as possible. "what have you guys been up to?"

shauna, lynn and mar all work at the local bakery. it's owned by shauna's, and lynn's of course parents. when mar was seven years old her parents both died from different events. her father, he died from the same coal mine explosion that killed my grandfather. her mother on the other hand died of grief leaving mar in the care of her aunt and uncle. coincidently, they were shauna's and lynn's parents.

all three boys work in the mines. they mostly come back from a hard day's work tired and often injured. although some how they manage to stay cheerful. that's the thing about the boys, no matter what day it is or events occurring, they always know how to make our circle happy. unfortunately, the mines have already taken so many loved ones from us. could it soon take more? still, we can't blame them, they need work to survive.

i was one of the lucky ones, my mother worked for a woman once, a bit older than herself. one day i went to help her with the laundry when i saw a dying man on the makeshift hospital bed. like always, my curiosity took over my senses. getting a better view i saw the man had lost part of his leg. he was screaming atrocities at the old woman, sue. most people would run away screaming, but somehow all i did was franticly walk up to sue and say "is there anything i can do?" she looked at me as though i was the strangest person she had ever laid eyes upon. i know why of course, like i said i'm believed to be small and helpless. only people that know me well see that i am capable of much, much more. ever since then, every weekday i have been at sue's place helping her with the sick and dying.

and lastly, there's christina. she and i have been friends ever since i can remember. we took our first steps together, went to school together and so much more it would take me a day to write a list. we're cousins you see. we share the same grandmother on my father's side. greasy sae is what everyone calls her by. so every day christina goes and works with our grandmother at her soup counter at the hob, aka, the black market.

"so what do we do now?" questions uriah.

"let's have a picnic." shauna suggests. everyone looks at her as if she is either crazy or just plain stupid, except her boyfriend zeke of course. at that moment lynn pulls of her back pack and takes out three good looking loaves nearly fresh out of the oven.

we all take a step forward, saliva practically dripping from our mouths. "let's have a picnic." i state.

we laugh until our stomachs hurt and tears of happiness fill our eyes at the stupid jokes the boys say. and for a

ief moment, we all forget about the event about to dawn on us at any moment. one of us may even- no, i won't let myself finish that sentence. all too soon, we decide we should all head back to stay with our families until the reaping begins.

that's it for the first chapter. please give me some ideas on how i can improve. thanks for giving it a try!

till next time, mandy