Here I go. Wish me luck! :D

My name is Rose Mellark. I am fifteen years old, and I'm exactly where I want to be. I am as alive as ever!

I twirled under the bright red lights, my hair slapping my face. Cheers and applause could be heard all over the hall, and I love it. Because I love it when people cheer for me or say something good about me; it makes me feel like I'm important, yet it doesn't higher my self-importance.

My bright green dress suddenly started to catch a little heat - and soon after, a brilliant blue flame arose. I was a vibrant mockingjay.

The crowd began to go wild. It was maddening and I was ecstatic. This was truly the best night of my life - I was doing my favorite thing in the world, dancing in front of an audience, in my favorite place, the newly refurbished Hall of Occasions in District 12, all dressed up - my favorite way to look.

Plus, there was a crowd of about a thousand cheering for me. Nothing could be better...or so I thought.

At once, just in a moment, my cheeks started to burn horribly, and I knew it wasn't from the fake fire. I felt nauseous and vomit came up to my throat, threatening to overflow. All the colored lights became hazy, and I saw my mother fly over the crowd. Oh wait...was that Daddy? Maybe it was an elephant - oh, I don't know, I just remembered blacking out.

*a few hours later*

"Rose...Rose?" An anteater was peering at me through my mask. Wait a second, that couldn't be an anteater! Anteaters don't talk. It was then I realized that my whole family was sitting around my hospital bed, and my brother Amore was giving me a weird look. What was I doing in a hospital bed?

"What's the date, honey?" a doctor walking up with a clipboard, asked.

"Um..." I searched my head. Yesterday was my birthday which meant it was the fourth of June, and today was the day after yesterday, so it had to be the fifth. "The fifth of June?" I said hesitantly.

"Yes, her memory is fine," the doctor smiled at my family. "Just rest a little, honey," she said to me, giving me a pointed look.

June fifth? That was my big performance day! What had happened? Had I ever gone to the performance? I was seriously confused at the moment.

"You fainted," Amore explained gruffly. Underneath all that gruffness, I could tell he was concerned.

"Katniss," Daddy shook my mother, who had fallen asleep on his lap. "She's awake. How are you, sweetie?" he asked me, wide-eyed. His breathing was getting shallow, and I figured out my family could die worrying about me.

I gave a light-hearted laugh. "I'm fine, Mom, Daddy..."

My mom looked as if I was on my deathbed. "Rose are you okay? You just...you just fainted! And everyone stopped, people began frantically running around, and you...you just fell!" she started choking on her breath. Her throat always closes up when she's she's upset. I take after my mom.

"Hey Mom, I promise I'm okay! I mean, seriously, I can walk!" I assured her. Groaning, I edged myself off of the bed and started walking (more like stumbling) towards the door. My dad came in front of me and ordered me to stop, but he let me go when I told him I needed to go to the bathroom. Actually, I needed some serious fresh air; who knows how long I'd been in that tiny room.

The gust of air that hit my face was my savior - I was hyperventilating inside that room. I walked slowly, smiling at everyone until I realized that I didn't recognize anybody.

"Where am I?" I asked a lady in a pink uniform who looked nice enough. "Oh, you're in 4," she said sweetly. "This is the best hospital in all of Panem. I hope you're enjoying your stay so far!"

"Uhhum...yeah...yeah I am..." I coughed. Enjoy my stay? Well, this is better than District 12's hospital, I thought scornfully. I was supposed to be performing, not be stuck in this hospital! What had happened to me, anyway? Wasn't 12's hospital able to "cure" me?

As I walked along the hallway, I thought about my parents and the hardships they had suffered. Heck, they had to be in a game where everyone killed each other and I am extremely lucky that both of them made it out! I wonder what my mother Katniss had been like when she was my age. Did she like dancing, and singing? I realized that I barely knew anything about my mother. The sparse information I could sum up included the thing about the Hunger Games, how she met my father, and that she liked to hunt. I also knew about some of her friends - Finnick (who had died), Annie, Madge (also dead), Cinna (her late stylist), Greasy Sae, Delly, the latter two alive. Those were her friends from way back before. I'd also heard another name a couple of times, someone named Gale, but I didn't know much about him - at least as much as I knew about her other friends. In fact, Mom looked seriously uncomfortable the two or three times his name was mentioned. I wondered who he was.

His name was mentioned on TV a couple of times. Even though we had a TV, we almost never turned it on. Every time we did, something would be there about the Mockingjay and my mom would just get another one of her usual headaches, and my dad would get some kind of an...attack and Amore and I would have to help him stand back up again.

There was also something about Gale Hawthorne that appeared on TV every time we turned it on. My mom pretended to never notice that his name was ever mentioned. Yeah, my whole family saw right through that lame attempt of innocence.

When I was really young, news reporters would come to our door at least once a week, and my parents would just chase them away. After Amore turned one they stopped bothering us. Now they come only about twice a year. Everyone at school seemed to be jealous of me, and they say it's because I always get to be on TV. Trust me, it really wasn't that great. In fact, it was really annoying. The only person I knew didn't care was Haymitch, our neighbor, who got drunk every day. He mostly just threw his beer bottles at the camera men when they came knocking at his door.

Of course, thinking makes me lose control, so I bumped into someone. As I turned around to say sorry, my words got caught in my throat. My word - he wasgorgeous. About seventeen, with straight black hair, a tall and muscular stature, and the most handsome face I'd ever seen.

"I'm really very sorry..." I choked out, embarrassed to know that was viewing me in a hospital gown, whoever he was.

"No, it's okay," he said quietly, and gave me this incredible grin that I knew I'd never forget.

No, Rose, NO! my mind screamed. You do NOT believe in love at first sight! I agreed with my mind. I'd probably never see him again.

So how was that? Continue or not?

Thanks a ton! -Gale (I'm a girl, it's just my nickname :P)