The Splinter and Rain / Johanna's games

1

I would never imagine that the first morning since being 17 would be marked by screams from my annoying twin sister.

"Yes?" I answer

"We need more food!" She complains, I can tell she's peeking at my room, her white blonde curls stick out from the doorframe "Please...".

"What for?" My mom asked, her sweet voice rings through the house.

Not like it's hard, our house is made of dark red lumber, the most expensive in town, which means a few side eyes on the way to school, and more money to us when we manage to gather more than we need. I don't mind it though, since I can keep getting away with dyeing my hair every 3 business days, but on the other hand, it means long hours in the forest.

"Why did you pick blue?" The question I longed for when I decided the color I wanted my hair to be next. It's a new record really, I haven't even sat down at the table "Good morning by the way" .

"Do you not like it?"

She eyes me a little longer "I think blonde would suit you much better!" She announces while sitting down. I know she's complaining because she's nervous, that's what she does.

"Nervous for today?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

She plays with the scrambled eggs on the plate "A little, I don't know how they treat the districts there"

"You don't have to worry about anything darling" My mom grabs her hand. She always has this way of saying things and magically make us believe them, I feel like anything she'd say would turn into reality "They'll love you"

"Oh yeah. The peacekeepers are awesome" I mock, earning a glare from my twin.

Mom gives me a disapproving look "Still can't believe you're twins". Ah, there's the phrase that I've heard all my life. Me and Lazelle have the same day and time on our birth certificate, and the looks too, but our similarities end there. I'm the unemployed house girl who occupies her time reading, barely hanging out. My twin's the one with a large group of friends and about to enter the University of the Capitol through a scholarship to study costume design. Her lifelong dream. She got the charm from my mother, the smile and the kindness that one could only dream of in this world. I admire her deeply, her strength and optimism even when times are hard is something I'm proud of. But that's obviously something I'd never say to her face.

Especially right now since she's eating my breakfast.

"Bye Jo!" She announces before closing the front door.

"Happy birthday" My mom winked before laying some books in front of me.

"Mom you-"

"I want you to keep your mind off of, you know..."

"I'm not getting reaped" I haven't been awake an hour and I'm already rolling my eyes. Every year since I was 12 has been one in which I didn't care about the reaping at all. Usually the ones who get reaped are people who I've never met, so it's easy to imagine them as characters in books, who's fates are purely fantasy, they were written in a story, created and fabricated in a way that I don't take as seriously as I would if it had happened in real life.

But every year, when it gets mentioned for the first time, is the time in which I remember my twin can get reaped, especially since the train for the hunger games arrives at the same time as the one that takes her to the capitol to start her new life. I try not to think about it, especially since the odds of us getting reaped are very slim. There's poorer kids out there, that's the reality of it, and they get food by casting more votes in the bowl, but we never have to do that. So if I had to bet on it, I'd say our chances are pretty slim.