Dangerous Affection- The Hunger Games- A Cato Love Story

Chapter 1: The Reaping

Chapter 1: The Reaping

There was one okay thing that came out of my mother's death. Slow down, don't hate me yet. It was that my mother never had to see the day of my first Reaping. To top that off, she would have had to watch Xavier's first Reaping on the same day. Many of the other tributes mother's couldn't stand watching their child's first Reaping (or the ones after that, either), but very few of them ever had to watch two at the same time, and none of them were alive today. Xavier and I weren't the first twins in our District, but we were one of the few pair to survive until our first reaping. Everyone in our District was underfed and malnourished, and a mother could barely keep one newborn alive, let alone two. The weakest twin died within the first few months of life. My mother was a strong woman. Her death surprised us all.

"Alexandra! Time for you to get ready." I heard my name being called, and the warning that it was almost time for the Reaping. I recognized Trevor's voice as he called for me from the edge our skimpy excuse for woods. I climbed down the tree I had been resting atop of, and when I got to the bottom, I looked back up, making sure my bow and arrows were out of sight in the small chance someone came wandering this far into the woods. As I picked up the somewhat decent rabbit I'd shot, I jogged back towards home. I saw Trevor nervously looking around, standing a bit of a ways from the edge of the tree line, already at the age of 9 knowing it wasn't safe to enter. Only Alexandra and Xavier were to go into the woods, we had told him repeatedly, etching it into his brain.

"Come on, Trevor." I said, taking his hand into mine.

It scared me. Every year, Marco and Trevor got older, and a year closer until their names were entered into that drawing. I couldn't stand the few minutes it took to draw from the boys' names, praying it wouldn't be Xavier's. I didn't think I could handle both their names being entered. But the last year Xavier's name will be in there, when he turns 18, is the year of Trevor's first Reaping. I dreaded that day. The thought of any of my brothers being chosen to fight to the death makes me want to take them and run. Run away from it all... And if I had thought I could actually do it, I'd consider it.

I did as much as I could to make sure Xavier's name wasn't entered in there more than it had to be. We argued about it- a lot. We needed the more entries to get the badly needed tesserae- tokens worth a meager supply of a year's worth of grain and oil for one person. Five extra entries= five tesserae. Every year, my name was entered five times. Xavier's twice. It was the best deal I could get out of him- both are names once because it was required, Xavier's again for his own tessera, four for me, Trevor, Marco, and Father's. Neither of us could deny that Xavier needed to be here for our family more than I did- he can hunt like me, but can also do all the heavy lifting and labor for our neighbors that could spare a coin or two to pay him. This year my name was entered twenty times, and Xavier's eight.

I tried not to think about the fact that both of our names could be drawn. Tried not to think about the fact it could be at the same Reaping. Tried not to think about the fact that we'd be expected to kill each other.

But thoughts like that are hard to keep away.

I shook my head, clearing my mind of the thought before walking into our small house. It was one of the bigger ones, with two separate rooms from the kitchen and dining area. When you walked in, you saw an old faded sofa and a what used to be a semi-plush rug in front of it, facing an old T.V. that we could have never afforded had it not been supplied by the Capitol. Behind that was an old oak table with five chairs crammed around it, and to the right of that, the small kitchen. As soon as you stepped through the door, there were two doors on the wall to the right, one holding Father's bed, and the other holding two beds where the rest of us slept. Most girls would cringe at the thought of sharing a bed with her brother, but with Marco being only 4, it wasn't too bad. You have to do what you have to do.