A Sky Without Stars

~ One ~

I woke in a sweat. It was that day again. The reaping. I always hated the anticipation of not knowing who was going to die. And yes, we were going to die. At least from this district anyway. No one had won from district 8 since, well, I can't remember.

We're taught about it in school. About how our district's kids are so bad. About how we have no skills, and no future.

I try and tell Bo otherwise. She gets very down at times. Well, very down for an eight year old.

She's always scared for me. I have to always, every year, sign up for tessarae. We have no parents, and I don't make enough cloth to trade, so I have to get the extra grain.

"How many?" My sister, Bobbin asked, seeing that I was awake. She was sat in the window of our small hut. The villagers had helped us build it, after our old one burned down, regrettably, with our parents in it.

"You don't need to know" I replied, starting to make some food for breakfast.

"Tell, me. Please, An. How many?" She pleaded with me, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Bo, you don't need to know" I said, starting the fire so that we could cook the bread. It was rare for us to have such nice food, but this was the reaping, and so everyone in our village gave the children who were elligable for the Games some food. As a 'good luck' token.

"Angora Stella Calico, how many times is your name in the bowl?!" Bo, asked, jumping down from the window. She was at least a head shorter than me. I sighed.

"Bo, sit down" I replied, handing her a plate with some bread.

"Its a big number, isn't it? A really big number" she replied, ripping into her bread.

"Yes, now shut up and eat" I replied, ripping into my own bread. Bo looked up and smiled at me.

"Just be careful" she whispered. I smiled sweetly back at her.

"Of course" I replied, twisting the star shaped ring on my finger. It was a gift from our mother. Her name was Stella. We were told it was old Latin for 'star'.

---

"We need to get a dress for the reaping!" Bobbin yelled after breakfast.

"But, I have one Bo" I replied, cleaning up the plates.

"I need one!"

"You're not in the reaping yet though"

"So? Why can't I look nice?" She retorted.

"Fine, I bought you a dress for this reason, though it might be too big" I pulled out a brown package tied up with string, and handed it to Bo. Inside, was a white dress with a crimson waist band.

"Woah... Can you do my hair?!" Bobbin asked. She was very nervous, though to the untrained eye, she might appear excited.

"Of course" I replied. Smiling at Bo. This could be the last time I saw her happy again. If I was chosen.

If.

---

Hey guys! So I don't really do notes, so just hear me out. I'm not writing by myself as you can probably tell, so make sure to go check out:
ThatRandomWriter13 ~ A Rose With Thorns
Alice_lupin_37 ~ Dark Before Light

Thanks, bye!
-Under