Never Underestimate Her

Before The Reaping

Evergreen woke up early in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep so she decided to go on a run. It was about 5 in the morning and the reaping would occur in about 8 hours. Evergreen was the youngest of her siblings at 12 years old. She had 4 siblings, her brothers, Dagwood (14), and Camden (16). She also had an older sister named Brynlee (18). Evergreen had never been the favorite, in fact, she was far from it, she was the least favorite, constantly getting compared to her older sister.

"When Brynlee was your age...." were things she was constantly hearing from her parents. Her parents were big Hunger Games fans, the second Evergreen had turned ten, they had started her with her training. She trained 8 hours a day, no less than 340 days a year, the days she got off were the days of the reaping and when she had to watch the hunger games, but other than that it was train, train, train because one day she was going to compete in the hunger games. That was how it was with all of her siblings, except Brynlee of course, everyone had to volunteer at some point except for Brynlee because Evergreen's parents couldn't afford to lose her. Cam was going to volunteer next year, two years after that it would be Dag's turn, and then two years after Dag it would be Evergreen's turn. Five years to live out her life before you are either killed in combat or die of starvation or thirst. Well, that last part about dying of starvation wasn't as likely, Evergreen had gone for a while without food before, it was another training method by her parents. Every week she'd be tested in her best skills which in her case were plants and spears and if she didn't ace those tests she was only allowed to eat leftovers until the next test. Evergreen sighed as she reached her house to find her father with a frown on his face

"Where were you, training starts in fifteen minutes!" He scolded her

"I was on a run and I thought we had the reaping day off?" Evergreen said confused

"Not anymore, you could get reaped any year now so we've decided that from now on, you will train until an hour before the reaping," He said and Evergreen sighed

"What was that?" He growled

"Yes Father," Evergreen said and she ran into the house and then to her room. Evergreen changed into her training clothes and that was how at 6 in the morning on a reaping day she was training in a nearly deserted training center. Evergreen trainer was named Alpha, she had been training her since she was ten and she could still make her want to fall over because she was so tired.

"Morning, Eve," Alpha said with a nod and Eve nodded back. "Today we're just going to test you on your plants, herbs, and berries," she told Eve and Eve nodded. Evergreen walked over to the plant database and got her hands ready

"You know what to do, on my mark. Get ready...get set...go!" When Alpha said go Eve started tapping, there were clues on the top of the screen and a bunch of plant icons, if Evergreen tapped on the right one she got a point, 100 points was the max amount.

Poisonous blue berries. Eve quickly tapped on the nightlock icon. This continued until she heard a ding signaling the end of the test. Eve looked up at the number of points she had gotten and did a fist bump in the air when she saw her perfect 100.

"Yes!" she exclaimed and Alpha gave her an approving nod

"Well done, Evergreen," She said with a rarely seen smile "Now, go work on your spear skills until your father comes to get you," She said

"Thank you, Alpha," Eve said and ran over to the spears

***

Eve threw a spear at the target and smiled when it landed in the middle, it didn't have nearly enough force as she wanted it to have but at least her aim was getting better. Then, Eve's two best friends ran over, Octavious and Madden. Octavious or Tavi, as his friends called him was the strongest 12 year old at the academy, he was a future victor for sure. Madden, on the other hand, was a lot like Eve, she was intelligent but not as strong, Madden was also very kind and she could never hurt a fly.

"Great aim!" Tavi exclaimed and the three kids smiled

"Keep that up and maybe you will with the hunger games" Madden added with a smile. I laughed

"I dunno about that..."

***

That day after training when Eve was back in her house her father smiled

"I heard you got a 100 on your plants' test" He commented

"Yes, I did" I responded

"Well then, that's wonderful news, now go get ready for the reaping"

he said with a smile. Eve nodded and went to change into her reaping outfit, a red shirt with a white skirt and her hair in french braids. When she arrived at the reaping she was nervous, but she reminded herself, her name was in once, and even if she was reaped, another would volunteer for her..right?