(y/n) pov
Morning light drizzles on my face as I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Rory's warmth but finding
only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. He must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our
mother. Of course, he did. This is the day of the reaping.Even though he is still ineligible he was scared for our sake.
I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little brother, Rory, curled up on his side,their cheeks pressed together.Between them sleeps my only sister Posy cooed in my mother's body. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. My mother was very beautiful once, too.In the photos I have seen of her she looked like one those popular girl that would bully me and Katniss.
I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I
pull on trousers, a shirt,comb my (h/c)
hair and grab my forebag filled with stuff needed to make make snares or traps.
Knowing the others would be asleep I quietly walk to our front door to find my elder brother Gale. "Couldn't sleep?" I ask "couldnt sleep" he replies monotonously."Come on now .Let's see if the trap we set yesterday caught anything ".
We pass a few gates to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the
woods, in fact enclosing all of District 12, is a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. In
theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day but since
we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it's usually safe to touch. Even so,Gale
always takes a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live. Right now, it's silent as a stone. Concealed by a clump of bushes, I flatten out on my belly and slide under a two-foot stretch that's
been loose for years. There are several other weak spots in the fence, but this one is so close to home we almost always enter the woods here.
As soon as we're in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log.Gale heavily relies on his snares which almost always traps game. Whereas I use our father's bow and mainly his old knife which he had thought me to use before he was blown to bits in a mining accident. There was nothing even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run.
My pace quickening as I see that the trap we had layed yesterday had caught a squirrel."Well let's take that to the baker he might give us something for it".
We go out to the bakery owned by Mr. Mallerk and exchange the dead squirrel. He surprisingly gives us a loaf of bread instead of the usual flour.With a sympathetic face he says "good luck for the reaping kids".
Ah that's why.He probably felt bad for us because of the reaping eventough
his own son Peeta whose the same age as me will be eligible.
We walk back to the woods as I climb the hills to our place, a rock ledge overlooking a valley. A thicket
of berry bushes protects it from unwanted eyes.In the woods waits the only person I can call my best friend Katniss Everdeen.
"Hey Catnip"I says. Her real name is Katniss, but when she first told us, she had barely whispered it.
So I thought she said Catnip."Look what we shot," Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it, and I laugh.
We sit down and eat the bread with the with the cheese Katnoss brought.
We settle back in a nook in the rocks. From this place, we are invisible
but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish
iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. The food's wonderful, with
the cheese seeping into the warm bread and the berries bursting in our mouths. Everything would be
perfect if this really was a holiday, if all the day off meant was roaming the mountains with Gale and katniss, hunting for tonight's supper. But instead we have to be standing in the square at two o'clock waiting for
the names to be called out.
We spend a hour discussing casual stuff and mocking Effie Trinket's Capital accent.
"What do you want guys want to do?" I ask. We can hunt, fish or gather.
"Let's fish at the lake. We can leave our poles and gather in the woods. Get something nice for tonight,"
Gale says.
Tonight. After the reaping, everyone is supposed to celebrate. And a lot of people do, out of relief that their children have been spared for another year. But at least two families will pull their shutters, lock their
doors, and try to figure out how they will survive the painful weeks to come.
After finishing our work in the woods we go to the back door of the mayor's house to sell half the strawberries, knowing he has a particular fondness for them and can afford our price. The mayor's daughter, Madge, opens the door. She's in my year at
school. Being the mayor's daughter, you'd expect her to be a snob, but she's all right. She just keeps to
herself. Like me. Since neither of us really has a group of friends,me Katniss and her seem to end up together a lot at school. Eating lunch, sitting next to each other at
assemblies. It's weird spending your school days with girls but they rarely talk, which suits me just fine.
Gale attempts to take a jab at her for having only five entries whereas he had six when he was just twelve.
We walk back toward the Seam in silence. I don't like that Gale took a dig at Madge, but he's right, of course.
The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it.Say you are poor and starving as we were. You can opt to add your name more times in exchange for tesserae.
So now, at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping 14 times.Katniss who is 16 either helping or single-handedly feeding her family will have her name for name in twenty times.And Gale would have his for 24 times.You can see why someone like Madge, who has never been at risk of needing a tessera, can set him off. The chance of her name being drawn is very slim compared to those of us who live in the Seam. Not
impossible, but slim.
We divide our spoils, leaving two fish, a couple of loaves of good bread, greens, a quart of strawberries, salt, paraffin, and a bit of money for
each.
"See you both in the square,"Katniss says
"Wear something pretty," I say flatly.
At home I see that my mother and brothers are ready to go with little Posy pretending to brush her hair.
A tub of warm water waits for me. I scrub off the dirt and sweat from the woods."Planning to spend the whole day in there?"I hear Gale say outside mockingly ."If I could yes".I say
To my surprise my mother has laid out one of my father's old reaping cloths."Are you sure" I ask I know how much precious my father's belongings are to her "Yes, dress up now we might run late. " After my father's death she did all she could working extra shifts as maid in the richer households in the District.Even that was sadly not enough which led to me and Gale having to look into the woods to feed our family.
It's a bit formal but looks better than the clothes I usually wear.
At one o'clock, we head for the square. Attendance is
mandatory unless you are on death's door. This evening, officials will come around and check to see if
this is the case. If not, you'll be imprisoned.
I find myself standing in a clump of sixteens from the Seam. We all exchange terse nods then focus our
attention on the temporary stage that is set up before the Justice Building. It holds three chairs, a podium, and two large glass balls, one for the boys and one for the girls. I stare at the paper slips in the boys' ball.
Twenty of them (Y/N) Hawthorne written on them in careful handwriting.
"It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks," intones the mayor.
Then he reads the list of past District 12 victors. In seventy-four years, we have had exactly two. Only one
is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy, who at this moment appears hollering something unintelligible, staggers onto the stage, and falls into the third chair. He's drunk. Very. The crowd
responds with its token applause, but he's confused and tries to give Effie Trinket a big hug, which she barely manages to fend off.
The mayor looks distressed. Since all of this is being televised, right now District 12 is the laughingstock of
Panem, and he knows it. He quickly tries to pull the attention back to the reaping by introducing Effie Trinket.
Bright and bubbly as ever, Effie Trinket trots to the podium and gives her signature, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!"
Just a few rows ahead I spot Katniss looking back at me. Since we met in the woods 5 years ago we have been inseparable .Its only around her that I could really be myself. Suddenly I am thinking about Katniss and her twenty entries and how the odds are not in her favor. Maybe she is thinking the same about me "but there are a thousand slips" I wish I could tell her
It's time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, "Ladies first!"and crosses to the glass ball with the girls' names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball, and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear a pin drop, and I'm feeling anxious and so desperately hoping that it's not Katniss , that it's not Katniss, that it's not Katniss.
Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear
voice. And it's not Katniss .
"Primrose Everdeen "