The morning went by in a flash as if taunting you that something was about to happen, and it couldn't wait to see it. After you, your dad, and Trinity ate breakfast, he spoke up in a sad but gruff voice.
"I um-" he clears his throat. "I won't be able to go to the reaping today," he says cautiously, as if waiting for you to explode and attack him.
"Wha- what do you mean," you stutter, the words feeling like a punch to the gut. "Of all days you can't be with us it happens to be this one? I mean what if my name gets picked," you accuse, a sudden boost of courage allowing your voice to rise as you stand up, your fists clenched.
He had washed away the last of your patience. From disappearing in the mornings to coming back by the time you and Trinity were supposed to be asleep. It was wrong, and you weren't going to put up with it anymore. If not for yourself, then for Trinity who needed her father.
"Then it's your own damn fault for putting your name in extra times," he snaps. Your breath hitches as you take a step back. What was wrong with him? Why would he say something like that? He's panting heavily, his jaw clenched as he glares down at your broken hearted face.
"Dad where are you even going? Every business in the district is shut down. If your gonna leave on the day I need you most, then I at least deserve an explanation," you cry, swiping at your eyes furiously. He continues glaring at you before spinning around and stomping to the door, slamming it shut behind him as he storms out of the house, not offering you an explanation. "Dad," you cry, running after him, Trinity knowing to not follow, or just deciding not to.
You run out the door he had slammed seconds before, chasing after him. "Dad please don't go," you sob, grabbing onto his arm to try and pull him to a stop. He jerks his arm and shoves you back, causing you to trip and fall onto your back on the rough pavement, scraping your elbow in the process.
"Get back in the house now! This is for your own good," he snaps, absolutely no regret in his tone. That is until the very last second of him turning around. You swear you saw a tear drip down his cheek, but you were sobbing to much to believe he was actually crying. It was probably just your blurred vision.
You watch as he stormed off down the street, and around the corner. All you could do was sit there and sob. No one was out on your road, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about. It's not like anyone would see you crying like a toddler who didn't get their way.
You don't know how long you sit there for, minutes, hours, but your shot out of your thoughts by a sweet but weeping little girls voice behind you.
"Why's daddy so mad," Trinity cry's, making you spin around. You see her sobbing figure, and you reach out to grab her, pulling her to you and crawling up onto your knees so you could hug her, and she could stay standing.
"I don't know," you sniffle, not even trying to hide the fact that you had been crying. "But were gonna go over to Minho's house with Sonya and Newt, we're gonna go to the town square. I'm not gonna get picked, and we're gonna come home, and we can make chicken and potatoes. How does that sound," you say in as happy as a tone of possible, but you still had tears streaming down your cheeks. She doesn't respond, only hugged you tighter and continued to cry into your shoulder.
Suddenly you hear a small drip like water leaking from a faucet, and you pull away from Trinity, with wet cheeks, to see where the noise came from. You look around for a second before you spot a small pulled of red behind Trinity's feet. Looking down at your elbow, you see blood dripping down your arm from where you scraped it on the road. You cringe, suddenly feeling the stinging sensation.
"Are you ok," Trinity asks, still sobbing but trying to sound like she cared, but it was obvious she was too upset to think about anything else.
"Ya I'm fine," you sniffle. "How about this. I'll go ahead and take you to Minho's house, and you can hang out with him while I get cleaned up. Is that ok with you?" You ask her, mumbling into her hair as you hold her close to your chest again. She nods her head into your shoulder, and you get up, grabbing her hand.
It only took about five minutes to get to Minho's house, it being just a few streets away, but the sound of your little sisters sobs enveloped your senses, and made it feel like a century. Once you finally get to the front porch, Trinity's sobs had quieted to little sniffles, and you crouch down in front of her.
"Everything's gonna be ok. I promise," you whisper to her, wiping her wet cheeks with the skirt of your dress, and she nods furiously. After a few seconds, Minho's grandmother, Helen, opened the door, and she ushers you inside. She greets Trinity with a croaky hello, and then turns to you. She opens her mouth like she's about to say something, but then she sees you holding your elbow, blood dripping through your cupped fingers.
"Oh dear," she cry's in a loud voice. "Come on. Lets get you fixed up," she pulls you into the dinning room and sits you down in a chair, laying a towel on the table so you could rest your arm on it.
Minho and his grandmothers house was not particularly large nor small. It was an average size for district 5. There was a living room with two reclining chairs and a single in table sitting between them. The projector screen tv sat feet away from the chairs, probably due to the elder lady's vision. There was a stairwell that led up to the top floor, and past that was the kitchen. It was much like Newt and Sonya's house, but a little smaller. The kitchen and dining room were not separate from the living room, and only a small counter blocked the way into the dinning room.
Suddenly Minho comes running down the stairs, and you make eye contact with him. He seems happy, until he sees the red towel, and his grandmother walking around the kitchen, trying her best to pick up medical supplies from the lower cabinets.
"What the shuck happened," he exclaims, running over to you and grabbing onto your shoulders, leaving Trinity chasing after him.
"I tripped," you fib, not wanting Minho to worry about you and your dad an hour before the reaping. He seemed to accept the answer, and goes over to help his grandmother, bringing back an armful of supplies.
Helen sits down in a chair in front of you, and turns your arm so it's directly in front of her, but still on the towel. She starts fixing your arm up, staining a rag with your blood as Minho distracts Trinity in the living room. Minutes later Sonya, Newt, Julie, and James knock on the door, Minho calling for them to come inside. The four family members step into the house, all dressed in their nicest clothes. Trinity squeals, excitement momentarily forgetting the incident this morning thankfully, as she runs up to them, hugging Sonya around the waist, then Newt, Julie, and then James picks her up, resting her on his hip.
"(Y/n)," Sonya exclaims worriedly when she sees Helen helping fix up your arm.
"Hey Sonya," you smile, trying to show that you weren't in any pain... at least physically. Mentally you were screaming and sobbing, wishing you could go back in time and figure out what to say or do to make your dad stay.
"What did you do," she snaps accusingly as she runs over to you, helping the older lady to bandage it up.
"Seriously you need to calm down. I tripped. That's it," you say with a laugh, remembering how Minho reacted. She looks at you suspiciously, knowing that you, unlike most girls weren't clumsy, and the amount of bleeding it caused probably made it difficult to believe you had just been walking. She shakes her head, instructing you to raise your arm up, and she wraps it in a long bandage, making it like a tiny sling without the strap going around your neck. "Thanks," you mutter before remembering that you were supposed to be happy, even though the reaping was in less than an hour.
"I'm Uh- I'm just gonna step outside real quick," you say, suddenly needing a minute before you break down in tears.
"Hey are you sure your ok," Newt asks softly, grabbing your non-injured arm to keep you from walking out the door.
"I promise I'm fine," you say in a quiet voice, prying his fingers away from your wrist, and rushing out the door. You walk to the side of the house, sitting down on an old crate and bending your knees to meet in the middle. Leaning back against the brick wall of the house, your bundled up hair cushions the back of your head from the rough surface as you close your eyes. Your arms laid in your lap, keeping your elbow bent slightly so the bandage wouldn't come undone. Surprisingly the tears never come, even though you've never felt like you've needed to cry more in your life.
You sit there for a few minutes before the sound of feet crunching on gravel makes your head snap up, making sure no random stranger was sneaking up on you. It ended up being the complete opposite. The blond hair, brown eye, British boy was staring at you with absolutely no emotion on his face.
"You scared me," you say, but it doesn't sound like a joke like you wanted it to, more of an accusation.
"What happened this morning," he asks, walking over to you, but he stays standing, making you crane your neck to be able to see his face. Your face goes pale, and you suddenly wish you were faster than him so maybe you could run back to your house without him catching you.
"N-nothing," you stutter, cowering under his tall figure.
"Ok then what was your little sister talking about when she said you and your dad got in a fight this morning," he says in a stern tone, his usual sweet voice out the window.
"Shuck," you mutter, smacking your fist against your leg. "What did she tell you," you sigh, knowing there was no hiding the truth now.
"Didn't really understand much of it. All I know is that she got upset when my mom asked where Brandon was, and she started saying something like you got in a fight with him," he admits, the tiniest bit of sympathy leaking into his tone.
You jump up from your makeshift seat and try to run back into the house, but Newt stick his arm out, grabbing onto your upper arms and pulling you in front of himself so you actually couldn't run away this time.
"Newt move! I have to make sure she's ok," you exclaim, trying to make up any sort of excuse to get away from him at the moment.
"(Y/n) she's fine. Right now your the one I'm worried about," he says, his voice going back to its normal kind, caring tone. Your body freezes, and you look up into his sad eyes, almost not believing that he was actually worried about you. Ya you guys were best friends, but you didn't know that he was actually worried about you.
"He's mad," you whisper under your breath after a moment of silence, your voice cracking as tears actually start to form. "He's mad," you repeat, as Newt engulfs you in his arms, letting you cry into his chest. "He's mad," you say for the third time, it seeming to be the only words you could form at the moment. "I put my name in extra times. He's mad. He said it's my own fault if I got picked," you sob as he rests his chin on the top of your head.
"Why would you put your name in extra times," he asks, but there's almost a plead behind his words, as if saying it causes him physical pain.
"He wasn't able to bring home enough food. Trinity was hungry. I just couldn't think of anything else to do," you continue crying as Newt hugs you even tighter, almost making it hard to breathe, but you like the feeling. His arms wrapped tightly around you, holding your body to his strong chest. It made you feel safe and protected, like nothing in the whole world could hurt you as long as you were in his arms.
Suddenly an announcement comes out over the speakers placed around the district, making you jump in his strong grip.
"Everyone please make your way to the town square. The drawing will be held in thirty minutes," a female robotic voice spoke over the speakers.
Your breathing picks up, and you start wheezing. "Newt I'm scared. He's been disappearing all the time. What if I get picked and he leaves Trinity alone? I can't let anything happen to her," you gasp out frantically, wrapping your arms around his neck to make sure he doesn't let go of you.
"(Y/n) look at me," he says, pulling away from you, but making sure he doesn't actually step out of the hug, just so you would look up at his face. "Nothing's gonna happen to you or Trinity, ok? Your not going to get picked I promise," he says, reaching a hand up and tucking a strand of hair that had fallen out of your bun behind your ear.
"You can't promise that Newt," you say frantically. "My names in there twenty times. There's no guarantee they won't pick me." It's like all your hope of not being picked had been thrown out the window as if it were never even there in the first place. You knew it was selfish of you to only be worrying about your name getting picked, but it's all you could think about at the moment.
He realized there was nothing he was gonna be able to say to calm you down, so he just kept you in his warm embrace. His breath tickled your hair, only making you bury yourself deeper into his chest.
Seconds later more pairs of feet come around the corner, and you look over Newts shoulder to see Minho, Helen, Sonya, Julie, and James with a red eyed Trinity on his hip.
"It's time to go," Julie says in a sad voice, but you couldn't tell if it was because of the reaping, the idea that one of her children could get picked, the story Trinity had told them, or a combination of the three.
Newt squeezes you to his chest quickly before letting go, and stepping away from you, walking back to the rest of what had grown to be your family. You suck in a deep breath, wiping away any lingering tears, and walk over to James, trying to take Trinity from his hold, but he insists to keep holding her.
As a group, you all start making your way towards the town square, trudging along more than walking, hoping to delay the inevitable. It felt like a punch to the gut anytime you walked past something memorable. The shop you worked in for almost a month. The bakery where you and Sonya used to study in for tests if you needed a break from the boys. The pond in the field behind the tiny mall where you all used to swim.
You don't know why you were so scared. It's not like this was any different than the other years you had been forced to go to the reaping... wasn't it?
No. Definitely not. You had never had your name put in 20 times. You had always had your dad with you. You had never worried about what would happen to your little sister if you did get reaped. This was completely different from all of your other years, and the thought made a shiver run up your spine.
Newt, who was standing on your right with Minho on your left, notices the small action due to how close you two are walking, and subtly grabs your hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. Your breath hitches at the action, but you can't do anything else except squeeze it back, the contact causing a small smile to appear on your face.
All to soon you walked into the town square, hoping that you'll suddenly wake up from this nightmare, but nothing happens.
You, Sonya, Newt, and Minho all give each other a big group hug, promising one another that you'll see them soon. Newt pulls a shaking Sonya into a brotherly embrace, promising her that everything will be fine.
You make a similar promise to Trinity, holding her as tightly as she would allow you to. It felt like your heart was being pulled from your chest as you released her, and James picked her up once again, walking away with a tearful Julie, and a slouching Helen.
Sonya grabs your hand, pulling you out of your frozen stance, and into the line of girls who were just as terrified as you were. Sonya gripped your hand tightly as you crept up the line, more and more fear building up like a ticking time bomb, threatening to explode at any second.
Once you got to the front of the line, a man holding a small needle stick ordered you to give him your hand. You cringed as the needle stuck your skin, feeling the small drip of blood as he pressed your finger to a sheet of paper, and scanned it, telling you to move on within seconds of you arriving at the front of the line.
Walking to the section where all the other 16 year old girls were standing felt like both a marathon and taking a single step. Your breathing picked up once you were in line, standing next to Sonya as she clutched your hand once again. It almost surprised you how strong she was, but then again she could take on Minho with ease.
You both looked around, trying to find Minho and Newt, but you were also looking for Trinity and the rest of your second family. And maybe a tiny voice at the back of your mind was telling you to keep a look out for your dad, but you shook your head, not wanting to think about him.
After everyone was settled into their groups, a lady with bright pink hair and a bright green dress walked into stage, strutting in her sparkling green heels, and showing off her pearly white teeth. Part of you wanted to cringe while the other part of you wanted to scream and curse. How could someone wear such hideous clothing and still feel safe coming out of their own bathroom. But also how could someone be so calm in knowing that their about to send two kids to their death just by picking up a slip of paper.
She tapped the microphone, testing it to see if it was on, and spoke up.
"Welcome to the 73rd annual Hunger Games! I cannot wait to see this year's lucky tributes from district 5! Now as always," she paused for effect, giving us the brightest smile, almost blinding me with her teeth that seemed to glow even from this far. "Ladies first."
She strutted over to the large glass bowl where twenty slips of paper had your name written on them. Your hand squeezed Sonya's so tightly that you thought it might go numb, but she was squeezing your hand just as hard. The glamorous lady dug around in the bowl for a second, swirling the slips at the bottom of the bowl to the top before swiftly jerking her hand out, carrying a single slip of paper between her fingers.
Swinging her arms as she walked back over to the microphone which seemed to take forever even giving her long strides, she stopped, opening the slip slowly. You squeezed your eyes shut, almost hiding your face in Sonya's shoulder as you hear her break the tape holing the paper closed.
Then it was over. The two words that she spoke would change your life forever. Your breath hitches when you heard them come out of her mouth, and Sonya froze next to you.
"Sonya Carter."