Chapter 1
I woke up early, carefully rolling out of bed, not to wake up my sisters. I slowly walked down the drafty hall of my house, into the kitchen to make breakfast with what little food we had. It was Reaping Day, the day when they take two children, a boy and a girl, to the Capitol to fight for our lives against 23 other children in the Hunger Games. This was punishment for the rebellion against them 74 years ago.
"Rue? Where are you?" came a soft voice from down the hall.
"I'm in the kitchen, Melly," I said back, "Can you wake up the others? Breakfast is ready."
I heard Melly waking up the others, then the patter of six pairs of feet running towards the kitchen. "What did you make, Rue?" asked Jason, my youngest brother.
I had six siblings, two sisters and four brothers. Melly was the oldest, followed by Mark, then Justin, followed by the twins Lucy and James, then Jason. Melly was only seven, so there was no way that any of them would have to be part of the Hunger Games. The Capitol seems to think it wrong to send anyone younger than twelve into the arena. Well, lucky for me, I turned twelve this year, so I now have the chance of ending up in the hellhole of the arena. Our reaping in District 11 was at one o'clock. I glancecd outside at the sun, and decided that it was about eleven.
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, cleaning time," I said, leading them down the hall, "Boys first to bathe, girls, pick up the house."
"Okay," they all said together. I walked down the hall into my parents' bedroom.
"Mom. Dad, time to get up. Reaping in two hours," I said.
"Thanks, Rue," said my mom.
I walked out of my room at a quarter to one. "Wow, Rue. You're really pretty," Lucy said, pulling my hair back into a ponytail.
"Thanks, Lucy."
My mother came up to me holding out her hand to walk me to the square. My dad was staying at home with the other children.
I stood at the ridge of the roped off area for the twelve year olds in our district.
Our mayor stood at the podium and recited the history of Panema and told us once again why we have the games. Then our escort, Meggy Ricket, came up to the reaping ball for girls and pulled out a slip of paper. What happened next shocked me hard.
She read off the single name, "Rue Mayle."
