CHAPTER ONE: THE REAPING
Reaping day. A day when the Capitol sacrifices two children between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the 12 districts to a fight-to-the-death battle. It's supposed to show those in the 12 districts that no matter how much they fight, the Capitol is who rule Panem.
District 12 is a place where visitors rarely come. Those who come especially for reaping day are the only ones. Emma Pillsbury stands out the front, her bright orange hair bobbing near her shoulders. The population of 12 assembles in the square, those whose name in the reaping box in a roped off area. Some fidget nervously, the odds being anything but in their favour. These are those who applied for tessarre. Many of the population of 12 only just get by. Starvation is the main cause of death. However, with the tessarre, the children of the families get supplied with grain and oil if they volunteer to enter their name into the reaping another time.
Emma steps up to the microphone, standing far away enough as to not get germs of herself. She clears her voice and starts the reaping.
Before she pulls a name out of the reaping ball, she does her predictable speech.
"May the odds be ever in your favour! And now, let the seventy-third hunger games begin! Ladies first."
She walks slowly over to the reaping ball containing all the female children's names. She pulls plastic gloves from her pockets and shoves her hands into them. Slowly, she rotates the reaping ball once and places her hand in it. She pulls out a slip of paper and, for one of the only moments, the whole of District 12 falls silent. Parents pray that it's not their child whom gets chosen, but feels bad for those who do.
Emma walks back to the microphone and calls out the name on the slip.
"Rachel Berry."
The whole of District 12 stays silent the girl walk up onto the stage. Emma asks for any volunteers to take her place but, as usual, no one does. It takes her every ounce of strength not to break down right there in front of everyone. She holds her head high, not making eye contact with anyone. All the while, Emma has made her way over to the boys' reaping ball. She takes out another slip and steps forward.
She reads, "Kurt Hummel."
The boy gingerly steps forward, his face in a grimace. He looks up at Rachel. She is looking back at him. Kurt had heard and seen of Rachel before. They were in the same year at school and he could vaguely remember the few encounters they'd had before. Rachel hadn't taken out many tesserae, so Kurt had been told, so the odds were in her favour. But that was the thing with the reaping. No one was safe.
Kurt and Rachel stood, side by side, on the stage as Emma congratulated the tributes. She then announced the only previous winner that was alive. Will Schuester.
He walked up onto the stage. He smiled at the crowd and gave a loud belch. He stumbled over and dumped himself into the chair next to Kurt. He reeked of alcohol and liquor and Kurt couldn't wait to be away from him. Kurt inwardly groaned as he realised that this was their mentor.
Emma talked and talked, although by this time Kurt had tuned out. Eventually she thanked District Twelve for their 'lovely tributes' and the reaping ended.
It was only when Kurt was half-dragged off the stage by a couple of Peacekeepers dressed in a pristine white did the realisation of what actually happened started to sink in.
A/N: I do not own any of the characters, they belong to Glee. I do not own the idea of the Hunger Games, that belongs to Suzanne Collins.