I'm Rapunzel. I'm eighteen years old and I live in Panem. District 12 to be exact. I dread waking up every morning. But this is the worst day of the year. Reaping day. After the rebellion of district 13, President Snow- ugh, even his name makes me feel sick- started the hunger games to show us that, no matter how powerful we think we are, we're no match for the Capitol.
I wake up in a bed full of sweat. I have constant nightmares, last night of Snow and the Capitol. My mother shouts me and I walk slowly down the cold wooden stairs, shivering.
"Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?" She asks me. I love her with all of my heart, but she just worries about me too much.
I nod weakly. "It's the reaping. President Snow haunts my dreams." I reply. After getting dressed, I head out to the market. I manage to trade for some strawberries and bread, which I'll get to enjoy if I survive today. When I arrive home, I prepare for later. My mother hands me a small package and tells me not to open it until after the reaping. I spend the next few hours helping my mother patch up some old clothes. She and my grandmother own a small tailor's for local's clothes to be made or repaired. I work there after school. There's no school today, though, because of the hunger games, so my mother closes up the shop on this day and works at home. We bring the strawberries and bread over to my aunt's home. She has two children, Elsa and Anna. Anna is my age and Elsa is 21, three years older. We eat together every year on reaping day. Fortunately, this is mine and Anna's last ever reaping and neither of us has signed for tesserae. We eat the food my aunt has prepared for us and the food we have brought. After an hour or two, my mother and I head back home. She hands me a sky blue dress; hers. I've seen pictures of the beautiful outfit in old pictures of my mother.
"That's the dress I wore to my last reaping." She says softly to me.
"I know." I reply and walk over to a photograph on the window sill. It shows my mother at my age, she's standing in a group of girls who are also eighteen years old and is smiling carefully. Her hair is down and flows over her shoulders and down to her waist. On her feet is a pair of blue ballet pumps. I look up at her; she's looking over my shoulder now. I hug her.
"You'll be fine. Nothing will happen to you." She reassures me. "Now go and change." And I'm ushered upstairs. I slip on the dress and a pair of blue shoes and my mother comes up to my room and plaits my long blonde hair. A bell rings about five minutes later that tells all the inhabitants of district 12 to come to the square for the reaping. We walk up to the centre of town and the screen behind the stage begins to play a video about the games. After it has finished, the escort from the Capitol- a young woman in a large orange wig and purple knee length dress and the highest heels I've ever seen in orange, her name is Effie- walks onto the stage, smiling proudly at the crowd of people.
"Happy hunger games and may the odds be ever in your favour!" She says into the microphone on the stand in front of her. "As always, ladies first." She says and put her hand into a large round glass bowl. She digs around a bit and selects a small card. She opens it and reads the name. "Rapunzel Corona." She says. My name. The crowd turns to look at me. I'm still as a statue. "Rapunzel, come on!" She shouts, slightly annoyed. I slowly make my way to the stage. I stop when I hear the words I needed to hear. "I volunteer as a tribute!" Somebody shouts from the crowd. I can't identify the voice, I'm shaking too much. I turn around as a young girl makes her way to the stage. I recognise her from school. She's sixteen years old and is in my maths class. I know how I remember her though. Her older brother was reaped about five years ago. He was in the last eight contestants and was killed by career tributes. She saved my life and I don't know her name. After the reaping, I ask to go and say goodbye to her. The peace keepers tell me that I have three minutes. I walk in and sit on a couch with her.
"Thank you." I tell her. "I really don't know how to thank you." I feel around in my pocket and hand her two things: the package from my mother and a small beaded bracelet. It would have been my token from home if I had gone into the games. She smiles at me and I hug her. "This is awful of me, but, I don't even know your name."
"Merida DunBroch. My brother died and I'm going to win this for him." She tells me confidently.
"I know you can." I reply and a peacekeeper drags me out of the room.
Ten days later.
We crowd around a small television in my aunt's house. She presses the power button and the screen flickers on. We don't watch the games until the very end, we only find out who wins.
"And the winner of the 46th hunger games is… Merida DunBroch!" Caesar Flickerman says to the live audience and I smile to myself. She knew she could do it. She was right. She won the games for me (and her brother). And she's not mine, I barely know her, and yet, I feel so close to her.