I woke up to a little girl's cry. Melody. This was her first reaping. Poor girl. I promptly got up of my bed and ran up to hers.

"Shh" I said as I hugged her "Everything is going to be okay Mel. I promise."

But both of us knew that that was a promise I couldn't keep. Of course that if they called her name I would volunteer. I mean, she was my little sister. I had to. She didn't have anyone else to lookout for her. There was Kai, but nowadays being responsible wasn't one of his qualities anymore. Our parents had died three years ago in a shipwreck. No one had ever found out why it happened and why no one made it out. I was only thirteen then. Melody was about to turn nine and Kai was twenty-one. I can still remember him giving me piggy-back rides to school and taking me and Melody to this little beach which he said it was our secret place , now I knew that nobody went to that beach often because for some reason there wasn't any fishes there.

After our parents died, he completely changed.I don't know what I would do if it wasn't by my aunt Cordelia. She helped me raising Melody, but only with money. Her husband never liked my father so she could never stay with us for too long. Every month she came to our house to check on us and gave me a good quantity of money. Is not a lot, but enough for me and Mel to survive.

I hugged her for a couple minutes but I knew we had to start getting ready.

"How about we find you the perfect dress?You have to look gorgeous for all those boys huh?" I said in a fake happy voice trying to cheer her up, and apparently it worked as a big smile appeared in her face.

"I already know what I want to wear" she said as she got off her bed and ran to her wardrobe, when she came back to me she had a lovely blue dress that reminded me of waves in hands.

"Perfect" I said then I stood up straight "Go take a shower while I pick one for myself."

She went to the bathroom we share and started showering. I walked to my wardrobe and picked one of my favorite dresses, it's a white knee-length dress with a blue flower on the shoulder that was about the same color as my eyes.

I went to my parents' old bathroom, took off my clothes and got in the shower. The water was cold but I didn't mind. In fact, I actually liked it. The drops rolled through my naked body and I closed my eyes remembering, for some reason, what my mother used to tell me all the time when I was younger

"Love, my daughter, is like the water. Addicting. But you must be careful not to drown on it." I still didn't understand what she meant by that. I had never been in love. Not love love. I mean, I loved my sister, that I was sure of. And I loved my parents. I loved my brother too, even after all the things he did and didn't do. But being in love was something that I was yet to experience.

After washing my body and hair I walked out of the shower and dried myself. I put on my dress and brushed my hair letting it dry naturally, which didn't take long as it was the usual hot weather on the sea District .Then I walked back to my room to find Melody in her dress as well. She was gorgeous and in a way reminded me of our dad. Her eyes were green like his and the freckles on her cheeks were exactly like his too.

I brushed her hair and and braided it. She was ready. Ready for her first reaping. We were ready.

"Here" she said when we were about to go, handing me a bracelet with various small white shells on it "I made it for you".

I grabbed the bracelet and put on my right wrist.

"It's gorgeous" I said really meaning it "Thank you."

As both of us weren't exactly hungry because we were both way too so was all the other families in year there had been a lot of rumours about the Arena. I heard more then once people talking about it at school, saying things like "They're using a new kind of technology on the mutts." or "I heard there is a lava lake." . I didn't believe most of it but everyone else did, which meant there would be no volunteers this year.

Our Distric was considered to be a Career District. Of course, we were a wealthy District but it wasn't like we trained our kids to kill since birth. But we knew how to and and use weapons because of fishing and of course, had a good amount of Victors so I guess they had a point.

We walked silently to the District's main plaza where the reaping always was held. When we got there, after categorizing us by age Melody was directed to the 12 year old's area and myself to the 16 year old's.

Our district escort, Elissa, was wearing an extremely stupid purple dress and a silly pink wig. Her skin was paler than mine, that even thought I had lived in Four for my whole life was some kind of an ivory color. Although her skin was white as a blank paper, her cheeks were of a strange shade of red. Whatever it was, she looked sick, which may be considered "pretty" in the Capitol but here it just made her look crazy. After the annual video about the war 68 years ago and how The Games started, which after 16 year watching, I knew it word for word, she started to talk in her high pitched voice in her strange Capitol accent but I couldn't really understand what she was saying as I was looking for my sister.

In the stage was our mayor, Nathan, along with his wife and some of our district victors. I could see Finnick Odair, our victor from four years ago. He was the youngest victor ever, winning when he was only fourteen. Most girls go crazy about him because he is, their words, not mine, a sex god. Well, he was mentoring this year. I never liked him that much, not even when he was younger. Never trust a person by their looks. Mostly because that person might have killed 23 kids to get where he is. But then again, this is the world we live in and there's nothing we can do about it.

I still wasn't listening to Elissa talk when I noticed everyone was looking at me.

"Mesi Hutton" Elissa repeated in a bored voice.I looked around to see everyone's looks. Pity. But the only thing I could hear was Melody's cry , like the one earlier. I didn't understand why she was crying. Did she got reaped?One of her friends maybe?But then I realized she was crying because of me.

I, Mesi Hutton, was going to the Hunger Games.