A/N: Hello everyone! This is a rewrite of a fic I had on here ages ago before I decided to take it down. It's basically a huge headcanon that was spawned when I went to go and see the Hunger Games movie. In the book, both tributes from 4 die and are mentioned dying, but in the movie, the girl from 4 is not shown as having died in the bloodbath and her death is not mentioned subsequently, so the big question is: What happened to her? It also ties in with the other big question of Panem, What happened to all of the other countries? Have a nice day!
'Scarlett! Get up! It's Reaping Day!'
I open my eyes. My 7-year old sister Emily is leaning over my bed, all smiles and curls. I begrudgingly get up. 4 is a weird district, because a small minority are actually enthusiastic about the games, and the rest don't really care. Reaping Day is just a bit of a pain because we can't do anything in the morning, it halts the markets for the day and the traffic in the square is a nightmare in the week beforehand because they're setting everything up.
I feed Emily some cereal and send her across the road to go and play with her friend (Mum and Dad own The Flying Fish, Northern 4's main restaurant, and they are both there at the moment because everyone goes out for breakfast on Reaping Day because it's a public holiday and nothing starts until noon) and get ready to meet my friend Coral at The Flying Fish so that we can join the rest of the district and capitalise on the free food opportunity (well it's free for her, anyway).
I park my bike outside the restaurant and go to find Coral. She's not hard to spot, with her oversized sunglasses and shiny red hair. She's really nice, but a bit ditzy; a prime example of somebody who would not do well in the Hunger Games. Unless, of course, it involved swimming (we're on the sub-district swim team together), but they already did that for the 70th Games. Annie Cresta, one of our own, won that. There was a whole song-and-dance at the end of it by Districts 1 and 2 saying it gave us an unfair advantage. It was a bit late for the Capitol to do anything though, since, obviously, the District 1 and 2 tributes were already dead. Also, 1 and 2 have huge training academies, not informal classes like we do here. Talk about an unfair advantage.
Coral and I have a nice chat over some crayfish scrambled eggs. The swimming finals against Southern 4 are coming up, so we talk tactics for that, and Coral explains her reaping dress in almost agonising detail. I have a bit of a moan about how I'm a leftie and am therefore guaranteed to get hit multiple times at post-reaping beach cricket this afternoon (an annual tradition with Coral's and my family). Coral insists that we finish at 11 so that we have time to get ready (I'm just putting a dress and a bit of makeup on, who knows what she's doing), so we part ways and I head home to get changed.
I silently thank Coral for wanting to leave so early when Emily returns all covered in flour. I curse myself for sending Emily to play with the baker's daughter and tell her to go and have a bath and not to touch her precious reaping dress until there is no trace of flour left on her. I quickly get myself ready before embarking on the long process of getting a scruffy 7-year-old to look presentable. No sign of the parents; as usual, they are preparing for the post-reaping lunch rush.
After much screaming and brushing and general cleaning, I grab some sweets to pacify Emily and we walk to the end of our street to meet Coral. Her powers of description are very good; it looks exactly like she said it did. She fawns over my dress (I can tell she's being fake; my dress isn't all that nice. I got it for 28 capidollars off a sale rack yesterday after I realised I was dress-less. It's cooked-lobster red and make out of District 8's crappiest satin. It does flatter my non-existent figure though, which is the primary reason why I bought it) as we walk to the square.
The square is absolutely packed. People have come from all over District 4 for this, and some people have really made an effort. I feel quite underdressed in my 28-capidollar dress and basic braided hair, especially standing next to Coral in her 100% silk sea-green Capitol creation and hair that explains why she was so anxious to leave The Flying Fish.
I leave Emily with Dad, who has left the restaurant for a bit to supervise her, and make my way with Coral to the 16-year-olds section. I daydream about winning the Swimming Gala whilst the bureaucrats make their usual speeches and they show us the same video they show us every year (they really need to make another one). Then, I figured I should probably tune in for the actual reaping, seeing as there is a slight chance someone I know could be involved in this. Alvarina, our idiotic escort, attempts to create some suspense by waving her hand over the fishbowl for a bit before pulling out a name. 'And the female tribute for District 4 is…'
'Coral McPherson'
Damn. Coral wouldn't last five seconds in the Hunger Games. Maybe I should…
'I volunteer!' I yell, running up to the stage. 'I, Scarlett Reed, volunteer to be District 4's female tribute for the 74th Hunger Games.' Well, that was probably a bad idea. I'm going to be killed at some point in the next two weeks. Fan-bloody-tastic. Alvarina goes on about how brave I am for a bit whilst I stand there looking terrible in my cheap dress and (metaphorically) kicking myself for being such an idiot before she goes to the boy fishbowl. Who's going to look after Emily? Who's going to do the Friday night waitressing shift at The Flying Fish? Who's going to replace me on the swimming team?
'Christian Kelly'
A scrawny kid with epically curly hair comes to the stage. He's only 14 years old and a couple of older kids try to volunteer for him but this huge guy in the audience bellows: 'My son will compete!' Christian looks like he's about to soil himself. The poor sod. At least I have only myself to blame… I shake his trembling hand and allow myself to be escorted to the Justice Building.
What the hell did I just get myself into?
