I swing the axe down onto the log I'm splitting, pretending it's Buzz's face. He's with Mahogany now, and they're probably being all lovey dovey and stuff. Gross.

I grab the split sides of the log and toss them into my growing pile. Eight logs down, about a thousand to go. I hate having to work right after school. I'm almost completely covered in sawdust by the time I finally get home, and I have so little time to do homework, I get almost no sleep. Not that the Peacekeepers care. They just want to make sure that we all get six hour shifts every day, so that we produce enough lumber to satisfy the Capitol's ridiculous furniture needs. The Capitol. A sigh of disgust escapes me. Those lazy, over-indulging pigs just sit around, remodeling their homes every two weeks and waiting for their ultimate entertainment, the Hunger Games, to come around again. They'll never know the pain we feel for those in the Games, never understand our hatred for being forced to watch our friends die...

Finally, my shift is done. It's almost dark now, and as I place my axe back in the storage shed, it hits me. Tomorrow is the last day of school. That means that, in four days, one boy and one girl will be reaped. Sent to the Capitol to spend a week in luxury. And thrown into an arena to fight. I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment as I start the walk back to our tiny house, trying to block out the memories of last year's reaping, when one of my classmates, Natalie Willow, was taken. We sat next to each other in second grade. She was killed on the third day, and almost the entire district came to her funeral. She was one of those people who everyone liked, and whose death was mourned the most.

oOo

Reaping day dawns bright and hot. I open my eyes to my mother telling me it's time to wake up as she stirs whatever's for breakfast. I see a dress sitting on the end of my bed, a bunch of white lace. "Do I have to wear this?" I complain. I'm not really the girly-girl type, and this dress looks like it's fit for a wedding. I don't even have a boyfriend...

"Yes, you do have to wear it," she chides. "I want you to look nice."

"That only needs to happen if I end up going to the Capitol and then it won't matter because I'll be dead within ten days!" I yell. Her reaction is immediate. She turns away to whatever she's cooking, pretending my harsh words didn't hurt her as much as they did. I apologize immediately. "I didn't mean to yell at you, I'm just a little bit nervous," I sigh. She walks over to me, gives me a hug, and reassures me that I won't get picked. It's probably true, there are thousands of kids in District 7 and my name will only be in the reaping ball only three times. I still feel bad, though. My dad works long hours at the sawmill every day, and my mother and I hardly see him. Being an only child, I'm very close to my mom. I almost had a sibling, a baby sister, but when my mom was four months pregnant, she got sick one night and my dad had to take her to the healer. I never found out what really happened, but after that, I've always thought of her as more fragile and breakable. Maybe it's just me. To console my mom, I slip into the dress. After adjusting it a little bit, I step in front of our mirror. The bunch of silk is not as bad as I thought. Kind of pretty, actually. I wonder what Sawyer will think of it. He'll probably be wearing something nice, a suit and tie most likely. Sawyer Holt has known me since we were six and he teased me about spelling a word wrong in school. I had responded by promptly shoving him out of his seat and then continuing on with my work. We were pretty much best friends after that. Well, other than Mahogany. I'm pretty sure she should be my biological sister, since we look almost identical. Being from the more wealthy side of town, we have the curly, black hair that marks us as the middle class. We're almost the same height and have emerald green eyes and light skin. When we were younger, our mothers were best friends and so we often ended up playing together. After a few years, we started doing everything together, and since we resembled each other so closely, we often played twins. This was very handy and helped us get out of some sticky situations, like the time that I got in trouble for passing a note in class. Her parents are much more easygoing than mine, so she went to the office and got a detention instead. Hey, that's what friends are for. A couple months ago, however, our relationship started to go downhill with the arrival of Mahogany's new boyfriend, Buzz Ivo. He is honestly the creepiest person I have ever met, but she thinks he's the greatest thing in the world. I started to make excuses of why I couldn't hang out with her, because in reality, Buzz scared the crap out of me. He's just freaky, in that way that makes you always feel uncomfortable. And I didn't want anything to do with him. Mahogany and I are slowly drifting apart, though, and I can't help but blame it all on him.

"Lavonne, time to go!" my mother hurries me out the door. Little did I know what was awaiting me at the Reaping.

Author's note: This is my first time writing and I hope you like it! Thanks to wintertrain for the help!