Unexpected - Chapter 1
I wake from a fragile sleep haunted by the annual fears of being reaped. I can only hope that at the end of the day I will be able to return home and sleep another night in my own bed here in District 5. That won't be the case for two unlucky children, they will be stolen away from their families and shoved helplessly into the Capitol's beloved Hunger Games.
My mother and father are already awake when I rise. I can tell from there dark eyes and sallow cheeks they too have shared a restless night, worrying about today. I offer a weak smile trying to shatter that tension that hangs in the air. I push my food around my plate too nervous to eat a single bite.
I try to reassure myself, I'm definitely unlikely to get picked and neither is my best friend Lilian "District 5 is a big place" I think but it is impossible to hold back the gnawing fear and worry. Luckily my family doesn't have to take any tesserae because both my mother and father hold important positions at the nuclear power plants which supply the Capitol with its precious electricity. This isn't the case for some of the less fortunate families in our District that can hardly afford food, more than likely one of them will be reaped again.
My parents give me the usual reassurances that every parent across Panem is giving their children, but it doesn't help at all – it never does. I hear my mother's absent muttering as she ties the final ribbon into my hair. She says how beautiful I look but all I see is a terrified 16 year old girl with deathly wide eyes.
We stand, she gives my hand one more squeeze of reassurance and a kiss on my cheek. I feel my father's soft hand gentle pat my shoulder as if to wish me luck, which I ever so dearly need. He opens the front door and we walk out to witness the annual reaping.