I step outside and fell the heat of the scorching sun, on the left to me are workers chopping down as much trees as they can find and on the left to me the one thing I fear in life, in our town square is the people setting up for the reaping, desks and fences are being put up and our escort is testing the microphone. If you don't know what reaping day is well it's the time of year when they select people in an unfair way to compete in the hunger games, a game where 24 people go into an arena and fight brutally to the death. I step back inside, I see my mother running around cleaning well also looking at clothing that we will obviously wear at the reaping. "Hey Drake, have a quick bath please, I heated up the water, don't be long because your cousin needs one." Yes my cousin Jamie lives with us, his parents were beheaded because they tried to steal wood from the forest to use for firewood, I was very young when this happened I think I was about 7. I hope in the bath, it wasn't even warm, but I should still be grateful because I could die any-day yes any-day I steal wood from the forest were we chop trees, it's the only way we can keep warm in district 7, district 7 is a lumber district, one of the poorest district from Panem. I scrub my body and hop out mum walks in just as I can throw my towel around my waist. "Crap mum ever thought of knocking."
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just in a rush and felling quite sad."
"Mum, you know me and Jamie will be fine" I answer back.
"It's just, you might not be." She walks towards me and wraps her arms around me tight, her brown hair tickles my hands as it flutters on them, she releases the hug and walks out and she sniffs. I see that she has left clothes for me to wear. I put them on and I look in the mirror, my blonde hair matches the white shirt and the black pants my mum left me. I look back into the mirror the blue eyes look back into mine for once I looked okay. I walked out into the sitting room, my mum was is sitting on the couch talking to Jamie. If you are wondering where my dad is well he died in the 100 annual. Hunger games 20 years ago, mum says his death was bad, he was stabbed in the head 50 times by a knife, the person who killed him was a crazy girl from district 12 my dad was only 17.
I step outside again, one of the speakers goes of, all the contestants must now go to the town square, thank you and may the odds be ever in your favor. My cousin and my mum come out, and we all exchange quick hugs not knowing if we will see each other again. We start to walk to the town square, I look down at my shoes they already have mud on them Great. We reach the town square and we start to split up, we start to line up to get checked in, Ouch, my finger was pricked for blood to prove that we have attended the reaping, if we don't go we get killed. I go to my age group which is 14 and Jamie goes to his age group that is 15, we take one last look at each other and look at our escort on the stage. "Welcome, to the reaping of the 120 annual hunger games, we won't begin with the usual video because it is broken and we do not have enough time to fix it so straight into the reaping." Our escort is a woman and she looks normal except her face looks liked it has been bombed with red makeup and her hair is very large with quantities of yellow in it. "So this year as you know is the quarter quell in remembrance that the rebels will never up-rise against the capitol, this year reaping is age groups, the capitol has already selected the age that will have to compete, and we will reap from that age group" She yells. My heart is pounding, what if my age gets picked and I go. I look over to my cousin he doesn't see me but he looks just as scared as I do. I look back up. "The age group is... 14." I hear gasps of relief everywhere but all I fell is the felling that I might be picked. I look at my cousin and he looks shocked not that he isn't going to get picked that I might get picked.
"Ladies first, as we do." Our escort walks to the ball what has the girls name in it, she scavenges her around until she picks up the small parchment, "The female tribute is "Jessica Abolm." Everyone's heads turn in the direction of Jessica, I wasn't worried really who was the female tribute I was more worried that I might get picked. Our escort digs her hand back into the bowel and she reads something that can't be possible. "Drake Hoger." My mind went blank, how could this happen, I mean my name was only in there 10 times and I got picked. "I volunteer, I VOLUNTEER!." I recognize that the person volunteering is my cousin. " I am so so sorry boy, but you have to be in the same age to volunteer." My cousin looked blank. "That's not fair!" He shouts. "Dear, rules are rules." Our escort says. Well come on chap come up. I walk up very slowly trying to find my mum in the audience, I see her, she crying on my mums friends arms, she notices that I am watching her and she waves, I manage to give a small wave back. My cousin nearly looks as dead as my mum, he hasn't got much friends and if I die who will hang out with him I walk closer to the girl and the escort says "SHAKE HANDS" In a weird loud voice. I reach out and grab the girls small hands, tears were rolling down her eyes and it made me fell bad that we might try to kill each other. Our escort points towards the door and we walk into the community center, the community center is the richest part of district 7, the wooden mahogany walls and the automatic doors felt you fell famous. A peacekeeper sits me down on a chair and I start to cry, I think about how my mum will cope if I died, she would be crying for weeks if I die because our family is breaking away, I fell bad thinking about this situation so I act strong, I wipe my face and sit up. The door opens and my mum and my cousin walks in, my cousin immediately hugs me, "You can do it, you can win, you are strong, there only 14 year old you can do it."
"Thank you, but please don't cry it will make me fell worse, please mum" She looks up, her eyes are blood shot and tears are rolling down her checks.
"I can't I'm sorry, but im scared that you wont come back, promise me that you will tr- try to win please."
"I will mum, I lo-." The door opens and a peacekeeper comes in that's time.
"I love you mum!" and the door slams shut. "I love you."