The Reaping
Notice: I picture Azalea to look like actress Amy Nuttall.
I wake up to find a bigger person cuddled in next to me this early morning and realise it must be my younger sister Katniss. Primrose, our youngest sister who sleeps in between us must have had a nightmare and gone to seek comfort from our mother, but of course she would have, it's the day of the reaping.
I slowly unfurl Katniss's tight grip around me and get out of bed to put on my worn leather hunting boots that have been melded to my feet from years of use. I put on my trousers and a shirt, tying my red waist length hair into a single braid.
I look across our single bedroom to see my sister Primrose (who we call Prim) cocooned in our mothers body. My mother was once very beautiful, or so they tell me but I've always known my two sisters were beautiful. Prim had a face that is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named.
At the bottom of Prim's feet lies the world's ugliest cat. Mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the colour of rotting squash. Prim named him Buttercup, insisting that his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower. He's okay with me being near but I don't think he likes Katniss at all. I think he still remembers the time she tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim first bought him home.
The last thing we needed was another mouth to feed, Katniss told me but if he made Prim happy then I was willing enough for him to let him join our small family.
Our lives are run by the Capital who split the city of Panem into thirteen districts. I was in district twelve, the coal miner's district. Today, the black cinder streets are empty, the shutters drawn as the reaping isn't until two. You may as well sleep in if you can.
Our district is probably the poorest district which has two parts two it: the Mayor's village and the Seam. Our house is right near the outskirts of the Seam so I don't have to travel far to reach a field of grass we call the Meadow.
Surrounding our district is a tall wall of barbed wire that was meant to keep you from going out and animals from coming in.
For some people like Katniss and I it doesn't stop us from going into the forest beyond. It's the only place we can be ourselves without having to worry about offending the Capitol and getting your family publicly executed.
I listen to see if the wires live, which it hardly ever is, the only time being after dinner for no more than three hours at most. I then crawl under the wires and head into the forest. The only good thing about the wire is that it's kept flesh-eaters out of District 12 but inside the forest they roam freely. My father was one of the few people brave enough to enter into the forest and brave the animals before he died.
My father used to work as a coal miner but five years ago there was an explosion just as they entered the mines. We couldn't even bury his body. I was just eleven and Katniss ten at the time, Prim can hardly remember him. Katniss and I still wake up screaming five years later for him to run.
Trespassing in the woods should be illegal but if you're brave enough or if you have a weapon then most people would risk it. My bow is a variety. My father was able to make a handful before he died and I've put them safely scattered throughout the woods covered under waterproof covers. I once tried to make a bow myself, let's just say I'm not a carpenter.
Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to those of us that do hunt as there as hungry as the rest of us. In fact, they are our best customers but my father would never have been allowed to sell his bows to allow other people to hunt. The Peacekeepers would think he's starting a rebellion and he would have been publicly executed.
"Hey Azzy," that was Gale, Katniss and myself eighteen year old best friend. When we first met we were near the mines and because of the noise we couldn't hear very well as we said our names. For Katniss he thought she said Catnip so that's what he started calling her four years ago, especially when a crazy lynx started to follow her around. For me he heard Azea and thought that was a funny name and so nicknamed me Azzy.
My full name is Azalea Everdeen.
My mother, before my father died, used to work in an apothecary in the nicer part of district twelve. Her parents were Merchants. She said if she ever wanted kids she wanted their names to be Primrose, Katniss and Azalea, Her three favourite plants, all found in the forest surrounding our district.
Ever since the explosion my mother has been comatose, the only times she moves are if she is moved by some urgent purpose for a few seconds before she sits down again. Not even Prim's pleading gets her to stir.
I was so angry at her for a long time, so was Katniss. We both had to learn how to hunt, how to cook and how to sell our spoils in the Black Market. I used to be so scared of it whenever my father and I entered that dark place but I soon had to brave the dark. I was scared of the dark you see.
Katniss and I had to learn to be the head of the family early on in our lives, though I tried not to let Katniss shoulder too much responsibility she, as well as Prim were my younger sisters, after all.
"Damn you Gale," I shouted at him. I had been tracking a beautiful female deer with a limp foot. It's not often you see dears this close to the edge of the forest, she must have wondered from her pack.
"What are you going to do with that hundred pound deer Azzy?" he asked as he came to stand next to me. How was she supposed to hide an animal that big? It would be obvious that she would be hunting in the woods and then she would be executed and then where would her family be?
"I was going to sell it," I told him. Either the Peacekeepers would buy it or the Hob will which is where I make most of my money. No one will pass down good meat.
"Come on," said Gale and we made our way through the forest till we enter a small clearing at the top of a valley: it allowed us a perfect view from a rock that we sit against but we in return are surrounded by branches that keep us from prying eyes.
Gale then brought out a loaf of fresh baked bread from the bakery up in the nicer part of District twelve.
"Oh my god Gale," I grab the bread off him, ripped it in the middle and brought the bread up to my nose. The gorgeous, aromatic smell made saliva appear in my mouth. He must have been up earlier then me to get this bread so easily.
"Yeah, I traded it only for a squirrel." It was one of the easiest sales he had ever made with the Baker but everyone must be feeling a bit off today and they had good reason to be.
"He must have been feeling sentimental today." I was unknowingly agreeing with Gale. We could always trade with him but only when his monster of a wife isn't in the house or nearby. She hated what she called those 'Seam brats'.
I brought out the cheese that Prim must have made me as a gift from her goat Lady. She knows that I absolutely adored the cheese she made Katniss likes it better with berries inside it. I think it takes away all the flavour.
I unwrapped the basil leaf it was kept in and used it to spread half of it on each half of the bread while Gale stripped the berries from the bushes. This type of meal was only for special occasions. "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds-" Gale had his version of Effie Trinket's voice on, a maniacally upbeat women that arrives once a year to decide who will be taking place in the Hunger Games.
"…be ever in your favour," I finished. We had to joke about this otherwise the other option would be to be scared out of your wits. That wasn't an option for me, not with me looking after my family all day every day.
I looked at Gale and noticed he could have been Katniss' sister. Straight black hair, olive skin, they even have the same grey eyes but they weren't related. It was just the way most people with families who work in the mines look.
It was why my mother and Prim, with their light blonde hair and pale skin, and me with my dark red hair and green eyes were so out of place. My mother's parents belonged to a small merchant class that caters to officials, Peacekeepers, and the occasional Seam customer. They ran an apothecary shop in the nicer part of District twelve. Katniss was not the forgiving type and so she never forgot our mother who neglected us the second her husband died and her children were reduced to skin and bones.
I do forgive people and so does Prim but if I feel like I've been betrayed at anytime then it's likely that I won't ever forgive them. Surprisingly I didn't feel betrayed by my mother unlike Katniss; I knew she would have had to have loved my father very much to leave the much better life she had.
"We could do it, you know?" Gale spoke quietly, under his breath.
"What?" I ask him.
"Run away, go live in the woods."
"And live Prim?" I asked him incredulously. Yes Katniss would be able to look after her but I don't want her to take on all that responsibility. I actually like looking after my family now and am basically the mother of it. Yes, I count my mother as my child because otherwise who would feed those hungry mouths that are always asking for more. Gale and I hunt in the woods daily, Katniss is okay with daggers but that's about it. It doesn't give her very good protection against flesh eaters.
Gale laughed at that. "Maybe not." He knew that Prim might last with just Katniss looking after her but recently it's just Azalea as head of the family. She was the best hunter and once when she was trying to teach Prim how to hunt she cried over all the game she killed and hoped to heal them all when they went back to the house.
Lately he had been thinking about leaving District twelve and he could have done it but then she reminded that they both had family to look after and he couldn't ask her to leave her sisters for him. They were her everything.
"I've always wanted to have kids," Gale suddenly expressed and recently with you, he though in his head. He didn't dare say that out loud. He had always fancied her since he met her in front of the mines, with her flaming red hair and her kind personality towards everyone that she doesn't deem a threat towards her family. It definitely made her stand out towards him.
If it wasn't for the Hunger Games I wouldn't mind the thought of children but at the moment my family are enough for me to look after. Besides, there aren't any boys that have caught my fancy. Also, Gale has his little brothers and sister to look after. We both had families to look after so it was no use thinking about leaving and having children. There's definitely been nothing romantic between us that were for sure.
If Gale wanted to have kids then it would be very easy for him to find a wife. All the girls at school whisper about him but that did make me jealous, good hunting partners were hard to find.
After we finished our bread and cheese we armed ourselves and managed to collect some greens, fish and strawberries. Katniss had found the strawberries a few years back but Gale was the one who thought to string mesh nets over them.
We made our way to the Hob, which used to be an old warehouse that once held coal, to sell six of the fish for bread and then two for salt. Greasy Sae, a bony old woman who sells bowls of hot soup, allowed us to trade half the greens for paraffin. We then make our way to the backdoor of the Mayors house to sell him the strawberries. He had a particular fondness for them.
His daughter Madge opened the door. You would have thought that because she was the Mayor's daughter that she would be a snob but she was okay, I quite liked her.
"Hey Madge," I greeted. Katniss and I were the quite ones at school with no friends and so we always seemed to be paired up together with Madge but it suited us just fine.
She puts the money for the berries in my hand. "Good luck, Azalea."
"You too," I say. Gale and I walk back to the Seam in silence and divide our spoils. "See you at the square."
"Wear something pretty," he says flatly.
My mother and sisters are ready to go I find when I arrive home. My mother wears a fine dress from her apothecary days. Prim was in Katniss's first reaping outfit, a skirt and a ruffled blouse. Katniss was in one of mothers' dresses, a lovely light blue dress with matching shoes. They all looked very beautiful.
A tub of warm water waits for me and I climb in straight away. I scrub off all the dirt from hunting and wash my hair of any knots.
To my surprise, my mother has laid out one of her own lovely dresses for me, a light faded green dress with matching shoes like Katniss had. The colour brought out my bright green eyes.
My mother came in the room after I answered her knock. "Are you sure that I can wear this mother?" These dresses were very special to her. When father was alive she used to let no one touch them they were that special to her so I was very surprised she was even letting Katniss and I wear them.
"Of course you can, dear. You look beautiful," she said after she had finished putting up my hair in an elaborate up-do. She really did think that Azalea looked beautiful, not that she didn't always think that of her three daughters. She was ashamed of neglecting them and making them fend for themselves for so long. She should have tried harder to keep from falling into despair and not allowed Azalea to take charge so young and put in her names in for the Hunger Games so many times. From now on, she vowed, she would look after her daughters and be the mother to them they deserved. She couldn't help herself when she fell into despair after her husband died, though she knew that was no excuse for forgetting the rest of her family. She would have most of her work cut out for her with Prim (though that didn't mean she wouldn't try to earn her forgiveness) and have to repair her relationship with Katniss the most.
I smiled at her in thanks. If she did one thing right before father died was that she was always the one to tell me that I looked beautiful. I'd always felt out of place in District twelve, especially with my red hair. It was an unusual colour to see.
Everyone couldn't help liking Prim (who was the most sweet and kind girl you ever saw), they didn't know what to make with Katniss with her closed off attitude. She used to scare our mother half to death with all the bad things she sprouted out about the Capitol. Eventually she learned that if she wouldn't stop then she'd get us in to trouble. So she learnt to control her emotion around people, hence her closed off attitude. So was loosened herself up at home where she knew she was safe to do so but even then she didn't say anything about the Capitol with Prim around. She didn't want Prim to go round repeating everything she said.
I don't like the Capitol either but I keep my thoughts and feelings to myself. With me everyone was okay. I was half Prim in that I did care for everyone but was like Katniss with my feeling of injustice. Yes we may have rebelled against the Capitol in the past but haven't we showed our obedience sine then? They should give us more food otherwise they won't have anyone to rule over in a few years.
I give Prim and Katniss a tight hug. The next few hours will be terrible for Prim. It is her first reaping. I protect my sisters in any way I can but I'm powerless against the reaping. At least she's only put her name in once. I wouldn't dare let her or Katniss put in any for tesserae. It would always be me that did that.
The rules of the reaping where that when a child was twelve they had to enter and you enter your name once. At thirteen, twice and so on up until the age of eighteen.
There's a catch though, say if you were starving as we were then you can enter your name in exchange for tesserae. At the age of twelve I had my name entered five times. Once because I had to. Four for Prim, Katniss, my mother and I. In fact, I've had to do this every year. So, at age sixteen I will have entered my name in twenty five times.
People like Madge are less likely going to be picked for the games as they have more food than us which always sets Gale off in an angry rant. I make him do it in the forest so that no one can hear what he says about the Capitol.
We ate our lunch of rough bread and milk from Lady, though none of us had any appetite. The rest of the food was to be saved for dinner. After the reaping you were meant to celebrate but always there were two families that shut their doors and closed their shutters and grieved for their lost family members.
Just before we left the house I noticed Prim's blouse has pulled out of her skirt in the back again. Our mother tried her best to make it fit her with pins as it was a little big for her as that bit at the back kept coming out. "Tuck your tail in, little duck," I say, smoothing the blouse back in place for her.
"Quack," she replied. She would always reply like that. She had to keep some traditions on this terrifying day. She was really scared that something would happen to her family today. She didn't want anything to happen to her sisters. She loved them with all her heart. She was also really nervous that she herself would get picked.
"Quack yourself, little duck," says Katniss with a light laugh, the kind only Prim or I can draw from her. Katniss was worried about her sisters, though she didn't show it much she knew they both knew that. She was especially worried today. She didn't want either of them to be picked but she knew that Azalea had a better chance of being picked out of all of us: she had put her name in the most. She tried to put her name in more than the required amount but when she tried to sneak her name in she got caught by Azalea and it was the first time she had ever shouted at her and told her to never do this again. She had apologised profusely for shouting at her afterwards. She understood though why it would make her sister angry at her and so didn't blame her for it.
If Azalea was picked then she didn't know what would happen to her family. She was sure that Gale would help keep us alive by hunting with her but she wasn't the best hunter and he had his own family to feed. Well, if she would be picked then she couldn't then stop me from putting my name in for tesserae anymore. That made her happy laugh die away after that horrible thought.
We then made our way to the square. It was a shame that the reaping was held here. The square was one of the nicer places of District twelve. Today the shops had disappeared and were instead were replaced with colourful banners and the camera crew were spotted around the rooftops.
Every files and signs in. Just a prick of your finger and you're done, though I had to quickly reassure Prim that it wouldn't hurt her. She didn't like seeing blood. She wouldn't last in the games if she was picked not that I'd let that happen. If she was picked then I wouldn't hesitate to volunteer myself for the games. Saying all this was great and all if it could protect my family but it didn't mean that I actually wanted to be picked if that situation arose.
District twelve has a population of about eight thousand and the reaping is also a way to check the population of each district.
Prim files in at the back with other twelve year old girls, Katniss stands with the fifteen year olds and I stand with the sixteen year olds. The square is split into two sides, the girls on the left and the boys on the right. The twelve year olds are stationed at the back and the eighteen year olds at the front.
Once everyone was assembled I looked up at the stage to see three seats that were occupied. One was for Mayor Undersee (Madge's father) who was a tall balding man and the other for Effie Trinket who was fresh from the Capitol. She had on a white wig with a huge red flower, pink lips and eye shadow, and was wearing an (in my opinion) ugly pink suit. The last one was for Haymitch Abernathy.
Haymitch is a middle aged man and was one of the few tributes of District twelve that won the Hunger Games. Now he's just a mentor to whoever gets picked for the games. He's also a drunkard and nobody really likes him. At least he wasn't drunk now and we would thankfully not be the laughing stock of Panem.
When it became two o'clock the Mayor stood up and said his usual speech. It's the same story every year. He tells us the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the draughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, the shining Capitol surrounded by thirteen districts, which bought peace and prosperity to its people's. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capital. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games.
The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death, till only one remains.
This is the Capitol's way of reminding that we are totally at their mercy. How little chance we would stand surviving another rebellion.
The Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity. The winners also get a life of ease back home. Their district will also get showered with gifts which largely consist of food.
"It is both a time of repentance and a time for thanks," intones the Mayor. He then introduces Effie Trinket.
Bright and bubbly as ever, she saunters towards the microphone and gives her signature, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!" I saw Gale look across at me and mouth 'lame movie'. Normally the Mayor just gives a speech but this time they bought a movie all the way from the Capitol that helped describe what the Mayor was saying as he was saying it.
I smile and nod at him in agreement. He always knows how to cheer me and Katniss up in times like these.
It is now time for the drawing and as always Effie says, "Ladies first." She walks over to a clear glass ball that is filled with at least one slip from all the girls that stand here today. Twenty five slips have Azalea Everdeen written in careful handwriting.
I draw a deep breath, praying that it was not me. It was not me.
Effie draws her hand deep into the ball and pulls out a slip of paper. She moves back over to the microphone and smoothes the slip of paper.
She reads out the name in a clear voice. And it's not me.
It's Primrose Everdeen.