The sky is red. I love it like this. Not only because it means tomorrow will be a beautiful day but also because it casts a lovely red glow onto everything. The boy looks beautiful in red. He look beautiful in everything. I'm sure he looks beautiful in nothing as well. With sun set comes fisherman but only one can catch my attention. I do not know his name but I know the way his back muscles move when uses his trident to catch fish and I know the way his hair falls onto his face when he is looking down at the knots he is tying and I know the way he distractedly swipes at it just for it to fall back down once again. I know that his eyes are the colour of the ocean he now stands in and I know that his hair is the colour of the sun when it is setting. I know that is voice is unlike any other voice I have heard and when he laughs the world seems at peace, if only for a moment.
The sand moves for me as I run my hands through it. Picking up piles and then watching the grains fall between my fingers to rejoin the others. I glance up and the boy is still there, back to me. I wish you would turn around and see me, I think but he never does. I come to watch him when I am nervous and need to feel calm. He has a strange calming quality about him. Maybe that is what makes me so attracted to him. Maybe it's something else.
Tomorrow is reaping day and while I am too young to be entered into the pool my older brother is not. I worry for him. I worry about what it would do to my family if he was gone. The family that is probably expecting me to be home by now. I sight before lifting myself of the ground. I quickly brush the sand off before turning towards home.
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I stand in the crowd with my mother and father. Wearing a pink dress that goes to my knees. Everyone must dress nicely for reaping day. It is a rule that I have never understood, but like all rules I do not question it.
The anthem starts as the shiny capitol lady walk on stage. The two bowls filled with names on either side of her. The capitol makes an official message and then she starts rambling on. Just cut to the chase, I think. It is almost like she sense the crowds annoyance because she stops mid sentence and says "now I will pick the name of the female tribute from district 4." She reaches into the bowl and pulls out a paper. A paper with the name of a girl they will send to their death. She reads it in front of the crowd and there are some gasps from her friends and family. She is located in the crowd and the peacekeepers find her and escort her to the stage. She does not look afraid. Of course not, she is from district 4 and people from district 4 win often. The lady walks to the other side of the stage and announces "I will now pick the male tribute from district 4." She walks back to center stage and unfolds the paper before calling out "Finnick Odair." There are cheers in the crowd this time though I can't understand why. I guess his friends believe he will win. The peacekeepers bring a boy to the stage and I see those eyes and that beautiful hair and the tan skin. Oh, I think, so his name is Finnick.