"Kayleen!" My mother calls.
"Be there in a minute!" I call back. I turn my attention back to my older sister, Shayla, who is pulling back her arm, ready to throw the knife in her hand.
"Shhhh…." She whispers, as a rabbit comes into view.
3….2…1! Shayla throws the knife with deadly accuracy, hitting the rabbit right in the eye, killing it instantly.
"Girls! C'mon, your father will be home soon, you know how tired he gets," called my mother.
"We're coming Mom," yelled back Shayla.
She ran over to the rabbit, pulling out the knife and stuffed it in a bag, along with some edible plants we had picked earlier.
Laughing, we ran away from the woods and back into our district, sneaking under the 20 foot tall "electric fence", where my mother waits.
"Shayla, Kayleen!" My mother scolds. "You were supposed to meet me here 20 minutes ago!"
Shayla rolled her eyes. "We got a rabbit, we had to wait for it to come into our trap."
My mother shakes her head. "Let's just go home."
When we got home, my mother immediately started to boil water. I grabbed the root and cleaned and cut them up. I did the same with the rabbit.
Cooking is the only thing Shayla can't do. Luckily I can, so we leave dinner up to Mom and I.
I put the rabbit and roots into the boiling pot just as my father comes through the door. He works as a coal miner part time, full time would be 18 hours a day, but he still works 8 hours a day except Sundays and it exhausts him.
"Hey Dad!" Shayla smiles. He smiles back and ruffles her hair.
"How's my little girl?"
She pushes his hands away but she's laughing. "Kay's the little girl!" That's my nickname, by the way. Nobody calls me Kayleen except for my Mom and my teachers.
"I'm 18!" Shayla protests.
His face darkens. "Then tomorrow's a scary day for all of us."
Tomorrow is the 30th Hunger Games. You know, where they take 2 kids, a girl and a boy from each district and make them fight to the death. It's ages 12-18, so this is Shayla's last year. And my second year, I'm 13.
We're all scared that Shayla will get picked. She gets tesserae a lot, she won't let me get any though so while her name is in 47 times, mine is in only twice.
We need her. We would starve without her, the small amount my dad gets paid would not support a family of 3. And I'm not as good at hunting either. I can hit the target, but only if I'm closer than 15 feet. And in the Games, that's basically worthless.
The Games are already a death trap here. District 12, we're the poorest District. We've only had one victor, and her name is Summer Underwood. She was a volunteer, she won at 17 years old.
We eat dinner in silence. Shayla tries to start a conversation but it just dies out quickly. That night when we go to bed, I hear my parents crying in the other room. The odds are not in Shayla's favor this year.
Shayla hears them too and frowns.
"Shayla, what if-" I blurt out but she shushes me.
"Kay, I won't get called, okay? And neither will you. And even if I do…. You guys will be fine." Shayla sounds incredible sad.
She has to know that we need her to survive. But before I can say anything, she has turned over with her back facing me, and she goes to sleep.
After a few minutes, I drift off, but it is not a peaceful sleep.
In my nightmare, I am called and Shayla volunteers. She goes to the Hunger Games and makes it to the finale but in the finale she is tied to a tree and brutally murdered by a boy from District 1.
I wake up screaming. "SHAYLA!"
Immediately she is up and shaking me gently. "Kay what's wrong?"
"I had a nightmare," I gasp out. "About the Games."
Shayla gives me a hug. "It's all right Kay, after this reaping you won't have to think about it for a year."
I hug her back, grateful for my older sister. "Thanks Shayla."
She smiles. "C'mon let's go eat breakfast it's 10:00 AM already and the reaping is at 1:00."
I nod and go downstairs. On Reaping Day, my mother always makes us a special breakfast. When we enter the kitchen we see that she has made pancakes out of the tesserae grain and our father is already eating.
"Good morning Dad," we recite together.
He smiles. "Good morning."
My mother smiles at me and Shayla. "Eat up, we want to have time to get ready."
She puts four pancakes in front of each of us.
"Don't have to tell me twice," I thought and smiled, tearing into a tesserae pancake. They were actually decent.
After breakfast, Shayla takes a shower and then I do. It's not a real shower, it's just a giant basin filled with warm water.
Then I go to our room, where Shayla has laid out one of her old dresses for me. It's chocolate colored with silver sparkles all over the skirt part.
I put it on, comb my hair, put the matching brown ribbon in my hair, and I'm all set. Although I don't exactly like dresses, I can't help but smile at my reflection in the mirror.
The sparkles in the dress bring out the sparkles in my velvety silvery brown eyes. My light brown hair falls in waves on my back and bounces when I walk.
I head into the family room, where my mother and father are. They gasp.
"Kayleen, you look beautiful," smiles my mother, tucking a stray hair behind my ear.
"Thanks Mom," I smile back at her. She checks her watch.
"Oh goodness, it's 12:25, it takes 15 minutes to get to the square! Weren't you going to walk with your friend? Hurry up and go! We'll be there in a few minutes."
I nod as my parents practically push me out the door. I walk to my best friend May's house which takes about 5 minutes.
May and Kay. Everyone always laughs because our names rhyme, but May thinks it's cute. We've been best friends since Pre K and that will never change.