The 73rd Hunger Games

Chapter One- Carlo and Cassian

This is the 73rd Hunger Games, right before the popular 74th.

I sighed. School is so boring nowadays and and my brother and I are slowly starving to death. My brother, Cassian, looks like a ghost, with his sunken cheeks and bony face. His olive coloured hair and electric green eyes, like , me was inherited from our parents. Cassian hsd a long and slender body, it is no wonder he is skilled at fighting and jumping. My parents, both of them, died in District 11, where they were working as farmers, who spent all day picking at wheat until their backs were literally in an upside-down U shape. Now Cassian and I live with our kindly peacemaker uncle, Marcella, in District 12 , otherwise known as Marc to us.

Marcella had told us that our parents died because of a back infection, where their spine would just CRACK when they were halfway picking at the wheat. Then, their spineless bodies would just fall to the ground and decay. There were often incidents like this in District 11 where even children would die of.

Adding to the continuous hunger of my family and school, Marc's always going away and spending more than half of the money he earns on Greasy Sae's (the woman selling soup at the Hob, District 12's black market) soup of the day. Marc will stay at Greasy Sae's from four in the afternoon until the next morning at about three. That results in Cassian and I putting ourselves to sleep after schoolwork with starving bellies and Marc with a plump round one filled with all kinds of meat.

That was the problem with Marc! Even though the peacekeeper of District 12 (Marc)love us dearly, he spends so much time away from us, we rarely get to eat dinner or breakfast.

We have plenty of school supplies and we're higher classed than most District 12 children, although we only feast on school lunches daily at twelve o'clock. As I said earlier, we don't even get to eat breakfast or dinner.

I hate school. The teachers are so strict, smacking anyone who even breathed noisily. The food in the cafeteria is disgusting and sloppy but we are driven by hunger to eat the cardboard mush. The local school in District 12 (the only one, of course) is a tiny speck of dust next to President Snow's mansion. The school is a blackened building cramped with children chattering noisily everyday. Most of the walls are covered with moss and decorated with leaking and spewing holes of sewer water. This is nicknamed 'The Leak' by the students. Everytime 'The Leak' comes everyone would start screaming and the total Capitol supporter, 5 year-old Spurius MacMillian, would sing the Capitol anthem and shout 'May the odds be ever in your favour!'.

Since the school is located in the richer part of District 12 (still very poor, by Capitol standards) it's only a five minute walk everyday for Cassian and I from our house.

The best time I had in school was when a girl with olive hair and olive eyes (who was younger than me) sang so fluently like an angel lit up the hall during the school assembly, leaving my mouth gaping open, mesmerized by her magical voice.

Anyway, after school, Cassian starts talking about the Hunger Games. Suddenly, tortured screams echo in my mind. Tomorrow is the Reaping and everyone will be gathered in the square, awaiting Effie Trinket, each year's name selector, to pick the two unlucky male and female tribute.

"Cassian," I suddenly say, I grip his hand until his bony hand turns white, "Promise me, if I ever get picked, don't volunteer for me."

"I promise, Carlo. I swear it on my life." He stares at me intently.

I stop being creepy and serious. My grip relaxes. So I decide to tell him what to do in the future, "Listen, Cassian. I don't think I'll get picked... so we have to do something with our lives, don't we?"

"Carlo, what are you talking about? You want to rebel?" His voice trails off.

"No...but I might consider..." I snicker, "Ok, but if I really get chosen, YOU STOP STARVING. Hunt. Get food."

Cassian looks at me with innocent green eyes. He is too young to die. "How am I supposed to...survive without you, Carlo?I m-mean, how?"

I bring Cassian close to me and comfort him, "Don't worry…You are amazing at combat and your long spindly legs can leap over anything. Survive on rabbit meat, berries…"

"I've seen two people my age do it before," Carlo confesses, after all he's only fifteen, anyway.

"Gale Hawthorne and Katniss Everdeen," we both whisper in unison.

"Yeah, I've seen them too. Katniss was the one who sang in the assembly." I tell Carlo.

The rest of the walk is an awkward silence. Both of us put ourselves to sleep after doing our school homework; Marc isn't home yet. There isn't any school tomorrow, because it is the Reaping.