I sit on my stool by the window watching the sunrise over the glistening blue sea. Who could imagine that a sight so beautiful could come on such a grim occasion, the reaping. The morning air has its usual chill to it but yet my hands are sweating bullets. I had made it through my first one safely but who was to say that this year would be different, my name had been entered seven times this year for tesserae as well as three time for being fourteen.
"Josephine!" my mum calls from her room, "come here!" I jump up, temporarily shoving my feelings aside and jog into her room.
"Yeah" I ask My eyes making their way to a chair next to her bed, a pale blue dress is draped over the back.
"I picked out this for you today" she smiles, "and I ran a bath, quickly go get clean."
I nod and hastily moved to the bathroom, washing all the salt and sand out of my blonde hair and trimming my nails. I slip on the dress and brush all the knots out of my hair, looking in the mirror I could barely recognise myself.
"You look nice" my Dad smiles as he walked through the door, I turn to him a pleading look in my eyes.
"Why?"
"Excuse me?"
"I don't want to look nice, not for the reaping."
"Oh" he sighs and hugged me "you'll be fine, i'm sure of it." I wipe away a tear and clench my fists.
"Yeah I know." I look at the ground and then back up at my dad, forcing a smile, he returns it, turning swiftly on his heel and exiting the room.
I walk over to the window and look back out at the sea, the sun is fully out now and the sea shines and glimmers, what if I could just jump into it, swim away and never come back.
"Come on Josie" my mum smiles, "the reaping should be starting soon, we should get going" My heart begins to beat hard in my chest as I take my mums hand and we walk out the door.
The town is beginning to buzz with people. young boys and girls are gathered in the main square. I line up behind a peacekeeper and check myself in, then join the other district four females in a huge crowd.
I wait for what seemed like eternity when finally the man from the capitol that runs the reaping each year in district four comes to the stage, he runs through all the usual stuff like the video, the speech from the mayor, and finally he approaches the glass bowl with the girls names in it.
My legs started to shake, my whole life could be in the hands of one action, one movement, that predicts my future. The man, Vincenzo Lucifer, slowly folded his fingers over a tiny slip of paper, right at the bottom, I hold my breath as he walks back to the microphone. The whole square is in complete silence, the only thing i can hear is Vincenzo's hard breathing, with his mouth too close to the microphone. He brings the paper up to his eyeline and slowly unfolds it, this moment seems to take slight pause while he processes what the paper says feels like eternity.
He inhales a huge breath and looks up at the crowd. I never noticed his eyes and how piercing they are, almost a yellow green, so bright they might glow in the dark.
"Josephine Rolfe" he smiles.
My throat dries out, girls all around me turn to look, I feel the prick of tears as a peacekeeper takes my arms and gruffly shoves me along the path to the podium.
"Ah yes" Vincenzo says "Come here darling."
I continue to walk, looking around frantically, praying someone will volunteer for me, but the crowd remains silent. I climb the stairs and look out onto the crowd, finding my parents but they won't look at me, only at the ground.
Vincenzo walks over to the other glass bowl and draws out a name, he walks back to the microphone and reads out the name of some kid who i've never heard of before, he has red hair and blue eyes similar to mine and he's crying, I feel a stab of emotion for him, "He's only twelve and he's going to die" I think.
"Can we have a round of applause for this year tributes!" Vincenzo cries, a quiet series of claps comes from the audience, Vincenzo beams and ushers us inside.