Chapter 1: The Reaping
As my mother laces up my green silk dress, I keep thinking in my head "I'm not strong enough. I cannot be reaped."
I'm 17, so my name is only in the reaping bowl 6 times. I have not taken any tesserae for my family in exchange for putting my name in the reaping more times. We have enough to feed ourselves. I'm really worried about my brother, Finnhley, who's only 12. His name is only in there once, but anything can happen.
40-something years ago, a girl form District 12, got reaped. And her name was only in there once, she was 12. Her older sister, Katniss, volunteered to save her sister's life. Katniss died first. Spear in the face. Not pretty.
I work up the courage to walk out the front door with Finnhley. We make our way to District 7's town square. Most of the other girls have brown hair and green eyes, same with the boys. But our family has a history of ice-blue eyes, and wavy blonde hair.
My hands are shaking as I let go of Finnhley as he makes his way to the 12-year old section. I make my way to the 15-year old section.
District 7's escort, Riley Qwertson, makes his way on stage and grabs hold of the microphone. Unlike most capitol people, he does not speak in a strange capitol accent.
"Welcome!" Riley begins. "To the District 7 reaping, of the 107th annual Hunger Games!"
Nobody makes a sound.
"Let's start the reaping with the boys."
He plunges his hand into the glass reaping bowl. He digs around for a minute or two then pulls out a name.
"Not Finnhley, Not Finnhley!" I think to myself.
"Finnhley Ashpen!" Riley announces.
My heart is pounding, my face is hot.
"Finnhley," I scream, "Finnhley! Please someone volunteer!
I'm sobbing now. Tears run down my face. No one decides to volunteer.
"Well then," Riley continues, "Now we reap the ladies."
His hand plunges into the bowl.
"Avartisa Ashpen!"
Oh great! I hope I'm dreaming. I better be dreaming. Right now all I want to do is kill everybody in the capitol. I may not be strong, but I can throw an axe if I need to, which I probably will.
I make my way onto the stage in complete silence, with tears running down my face. I have to kill my brother to live. And he has to kill me to live.
The stage is about 12 meters off the ground. I figure if I hurl myself off I'll snap my neck on the gravel. I take a deep breath. As soon as Riley begins the greet us, I take off running. I leap off the stage backwards. The world goes black.