I wake in the middle of the night screaming. My face is damp with tears and my hair is tangled in countless knots. It only take a few seconds till I hear my brother, Nook, running out his room and into mine. Straight away he dives to my side and is hugging me tight. I hug him back and he's saying things that I can't hear over my own ragged breath. Mother appears at the door and I can tell she's been crying. She joins us on the bed and it turns into one big family hug.
It's been a long time since we've all been together like this. Mother is always working, trying to support the family. I never knew my Father and Nook has little memory of him. Mother never speaks of him now and acts like he was never around but one time I managed to get Nook to tell me what happened. He was very unsure and worried he'd get in trouble but I managed to get him to loosen his tongue in the end. Apparently Father had a heart attack just a month after I was born.
"Avia, listen to me. Listen to me!" Abruptly, I stop crying and look straight at mother. She never raises her voice at us. "Listen to me Avia. Nook, you too."
"What? What is it?" Nook asks. I can tell he's scared. You always see what Nook is feeling through his eyes. But he only gets scared over serious things, whereas I squeal over the sight of my own shadow.
"It won't be either of you. I promise. But..." Mother hesitates for a moment. Before she can carry on, Nook sweeps in.
"There are no buts. We are both safe as can be. Fact." I perk my head up a little and see all the fear from his eyes are gone. I smile up at him but he's looking down at me with same hesitation mother had. My smile falters.
How many times is my name in that wretched glass bowl? Not too many but just enough. Nook almost never let me take tesserae but sometimes I would. I quickly work it out in my head and I must be entered at least 26 times. Nook is entered 52 times and he's eighteen.
"Why?" I whisper quietly before I realize what I'm saying. This catches his attention. "Why are you lying?"
"Lying?" He repeats slowly as if it's a different language.
"We're not safe from the Capitol. No one is."
I can see the pain now in his eyes. Mother looks uncomfortable. The silence seems to echo round the room and I regret saying anything. Suddenly, mother stands up from the bed. We both stare up at her and the tears are visible in her eyes. She flees from the room before either of us can watch them fall.
Nook shakes his head and pulls me closer. It's some time before he pulls away. When he does, he holds me gently by my shoulders at arms length. In his brown eyes I can see a glint of mischief, and I know what he's about to offer.
"Want to train?"
Before he's even finished speaking I jump up from the bed and head over to the dresser. With Nook's help, we pull it out and then search for the loose floorboard. I find it first and when I pull it up I see the familiar wooden box. Everything's made of wood in District 7.
Inside, we find our daggers. That's it. Both made of sharp metals and are identical except at the handles. We snatch them up and head outside, careful to check for peacekeepers. The districts curfew was hours ago and we could get in a lot of trouble for being out this late. I'm surprised Mother even lets us do this.
Nook leads me through the dark and out into the thick woods that surround District 7. After so many miles, the woods are cut off with an electric fence the once killed one of our old neighbors.
When we are covered in the trees, we pull out our daggers again and start throwing them at trees as if they were throwing knives. The soft tunes of the nearby mockingjays calm me and the scents of the wild plants make me feel almost happy. After we throw our daggers several times at the trees, we get bored and head home before the sun comes up. Normally, we might spar with each other or try slashing at some trees but today just isn't the same.
I feel someone shaking on my arm, trying to wake me. I keep my eyes shut firm and roll over, hoping who ever it is will go away. They don't though and it takes me a lot of will power to stop myself from screaming at them to go away. Whoever it is seems to have decided to wake me by force in the worst way possible. In a flash, I feel my blankets are ripped from me.
I squeal as the cold attacks me and tuck my legs up to my chest. I glare at mother who's dropped the blankets back on the bed, her face red with guilt.
"Come on Avia," She sighs when I pull the blankets back over me. "You can't be late for the reaping."
I freeze. More than before. No one ever mentions the word in our house if they can help it. That's pretty much the golden rule for us.
I slip out of the bed and avoid looking at mother. "No. I have to please the Capitol, don't I?" I reply icily. Mother stiffens for a moment before escaping out my box room. Damn her, I think bitterly.
I pick out the nicest clothes I have to wear for the reaping. A white blouse, black skirt and black shoes. Once I'm ready, I head out to the living room where Nook is sitting in a white shirt, black trousers and shoes.
"So Sleeping Beauty's awoke at last, has she?" He chuckles lightly. I realize I haven't brushed my hair yet and it's a mess. Scowling, I find the one hair brush we all share and drag it through my dark red-ish brown hair.
"Why are you so happy then?" I ask angrily. I'm not sure why I'm even angry but that just makes it worse.
"For the feast we'll be having tonight of course!" He grins and I smile a little with out meaning too.
"And just what will this feast be made up of?" I ask carefully.
"Berries," Nook pauses. "And berries." In the woods surrounding District 7 there's plenty of berry bushes but not too much else. Peacekeepers don't let us kill any animals that we come across on the rare occasion we do.
"Berries and berries," I laugh. "My favorite."
I tie my hair into a high ponytail and then go to look out the window. I see other children heading off to the town square and sigh. Without a word, Nook gets up and heads out the door. I follow after calling to mother that we're going. She'll leave a little after us, probably going with next door.
As I walk down the path to the town square with Nook, I feel myself shaking. I've always been terrified of the games. The scariest part to me is that I'll die alone, if I'm reaped. I'd die a brutal death far from home with complete strangers that don't care who I am.
I tuck a stray hair behind my ear and wipe my eyes, afraid I'll cry. I think Nook realizes how scared I am because he's clasping my hand firm in his and is promising he'll never, never let me die alone in the games.