"BOBBY. You've been in the bathroom for such a long time. I need to get ready !". My sister Beatrice shouts out to me. Me and Beatrice happen to be twins, which has its advantages, but for must of the time, its just horrible. Usually Beatrice is grumpy, but today she's extra grumpy. It's reaping day. The day where 1 young man, and 1 young woman get taken away to the Capitol to compete in The Hunger Games. I wet the comb in my hands with wet water and fun it through my hair a few times so it is all going towards one side. There's gonna be camera's at the reaping today. I'm not looking like someone from District 12 on tv !
I live in a place called District 7. District 7 is located in Panem. We are the remains of a continent once called North America. Once floods and fires or as we learn in school, the great disaster hit, the people of Panem where all that was left. We rose from the ashes and created a once-great nation. There was 13 District that surrounded the capitol, which to this day still boss the districts around. But then 18 years ago, 4 years before I was born the 13 districts rebelled against the capitol for over working and under paying us for years. The result was a catastrophe for the districts. District 13, which was in charge of supplying the country with graphite was destroyed. Not a single survivor. But that was only the start. The Capitol created the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a televised fight to the death where 1 boy and 1 girl who are named tributes are put into a outdoor arena of any environment. The so called tributes then must kill each other to survive, and to become the victor. The victor is promised a life of luxary and money. One day every year, the District's host a reaping, where the male and female tributes for their respective districts are picked by random selection. So I guess that's where my story begins.
"BOBBY. HURRY UP!" Beatrice yells as I open the door. She looks like a troll. Her hair is all bushy and the bruise from falling up the stairs last night is all purple.
"Sorry, I was doing my -"
"I don't care." She just cut me off. Rude. I walk out of the bathroom as she bumps into me. Ruder. I walk down the hall into the kitchen where mom is cleaning off dishes and dad is reading the morning paper. Mom turns around, looks at me and smiles.
"Look at you, my little man, all ready for his 4th reaping !" She says. Dad looks up from his paper and winks at me. Classic dad move. I keep on walking down the hall and go into my room and shut the door. I open the door to my closet and open the shoe box at the bottom. It contains 2 things, an axe and my black silk tie. I close it up and grab my jeans from my dresser and put them on, followed by a black shirt, topped with a gray pull over sweater. I open up the shoe box and take the axe out. I close the box up and close my closet.
I walk over to my window and look out at the woods beyond the fence in my backyard. Im hoping that the fence is off today. It would make practising alot more easier. I open the window and drop the axe. I would climb if I was small enough, but I've gotten too big to climb out of the windows, so I can't climb out anymore. I walk past the kitchen and into the front porch area. I flick on my hiking boots and run out the front door. It's early here in district 7, only the little kids are out in the street. I walk around the house and pick up the axe. I walk over to the fence and get a leaf off the maple tree. I take it and let it touch up against the fence. It dosent burn. YES !
The fence is off !
I go through the largest bit of broken fence and suddenly I'm free. I can run around if I want, but I know today's not the day for that. It's reaping day.
After walking 5 minutes, I'm in my favorite axe throwing meadow. It has a perfect tree that I've bene using as my target for over 2 years. Twice a week I come out here and flick my axe, trying to get better at axe throwing so I can be the best lumberjack when I turn 19. I guess I'm okay. I walk back to my throwing position, 7 feet away and take the axe in my right and hand and raise it high above my head. Left foot ahead, right behind. I wave it twice before throwing it free into the air. I let go of the axe and it spirals twice in the air before getting lodged in the tree. It wasn't a perfect throw, only the top hit is in the tree. But it's okay. For now.
I've never killed anything with my axe, and I don't plan on. I've heard stories of people in District's 9 and 12 going out in the woods to hunt, but here in District 7 we have more then enough food. I practice throwing my axe for 15 more minutes before leaving my meadow and walking home, to prepare for the reaping.
LATER THAT DAY:
I sit in the back seat of our car as we pull up to the reaping. Mom turns around and looks at me and Beatrice. Time for the normal, I love you no matter what and they are only playing silly games conversation.
"Now, I know you've heard this 3 times before, but I want to just tell you two that I will always love you no matter what happens to you. And just remember, they are only playing silly games with you guys." She says to us. She kisses us both on the foreheads and gets out. Beatrice turns to me and looks at me.
"Wasn't expecting that one" she says to me. We both crack up laughing for about 10 seconds before we both open our doors and leave the safety of the car. I look around to everything and its pure madness. Parents hugging kids before letting them go sign in for the reaping, the twelve year olds hugging each other in their designed arena. The sign in location is organized chaos as usual. I go to the shortest line up and await my time to sign in, and eventually I'm gettng my finger pricked and asked my name.
"Name?" the Peacekeeper asks me. She looks at me with a stern look, as most peacekeepers do.
"Robert Power" I say to her. Yes, my real name is Robert, but I go by Bobby. She then picks up her finger pricking thing and pricks my finger for blood. After that's done I am told to go stand with the other 15 year old boys. I walk down the aisle and slide under the roped section and look around for Martin, my best friend. Martin's kinda chunkier, and has blond hair, and glasses. He's kinda awkward, but thats what makes us friends. I find him in the back corner, closest to the people outside the ropped section.
"Nervous?" I ask him. He looks at me and folds him arms.
"Yes" he says to me.
"Why ?" I say to him. If anyone he shouldn't be very nervous. He's never gotten tesserae, the grain and oil supply that puts your name in the reaping bowl more times. His brother, Adex won the games 3 years back, and ever since he's been living a life of luxary.
"Because, it makes sense for my name to be pulled out to make it more interesting for a victor's brother in the arena... ugh" he says. Personally I think hes being a pussy. The chances of that happening are pretty slim. Suddenly the audience is shushed. I know what this is. Eddy Bonnet is going to be on stage at any time to annouce our tributes. The door of the Justice Building opens and I see a tall and slim man walk onstage. He walks straight to the microphone and addresses the crowd.
"Welcome everyone ! It's nice to see some District spirit" well maybe Eddy, everyone's here because if your not here your going to get shot. "Now, no time for jabber, it's time to get to business on why everyone's here ! Every year one young man and woman are chosen to represent the wonderful District 7 at the Hunger Games, and only 3 years ago, our first victor Adex Gosse won ! Now, I don't want to waste any time, because I know you guys must be so excited to find out which of you is going to be representing our wonderful district at the 17th Annual Hunger Games. So now first, the girls !"
If Beatrice wasn't my sister, I wouldn't care less about the girls part. I don't have any friends who are girls, but I do have Beatrice. Eddy walks over to the girls bowl and puts his hand in. He swirls his hand around a few times and pulls his hand up with a slip of paper. He slowly walks over to the microphone, obviously to make for better tv, and finally he reaches the microphone. He holds the slip of paper up in his hand, then he slowly unfolds it. When its finally unfolded he looks at it, then turns to the microphone and annouces our female tribute.
"Cassandra Pike". I know her ! She was in my class at school last year ! I turn over to the 15 year old female section, and I see a small red head, which is Cassandra walking. The peacekeepers walk up the meet her, and they escort her onstage. I feel kinda sad for her, but at the same time I'm happy its not Beatrice. Cassandra walks up the steps to the stage and Eddy waves her over towards him.
"Hello Cassandra, and now, do we have any volunteers ?" Eddy says to the audience. In all 16 years, we've never had a volunteer. And as I expect, no one volunteers for her. She is left standing on the stage.
"Now, for the boys" Eddy says. As usual he takes forever walking over to the bowl. When he reaches it he slowly puts his hand in like he did with the girls, and waves his hand around. He pulls up a slip of paper and walks over to the microphone. He slowly unfolds it, so that it is facing infront of him. He clears his throat and reads out the name of this year's male tribute.
"Robert Power"