Chapter 1: The Reaping
Gale POV
So yeah, today was reaping day . . . again. Luckily for me, it'd be my last available year, since I was at 18 years old. Unluckily for me, I had 42 slips of paper in that stinking glass ball. I couldn't let my little brother sign up for any tesserae, no matter what it meant could happen to me. Either way, it meant more chance for me and less chance for my brother to be picked and sent to the dreaded Capitol, and I knew no matter what happened, there was no getting out of this and I told myself to get it together and just bear with it. And with that in mind, I got dressed in the stiff, "fancy" clothes my mom laid out for me and made myself presentable. My mother rushed us out the door like we would be late but we arrived at the district's square with at least twenty minutes to spare.
We signed in and I was pushed towards the roped area with the eighteen-year-olds. Pig pens, I thought. The roped off areas reminded me so much of pig pens. And they were. We were the pigs, the helpless children to be chosen and sent off somewhere to be slaughtered and eaten for entertainment. Okay, maybe not the eaten part but we were going to be their entertainment. The show of the year for the Capitol, the Hunger Games.
I looked to my right at the sixteen-year-olds searching the heads for just one, Katniss Everdeen. And when I found her, I stared at her with all my might like that was the last time I'd ever see her. And it might be, if one of us were sent to the Capitol that year. Stop it Gale, don't think about it, you really want to say goodbye to Katniss now, of all times, on your last available year for reaping, brickhead, my mind mentally chided me on thinking such thoughts. I was about to turn away from Katniss when she must have felt me staring at her. She turned her head to me and stared at me with those wide eyes of hers . . . then I tore my eyes from her. Would she be picked? I didn't know, she had twenty slips in there, twenty! Mayor Undersee was walking up so I directed my attention at him.
He recited the whole story of Panem, the history of the Hunger Games, blah blah blah. I didn't listen to any of that crap. It was all so stupid, anyways. Why? Why should we be thankful to be forced to be chosen, sent to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and be forced to fight to the death? Before I knew that the "game" was all about killing, I used to call it the battle of the best. Now that I think of it, it was a pretty stupid name.
Effie Trinket, some announcer and escort for the tributes walked up next. Said her whole stuff and whatnot, then reached into the girl's bowl. Please, please, don't be Katniss. I pleaded over and over again in my mind. And it wasn't. It was Dahlia. Dahlia Forender.
She walked up and I studied her. She wasn't from the Seam, quite the opposite, she looked like she was from a wealthy family, and then I remembered. She came from the richest family in District 12 other then the mayor's. Her father worked as a Peacekeeper, and her mother was something for the Capitol. She was 18, like me, and she was flawless, beautiful in all ways. She had flowing red hair down to the middle of her back, and she had light freckles across her nose. She was one of those gossip no nonsense at all teenage girls you see in school. A lot of the guys talked about her and I had to admit, she was a looker.
Effie Trinket asked for volunteers, and of course . . . nothing. Who would volunteer for her? She didn't have any sisters who could due to age and no one from the Seam would, that took up at least half of District 12. Inside, I was cheering. Katniss was safe and it was rare for someone like Dahlia to be picked. She never had to sign up for tessarae, never. She was one of those Capitol kids, and she would be sent to the very disgusting place she supported to fight to her death. Ugh, I despise the Capitol. But Effie Trinket was already moving on, to the boys' bowl. She reached in, pulled out a slip, looked at the name, raised her head and in her stupid, fake, cheery, Capitol-tinted voice that I hated said,
"Gale Hawthorne"
Hey people! So I know this chapter was pretty boring but this was my first try on a Hunger Games fanfic, so please let me know what you think! Remember to review and I'll remember to update! I promise I'll reply to each and every review. Thanks and review people!
-mystic night92