As the birds chirped, I yawned and woke up. I had a really strange a scary feeling in my stomach; maybe it's because I haven't had a full meal since my mother and father died in a jewel making factory accident. Since then my brother and I had to take care of my family, my brother was working two jobs and everyday I was sewing clothes for the rich people in town until my hands bled. Lots of people think that everyone in District One was all posh and rich but actually it has a poor side. The poor side started to get bigger ever since that accident.
It was a hot day and all the workers in the Jewel factory were sweating and were very tired. We have very strict peacekeeper patrol here in District One an so when the peacekeepers saw that no one was working properly, they 'accidentally' blew up whoever wasn't working hard enough. My parents luckily saw that they were blowing people up and so they quickly worked. But then the next day, the peacekeepers weren't there. Everyone was puzzled until one man found a bomb in the corner of the factory. It was showing that there would be 30 seconds until the bomb will explode. Everyone tried to run out the factory. My mother and father, being the nice one's, helped the disabled people get out but in the end, they were one second too late to get out. I keep on wishing that my parents would have run out to save their own life's before other peoples though. Ever since then, more and more factories have been mysteriously blown up.
My brother and I have also been continually entering our names for tesserae. Oh, that's why I have a scary feeling; today is the reaping for the Hunger Games. I have always been scared of this day. I am sixteen now and I have around 32 slips in the reaping ball. I yawned again and stretched out, trying not disturb any of my 4 siblings. I look and my older brother, Caleb and smile as he looks happy and peaceful in his sleep, my younger sister Laura who was 13 years old and my youngest brother, Ben who was 11. I walked over to our mini third room in which we call our dining/kitchen room. There is only one shelf in our cupboard. Inside, there was only 10 mint leaves, two loafs of almost stale bread and 4 bottles of water. Although it wasn't much, it was enough to sustain my family for a month. I cut up some of the bread and ripped up some mint leaves stuffing them into the bread.
I walked to where my siblings were sleeping and gently shook each of them until they woke up. Caleb woke up first and immediately sat up, turning around to look for danger until he saw me standing next to his bunk. Caleb patted my head and said " Good morning." I smiled at him and looked at my other siblings that were just waking up and stretching. "Good morning guys, you better get up!" As my siblings went to get dressed, I made their beds and walked over to the dining room where the tiny teeny table stood with 4 tiny plastic chairs that were half broken surrounding it. As my siblings piled into the room, I closed my eyes and said, "Today is the reaping for the Hunger games and I just want to tell you guys that if your brother or I get reaped for the Hunger Games, make sure that you guys try your hardest to survive. Laura, remember every thing I taught you about sewing? Well, make some money from the business that I made. Ben, do whatever Caleb told you do. Understand?" Laura and Ben nodded. "Okay, lets eat." We all sat down and silently ate while my mind was filled with thoughts circling around the fact that today my brother or I could be reaped for the Hunger Games and torn from Ben and Laura forever. Since I come from a poor family, I wasn't allowed to go to career training sessions.
After we finished eating, Caleb sighed deeply and took a deep breath. I wouldn't be surprised if one of us is reaped. We finished up the meal and went to get ready. As I looked into my small section in our tiny closet I grabbed my mothers old dress. It was a beautiful knee-length red dress that had ruffles at the bottom. On the shoulders, there were a couple of diamonds in a row. I closed my eyes and clutched it close to my body and smelt the scent of mother. Tears threaten to spill out as I stood there. I turned around and stripped off my clothes and carefully and slowly stepped into the dress. I walked over to Caleb and asked him to zip me up. "Is this mums dress?" Caleb asked me. I nodded and said," You can wear fathers suit." Caleb nodded and walked away to get changed. I felt something poking me and I looked down. It was Laura peering at me with her pretty little blouse and skirt that was mine when I was a child. I smiled and bent down. "You look very pretty today!" Laura smiled back and replied," No you look much prettier, one day I want to be as beautiful as you." I shook my head and motioned to Laura to sit down so I could do her hair. I gave Laura a very simple yet elaborate do. I walked outside and plucked two beautiful pink freesias and came back in. I pinned the two flowers on either side of her head. "Thankyou," she thanked me. I turned around and started on my own hair. "Were all ready," I heard Ben say after a few minutes. I turned back around and nodded. Together we walked to the door.