Oh, my stomach hurts, I hate these days. I'm so nervous, afraid that they are going to pick me; that they are going to read my name from the slip. But with so many names, there's just a small chance that I'd have to go, right?

Zoey? I turn around and look right into my little sister's nervous eyes. It's her first reaping, but she has nothing to be afraid of, unlike me.

Zoey? We have to go now, she is almost whispering and I hear that her voice is shaking. I nod to her and try to say comforting words to myself, but that doesn't work. Okay Zoey; breathe in, breathe out. I look into the mirror and see my own reflection. My skin is pale and my eyes are just as nervous as my sister's. I inhale a big breath and say to myself: okay I'm ready.

We walk side by side, down the road, and say nothing to each other. I don't know what to say. How could I calm her down when I can't calm myself down? I can't take her hand and I can't hug her. I know we are siblings, but we aren't close enough, sometimes she is like a stranger to me.

We split up, I go to the other 15-year-old girls and she goes to the 12-year-olds. The girls around me are giggling, talking and some of them are actually singing, like it's a just another normal day. Have they all forgotten that this might be their last day with their friends and family?

I watch as the tall man enters the stage; he has a big fake smile on and says some words that nobody hears. But when he walks to the first glass bowl, with all the boys' names in, silence descends all around me. It's like everyone forgot their magical world and the reality caught up with them all at the same time. The crazy man on the stage is taking so much time, it feels like hours. He puts his hand into the bowl and picks one innocent boy and throws the boy's life into hell, with a smile on his face. After finishing with the boys, he moves onto the girls. It feels like my stomach is made of ice and that my world will soon turn black.

He says a name out loud and I feel my body relax. It isn't me, but when I realize who it is; my heart jumps and fills with pain. I hear a girl crying and a mother screaming. But I don't look up to the stage and don't want to look into her eyes. I don't look when they take her away, or when she screams a familiar name. I don't go to say goodbye or tell her that everything will be alright. Why should I do that? She is just a stranger to me.

I walk home alone, my heart beating very fast. On my way home I smell flowers in the air and hear birds singing. Normally I would love that and I would have stopped to smell the flowers or to sing with the birds, I would think how happy I'm that it wasn't me that got picked. But today I don't do any of that. Today I have only one thought on my mind: I have just have lost a sister.


Disclaimer: I don't own the hunger games.