Hey everybody who cares enough to read this. You might say this is my first story, but then I had an other account, forget the password, blah blah blah. Plus I like the name Flamesoul42. It makes me feel more epic. Whatever you probably want to get into the story. Enjoy please.

Read it if you you must.

Snow was falling. Drifting around me like the petals of a white flower. But it was cold, too cold. I had lost the feeling in my toes long ago, now they ached with blisters and frostbite. My cloths were frozen with ice and made each step of my walk home harder. The bucket in my arms was splashing on me, due to my jerky movements. Kaylee had sent me to the river to fetch some water and twigs for the fire. The sticks were tied in a bundle across my back scratching me when I moved.

By the time I reached the wooden house at the end of the road the bucket was half empty and several sticks had fallen out of my bundle. Sighing I kicked the door open and stepped into the old house. It had once belonged to a man but he passed and after his funeral no one even questioned who would get the house. It sat there for years and then when I finally worked up enough courage to enter the home I found kids living there, orphans like me. They let me stay, but I couldn't tell anyone about the house.

The moment I stepped through the door I got hit by a tornado of kids. They were Reily, Tony, Cathy(everyone called her Cat), and Nellie. They were fighting, again, over whose turn it was to play with the blue ball, the only toy in the whole house. Their argument was cut off when I walked in. I set the bucket downing the counter and threw the sticks on to the ground.

"Amber!" squealed Cat, throwing her small arms around me. I swung her up in my arms and kissed her on the top of her head.

"How's my Kitty Cat?" I asked setting her down again.

"Rawr!" She made a little kid version of a scary face. I smiled and turned to pick up my bundle of sticks and ran strait into Kaylee. You could say she was the leader. She was eighteen, the oldest. She bosses us all around. And now she had her arms crossed.

"Hi Kaylee," I said nervously, knowing I was in trouble, "I, um-"

"Amber," Kaylees voice was tight. "What makes you think that-" she pointed at the half-filled bucket "-is enough for us all to drink from!?"

I opened my mouth to say something but Kaylee cut me off. "How could you, Amber? Why would you drink all that water? We are thirsty too!"

"I didn't even-"

"Amber." Kaylee turned, "If you think your selfish acts earned you dinner, your wrong. No dinner for you tonight!"

"I-" my voice rose a pitch in anger.

Kaylee turned on her heels and left me alone with Cat, who had her brow furrowed in confustion. I clenched my fists and stared after her, sorely tempted to walk up and show my fist the path into her nose.

"Amber?" Cat's voice was quiet. "Amber?"

"I'm okay, Kitty." I sighed to her, "I know life's not fair but my mom used to tell me that 'Life isn't fair, but you have a chance to make it fair for someone, you should do it."

Cat's smile widened, "You had a very smart mommy."

I caught her eye and quietly said, "I also have a very smart Kitty." Teasingly I patted her on the head trying to change the topic away from my dead family.

It was to late. My mom with her warm brown eyes and kind smile, who always whispered smart advice to me. My father, with his green eyes and proud smile, not of himself, but of me and Lainie. Lainie, my baby sister. She was only four when the small pox caught her. My father had only been dead for a week, shot for no real reason by the Peacekeepers. Lainie was dead in but a week. My mother died of greif only a month later. She got sicker and weaker. And then she was gone.

Kaylee cut into my thoughts, "Dinner everyone!"

The small room in the back had a big table and three good chairs. The others were makeshift, or broken. I hovered in the doorway until Kaylee caught my eye. She waved her hand in a dismissing way and went to grab more plates of food. It seemed like a feast tonight. Everyone old enough to work would, and Kaylee would use the money to buy food and supplies to fix up the ever creaky house.

My eyes stared into Kaylee's back. Cat noticed me and grinning she blew me a kiss, unable to speak in the room filled with loud voices from over thirty kids. I winked and stalked out of the room trying to ignore the rumbling in my stomach. I raced up the stairs to the third level, the attic, and ducked behind the curtain to my makeshift room. My bed was three boxes with newspaper on top and a blanket thrown over that. The pillow was a piece of cloth folded up. I had a small candle, almost burned out. And a box with my personal belongings.

I had almost nothing, I had to sell lots of my things to get money for food, before I moved into this house. But I had an old dress of my mother's and a soft ribbon that was Lainie's. She would run her fingers along it and press it against her cheek. I had a rock shaped as a heart my father had given me for my birthday, and a letter. It was from my mom to me. She wrote it, knowing she was going to die. I found when I got home from school, and her dead body.

I added something new to the box. It was something I had found earlier that day in the river, floating against a rock. A pencil that wrote in blue. I carefully placed beside my ribbon, kissing before placing it in the box.

I dressed into a nightgown, Kaylee gave it to me after she grew out of it, and washed my face in my small cup of water that made up my sink. I prayed to my family and as I climbed into bed I felt tears on my cheeks.

The reaping is tomorrow.

My the odds be ever in your favor.

You like?

No?

Yes?

WELL FOLKS THAT'S WHY WE LIKE TO REVIEW AND LET THE AUTHOR KNOW WHAT THE HECK YOU ARE THINKING! MAKE SENSE? REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW! :) :) :) :) :)

You will get the next chapter real soon...

Until next time.

-Flamesoul42