A/N Disclaimer: I don't own anything, all rights to Suzanne Collins.
I was less than excited when I woke up on the morning of the reaping, my six brothers and I all sleep in the same large room, they are all older than me and I have just turned 15, I am in my fourth year of being eligible for the games. Most of my brothers are already past that age, none have been called up either, but that doesn't stop me from being nervous. Our family are quite well off, we never have to apply for tesserae, the four oldest of my brothers, Adan, 21, Grant and Elliot, 20 and Kurt, 19 are working and getting good wages, it's only my other brothers Hugh, 17 and Saxon, 16 and I left in the draw.
I slip off my bed on the bottom bunk and push my feet into my small slippers, quickly, I pick my way across the boards and open the creaky door to the hall, the hall is narrow, small lights run along the walls, I walk briskly towards the end of it and manage to, though not without difficulty to open the stiff wooden door to the balcony. The balcony of our apartment is small no wider than 1 metre by one metre (three feet-ish). It's tiled and has a thin railing of wrought iron in fancy patterns. Out beyond is the ocean, glittering at the foot of the cliffs. I sigh as seagulls fly overhead squawking, I almost forget that someone will be sentenced to death today. A warm hand slides onto my shoulder and my mother's voice, smooth as a millpond asks me,
"Nervous?"
"Just a little, it'll be fine, it always is." I smile back at my mother reassuringly. She speaks to me again.
"You should come and get ready, I have something for you." I simply nod my head and let her lead me by the hand back inside.
Lamps flicker in my parents room, my father has already left for work, lying on my mother's bed is a gorgeous silk scarf, patterned like fish scales.
"Do you like it?" My mother asks me
"I love it!" I reply. She sends me back to my room as the church bells in the distance chime eight o'clock I go to my chest of drawers, shared with Saxon and Pull out a neat little skirt and blouse, I tie the scarf around my neck and go to the bathroom to do my hair. My hair is short and platinum blonde, it only reaches the beginning of my neck. I wet it, comb it and pull it back into two small pigtails. And I fix a headband on top, I go back to my room and pull on my boots, thick heels with laces up to my ankle.
Small thumping noises come down the hall from my bedroom- My brothers are awake-.
I walk into our kitchen my mother and father smile.
"Ready for today?" My father asks, my father is 40, but he looks much older. He has greying hair and smile creases around his eyes, he is the best man tat ever lived.
I give a short nod in reply and sit down at the table.
It's just bread with sardines and olive oil, same as usual, I pick up the salt shaker and dust my meal. Slowly all my brothers are filtering into the room.
After everyone has eaten we go outside and wait for the small fishing cart t pick us up, our family are good friends with the Chidiac family, they have two children, Paige and Forrester, Paige is twelve, this is her first reaping, she is shaking like an earthquake, Forrester is my age, he has baby blue eyes and chestnut coloured hair, his face is some sort of dot painting with it's masses of freckles. The Chidiacs own a cart and mule, they take us all together with them, I hear the cart rumbling down the rocky, seashore paths.
The cart stops and we traipse on, from the mule -Lucy's- back a high pitched whistle comes.
"Oi!, join me on the animal will you?"
I turn to look at Forrester's face, a wide grin has spread from ear to ear, I climb onto Lucy's back, with a crack of the crop we keep trundling off down the road. We arrive at the docks where a huge space has been cleared and people are filing in for the reaping, a sea of pastel blue, tan and white, all neatly starched and ironed, on a raised platform in the middle is the reporter for District Four, Deyhna Profane, coughing into the microphone and looking at her own face in the big screens. Deyhna's hair was a midnight blue, braided into tight corn rows, twinkling with diamantes, her eyes are surrounded by electric blue eye-shadow and liner. Sshe gies a faint "He hem."
"Welcome to the 65th annual hunger games, we will begin by honoring..."
I zoned out on the rest of what she said. Until the lat words of her speech rang out.
"I will proceed to select the tribute's for this year's games, in the male category...
...Finnick Odair!" a small boy, who I recognized from my class came forward, he was younger than me, he recieved his slip and walked towards the big double doors at the back of the podium.
"And now for the Ladies category..."
"Maize Bradestone!"
That was me! That was my name! I ran over it in my head... Maize Bradestone...
I got shoved from behind, a small path was cleared for me, I climbed the podium and looked down at all the faces, some of them gleeful, they had not been chosen, easy for them.
With a calm demeanor Deyhna hands me my slip and I walk slowly through the double doors that shut behind me.
Hi everybody, my name is Olympia, I live in Australia, this is my first fanfiction, please comment what you think the chapters get better and longer as you go along please keep reading, the first three aren't great, my goal is 9 favs 9 follows and twelve reviews!
THANKYOU ALL FOR READING! XXXXXX
-Olympia