The sound of someone knocking on the front door wakes me. I guess my sister, Grace, is too lazy to get up and answer. I open the door to see the face of my best friend, Valerie Venne. Today we were supposed to go pick flowers for Wiress, she's one of the victors of our District. We've done this every year on the same day. Which is the reaping day, the day were our escort; Sky Leano, announcing the boy and girl tribute to represent my district in the Hunger Games. This year will be the 73rd Hunger Game, I still don't completely understand the concept of the games, and because my mom gets upset every time I mention it, I stopped asking. But I know that each district of Panem needs to hand over 2 tributes, a boy and a girl, between the ages of 12 and 18 to compete in an arena and fight to the death. The last one standing wins a lot of money and gets to go home.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I live in district 3 which is in the nation of Panem. My dad told me we used to call it North America. There is 12 districts and the Capitol, which is where our president; Coriolanus Snow, runs the country. Each district has their own job to do for the Capitol, for example my district builds electronics.
My dad also told me that the Hunger Games started 73 years ago because the 13 districts of Panem fought against the Capitol. But sadly, the Capitol was too powerful, and blew up the 13th district and starting the Hunger Games to show the rest of the 12 districts that the Capitol will always be superior.
"Courtney, we better get going because I want to bring the flowers before the reaping." Val snaps me out of my thinking moments.
"Yeah, alright. Let's go." My name is Courtney O'Neill, I live in the poor part of District 3, with my 2 younger sisters; Grace and Eva, and parents. I am 13 years old and I have my name entered seven times, because I signed up for 5 tesserae. Val only has her name in there twice because she really doesn't need tessera. She can afford food, unlike my family who is struggling.
My sisters are still too young to be drawn in the Hunger Games. Grace just turned 9 and Eva is only just 10 months. Val has an older brother and her mother died a few years ago because of cancer. But her dad is the manager at the manufacturer for automobile, so he gets enough money for the bunch.
Val and I have our special place, behind the bakery, where there is a huge garden of flowers that only we know about. We always wanted to go on the other side of the electrical fence because there are prettier flowers there, but we know if we even go close to it, Head Peacekeeper Zeran would be very, very angry and punish us.
Before leaving, I wake up Grace to let her know I'm leaving and I won't be back until 1. I put on a oversize sweatshirt and jeans, grab my favorite pair of running shoes and tie my hair in a neat bun with a gold ribbon. I also pack my satchel with a few pieces of bread and a sack of berries.
Val and I set off to our little meadow. "Are you nervous for the reaping?" She asks me after a few minutes of silence.
"Not really, there will be at least thousands of slips in the bowl and only seven will have my name on it." I say while sitting down in a pile of purple tulips.
"But like Sky always says; May the odds ever be in your favor!" Val tries to say it in that Capitol accent
"You really need to practice on that accent; you sound like a dying rat!" I giggle. The only time I'm really happy is when I'm with Val. We always laugh together. At school we're called the artists, because we always end up drawing on every paper we find.
I have a few other friends besides Val, but they aren't as important to me as Val is. Only she knows that I sing in the bath, and I only know that she built her own drum set.
"We should get more blue tulips this year. Last year Wiress seemed to have liked them." Val says in the as-a-matter-of-fact tone. Wiress is around her mid 40s. She always seems to forget what she was saying in mid sentence and also always seemed to be a step ahead of everybody. She lives in Victor's Village which is near the manufacturer for televisions. Her neighbor is her loyal companion; Beetee, who is around his mid 50s. He is a genius in electronics, and with that specialty, he won his games by making an electronic trap with wire that killed off the rest of the tributes.
Val and I picked flowers silently, we like it better when we don't have to keep a conversation going. Near the end our picking journey, I started to get a little hungry. Taking out my satchel and setting the bread and the berries on the ground, Val stands up and brings all her flowers so we can have a little picnic.
"What kind of berries are those?" Val is one of those girls who is always asking questions, which I like.
"I think they are raspberries. Mom has a little bush hidden in the backyard." My mom is bed ridden because she has the flu. My dad works at the butcher shop, so if there is scraps, we may have a good little meat sandwich for supper.
"Well I think they taste amazing with the bread." We finish the rest of our food and then start making a bouquet for Wiress.
"Remember, more blue tulips then anything." Val says.
When we're finished I hold up the bouquet, Val seems satisfied but I still think it misses something.
Val notices the look I have, and sighs. "What's wrong with it?"
"I think it needs a touch of gold." I say while taking out the gold ribbon in my hair. My mahogany hair falls down to shoulders in big waves. I wrap the ribbon around the stems of the flowers and tighten it in a bow.
"Court, you should let down your hair more often, it suits you!" Val says while grapping the bouquet and stands up. With her other hand she offers me help up.
"I don't like it, it makes me look weird." I start putting away the garbage in my satchel and I accept her help and she pulls me up.
"You're kidding me right? You're one of the prettiest girls in our year! You don't see all the boys starring at you?" She says while whipping off the dead grass on my backside.
I'm really not used to compliments, because I don't find myself that pretty. I'm one of the shortest girls in our grade and I'm really skinny because of my family's situation. My eyes are the rare brown, I say rare because mostly everybody in district 3 have bright green eyes and light hair. I'm one of the odd balls with the brown eyes and dark hair. Val has blue eyes, which I find really breathtaking because it suits her beautiful blond straight hair.
"Oh shut up, you're just as pretty as me. Let's go so we don't miss Wiress before the reaping." And before I finish my sentence, we start speed walking towards Victor's Village.