I awake that morning to the sound my of my 5 year old sister crying hysterically outside my
door. If anyone had heard her screeches of hysteria, other than my mother or my 16 year old brother,
they might have thought she needed a doctor, or a psychiatrist. But we knew why she was crying
so horribly, she was scared. This wasn't like the kind of scared like an infant hearing his first thunder-
storm, this was the kind of scared that she knew that her siblings might die.
I come out of my room to see my young sister, Piper, crouched in a ball on the floor in front of
me. I had to crouch down to come face to face with her cherry red face and wet, puffy eyes.
I took her face in my hands and looked her straight in the eyes and said "Piper, you have to listen to
me."
She tried to break free of my grasp on her face, but she fails and finally gives in.
I start my statement again "I know you don't want me and Zane to have to leave you but there is a
very small chance of that even happening." I know that that isn't true though, there are thousands of
names in those glass balls but Zane, my older brother, and I both know that quite a few of those slips
have our names on them.
Every year two children, a boy and girl ages 12-18, from each of the twelve districts goes to war
fighting each other to death. This takes place once every year as a consequence of the 13 districts
getting together a long time ago and going to war against the Capitol. This was when North America
was an actual place, but than it collapsed and broke apart into the 13 districts ruled by the Capitol.
The Capitol won the war and completely destroyed district 13. For the districts horrible behavior
the Capitol punished the remaining 12 districts by creating the Hunger Games.
When a child reaches the age of 12 their name is entered once into the glass ball of their gender.
Every year their name is entered again until they turn 18. If a family is poor that child can enter for
tesserae, a years worth of oil and grain, for every family member of theirs and every year the number
of slips inside the ball grows. For example-my brother Zane takes out tesserae every
year for my family. The first year his name was put in 5 times. The second year his name was put in
10 times and so on. My brother, being 16 years old, has his name put in 25 times where I am only
14 and this year my name has been entered 15 times. There fore Zane and I have been put in the glass
ball a lot. We have already discussed to my mother about Piper not being able to sign up for tesserae.
Piper than starts sobbing again and I have to kneel down to whisper to her "We are going to be
all right, it's just the reaping, we are going to be fine." I wrapped my arms around her skinny, fragile
body as her sobs started to fade and she finally smiles. Then she clutches onto the front of my shirt
to pull me closer and whispers in my ear "After, the reaping can we have some spice cake?" I smiled
at her because I knew that this was Piper's favorite treat. I rarely make it because it takes me awhile to
save up the money for the flour, spices and fruit pieces to make the little loaf of cake. So the spice is
cake meant for a celebration. I bend down to her ear again and whisper "Only if you stop being so
upset." She looks up at me with her wide eyes and finally smiles. I smile back and take her hand in
mine. " Let's go into town and buy the ingredients so later on, after the reaping we can make the
cake." Piper looks up at me and than starts bobbing up and down. I squeezed her hand just enough
to settle her excitement.
We walk down the short hall to my mother's room. Piper and I share a room, it's small but
just large enough to fit two small beds and a nightstand between them. We all share one closet. Zane
lives up in the attic, and mom sleeps in the spare room that always seems freezing when you enter.
Piper and I enter her room trying to make the least noise possible. Surprisingly, she isn't
sleeping, but has her nose in a book instead. I lean against the bed and whisper "Mom?" Mom looks
up from her ragged book with her glasses poised on the tip of her nose. She always seems more older,
wise, with her glasses like this. She answers with a quick "Yes?" I look her in the eyes and say "Piper
and I, are going into town to buy ingredients for a spice cake. Is that alright with you? We will be
back in an hour or so." Mom looks from Piper to me than answers with a nod of her head.
Piper grips my hand real hard and drags me out of the room. She pulls me down the hall,
the dining room and out the door. Finally when we reach outside Piper is huffing and puffing, still
gripping my hand real tight. I look her in the face and say "What was that for?" Than Piper smiles and
says "Making sure you weren't gonna back out on the deal."
"What deal?" I ask.
"The deal that you would take me into town and buy ingredients for the spice cake."
I sigh. "Why would I do that?" Piper just shrugs and starts pulling me down the small dirt path that
leads into town.