A/N: DISCLAIMER!
Me: I don't own the Hunger Games.
Suzanne Collins: NOPE! I do though!
Me: Way to not rub it in Suzanne...
Chapter One: The Reaping
I sit up in my cot and look out the crack in my bedroom's wooden wall. Today, the weather is such a contrast to what all of the districts seem to feel. It was bright and sunny. The sky was cloudless, and a vibrant, baby blue.
"Why does the weather always mock us?" I say to myself in a whisper.
I throw off my blanket and drag myself out of my cot. I then get dressed and go down the hall to the kitchen that I 'share' with my dad and brother. The kitchen is right next to our front door, so I go out to get breakfast.
I sneak around to the backs our neighbor's houses, who can actually afford three meals a day, because I wouldn't get any food if I didn't. I look for a house with no lights on; a house unsuspecting. The only reason we live in this neighborhood is because when my mother was still with us they were able to afford a house and actual meals. Now we are left with the house and practically no food.
Stealing is punishable by death in District 5, but if I didn't do it, I would starve, mainly because my dad gives most of the food to my brother. No one notices anyway, since I am careful and I only steal what I need, not too much to the point where it is noticed. Our neighbors usually leave food lying around in the kitchen, so I go early, before they wake up, and open the window to steal. I am always careful to close it back and be quiet. Once I am done- choosing a shiny orange, fresh lettuce, and a slice of cheese- I return to my room via window. I always scatter the stolen food into my meals throughout the day, even though my food is really only enough for one meal. Today, though, we have more food than normal since the tessarae arrived.
My father makes some flat bread out of the rough grains and gives me a smaller portion then my brother. I take it and retreat into my room so I can hide it with the rest of my food. I pass my brother, James, in the hall and mumble a hello.
"Morning already?" he replies in a tired voice.
I ignore him and go to my room so I can eat my meager meal in peace. My nerves quiet down and I start to think about my first time stealing. It was the day after the day my mother and sister were taken. I decided to stop crying and face the facts, by that time winter was at its worst.
Snow blanketed the cold, hard, ground. I had to be careful and wipe my footprints away. I snuck out through my window so my dad wouldn't know. I carefully trudged through the snow, making sure I walked around a bit so if someone were to follow my tracks, it would get them all mixed up.
I looked for a house that was empty for the moment and found the perfect one. Quietly, carefully, I snuck over to it, opened the first-story window and looked in.
My heart was going a mile a minute. Inside the house was two loaves of bread that had already been broken, some recently sliced cheese, and some strawberries. I reached inside the window and filled my pockets, while also making sure it looked like nothing had been taken. Then I turned around and painstakingly erased my tracks. Once inside my bedroom, I got a bag that was left over from a trip to the market and put the food in the bag. Finally, I put it in the safest place in my room, a loose floorboard directly below the headboard of my bed.
After staring at the area where the floorboard is, I look at myself in the mirror so I can decide what to do with myself for the Reaping. My red-orange hair is messy from my night of tossing and turning in my sleep. My amber eyes look back at me solemnly, my freckles stand out against my pale skin, and I look as skinny as a piece of kindle. I look in my closet to find it pretty much bare of anything worth wearing to the Reaping, when I hear my dad calling for me.
"Amber, come here! I need to give you something! I have a surprise for you!" he shouts. I take my time and slowly walk down the hallway to his room.
"You called?" I ask before I look disbelieving at what he is holding. "Where and how did you get it?" I ask as I look at the green dress he is holding. It has swirling patterns on it with gold and blue sparkles here and there.
"I managed to get a good price on it from the seamstress down the street. I saw it in the window and thought of you. I had just enough money from the bonuses I got over the past few months to get it." He says as his eyes twinkle. "Now, go into your room, put it on and let's see how it looks."
I don't smile or say thanks, but I take it into my hands and hold it gently, as if it will break in my hands the minute I touch it. I glide to my room in a trance. I remove the clothes I have on and get the dress over my head. I zip up the back easily. It looks okay on me, and it almost seems like it makes my hair shine. I quickly and laboriously brush my straight, orange hair and I then open the door to walk down the hall to my dad.
"You look wonderful." He says. I know he's just saying that, trying to get us closer.
My brother comes in, wearing his blue suit, and right on cue, a horn sounds that tells us we need to gather at the square. We head out the front door to the center of District 5.
As we walk towards the square, I see people from school that I sort of know. I have no friends; I'm too quiet and shy. The only way people know me at all is because I am smart and we do go to school together. I have gotten noticed on announcements before, and my brother has a few friends. But I don't care that I don't have any friends. It's better that way. So when I go to take food no one will notice me.
When we get there it's almost packed full with people. My father, brother, and I manage to push ourselves a little ways into the crowd. There are Peacekeepers with guns standing around watching us; I shudder, thinking about that horrible night.
Some Peacekeepers rang our doorbell and made us all come outside in the dead of night. I could smell the cold winter air and I felt a chill down my spine. They said that they would take two of us; it was part of our job as District 5 citizens to sacrifice ourselves for experimentation. Automatically my dad offered to go, so did my sister. I had clung to her so that they would have to work to take her away; she was my first and only friend. The Peacekeepers told my dad that no, they needed women, not men, so they grabbed my mom and took her and my sister away. I screamed at the Peacekeepers and tried to run after them, but my dad held me back.
If he hadn't have held me back, the outcome of that night could have been different. I'll never forget it; I had stayed in my room and cried every day for days on end, not answering the door for anyone, until I realized that crying wouldn't help. I needed to survive, as a living memory of them.
My brother looks like my dad, and I look like my mom. My brother is so lucky because he doesn't even remember a single thing about it. I was only six then. We never knew why they chose my mother and sister, but my dad suspects it was because of our descendants. Our great-great grandparents were rebels who helped start the uprising. So now, I'm the one who signs up for tessarae to fill the hole that my sister left in her death and I'm the one who makes sure that I have enough to eat.
The mayor of District 5 goes up to the stand. He is a short, stocky guy with a blue suit, blonde hair, and bright green eyes. He clears his throat and gives the same long, boring speech as always. It isn't really that important and usually puts half the audience asleep. He then gives the stand to the guy from the Capitol. He has lime green hair that is spiked on one side and flat on the other. There are various swirls and patterns stenciled on his skin as well. His name is Euregaurd Jimime, and he is probably one of the weirdest people I have ever set eyes on in my life. He has one of those fake, Capitol smiles that practically everyone in District 5 hates.
There are two glass bowls beside him, one with slips of paper with boys' names on them, the other with girls. This is my brothers second year, and he only has four slips of paper in the bowl. I have 27 with my name on them, in the girls' bowl.
Euregaurd smiles that horrid smile and says "Lady's first!" He mixes the paper around and picks one out. "Floria Cassay!"
I recognize her. Her family starts bawling as they realize their precious daughter is being called to compete to the death. She steps up there, a papery white and just as Euregaurd starts his sentence of "Are their any volunteers?" A collective gasp comes from the crowd as we watch her raise a dagger and plunge it through her heart. She cries out in pain and we all watch the horror as her corpse falls to the ground with a sickening thud. Still writhing in pain, she gets carried off by Peacekeepers. Her family is in hysterics now. They can't believe their daughter is dead. Their disbelief washes over all of us like a bucket of ice-water being poured onto your head. Suicides aren't uncommon in District 5, but that doesn't mean we are prepared for one when it comes.
You can tell which people were friends with her. In fact, she seemed to be pretty popular. I see girl's comforting each other and a boy, who I deduce is her boyfriend, is crying as well.
My brother is crying. I glance at him, but then look away quickly, pretending I don't notice. The girl's parent's cries are even harder to listen to as the agony builds up. The Peacekeepers come and take them away as well.
Euregaurd, in an awful matter-of-fact tone, says, "Well, that was dramatic! Let's draw another shall we?" and he then proceeds to draw another name out of the glass orb.
"Amber Medea!" he reads and I stand there, white in shock.
He didn't just say my name, did he?
I don't even look down at my brother, who is crying even harder. I start my journey to the circular stage. It took forever, as if time itself had froze in place. I try not to cry once I get up there as I see out of the corners of my eyes my dad and brother weeping in place, in silence. I don't even dare look at them.
I stand there, feeling every single pair of eyes trained on me. None of them know me, I can tell by there faces. I hardly hear Euregaurd's happy-go-lucky voice say "Jaynen Ceallach!" when I snap to reality as District 5's next boy tribute comes up to the stage and sticks out his hand. I shake it and I look straight into those blue-green eyes.
I have seen him before, and remember working with him as a lab partner. Our teacher always assigns it so that there is one boy and one girl working together. I remember that out of all of the guys I worked with, he was probably the one I liked the most. He was pretty nice, unlike the other jerks, and was really outgoing. Unfortunately for him, I was the least-outgoing person there. I didn't really talk to him at all.
The next thing I know, we are being ushered into the City Hall and are each taken to a separate, soundproof room. I am surprised to find that my first visitor is my teacher. She comes in and sits down on the other side of me. I study her tear-stained face, and her chocolate brown eyes, her graying brown hair shaking along with her sobs.
"I-I wanted to give you something…" she says, and she pulls out a book, I recognize it immediately. "I want you to take this as your District token, I had taken it away from your sister that day, because she was reading it in class, and wasn't supposed to be. I'm sorry I haven't given it to you sooner." She says and looks into my eyes.
I quietly take my sister's diary from her, and I start to feel my eyes water. "Thank you." I whisper. The Peacekeeper guarding my door tells her that times up and she instantly bursts into fresh tears while she leaves.
My next visitors come in quietly and sit down quietly, opposite of me. My dad silently cries and just stares at me. "Uh…good luck," he says.
My brother, still crying from before, chokes out a "Bye." I just nod my head.
Silently, we all know I won't be coming back. After a few minutes of staring at each other the Peacekeepers come and take them away from the room. I am left alone in the room until the Peacekeepers take Jaynen and me to the train that we will travel to the Capitol on.
A/N: Thanks for reading my chapter! More to come! Also, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH to my Beta readers Padfootvfd AND Sarahhaley! Also, "thank you" to YOU for reading this!