"Get up! Up, now!" I'm awoken from my best sleep in weeks, only to face a nightmare. The voice of one of my carers travels through my thin door and echoes through my tiny, damp bedroom. "You're going to be late, now get up!" She screams.
"I'm already up!" I yell, trying very hard not to sound unhappy. The very moment I sound like I am trying to 'defy' the carers with the tone of my voice, I get a beating. I rub my eyes and stretch sleepily in an attempt to wake myself up. I dress lazily, thinking of last night. Last night was my fourth night of training this week, and every muscle in my body was beginning to hurt. No one would ask about the cuts and bruises, because everyone was used to me showing up meals and school with injuries. Because I was living in the community home, and I was working to get out.
Eventually I finish dressing and head out to the main dining area for breakfast. Breakfast is pretty generous this morning: a piece of bread about the size of a plum, and one small heap of something that I don't recognize. Here in the community home, you pretty much just take whatever you can get. Everyone tries their best to eat nicely, but we are only allowed small and quiet conversations during meal times. Even now, the carers on shift are walking around, punching the louder kids in an effort to try to keep them quiet. One of my only friends in this place, Juniper, limps over to me with a smile on his face. He's the same age as me, 15 years old, and he's tiny. But he's one of those people that you just can't help but like.
"Hey, Rowan!" He says, trying to keep his voice down, "dude, how bad did they beat you up last night? You're covered in bruises! What did you do? At least tell me it was worth it."
"Hardly. Apparently, I was defying the carers by refusing to fall asleep," I lie easily. I couldn't tell Juniper where I really was. "They were checking all the rooms and I didn't fake it in time, so two of them came in and decided to have some fun."
"Man, that sucks. It could have been worse though," he reminded me. If anyone knew it could be worse, it would be Juniper. He got lost on the way home from school one day, and when they found him, they brought him back here and... well, he doesn't talk about it, but it sure must have been bad. He didn't come out of his room for weeks, and meals had to be taken in to him. Ever since then, he hasn't been able to properly, which is why he had a limp. He wouldn't stand a chance in the Games.
"Yeah, I know. I'm really alright anyways," I mutter reassuringly. I continue to eat my breakfast as he walks away, giving me a pat on the shoulder.
Juniper is much more popular than I am. He's friendly, and tries to talk to everyone, while I mostly keep to myself. It's not that I don't like people, it's more to do with the fact that people don't like me. Juniper is actually my only friend, so naturally I care about him. But Juniper cares about more people than just me, so most of the time I'm pretty much alone.
School flies by quickly as always. I hardly pay attention. It's not that I'm a bad student, but I just can't pay attention. Usually I just think of the previous afternoon, or the afternoon to come. Think about how crappy breakfast was this morning. You know, the usual. I still somehow manage to pass school. I'm just lucky, I guess, but it doesn't bother me.
Like usual, I walk home, except I'm in a bit of a daze today. The reaping is coming soon. The moment I realize how slow I've been going, and that people have stopped pushing past me in an effort to get back to the home, I realize how late I am getting back. At least five or ten minutes later than usual, which is usually enough to earn a beating. I speed up to a sprint and when I finally arrived back, I've hardly broken a sweat despite how far I sprinted. One of the carers is waiting for me, and she doesn't look happy. I can tell she'd gone through the checklist and searched for me inside already, so she's going to be even more angry with me.
"Come with me," she sneers. I give a small sigh, and I walk past the rest of the kids from the home having their free time in the main hall of the home. It's only a small room, and there aren't many people in it, so it doesn't take much for them to notice me walking behind a carer, late, and probably on my way to a particularly bad beating, Some kids smirk, some look a bit sympathetic, but as I lock eyes with Juniper I see nothing but terror in them. I give him what I hope is a reassuring look, and rush out of the room with the carer.
The moment I arrive into the carers lounge, I am surrounded. They each take turns hitting me, trying out different items to hit me with, mostly things from the kitchens. They always give us the hard beatings on areas which can be easily covered by clothes, so they don't arouse too much suspicion when we go to school. I just wait out the beating, which lasts for a particularly long time today, before being ushered back to my room. I won't be able to escape to the woods today, because I wouldn't be able to walk too far, let alone train and climb in and out of a window and under a fence. So I'm left with nothing but my thoughts.
I don't know where my parents are. All I know is that somehow, I ended up at the community home. The carers didn't really care about finding what happened to them, or if they were dead or alive. I didn't really care anymore. I could take good care of myself. That's why, 5 years ago, I started sneaking into the woods, and started to learn. I learnt the survival skills- I can now successfully start fires with pretty much anything, set snares, identify plants, climb trees, make shelters from most materials and find food pretty much anywhere. I also learnt to defend myself- I can use spears, throw knives, use a bow and I even know hand-to-hand combat because of the school wrestling team. I find heavy logs in the woods where I can, and lift them to increase my muscle. I run a lot: sprinting, long jogs, short jogs. All to prepare and to keep fit enough to get away from pretty much anything. I've taught myself to swim in the lake, but I don't swim often because that's a long trek from the fence. My senses are pretty good, I can hear almost anything out of the usual, and my eyes are pretty much normal, so I suppose that's good too. I train every afternoon and into the night. Usually the carers lock me in my room anyways because they particularly hate me, so they don't notice when I sneak through the small window in my room and off into the woods. I'm always back in my window before the carers come around again to call us to dinner.
Each person at the home has to take our tesserae for themselves. So each person had two entries each year, once because they have to, and once for their tesserae. We don't actually keep what we get, it goes straight into the hands of the carers. But we still have to collect it ourselves. I got beaten one year for taking out extra tesserae, and I had to stay home from school that day because I could hardly move.
All of this is the reason I train every night. The reason I have been planning since the time I was ten years old. Because this year, after five years of training, I am going to the reaping. I am going to volunteer for the games, and I'm going to win. And I'm going to get out of this community home, even if it means facing death.
