Chapter 1
My eyes open slowly, but I continue to lay in my bed until all my senses return to me. Tomorrow will be a bad day but today should be fine, so I better make sure it lasts. I sit up and scan the room. All my brothers and sisters are asleep.
Tonight, I should go to the fields to see if I can get some food for my family but not til the fields are empty. Right now I have to get my siblings to school. I shake my brother James awake until he opens his eyes. I continue waking up younger siblings until I reach the youngest, Daisey, she is very little. "Why do we have to go to school today?" James finally asks me.
I look into his big brown eyes. "Why shouldn't you?" I ask him.
"Because tomorrow is the Reaping!" James whines.
The Reaping is the day that every district in Panem picks a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen from their district to go into the Capitol of Panem for one week. There they are trained, interviewed, and prepared for The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a game the Capitol made up, the two children from each district are forced to fight to the death in a arena.
"Yeah tomorrow is the Reaping but not today." I tell him.
"I know but shouldn't they give us a day to relax?" James asks me.
"They do... for the people of age." I explain to him.
James is ten. Everyone but James is ready for school. "You better hurry James... Or your gonna have to go late!" I remind him. District Elven has very strict rules and being on time is one of them.
James runs around the house and throws his uniform on. "Let's go!" James yells. I grab Daisey's hand and we walk by Mrs. Arthur's house.
Mrs. Arthur usually babysits Daisey but because I don't have to go to school today we keep walking. We walk down the street. I grab Lily's hand too. "Come on guys we probably only have five minutes to get to school!" I yell. We walk faster until we reach the corner.
That's when I notice him. He is very tall and he has brown eyes and dark skin, just like me. He is standing across the street looking at us.
Being only six, Lily decides to wave at him. He smiles then looks down at his shoe lases. "Come on." I remind everyone to keep moving. We go around the corner, down the street, turn another corner and we are finally at school. I hug and kiss James, Violet, Lily, and Oliver and they run inside.
I pick Daisey up and begin walking home. Then I see him again! In the same spot too. I'm not sure what to think about him now. Is he lost? Homeless? Just board? I think he got the feeling that I was uncomfortable or something, because all he does next is turns around and walks away.
I make sure to hold Daisey tighter, protecting her from the world, and walk home. I open the door and shut it behind me. I let Daisey down and she sits on the floor. I walk up to my dresser and pick up my Mom's wooden necklace. I run my fingers on the wood, because doing this always calmed me down, it calms me down when I think about the Peackeepers who make sure the strict rules of the district are not broken. They have them in the other districts, but I don't think they are as strict as the ones in my district. I put Daisey in her crib gently, then I throw myself onto my bed. I begin running my fingers on the wood necklace and mutter to myself. "It's your first year Rue." Then I think about my family to get my mind of the Games.
My Mom and Dad work in the fields until it's very late. James is ten, Violet is eight, Lily is six, Oliver is five, and little Daisey is only two years old.
It is my first year of my name entered in the Reaping bowl. But, I have already signed up for many tessareae. A tessareae is when you sign up to put your name in the Reaping bowl extra times and in return they give you a year supply of grain for one person. Since I have a big family, you can see why my name is in there so many times. The poor usually get a lot of tessares. The rich don't need to because they can afford to buy food so they don't sign up and there name is not in there as many times.
I fall asleep. All I can dream about is the escort for District Eleven Lola Peyton's hand digging through a transparent bowl.
When I wake up I look immediately at the clock. "I have to pick up the kids!" I take Daisey out of her crib and run out the door. And sprint to school, Daisey still cradled in my arms.
I get there and everyone is waiting by the steps. "Sorry guys I fell asleep." I explain to my siblings.
"Can we just go home?" James asks in a strange tone for him.
I'm really surprised. "What's wrong James?" I ask him gently.
"I don't want to take about it!" Jame almost yells. Okay, something is upsetting him.
"Alright, lets go." I say calmly. We walk home and I close the door.
I check to make sure every one is inside. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about-" I begin.
"I'm fine Rue!" He confirms. I wonder whats bugging him. We sit in complete silence for the next hour.
"Rue why didn't you go to school today?" Lily asks me, breaking our silence.
"Because I... I...I had the day off." I finally say. Lily opens her mouth to speak but Violet begins to hum. Instead of speaking, Lily joins in. A minute goes by and I can't resist humming to so I let myself hum with them. Oliver and James join in too. There is a knock on the door. We stop humming at once. I open the door.
A Peackeeper is standing on the other side. "Oh hello." I say politely.
"Where are your parents?" he asks me.
"There still working in the fields. Sir." I say.
"How old are you miss?" he asks me.
"I'm twelve sir." I answer.
"Make sure your at the Reaping at twelve O' clock tomorrow!" he commands.
"Yes sir." I say. He walks away. I close the door. Everyday at six O' clock I go to the fields and sing a four note song and the mockingjays sing it back and everyone in the fields knows they can go home.
I tell James he is in charge until I get back. I run to the field and watch the workers for a few seconds. It looks like hard work. I sigh and begin my four note song. As I finish the mockingjays start to echo it. I smile. I love mockingjays. Workers start to wrap up and head to security. At security, Peackeepers check to make sure no one stole anything. If they did steal something, there punishment would be death.
I sigh, remembering that boy Martin, who during harvest had tried to keep his pair of glasses that help you see in the dark, they pass out to keep production going. He hid them in his pants. The Peackeepers found them, of course, and killed him on the spot. I don't know how things work in the other districts.
I notice half of the workers are gone. I race back home. I open the door to find my siblings jumping around on the little furniture we have. "Guys, calm down!" I shout. "James I put you in charge!" I yell at him. He looks down at his feet. I shake my head and pick Daisey up off the floor and put her in her crib. I make the beds, as I finish the last one Mom and Dad open the door.
"Mommy, Daddy!" Daisey shouts. We all run up to them and hug them.
"What did you do today?" My mother asks all of us while my father searches for anything we could possibly eat. We each describe our day. "I learned about The Hunger Games." Violet mumbles. Mom looks at Dad then back at us. I look into my Moms eyes. They look stressful, she looks at me and I look away.
"Well, your only eight, Violet nothing to worry about." says Mom.
Violet's eyes start to fill with tears. "What about Rue?" she manages to say.
I look down, the fear strikes me again. Tears begin to fill my eyes. I feel someone take my hand. I look up to see who it was. James. Violet walks over and takes my other hand. "Thank you." I say.
Hope fills me. I haven't been chosen yet! Why should I cry about it now? I straighten up quickly. I won't let the Capitol scare me when there is still hope!
I look over to my Dad. He frowns. "There's nothing to eat." he calls.
I look to my mother. "It's dark, let's get to bed." she says sadly.
Hours latter, I look around, everyone is asleep. I start to think about the Reaping. My name is in there a lot. I could be on my way to the Capitol this time tomorrow. If I was in The Hunger Games I could not survive. I'm only twelve. How could I make it? I start thinking about my death. If I do die, I would want a song to be fresh in my mind, I could maybe even die listening to music. But it's not like in The Hunger Games, I could convince my murderer to sing to me! How silly would that be? It won't happen. So I let positive thoughts into my head.
I can only think of a few sentences to comfort me. I still have hope. There's still hope. I smile at the word, hope. I fall asleep with the word held deeper in my heart then any knife, sword, spear, of arrow can go.