Chapter 1
As the strong ocean winds draw in the tempestuous storm they add to the gloom that is yet to come in today's events. Today is the Reaping Day. The most dreadful day of the year. The Capitol claims this day is a holiday. Ha! Some holiday it is when two children from each of the 12 districts are chosen to take a trip to the capitol and might never come back.
I, Sheldon Arvin was lucky my first three years, for I was not picked. Last year my younger brother Blake at twelve years old, who had his name only in the bowl once, had been chosen. Thankfully an eighteen year old boy, who could have not and never been reaped again, saved his life. He died.
Some people think that here in District 4 we volunteer for the arena because we think we can handle it and want to show off our strength and clever-minds. They are wrong. We volunteer for the Hunger Games so that others don't have to suffer the pain and agony the arena brings to its players. And all just for the amusement of the Capitol.
As I sit here skipping rocks on the wide ocean, watching the remaining fishing boats come to shore, my best and only friend Meredith comes and sits next to me on the sandy beach. She had long dirty-blond hair that matched the short sandy hair I had.
We met on this very shore. It was a day not very different from today, about five years ago. We were notified of a horrible fishing accident. My mom and her dad were on that boat. We all ran toward the ocean, frightened for what we knew awaited us.
I can vividly remember how extremely terrified I was for the loss of my mother, the person who cooked me dinner and was always watching out for me no matter what. Some fishers drifted to their worried relatives on pieces of broken ship, while Meredith's family and my family were left waiting for our parents we knew would never return.
Blake and I wept for days on end. People said those things don't happen naturally. Then I was to young to understand their meaning, but now I know they meant the Capitol was to blame for it.
We don't speak for we know how worried the other is about the reaping. On a normal day after school we would be weaving nets for the fishers, while making fun of the way the Capitol citizens talk in their odd Capitol accents, their weird cloths, and hair colors. But not today. Today we just sit in silence, waiting for the mayor to call us to the little square in front of the Justice Building where the reaping will take place.
Just thinking about the event makes me want to start a rebellion with my persuasive way with words. But then I will remember the whole reason the Hunger Games came to be.
After the Capitol destroyed District 13 with their nuclear weapons, they fabricated the Hunger Games to be a reminder for the remaining 12 districts that were in charge and could destroy them at any moment if they pleased.
One boy and one from each of the 12 districts, between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen to go to the Capitol and fight the the death in their arena, until only one remains. Twenty-three will die one will survive.
We were expected to dress up for the reaping but I just where my casual sandals and shorts to show the little respect I have toward the event.
Although District 4 dose not suffer as much as other districts do from hunger, we share the same craving for revenge.
Just as the thunderclouds reach the beach the mayors deep voice booms from the speakers around the District "Would all children eligible for the reaping please report outside the Justice Building immediately."
Meredith and I slowly stand up brushing the sand off ourselves, and walk down the sandy roads toward the square where Flavus Avon awaits us to pick the names of the victims of the 74th annual Hunger Games.
1