I sit patiently on an old log, our meeting spot just beyond the fence. Maybe something held him up, maybe he doesn't want to go here on the day of the reaping, it was our first reaping after all... My train of thoughts are stopped as my best friend Lamar comes into my view as he crawls under the fence. And silently walks over to me before speaking quietly. "Want to go a bit in to get some blackberries?" Even though we're far away enough from anybody that even if we shouted no one would hear, or care for that matter, we still keep our voices down. Going beyond the fence is punishable by death, even if no one is ever prosecuted. "Ya, lets just grab some and leave, last thing we need is to be late for the reaping." He tersely nods towards me and we silently walk into the edges of the woods to the old berry patch we had found when we were eleven. Man, one year. For one year now we've gone into the meadow illegally. It seems like just yesterday we shakily crawled under the fence to play in the meadow, jumping back to the fence at the smallest sound. I tighten my grip on my knife. It's an old hunting knife I bought at the hob for a load of berries, it's not much, but it allows me to be able to get the occasional rabbit or squirrel. Lamar's voice snaps me back to reality, "Here," He points towards a particularly large bush of blackberries, "Only pick a handful or so, we still have some berries left over from last week that we can have for dinner." Neither of us mentions the fact that either one of us could very possibly be gone by dinner, to never return. Instead we just silently pick the tasty berries, and stuff them into our pockets. "Alright," I say after getting a couple handfuls of berries picked, "I'm gonna go home, see you later."

"See ya." After that we both walk our separate ways, crawling under the fence and start walking home. After a minute or two I arrive home. I creak the door open, and sneak in, the reaping is an hour away, but my parents might be sleeping. They don't get much sleep because of the long shifts they work, their trying to save up so we can someday open up some candy shop in town. Seems pretty far-fetched to me, but they have alot of money saved up, so who knows. I jump when I hear my mothers voice behind me, "Hey, reapings in an hour, you need to get ready." I give a grin and comically groan,

"C'mon, why do we have to get clean and dress up?"

"It's only polite."

I give a short chuckle, "Yes, because manners have to be your number one priority when being sent to the death."

She lets out an exasperated sigh,"Just take a bath, filthy boy," She chuckles, ruffling her hand threw my spiky hair. I begin walking to the bathroom and just as I'm about to enter she shouts out after me, "Your father went out to get some lace for your shoe, he'll meet us in the square."

"OK!" I shout out before entering the room. I walk slowly into the room and stare at the mirror, my jet black hair has dirt layered in it, so I begin by washing my hair, being careful not to wet it down, whenever I do that it always looks sort of curly, and weird looking, so I just keep my hair up. Next I run the bath and take a quick dip in it before drying myself and quickly getting dressed. My mom layed out a long black shirt and navy pants, and some black tennis shoes. Nothing too fancy, but still nice enough to be considered "dressy." Not that we could afford anything fancy, but I shouldn't complain, we eat better then most in the seam.

I step out of the bathroom to see a note sitting on a dresser, Luke, I left to go to the town, make sure to get here as soon as possible, don't want to be late.

-Love and luck, Mom

I set the note down and step look at the clock, better get going. I step out of the house and walk to the square, luckily it's not to far away, but I'm still one of the last to arrive. I walk to my section and spot out Lamar and walk over to him. We both nod at each other, and look up at the podium. The mayor steps out and gives his same boring speech he gives every year, and then it's time for the reaping. My heart starts beating at 500 miles per hour. I know it's silly, my names only in there once, compared to some of the 18 year olds who have there names in there 50 times or something ridiculous like that. But still I can't help but be terrified. Suddenly I snap into reality as the capitol women reads the first name in the silly capitol accent, "The female tribute is..." She gives a long pause as she unfolds the paper, "Sarah Adams." I hear a high pitched scream from somewhere and a girl I can't recognize steps out of the 16 year old section and shakily makes her way up to the stage. "Well, isn't that exciting!" She half screeches, as if a girl being sent to her death is actually exciting. Typical capitol people. "Now for the boys." My heart starts beating fast again, I keep telling myself it's not going to be me but it's not helping. Suddenly the women reaches her hand into the bowl and everything begins to slow down as she begins fishing for a slip of paper, Is that slip mine that she just dropped? Did she just skim by mine? Is mine at the bottom of the ball, out of reach? As she pulls out a slip of paper and reads the name I realize it's none of the above. The name she reads is Luke Garner.