Reaping

District 6

Livia

Three minutes. Three minutes and my class ends. I find myself looking forward to have more time at school, especially today. Today is the reaping, so of course we got to leave earlier. We all have to get dressed up for the occasion. Every year my mom makes me wear a dress, she knows I hate it, but I don't have a choice. We are getting nicely dressed to our own death. It's ridiculous.

But like I said, we don't have a choice, so after school we all rush home to get dressed because the reaping begins in 30 minutes.

Even my dad got a day out because of it. He drives the train to the capitol. Every year he drives 2 kids to their possible death. How nice.

My mom is already home, apparently she got a day out too. She is Baggage Handler. It is said that despite us being the District of transportation, we hate travelling, but the fact is, we can't really travel, we can't leave our District, not unless we are invited to the Capitol.

I would love to travel, personally. We only see the Capitol and the other Districts from television and I think they fool us. I don't think they show us the reality. I have a need of seeing it all with my own eyes.

That's why I once ran all the way to District Twelve. It's the closest District to ours. The poverty is overwhelming: the people live in shacks, you never see someone over 50 years old, and you never see someone who doesn't look like he or she is starving.

I run really fast so I came back on the exact same day, I never told this to any soul. What I saw in Twelve made me like my District a bit more, when I saw the conditions I realized how better off we were here. My mother was surprised when I started taking interest in the things that happen here in Six.

My mom takes me to my room where she has laid out something for me to wear to the reaping: a dress, of course. I shouldn't be surprised.

It's chess plaid red and it's probably the most colorful thing we own in the house, we may not be poor, but we are not that rich to buy Capitol colorful stuff.

I dress it and my mother combs my hair, it is red - like really fireish red - so it goes wrong with every color I might wear, especially red… But that doesn't stop her from putting a black ribbon that matches my dress in my hair to tie it nicely. I decided that arguing with my mother about the things she makes me wear on reaping day is a horrible idea. When my mother smiles at me through the mirror, I smile back although I don't feel happy. She's just doing this to comfort me; she hates the reaping just as much as I do.

We all leave for the town square and I feel like throwing up. My parents leave me with a kiss on the cheek and I move to the front rows because that's where the 16 year olds are supposed to be.

Our escort comes to the stage, he's called Crucis and he is completely gay. It's unfair that the people from the Capitol can be whatever they want, but if in any Districts they find out that one of us is Homosexual they kill that person mercilessly in front of the entire District.

I like Crucis, he pities the chosen Tributes. He doesn't congratulate them; he knows their fate is horrible. To be honest I'm quite surprised they haven't killed him yet because of his lack of enthusiasm in The Hunger Games.

He talks slowly and carefully about the Capitol and how they have a new technology that will make everything more interesting: I presume they have new ways of killing us.

He starts making his way towards the girl's glass bowl where he has to choose the fate of one unfortunate girl. My name is there 12 times, there was a year where we really needed the tesserae because the winter was too strong and we saw we weren't gonna survive and so I sacrificed myself. I love my family, if putting my name in a ball more times is what it takes then I will do it gladly.

He is quick, unlike many other escorts we see on television, he just chooses a random paper and reads it.

He reads my name.

I wasn't expecting it. After 4 years of going in the reaping and not being chosen I was naïve enough to believe that I wouldn't be chosen. I was wrong, of course I was wrong. I climb up the stairs and Crucis gives me a sympathetic look. My mind starts to race.

How will I do it? How will I survive? I can only run really fast. I can't hide, no. My hair is too vivid. Hiding is NOT one of my abilities. Maybe they'll give me something for my hair like a band that covers most of my head or something I really don't know. Can I climb threes? I don't know, I guess we don't really have a lot of threes here, and I never bothered climbing one. Oh my God, how? I'm gonna die there. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

I realize that I'm having what I never experienced before: I'm having a panic attack. Oh no, I can't faint here! No, I need to focus on something. I'm highly aware of everything around me. There is a bird about 3 meters from here, on the roof of an old house. I'm focusing of all the minor details, like the stone earrings that Crucis is wearing which shine and glitter. He has called the boy tribute, the one that will have to die if I win this thing; he looks as bad as me, really terrified, eyes wide open, hands shaking. I didn't catch his name, but he seems like what? Thirteen? He has brown hair and brown eyes and he is so skinny he looks like he hasn't eaten anything in days. A woman starts crying in the crowd. I focus on her instead, I presume she is his mother; he must be an only child, like me. Well, both our parents are about to lose their only children. Oh God I didn't even think of my parents! No, NO I won't look at them. If I look at them I'm pretty sure I'll just faint here, and if I want to survive I need sponsors so I need to look strong. My hands grab the aim of the dress because I can't stop shaking. The boy turns to me and Citrus between us looks at me. Am I supposed to do something? Crap. Oh wait I'm supposed to shake his hand! His is shaking and so is mine so we try to stabilize them together, as we hold them.

They take us inside the Hall of Justice building and put us in separate rooms and tell us to wait for our visitors.

Mom and dad come of course, they both cry, knowing that I have like 5 % chance of winning this. They don't tell me tactics, they only tell me that they love me very much and that they will never stop loving me. I tell the same thing.

A thought occurs to me as they leave the room. A thought I know my dad hasn't had yet but it's about to hit him when they call him for service. My dad is taking me to the Capitol.

My dad is taking me to die.