Olive Blake, 14, District 12
I ran down the road, finally free from my morning chores to go to the reaping. I had been helping Mama with the housecleaning, as on my birthday, she had decided I was now a woman, and could help out around the house. So, my birthday present had turned out to be a list of never-ending chores. But, I didn't mind. Mama let me have an hour of play every day before we made supper for Papa and the boys, Johnnie, Frank, and Martin, who all worked in the mines. It was a dangerous job, but every night they would come home with a new story to thrill me, or a joke to make me laugh. Last night, though was a sober occasion. Both Johnnie and I were still eligible to go to the games, so the house had been unusually still, and everyone had been on edge. This morning, I had dropped a hot plate of bacon, but nobody noticed. They were all too nervous.
I slowed to a halt as I approached the town square. I hadn't liked getting my blood taken for identification last year, and that was when I went with the family. This year, I stayed behind ten minutes to do the dishes and change into my reaping clothes, so the family had gone ahead of me. I mustered up my courage and stepped into line, right behind a town girl. She was wearing a beautiful yellow dress, and I gazed in awe, forgetting about the blood as the peacekeeper zapped me. I looked down in dismay. I was wearing a hand-me-down from my mother, a faded blue dress with ruffles on the sleeves. It was nice enough, but it paled in comparison to the girl's. It seemed like us from the Seam and those from the town were miles apart, from our hair colours to our wealth. I then stepped into my age group, and forced myself to forget the dress as our Escort, Arbor , a man with green hair, dark skin and flower tattoos on his arms, tried to muster up some energy from our audience. He resigned in defeat after the video, and reached into our large- very large from all of the tesserae in the district- glass bowl for the girls, and unfolded the unlucky slip.
"Olive Blake!"
I stared, not sure if I heard him right. "Olive Blake, please join me on the stage!" Arbor repeated, as peacekeepers made their way towards me. It was then when my mother let out a piercing scream, and fainted. I walked up in a daze, wondering if it was all a dream, as other women in the audience and my father hurried to help my mother. Arbor looked worriedly at her, and then asked for volunteers before calling up Konnor Smithers to his fate. The last meeting with my family was dreamlike. My mother clutched onto me, wailing for sadness and asking the world what she could do without her only daughter, while my brothers and father shared sorrowful looks to me. Then, my mother suddenly snapped out of her daze, and unclipped her necklace. It was a wedding present from my father, and was one of the most precious things she owned.
"For good luck", she whispered. I clutched to it, and tears poured out of my eyes as peacekeepers ushered my family out. I would do anything- everything, to see my family again.
Well, that's Olive! She's in many ways the opposite of Caitlin, so it was cool writing her. A big thanks to everyone who's read this little story so far, and an even bigger thanks to Daniel Potter 2319 and FanGirlForever19 for following this story. Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ