Chapter Two: Aiden
"Please Aiden. I'm bored, Can we take a break?"
I sigh. My little sister Kara and I are in the basement of our home in District 8 lifting weights.
"No Kara, You heard what dad said, we have to finish these reps."
Kara looks at me sadly with her big doe eyes, "Please." She whines.
I have never been able to say no to those sad blue eyes. "Alright but Dad can't know, Okay?"
"Yes! Thank You Aiden, can we go to the bakery again?"
"Alright but we have to be back at 5:30 because dad gets home at six." Kara smiles, one of her front teeth are missing and I am reminded of how young she is, she's only eight years old, a girl that young should not be training, Kara should not have to worry about the Games. She should be playing with her friends after school, not lifting weights and practicing weaponry.
My mom died in childbirth with Kara when I was nine. It was one of the darkest times of my life but it was worse for my dad. My dad was devastated and ever since despite my efforts to keep him grounded he has become more and more paranoid of losing Kara and I. My father is obsessed with training us for the Hunger Games. He figures that if he can't do anything to prevent us from getting chosen in the games he can at least do his best to make sure we win them. So every day after me and Kara get home from school or work we train. It's usually the same, a series of weight lifting, running, fighting, and learning different strategies. I understand that my dad means well but I wish Kara could have a normal childhood.
Kara and I race to the bakery. I run slowly, letting her win. I can hear her laughter all the way down the street. Kara has the same laugh as my mother, seeing her so happy makes me smile.
"Ha! I beat you." Kara taunts.
"I'll beat you next time, just you wait." I ruffle her golden brown hair, and she laughs. We have reached the bakery. I open the door for Kara and she skips inside. For some reason Kara loves watching bread baking so we go to the bakery about once a month. I've never understood how fascinated she gets as she watches the baker, Thistle Dunn, make the dough, roll it out and bake it. I find it boring.
"Well if it isn't Kara Pierce, my favorite customer." Thistle says warmly. He is in his late fifties, with graying hair and glasses. "Can I get you anything?"
"No we are just looking today Mr. Dunn." I reply.
"Well then you're in luck." Thistle turns to Kara and takes her into the back room where the bread is made. "I'm just about to start a loaf of pumpernickel bread." I hear him say as they leave, I stay in the front room and look around. I have nothing to occupy my mind with so it strays to the one topic I try not to think about, the reaping. Reaping day is tomorrow. There are so many people in District eight I know there's almost no chance of me getting picked but I always worry. I am seventeen so I've already gone through five reapings unscathed. I mostly worry about my family and what they will do without me.
Eventually Kara comes back out and I glance at my watch, it is 4:30, we still have plenty of time so we walk around town. Sundays are my favorite days because I don't have to work. Monday through Saturday I put in a four hour shift at a textile factory after school. But Sunday after school all I do is train. My father works on Sundays though so I usually end up taking Kara out to the bakery or just to walk around. While we are walking I glance up to see that several peacekeepers are trying to herd everyone into the center of the district. Oh No, I think.
"Come on Kara we have to go home now." I try to sound calm as I urge her toward our home.
"But why? It can't be 5:30 yet." She asks.
"Come on. I'll race you again." I take off running and she is hot on my trail. She is incredibly fast for an eight year old but I still have to slow down a lot so she doesn't get left behind. When we reach our house Dad is standing in the doorway. Great. I think sarcastically. They must have let him off of work early. He is angry but more relieved as he realizes we are okay.
"We will talk about why you were not here later but now we have to go. If we don't leave now we are going to be late." Dad takes Kara's hand and leads her toward the district square at a fast pace, I follow. I walk faster to catch up to my dad. I come up alongside him and whisper in his ear so Kara won't hear.
"Dad, what's going on?"
He looks at me sadly and whispers back, "They're having an execution." The disgust and sadness seemed to show on my face because he told me, "I need you to be strong, for Kara. You hear me?"
"Yes Sir. " I wiped my emotions off my face. Kara looked at me inquisitively and I smiled and squeezed her hand. It was just a façade though. I was angry, fuming with disgust at this common ritual but more than that, I was worried about her. Every once in a while the district puts on a public execution to keep people in line. These people are usually innocent, at least in my eyes. There crimes are always related to defying the capitol. The last one we had Kara cried herself to sleep, she was seven years old and she was forced to watch two men and one women be murdered by the Capitol.
Ow!" I looked down and realized I had been squeezing Kara's hand too hard.
"Oh, I'm sorry." I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it, "There, all better." She smiled which only made me angrier for what she was about to see.
When we got to the center of the district the peacekeepers were leading everyone near a big stage in the middle of the district. Two women were standing on the stage, one in her twenties and one in her thirties. They both had brown hair and long defined faces. They look like sisters. Our district leader, Mido, walks to a podium. He is tall and slender with blond hair and tired eyes. He speaks into a microphone.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad you have joined me as we get ready to punish this district's worst criminals." I scoffed inwardly; he acts like we have a choice. He continues, "Both of these young ladies have committed horrible crimes against the capitol and today they are being executed." Kara moans and I take her hand. "Well let's get on with it then." Mido sounds happy, like he's talking about the district getting a donation of new textbooks for its schools, instead of an execution of its citizens.
Another man, a peacekeeper takes the first and brings her to the center of the stage, he raises a gun. We aren't supposed to talk during an execution but I can't let her watch this, not again. I bend down and turn Kara in front of me so she can't see the stage.
"Kara," I say desperately trying to distract her, "You remember the pumpernickel bread Mr. Dunn showed you today." My father shoots me a look that tells me to stop talking but I ignore him. I hear the first gunshot and I cringe, I recover quickly though. Kara looks scared. "Tell me about how he made it, do you remember Kara, you remember the bread he made and how he made the dough."
Kara, so easily distracted, tells me excitedly, "Yes, he made the dough and he rolled it out on this big sheet and…" She continues except she's too loud, people start looking our way and the nearest peacekeeper starts to head over. I curse myself, what have I done?
"Is there a problem here?" He has a lazy eye and a rough voice. He addresses me but my father answers.
"He was just trying to quiet her, she's eight, she doesn't understand." The peacekeeper looks at Kara and his face changes for half a second. What is that look? Could it be Pity? His face is back to the regular peacekeeper expression, angry and controlling.
"Well you should learn how to shut up your daughter, if it happens again, I'll shut her up." He turns on his heel and leaves. My father leans down and shushes Kara. We all three turn back to the stage just in time to see the second women be shot. My heart sinks, I got us in trouble with the peacekeepers and Kara still had to watch someone die. I can see her face, she looks shocked and sad, I can tell she is about to cry. I squeeze her hand, she looks up at me and I shoot her a reassuring smile despite my anger.
Mido returns to the stage. "Thank You, you are free to go, I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow at the reaping for the 32nd hunger games. " The peacekeepers usher us all out of the arena. I turn to Kara.
"You want to race me back to the house?" But this time she is not so easily distracted. Seeing her face breaks my heart. She is on the verge of tears. I feel so helpless watching Kara. She's so innocent. I can't think of anything to say to make her feel better so I just take her hand. My dad takes her other hand and we walk back to the house.
Later I put Kara to sleep in the room that we share, she's not crying but her face is sad and…angry? I've never seen Kara like this. "What did those people do to deserve that Aiden?" Her voice makes her sound years older than eight, her innocence is slipping away.
"I don't know Kara, I really don't know" I say sadly. I kiss her forehead, tuck her in and turn off the light.
When I'm in the living room my dad approaches me. I see he took one of his anxiety pills, a doctor prescribed them after our mother died and now he takes one every time he is stressed. He takes more than usual around this time of year, around reaping day. "Where were you today?" he asks me.
"Dad please, not now, I just want to go to bed." He ignores me.
"Why were you abandoning your training?" He is angry.
"We just went to the bakery Dad." I'm tired and I don't want to have this conversation now. I begin to head back to Kara's and my room but he stops me.
"So you think going to the Bakery is more important than you and Kara's training." It wasn't a question. "Do you do this every time I'm out?"
"Dad, she's eight! She should be out with friends playing, or watching bread bake, or whatever makes her happy." I sound angrier than I truly feel.
"You don't think I want her to be happy?"
"No I don't, you want her to be safe. She's not even old enough for the reaping yet, why can't she have a day off every once in a while?"
"She needs to train! If she gets picked at a reaping when she's older, I will never forgive myself if she doesn't come back to me and the same goes for you!"
"So you'd take away her childhood for something that might happen? You think Mom would want that?" We are both yelling now, too loud. Kara will hear.
"Your mother is the reason I'm doing this. I already lost her, I can't lose you and Kara too, it will kill me!" Dad is really yelling now, he looks deranged. I regret everything I said.
"Dad," I say softly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I'm just on edge because of what happened today. I know why we have to train, I'm just asking for one day a week off of training, for Kara." Dad is silent for a long time and I wonder if I should have dropped the subject.
Finally he speaks, "I will consider it, you may go to bed now." He sounds cold and I don't want to leave our conversation like this but the call of sleep is too overwhelming. I go to my and Kara's room. As I walk in I know that she heard us, she is looking straight at me, I can't read her expression. I walk past her and lie in my bed. I fell horrible and apprehensive for tomorrow but despite this I quickly fall asleep.