Annie at 12 Years Old
Annie didn't like the reaping because it made everyone sad. She just wanted people to be happy all the time. Usually she could do something silly and get a smile or two, but around the time of the reaping, she just got yelled at, and much like sad people, being yelled at was something she didn't particularly care for either.
This year, Annie had to be in the reaping, too. This didn't seem to be a very good thing, by the way everyone acted. But no one would tell her why it was so terrible. She had tried to ask, too.
"I mean, it's just the Games," she had said, hoping it would come out as casual she meant it to, "and they're called 'games' aren't they? It's not real, is it?"
Lucy just gave her a strange, sad look and went back to washing the dishes without saying anything.
She got to wear a beautiful ivory dress with lace trim to her first reaping. Annie didn't wear dresses much because they were too pretty to ruin in the bay, where she often swam with her clothes on. She didn't quite think they suited her either. But this dress was soft and smooth and flowing, just like the water she loved so much. Lucy looked much prettier than herself, of course. Annie's sister was tall and dark-haired, with a splash of freckles across her pale cheeks that brought attention to her standard District 4 eyes. Her hair wasn't as curly or untamable as Annie's was. Lucy looked especially gorgeous because she was in one of mother's old dresses and it made their resemblance even more obvious than usual. Speaking of mother…
"Is mom going to come this year?" Annie suspected she knew the answer. Mother hadn't come the year before, or the year before that, either. But she could still hope, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.
Lucy smiled, but it was a half-hearted little sympathetic smile. People even smile sadly this time of the year, Annie thought. "No, baby girl, mom's too sick to come today." Lucy smoothed down Annie's hair and placed her hand on her shoulder, gently steering her out the door.
Unless they were like mother, everyone had to go the reaping. They all gathered in the big town square, smack in the middle of District 4. Annie didn't like the town square because it was too far away from the ocean. You could barely smell the salt in the air anymore. Plus it was a rather long walk from home, and by the time they got there Annie's feet were throbbing in her uncomfortable white plastic shoes and she knew she still had to stand for at least another hour while the reaping took place.
"Annie, look at me." Annie turned on her heels and made eye contact with her sister, deciding she would probably be there for a bit while Lucy talked like she did every year, so she sat – but on her hands, just so the nice dress wouldn't get wrecked. "I need you to pay attention this time, okay? Don't go off into your head. Now's not the time for daydreaming."
"I can't help it," Annie complained. "It's just so boring…"
Lucy frowned and lifted Annie's chin high with her index finger. "You could go, now. Your name's in that bowl. Only once. But it's there. Annie, I know you know the Games are a real thing. You know that, don't you? What we watch every year – that's actually happening."
Annie wasn't sure she had known that, but she swallowed hard and gave a meek nod anyway.
"I love you, baby girl. It's all going to be okay. Don't you worry your pretty little head." Lucy smiled again, but instead of sad or happy smile, this one just looked fake to Annie. She planted a warm kiss on Annie's forehead and smoothed her hair again, though Annie knew it wouldn't help the rat's nest of thick, curly locks that was her hair.
"Okay," Annie agreed, standing up and taking Lucy's hand in her own.
When they got closer to the square, some big and rather scary Peacekeepers made Lucy go in one direction and Annie go in the other. Annie shook out her feet as she walked, trying to pick out shapes in the few clouds in the sky to distract herself from the aching and stinging that was sure to become a good few blisters later. Annie liked to think that the sky was really water too, and that maybe people lived underwater but they didn't know it because it was normal. She thought there could be a whole other underwater world above this one, and maybe below the sea, too. She liked that idea, no matter what her science teacher said about outer space and the earth's core and yadda yadda. Because then maybe everyone was a mermaid and they just didn't know it, and maybe—
Annie's thoughts were interrupted when she ran straight into a boy that she recognized from school. He made a funny gasping noise and then turned around and rolled his eyes. "Absent Annie's here," he muttered to the girl next to him, who looked like she didn't know how to respond except to scoot a few baby steps forward.
"I'm sorry, Kai," Annie said, offering a friendly smile. Kai shrugged and turned around again, still muttering to the people next to him. "Um, do we just stand here?" No one answered her, so she figured she'd just stay put until someone told her to move. She recognized the faces here, anyway, even though she wasn't sure whether or not she was happy to be so near to Kai. He put strange words in front of her name when he talked to her, like 'absent' or 'insane'. Lucy overheard him one time and yelled at him and then said he was only jealous because Annie had an imagination and he clearly didn't.
Suddenly, everyone in the crowd stopped talking all at one time. Annie stood up on her tiptoes to try to get a better view of the reaping stage, but Kai did the same so that she could see hardly anything. But it was fine, because she saw this every year anyway. The funny-looking lady had probably just arrived.
"Welcome one, welcome all, to the 65th annual Hunger Games reaping!" Annie couldn't remember the lady's name for the life of her, but she definitely recognized the voice as it echoed eerily across the square. "How exciting to be back to see your fresh and lovely faces! Is District 4 excited for this year's Games?" Everyone cheered, just like they always did. Some of the older children seemed genuinely thrilled, while most of those near Annie seemed to be wearing the same phony smiles that Lucy had put on earlier. Annie didn't say anything. She just wanted to sit down, but she didn't; because she knew about the cameras.
She allowed her thoughts to wander during the long speech about Panem's history, but then felt a little guilty when she returned to reality because Lucy had told her not to. She figured it was probably alright this one time because the speech never ever changed anyway. She tugged lightly on a strand of her own hair to remind herself to stay present while the lady, whom she could now see since Kai had given up on blocking her view, shuffled her hand around in the girl's bowl.
The lady had weird greenish skin, big, hard-looking black hair, and too-long eyelashes that were a bit reminiscent of spiders. Her eyes, come to think of it, looked unnaturally big as well. The lady looked a little bit different every year. This year she seemed to have attempted to dress to match the theme of District 4 and had worn a bulky dress which seemed to be made out of rope. Annie tied knots a lot when she got bored, and she wondered how scratchy and hot it was inside that dress. It looked a little hard to move in. The strange lady held the piece of paper she had picked up to the sunlight and beamed as she called out, "Ariadne Horan!"
It seemed like ages before the girl made it up to the stage. Annie recognized her because she was always out on the water throwing a spear around at the fish. She was a few years older than Lucy, Annie thought. Ariadne ran a hand through her hair and then greeted the strange lady with a firm handshake and a stony expression.
"And now for the boys," the lady trilled in her odd accent, smiling too wide, "we have…Finnick Odair!"
There was a quiet, collective sigh of relief as all the children in the crowd realized they'd made it another year without being reaped, but Annie was not joining in – instead, she chewed her lower lip nervously and tugged at her hair again. She knew the boy because he was Lucy's age, and she saw them talking together sometimes. Lucy seemed to like him a lot. If what Lucy said about the Games really being real was true…
Annie fell back onto her heels. She didn't remember what the boy looked like and didn't really want to know. She wanted to go home more than ever.
"Aren't you a fit young man?" the strange lady squeaked, giggling. "And a lovely young lady as well! There you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Give it up for this year's tributes!"
The crowd clapped. Annie played with the hem of her dress anxiously. The lady talked some more, but Annie just stared at the back of Kai's legs as if they were the most interesting things in the world. When they were dismissed, Annie was the first one to rush out.
She decided she most definitely did not like the reaping.
