Amelia and I made it to the reaping just in time. Right as we were checking in the third toll of the bell could be heard. We quickly hurried off to our places, her over to the female 16 year old's, me to the male. I had been standing there for just a moment when our district 12 escort, stepped up to the microphone.
She was some lady who, standing in district 12, looked like a sore thumb. She was wearing a deep blue dress, with orange leggings and bright red hair. Her face was so colorful, it looked like a rainbow threw up on it. She also wore green and purple striped boots and a bunch of feathers in her hair. She tapped the microphone, then did her stupid little, "ahem..." to clear her throat that she always did, then spoke in her stupid and strange capital accent, "Hello, hello, hello! Welcome everybody. I'm so honored to be back her again! And now, before we begin the reaping, I would like to invite up your kind mayor, Mr. Undersees."
The mayor spoke for a little bit about the Hunger Games and then the significance of the quarter quell. You could tell that he didn't mean a thing he said though. It was all just scripted lines that the Capital made him say. He finished off his speech with "Thank you. And to all of you young men and women, May the odds, be ever, in your favor." The way he said those lines though was so grim and spooky that it gave me the shivers,
Our escort was back at the mic. saying something about a special movie treat from the capital, but it was the same movie every year so I wasn't paying much attention until I heard our escort g, "Now shall we do, ladies first!"
I got really nervous. What if Amelia or one of her sisters was called. I couldn't imagine it.
"Brooke Mayfield," called out our escort,reading the name of the first poor girl that would have to go into the arena. As she walked on stage I was able to recognize her as a member of the Seam by her looks and how starved she looked. She surely wouldn't last long, let alone win. "And Maysilee Donner."
My Brain registered that name. I knew her, she was my age and used to hang out with Amelia a lot until she started hanging around some other merchant's daughters like herself. "Few,"I thought. Amelia wasn't called. The only person left that I cared about was Collin, and then their was myself, but truthfully I cared about Collin way more.
"And now for the boys," her hand grabbed the first slip it touched, "Leotrice Owstin."
I looked to the monitor and saw it locked on the face of a 12 year old boy. He was scrawny and his grey eyes and dark hair marked him as another member of the Seam. I thought that Collin might have hung outwith him once or twice, but I wasn't sure. All I could really think was 'Great 2 more dead Seam children and 4 more dead district 12 kids. The capitals gonna kill us all!'
This time when our escort's hand entered the glass bowl it sort of hovered and paused. Then her hand dove down to the small slip at the top front of the bowl. 'Please don't say Collin Abernathy, please don't be Collin.' I kept repeating that thought in my head.
Time seemed to slow as she walked back to the microphone. The words that came out of her mouth shocked me but I was determined not to show any emotion as I stepped out of my spot.
Because the words she had just spoken were, "Haymitch Abernathy."
