"Aury! Aury! Auramarina, come down here!" I hear my mother yelling for me. I pull away from my writing and go downstairs to see what she want. The smell of the salty sea air is all around me.
"What?" I ask, harsher than intended. My mother, Seriema, is a caring person. She never calls unless it's absolutely neccessary.
"You need to help Lilitani get ready," she tells me. Lilitani, or Lily, is my younger sister.
She's thirteen. I'm sixteen. My brother, Heron, is seventeen. And my other brother, the oldest, Plover, is twenty now. He, unlike the rest of us, has escaped the anxiety of the reaping days. I envy him. Greatly. Reapings are the worst days.
Here in District 4, in the Games, you're a Career Tribute whether you like it or not. Careers are supposed to consider it an honor to be reaped. But I don't. None of my family does. Usually, if the name that's picked happens to be yours, someone will volunteer for you. Because they don't want you "soaking up all the glory". What glory? I have no idea.
District 4. Fishing. Water. And lots of it. I don't mind. Being practically born in the stuff, I'm naturally a good swimmer. But people say I'm better than the rest. I don't agree, but who am I to argue with them?
I nod to my mother and head back upstairs to Lily's room. I push open her door and see her little fingers fumbling with a blue ribbon around her back. She's wearing a light green dress with slightly puffy sleeves and she has her hair done up in a messy bun. Lily spots me in the mirror and turns around.
"Help?" she says with a small smile on her face.
"Sure, come here," I say back. She comes and I fasten the ribbon firmly around her waist, tying it in a neat bow. "There you go."
"Thanks, Aury," Lily thanks me. Lily looks at herself in the mirror, spinning around and twirling her dress out. Then she turns back around. "Where's your dress?"
I look down at myself. Huh. I guess I didn't get dressed like I thought I had. "I could have sworn on Odair's life that I put that dress on earlier," I mutter.
Lily gasps, with a little teasing tone. "Don't swear on Finnick Odair's life!" she cries. "He's too good-looking to die."
It's true. Finnick Odair is extremely good-looking. His hair is the color of a dark orange sunset, his skin is the perfect golden-tan, and his eyes... they're fascinating. They're the exact shade of the water just along the shoreline. Sea-green is what I call it. All that Finnick had, and yet, I must admit, I was never fatally attracted to him like some of the other girls I know.
Finnick is a bit of a legend in Panem. He won the 65th Hunger Games when he only fourteen, making him one of the youngest victors ever. He's seventeen now, and he's a mentor to the tributes from District 4. Lily always tell me, "He's seventeen, Aury. He's the perfect age for you!"
"Finnick certainly does have looks on his side, doesn't he?" I say jokingly.
"He does!" exclaims Lily. "He's like...like...a god!" Then she twirls around some more and fake faints onto her bed, laying her hand over her forehead. "Finnick Odair, what a perfect name."
"Absolutely perfect," I say, walking out the door.
I walk down the hallway back to my room. I open the door, shut it, and slide down to the floor, burying my face in my hands. Reapings. I hate them.
I get up and trudge over to my bed where my mother laid out my reaping day attire. A pale blue dress. Nice. I slip it over my head and let it drape down to my knees. I style my hair in a ponytail to the side of my head and tie a ribbon just as blue as my dress around it. Then I look in the mirror.
I look like my mother, when she was young. The pale blue of the dress make my tan skin appear to glow, and the blue of the ribbon brings out the gold color of my hair. My blue eyes seem to add to the pattern of my blue and gold theme. I shrug. Good enough.
As I walk down the stairs, I can hear my brothers talking. They sound concerned, so I stop midway on the steps and sit down to listen, undetected.
"I'm going to be chosen. I know it."
"You're not."
"Yes, I am."
"No, you're not."
"Shut up, Plover! It's easier for you to say. You've finished all your reapings."
"Heron, just calm down. You won't be picked."
"Okay, but what if Lilitani gets chosen instead? She's the baby of the family, after all. And what if Auramarina gets picked, what then?"
"Don't worry about any of that. Odds are, someone will volunteer for you if any of you gets chosen. District 4's love the honor."
I stomp noisely down the rest of the stairs, signalling my presece. As soon as I step off the last step, Heron has me locked in a tight embrace. I try to squirm away, but it's no use. I'm a pretty slim person. Thankfully, though, the meat I do have on me is muscle.
"Aury, you're the best sister I've ever had. I love you to death," Heron says while rocking me back and forth in his embrace. He kisses my cheek and refuses to let go, even when I start kicking him in the shins. "We're all going to come home, right? We're all going to come home and be able to celebrate that we're safe for another year. Please say yes."
"Um..." I say, trying to breathe and pushing away Heron. "Yes?"
"Yes!" Heron shouts excitedly. Then he embraces me again, and this time, I don't try to push him away.
