Oakleigh had come to know the sound of the axe against the grinding stone as sooth and familiar. She could remember her father sharpening axes early in the morning, the screeching, grinding sound waking her out of a deep sleep. Then, she'd fall asleep to the sound and when she woke up it was gone, along with her father, who was already in the woods working.
Her father was sick now; he had a broken leg and was unable to work. Her mother, was trying her best to take care of him, so Oakleigh and her brother, Johnnie had picked up the slack.
She pulled the axe off the sharpening stone and tested the blade with her thumb. She felt the steel slice through her skin, leaving a thin line of blood. "Johnnie!" She called, before raising her arm back and throwing the axe so it imbedded in the tree next to her younger brother's head.
Johnnie let out a shrill shriek before dropping to the ground. "Oakleigh, what the hell?!"
"Don't use that language." She told him, standing up and pulling her light brown hair into a bun. She straightened out her flannel shirt on her curvaceous body and fixed him with brown eyes.
"You threw an axe at me!"
"That doesn't give you the right to cuss."
"You're my sister, not my mother." Johnnie reminded her before he reached up and yanked the axe out of the gnarled white pine.
"I'm you're older sister."
"By two years."
She shouldered her own axe and followed him through the woods. They weren't working today, because it was Reaping Daythey requested the day off, but they still had to cut down a tree for the woodstove at home. She followed Johnnie through the woods and up a hill, looking for the right kind of tree.
"If you can find ash or birch let me know. We live in an area with heavy pines; it will be hard to find one that burns hot for a long time."
Johnnie nodded under his blue ball cap and drifted off toward her left. He let out a curt whistle. "Chaos, come one!" He called out to his Saint Bernard dog.
She kept a mental track of the pair, but Oakleigh wasn't overly concerned with it. Johnnie was a big boy, who grew up in these woods. He wasn't afraid of being attacked by a bear, and neither was she. She and Johnnie had grown up playing in these woods from morning until night, until her mother called them in for dinner.
Her brown eyes scanned the forest and she recognized the grey, hard bark of an ash tree from fifty yards away. She walked up to the tree and circled it, checking to see which direction it would fall when they cut it.
"Johnnie!" She called out. "I've got one!"
"I'm coming, Oak!" She head Johnnie before she saw him.
They worked together to chop down the tree. It wasn't a large tree, but it was enough work to make Oakleigh start to sweat. She wasn't the skinniest girl out there, but she knew how to work hard and she didn't quite until the job was done. They loaded up the firewood on their backs in bundles and trekked back to the house.
They stacked the wood on the porch of the log cabin and stepped inside.
"Are you guys hungry?" Julie asked her children. Julie wasn't a thin woman either, she was quite large, but had a heart of gold. She stood in front of the stove stirring something in a pot.
"Yes, ma'am!" Jonnie drawled before pulling up a chair at the kitchen table right next to the woodstove.
"Take your hat off!"
Johnnie's face turned red as he reached up and pulled his ball cap off his head, revealing his short brown hair. "What are you making?"
"Sausage biscuits and gravy."
Oakleigh pulled out her own chair and sat down. "Mom, you didn't have to do that. I would have settled for something a lot less." The Gilbert's weren't exactly wealthy, but they weren't dirt poor like some of the others in the district either.
"Nonsense." Mrs. Gilbert said pouring sausage gravy over some homemade biscuits. She set the steaming plate in front of her daughter, whose looks she shared. "Now eat up. It's a special occasion."
"What's that?" John Gilbert Sr. asked hobbling into the room on his crutches. His right leg was bandaged and held together tightly with a homemade splint.
"Reaping day! Tell me, kids, you didn't forget about reaping day, did ya?"
"No mom." Both of them replied in unison, their mouths full of delicious food.
Oakleigh's uncle Wes had been in the Hunger Games a long time ago. He had been her mother's idol until the day he died in the games. He had made it in the final eight until he was killed by a mutt on the fifth night. Ever since their mother had considered the games a serious honor and privilege.
They ate the delicious meal, knowing that it would be their last one like that in a while. When Oakleigh finished she scrubbed her plate in the sink before hurrying down the hall to her room.
"What am I supposed to wear to the Reaping?" She asked herself. She opened up her closet and pushed stuff around. She sighed when her search came up empty. She sat back on her heels and tucked a strand of curly brown hair behind her ear, pressing her lips together. She went to dig into the closet once more when a solid mass of brown and white fur slammed into her knocking her onto the floor.
"Oof!" She wheezed, all of the air leaving her lungs in a rush. She tried to hide her face from the tongue that was going deposit tons of slobber on her face. "Chaos!" She cried, rolling on her stomach. "Johnnie!" She yelled shrilly. "Get him off me!"
"Chaos!" Johnnie shouted as he pulled on the dog's collar. "He's too big!" Johnnie grunted, finally managing to dislodge the enormous mutt.
Oakleigh glared up at her brother. "Keep him away from me." She said, her voice low, turning into a threat. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something under her bed. "Huh?" She clawed at it until it was in her fingers. "Yes." She sighed.
It was a dark blue dress shirt. She dug in her closet and found a pair of black slacks and put them on. She pinned her curly brown hair to the sides, so it didn't hid her face and slipped on a necklace and a ring. "Mom?" She called walking into the room, a bit clumsily on her high heels, which she only wore once a year for the reaping. "How do I look?"
"Beautiful, dear." Her mother said smiling at her. "Johnnie!" She snapped, a hand on her fat hip. "Your sister is leaving!"
Oakleigh rolled her eyes as she heard Johnnie clumsily come down the steps, tucking in his green shirt into his khaki pants. "I'm coming!" He announced, pushing his glasses up his nose. He hopped on one foot as he made his way toward the door, putting his black shoes on. "By mom, love you!" He called before shutting the door.
"You're ridiculous." Oakleigh muttered as they walked down the muddy roads of District Seven. "You have ADHD or something."
"What's that?"
"Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder."
"Attention Deficit Hyp—whoa did you see that woodchuck?! It was huge!"
"Case," Oakleigh muttered rubbing her temples in annoyance, "and point." They rounded the corner and made their way down the hill. They were almost to the city hall, where the reaping would take place.
Things were different this year. The gamemakers decided that the games would be more interesting if each kid in every district took a test causing them to get a certain amount of points, and the one with the highest score would win. Oakleigh didn't think she did that well, although she was definitely one of the best in plant identification and wilderness survival, not to mention axe throwing.
When they finally reached the city hall they checked in and stood with their respective age groups.
"District Seven's tribute is, Oakleigh Gilbert."
Oakleigh's brown eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, what? Somebody in this district had to have scored better than her! If she was the one that was going to bring victory to Seven, the district was going to be disappointed. She mounted the steps, her head down. This was going to be bad.
