"Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand..."

-W .B. Yeats, The Collected Poems

District Nine Reaping

Calida Blitz

"Calida!"

I look up over my rough canvas bedspread at my nine year old sister, Amaranth. She appears positively terrified. "Mmmf. What do you want?"

"I have to perform the check, you know. We can't have an incident like last time. I mean, if you don't want me to, I won't, but you might- do it again!" The frightened little thing is shaking in her shoes. I sigh. "Okay. Come on, I have to get ready."

She makes a thorough search for any matches, flints, or other firestarting materials, but doesn't find any. She then leaves, squeaking her apologies for any inconvenience the search may have caused me. Finally she's out, and I breathe a sigh of relief and close the door. She didn't find the matchbox woven into my hair.

I'm crazy. At least, according to my parents, who are in despair about their pyromaniac daughter. I set things on fire whenever possible. This has led to buildings, fields, and, sadly, a few people, being crisped. Only the fact that nobody else can prove it's the beautiful Blitz girl burning people has saved me from jail. It's not like I want to kill people, but if you hear a crackling sound like a fire coming near you, shouldn't you run away? I guess some people, like the poor little boy Teff, just haven't been quick enough. I really didn't mean for him to be burnt up. And now he has joined the voices in my head of everyone I've accidentally killed, who all whisper to me, telling me to do bad things, burn more people up.

I am thinking these thoughts while I brush my long, dark brown hair with pink, orange and red dyes in it. Then I pull on some jeans and my black boots. When I go to get a shirt, I notice two furtive pairs of eyes peeking in at me from around the doorframe. "FARRO! WHEATLEY!" I shriek, shielding my chest with my arms. "YOU LITTLE RATS! GET OUT!" I shove my rotten eleven year old brother and his friend out the door, then slam it after them. I hate them and their games they think are so funny. They are the ultimate pests. I'm thirteen, Farro's eleven, but he still thinks he can get away with anything.

I put on my one nice shirt, which I can wear today because it's Reaping day. The shirt is orange and has a flame design made out of gold, red and silver threads. It's perfect.

I hear Farro and Wheatley giggling outside. I sneak up and listen to their whispered conversation.

"She's so beautiful."

"I know. You're lucky to have her as a sister, have her around all the time."

"Yeah. Beautiful Calida. Those eyes of hers are almost black, she's so small and neat, she has a face like a heart. Too bad she's crazy."

I have heard enough. I fling open the door and glare down at them. "You were saying?"

They squeal and run away. Good riddance. I hope a peacekeeper catches them. They called me crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

"You're crazy, Calida," hisses Teff's ghost in my head.

"You're crazy!"

I run out of the house, ignoring my parents' calls. I run all the way to the Reaping, sobbing, hearing the voices in my head calling me crazy.

Crazy! Crazy! You're crazy, Calida!

"Calida Blitz!"

I hear another voice call my name. I look up and it's the Capitol woman Daisy O'Hara. Everyone is staring at me and inching away. I was just chosen for the Hunger Games, was I? I'm not going without a fight. Try to kill me, will they? I'll put up one hell of a battle of it. I'm going to burn them alive, every one of them! I'm going to set the arena on fire! I'm going to burn the whole bloody Capitol!

Jakob Caraway

"Jake, get up, you baby."

It's Mommy! I get up off the hard floor where I was sleeping and give her a smile and a big hug. "Good morning, Mommy. Did you sleep well?" She pushes me away.

"Save the love, Jake. Go outside and fetch firewood, and be quick about it, or you'll get a hiding."

"Okay! I'll be super quick."

I run out, thrilled to be able to help Mommy like this. She never asks Daddy, or Petey, or Ella, or Rose, or Sandy. I don't know why, but I'm so happy because she calls me a good boy when I do it. When I wasn't strong enough, she'd slap me, and that hurt a lot, actually. I don't know why, but I know she didn't mean to hurt me. She'd never do that.

I bring in the wood, panting a little. It's really heavy but I can do it, all by myself. "I did it, Mommy! See! Oh, good morning, Daddy and Petey and Ella and Rose and Sandy."

"Good boy, Jake," she says as she rushes to start a fire. She aims a rough pat at my tousled blonde hair. I beam at her.

Petey kicks my foot. "Oh, Mommy, I'm such a good little boy," he mocks. "Look at the little goody-goody. Isn't he so precious." Ella snickers and elbows Rose, who shifts uncomfortably.

"Yeah, see the baby trying to be a darling angel," Ella cooes.

"If you're such an angel, Jake, get me a cup of water. This instant," Sandy orders. I nod and bounce in the air. "Sure, Sandy, anything else?" When she fails to reply, I grab a mug and fill it with water from the barrel by the door. When I return, Petey lashes out at my arm, and I drop the mug, spilling the water over the dirt floor. He guffaws, Ella and Sandy joining him. "Get me another one! You spilled it, you baby!" snorts Sandy. Rose frowns. "Come on, guys, you don't have to be so mean to him. I'll get the water."

She brings Sandy her water. I hug Rose really tightly. "I love you, Rosalind. You're a great sister," I tell her. She smiles, but there is something strained about it. "Listen, sweetie. Has Daddy told you about the tesserae he brought you to get this year? Do you know what happened?" I shake my head cheerfully. "Nope. I know the Capitol let us have some grain and oil, just for me telling them I was twelve years old! But it's a secret that I'm really eleven." She nods and tries to say something. Her throat catches, and she hurriedly wipes away a tear. Then she leaves the room.

I don't know why she's so sad. Rosalind is a wonderful sister. I don't want her to be sad. She's thirteen, and she says she never cries anymore, but I know she does. Some nights she sits by me when she thinks I'm asleep, and she just cries. I heard her whispering about the 'Hunger Games'. I've never seen them, but I think they had something to do with me pretending to be twelve, and they're on a television. We don't have one of those, and Rose never lets me go to see them in the square.

"Okay, it's time to go to the Reaping!" calls Daddy. "Daddy, what's that?" I ask excitedly. He cuffs me on the ear. "You don't need to know, you won't even be in them."

We arrive at the town square, which is filled with people. A weird looking lady with magenta hair and sparkly white clothes yells a name. What was it? Calda Blits? A pretty girl who looks very angry storms up to the stage with the strange lady. She's scary. I don't think I would want to be around her much.

Then the lady calls another name after looking at a white thing. That's called reading. Rose tried to teach me, but Daddy said, don't bother to, he'll just work in the fields when he's older and he doesn't need to read. The name the strange lady called was Jakob Caraway! That's me! I run up to her, smiling.

"Hi! What am I supposed to do, ma'am?"

She looks surprised. "You're going into the Hunger Games, dear. Are you really twelve?"

"Yeah! I'm just small," I say brightly. Lying is wrong, but Daddy said I've got to.

Now I'm going into a game! I can see Rose weeping in the crowd. Why is she crying? I don't understand. Isn't the Hunger Games a game? I get to play a game! I think I'm going somewhere first, though. I heard a train. I hope I can say goodbye to Rose and everyone else first. I love you, Rose. I hope I come home soon.

I'm glad this chapter is out, finally. I like Jakob, my cute little creation, but I might have been carried away with his...you know. Innocence.