Garnet sat on his bed, not willing to acknowledge the knock on his door. He knew today was Reaping Day, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the girls that would be fighting for his love.
"Garnet, honey, come on! You need to get ready," begged his mom.
"No! You're making me do something I don't want to do." Garnet had talked to his mother as little as he could in the past few weeks. After all, she had picked the twist.
"Garnet, we've discussed this. I had been very clear that you needed to pick a wife by the time of your eighteenth birthday, and you didn't hold up on your end of the bargain. Just be glad that I'm at least giving you a choice at all."
Garnet was kind of surprised to hear his mother say that. He got out of bed and cracked the door open a little bit, peeking his head out, and said, "What do you mean, at least I gave you a choice?"
"My grandfather, President Snow, arranged my marriage."
Garnet stepped back from the door and let his mother in. She took a seat on his bed, and Garnet sat down next to her. "Tell me the story," commanded Garnet. His mother took a deep breath, and began.
"President Snow was not the type to leave anything to chance. He ruled Panem for almost half a century, and he was extremely meticulous to allow that everything would work out perfectly for him. That led him to have overly autocratic control over the country of Panem. And that extended to every member of his family. He had one daughter, Rose, who married a man named Onyx Emerald, because he was the descendent of a major jewelry producer, and they had me and my three sisters. Amethyst and I were married off to the Wonka twins, Mike and Ike, because President Snow wanted to make sure that he had a good alliance with their father, who was one of the biggest food production companies in Panem. And even when I was acting as President while he was still alive, I was completely under his thumb. He couldn't let anything out of his sight. If he was still alive, you wouldn't have had any say in who you married. I know that it needs to happen, but I'm trying to make your life easier by giving you fewer options than the entirety of the Capitol."
Garnet took a second to think about what his mother said. He had learned about the President in school, but never knew that he was related to the man. "I didn't know that he and I are family."
"I try not to talk about it."
"Was he really that bad of a man?"
"My grandfather stabilized Panem really well. He kept it under a steady rule, and unified much of the country under a common opinion, even if it was dislike for him. And the economy did very well under him."
Garnet looked at his mother. "But have you been a better president than him?"
"I've tried to be. So much of what he's done socially, I've tried to change. I've stopped selling the Victors, and I've stopped controlling their lives so much. I've allowed people to voice opposition to my policies and to the actions of the Capitol, as long as it doesn't escalate to action. I've allowed people who are transgender to be reaped as the gender they want to be, and those who don't identify as a gender to select the one they'd rather be reaped as, and to change it if they so choose. And I've allowed people to elect officials in their own districts more regularly. So I think I've done a better job than him, but it's hard to gauge that; it's not like the President of Panem could ever be really liked."
Ruby snapped herself out of her own musings and self-promotion. "Garnet, listen to me. I want you to let me know if you feel I'm infringing on this process too much. I want this to be your choice; moderated and pared down a bit, but still your choice as much as I can. I don't want to impact which twenty-six girls you pick, even if I have a semi-legitimate reason for wanting you to choose one. This is for your wife, and I want you to follow your gut."
Garnet nodded. Though he felt like he understood where his mother was coming from a bit more now, he still wasn't sure what he thought about the fact that the future of his love life was in the hands of 52 girls that he didn't even know yet.
"I'll let you get ready for the recap tonight. While I hate to force an outfit on you, I'd appreciate it if you'd wear that handsome read bowtie and cummerbund. People love it when you wear outfits that play on your name."
As Ruby left Garnet's room, she saw Amethyst standing right outside. Normally, on Reaping day especially, the two stayed separate; Ruby wanted to wait to see any Reapings until the recap played that night, and Amethyst needed to start figuring out if there were any changes she needed to make to the Arena to handle the tributes. So for Amethyst to be not only out of the Gamemakers' Center, but to be in Ruby's suite, something must have gone horribly wrong. "What happened?" glared Ruby.
"Just… just come down and watch with me. You're going to want to see this."
One of the ways that Ruby had distinguished herself from her predecessor was that she had vowed never to rig a reaping for a tribute. She knew that President Snow had done so in the past, and had (pretty unsuccessfully) tried to hide it from the people; Ruby, on the other hand, felt that it was important to have complete integrity in her actions, and so had a completely impartial group of people prepare the slips in the Capitol before sending them out to the Districts.
But, Ruby was not against rigging the Reapings against a certain potential tribute. She would instruct the committee to replace their slips with blank slips, which the escorts knew to look for; after all, having a more full reaping bowl looked better for TV anyway.
So as Ruby watched the escort read the name Euodia Grove off of a slip, she knew that something had gone wrong.
"Amethyst, you had the slips inspected before they were sent off, right?" asked Ruby, watching the girl approach the stage.
"Yeah, that's Lavender's job, and I lie-detected her on all of the districts, as is protocol. Everything seemed normal."
"So something must have happened in between here and when the slips got to Seven."
One of the most experienced and skilled Gamemakers, Sami Rolo, approached the station where they were sitting. "What's the big deal about Euodia being reaped? She doesn't look too different than any other potential tribute."
Ruby sighed. While she didn't quite feel like explaining this, she knew she could at least trust Sami. "Euodia's father is one of the most pro-Capitol mayors in the Districts – actually, he was the only one from the last round of elections to be fully pro-Capitol. But his opponent, who won, is very anti-Capitol…"
"That might do it," said Amethyst.
"Well, Mayor Lafe is certainly not going to like what happens when he finds out that I know about this."
"But what are we going to do about Euodia? Cyprus isn't going to be happy if Euodia dies, and it could turn him against the Capitol, which would suck."
Ruby thought for a sec. Damn it! I just told Garnet that I wasn't going to force him to pick anybody, but that would be a really good way to make sure that Euodia at least stayed alive. "I don't know, Amethyst. But suffice it to say that it would be a real shame if anything were to happen to her in the Arena because of your mutts or pods."
Well, you all guessed it – Euodia's reaping was rigged. I tried to be a little more subtle about it, but it didn't work so well. Maybe you've just read enough stories to notice it easily? Either way, I hope you didn't see it happening like this!
I can't wait to see you back here for the next reaping chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed!
-goldie031
