Hey everyone! Sorry, It's been a busy weekend and I'm having a tough time keeping up with posting, right now I'm managing about ½ a reaping a week, but I hope to increase it, if school cooroperates! This is the last half of district 8 reapings, featuring Feat "Tork" Torkyle by AnthonyisMYsquirrl. I hope you enjoy it! Ok, so people have been saying that I should post the first half of the train rides, and I think their right, because it's a lot of tributes to remember, even for me, and I'm the one who wrote their POVs! So I will be rereading 1-6's reapings and figuring out ho I'm going to split them, and I will be posting their train rides before starting D9's reapings. If you don't want me to do this, please let me know in a PM or your review and if I get more no's than there were yeses I'll just do D9's reapings. Thanks for sticking with this fanfic!

Feat "Tork" Torkyle:

I know it's morning as soon as the light of the sun starts to creep through my window. That's because I didn't get much sleep last night. Insomnia. It runs in the family. I don't really know why of all nights, last night was the one night I couldn't fall asleep. If I had gotten to sleep I might have actually been able to sleep in this morning. That's because I don't have school today. It was canceled on account of the reaping. Normally, I wouldn't have cared either way. Am I nervous? Yea, of course I am. Would I rather be in school? You bet. But it's my mother that I worry about. She's been freaking out all month because of the reapings. She's always worrying about it at this time of year. I only hope she can calm down a bit when the baby comes. I might have gotten used to her worrying, but I think that her obsession might scare my little brother or sister. I keep telling her everything will be fine, my chances of going are slim. Our family is pretty well off, so I don't need to take tesserae. But then again, I'm not the luckiest guy in the world. In fact, I'm the opposite. I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time, saying the wrong things, wearing the wrong things, so who knows?

I force myself out of bed this morning and make my way to the kitchen. There's no point in staying in bed if I'm not going to sleep. My parents are still asleep, so I make my way through the house to the back door. I carefully unlatch the door and step out into the cold morning air. Then I walk a few houses down to this old storage shed. I reach into my pocket, but of course, I left my key on my dresser at home. By "Key" I mean this thin wavy piece of wire. The shed is a community storage unit, or CSU for odds and ends, old clothes, fabrics, cleaning stuff, you name it. No one really uses this one anymore, so I've taken to coming here, storing some old notebooks and things to work on in the morning. Sighing, I sink down against the door. I don't have anything to do this morning, so I sit and reflect. Reflecting has been my friend for the past few years, especially on the nights I can't seem to fall asleep. It's easy to get lost in your thoughts; it's almost like dreaming while you're awake. When I don't really have much to think about, I find myself rattling off random facts in my head. It passes the time.

I am abruptly broken from my train of thoughts by a scream. "Tork! Tork! Can you hear me? Where are you?" my mother. I pick myself off and head back to my house. My mother rushes up to me when I come into view. "Oh Tork, you scared me! I went to wake you up and you weren't in bed, I was afraid you were hurt, or lost, or.." she rattles. "No, I'm fine really." I assure her. "Oh good, well your father is making breakfast, why don't you come on in and eat with us?" she asks. I nod and follow her inside. She stops suddenly at the door and clutches her stomach. "Is everything ok mom?" I ask. "Ya, …I'm fine," she says, taking a deep breath and continuing to walk. "Good morning Tork," my dad says when I come in. I sit down at the table and help myself to the toast, and my father goes over to help my mother to the table.

My mother groans when she sits down. "Is everything alright?" my father asks the worry clear on his face. "ye,..yeah…I'm fine," my mother says. "It's just the baby," she says. "I'll go get the tonic," my father says quickly, rushing up from the table. My mother's been having a really rough time the past couple of weeks, and it's really taking a toll on my father. The baby's due in less than a month, but really it could come anytime. My parents have already been talking and making arrangements for a midwife. But until the baby comes we've got to hold out.

After I'm done eating, I excuse myself back to my room to get dressed for the reapings. They don't start for a few more hours, but I want to be all ready anyways. I through on a nice blue shirt and some black pants, and tie my stone necklace around my neck. That's when I hear my mother screaming. I don't wait a minuet; I rush out into our living room immediately. "Joe! Joe! The baby's coming!" my mother shouts. She's on the couch now. My father comes rushing in. "Oh, Tork! Tork, you know what to do," my father tells me. I nod and make a break for the door. Of all mornings this could be happening! I run as fast as I can down the square and to midwife Joeann's door. I'm out of breath when I knock on the door. "The baby's here," I pant when she opens the door. She rushes back inside and grabs her bag and I lead her back to the house. My father has moved my mother into their back bedroom now."It's alright, just breath," hear my father say as I lead the midwife into their room. My mother looks relived that she's there. Joeann immediately gives me that look and stops me from coming into the room. "Hey Tork, why don't you head over to Neos's house and go to the reapings with them, I don't think were going to make it," my father tells me, his voice straining. "Ok," I say as Joeann slams the door in my face.

I make my way slowly out the door and walk slowly to Neos's house. Well, at least my mother can't be too worried about me today if she's having the baby. I almost pass up Neos's house before I realize where I'm going. I haven't been over to his house much, we mostly hang out at school, but I'm sure they'll welcome me in this morning. I knock on the door and his mother awnsers it. "Oh Tork! What a surprise!" she exclaims. "My mother, she's having the baby right now and was wondering if I could stay over here," I blurt out quickly. "Of course! Why don't you come on it?" she says, opening the door wider. "Neos in his room, you can head on in, I'm sure he'll be glad to see you." I nod and make my way quickly to Neos's room. His little siblings are already up and eating at the table. There are 5 of them; honestly I don't see his mother manages to take care of so many kids. I have to admit, their cute little things.

I find Neos lying on his bed, looking at an old photograph. I cough once I get in the room, letting him know I'm there. He quickly shoves the photo back under his pillow and gets up out of bed. "Oh hey Tork," he says. "My mother's having the baby," I say. He nods. "Oh, well cool. Congratulations," he says. I nod. "So, I still need to eat breakfast if you want to join me," he says. I nod and we head into the kitchen. I sit and let him eat and then follow him back into his room so he can get dressed. There's really an awkward silence after I come back into the room. "So, what's the photograph you were looking at?"I ask, hoping to spark a conversation. "Oh nothing," he says quietly. I rush over to his pillow and pick it up, and he quickly comes over to stop me. But I get there first and manage to pick up the photo. I take a look at the page and become confused. "Jalley Titrish?" I say when I see the photo. He goes red and nods. Jalley Titrish is a girl that goes to our school. She's got long dark brown hair and really big blue eyes, her parents own the town sweet shop. "Where'd you get this?" I ask holding up the photo. "It fell out of her bag," he admits nervously. "When?" I ask. "…About a month ago." There's an awkward silence between us. "Well, maybe you should talk to her sometime," I say quietly. "Yea, maybe…" he says. And that's the end of the subject.

It's only around 9:30, so we play some card games, surf the tv, and babysit his little siblings. By 12:45 we're out the door and on our way to town square. I don't see my parents, but I know they won't be coming. Neos and I head over to the 16's section. There I can see Jalley, and I glance over at Neos. He notices her, but I don't think he'll act on it. He's too shy, too much like me. The reapings start at exactly twelve, and the mayor goes off on this long boring story about the history of the reapings. I just can't wait to get this over with. I just want to get home to my family, to my father, to my mother, and to my new sibling.

I hate our district representative, she really freaks me out with her funky hair and makeup and clothes. She announces our district mentors, but I don't know them. The hunger games make me queasy, so I just shut my eyes and try to tune them out. They call up our girl representative, I don't recognize her, but she looks to be only twelve. I can see her start to cry while she stands up on stage, and I fell really sorry for her. Then Frilly pulls out the boy's name. I should have known what name she was going to pull before she even read it. The signs were all there. I had left my key at home, my mother had gone into labor, I was freezing cold and didn't even think to grab a jacket; like I've said before, I'm not the world's most luckiest guy. And today was no exception because the name that she had pulled out of the hat was Feat Torkyle.