District Three
Daphne Dagworth, 15.
On the morning of Reaping Day, Daphne Dagworth finds herself hunched over her desk working by the dim light of her lamp. Several school textbooks are cracked open around her, gaze flitting between them all as she takes as many notes as she can. She knows the information already, but she's desperately searching for something new between all of the books around her, a small tidbit that she doesn't already know, eager to enhance the knowledge she already has just a little bit more.
But it looks like she's going to have to take another trip to the library because these books aren't helping her with that at all.
She takes a small break, rocking back on her chair as she looks forward out of her bedroom window. The streets are usually bustling at this time of day, school kids and workers alike making their way to the places where they'd spend most of their day, but today they're empty. Unease settles in Daphne's stomach like hot coals, and she distracts herself by looking down at the book in her lap.
It's an ancient text, written way before Panem was founded, and it discusses the idea of justice which is explored through the building of a city. It's a dialogue and although it's hard to figure out who's speaking at times because it's not labelled, Daphne loves it. The whole premise of the city that Socrates is building is inherently flawed, and it would never ever work, but his reasoning is interesting and Daphne can just about live with the fact that Socrates never gives his definition of justice whilst repeatedly tearing down his dialogue partners'.
She's on her third re-read now but every time she reads it she learns something new and the confusing analogies become just a bit clearer.
"Daphne," there's a gentle knock at her door, accompanied by her little sister Alexandra's voice. "Are you awake? Can I come in?"
"Sure," Daphne calls back, twisting around in her chair as her bedroom door creaks open.
Alexandra pads across the room in her nightgown, perching on the end of Daphne's bed. "Why?" She wrinkles her nose, gesturing to the books and Daphne's notepad. "It's Reaping Day. We don't even have school."
"Knowledge waits for no one, Alexandra," Daphne says, tapping her little sister's forehead. But she takes the hint and closes the books, stacking them into a pile. "I'm done now, alright? What did you want?"
"I was just bored," Alexandra shrugs, letting herself fall back onto Daphne's bed. "Mom's cooking breakfast and Dad's still waking up so they told me to stop bothering them. So I came to bother you instead," she sits up with a cheeky grin and Daphne resists the urge to roll her eyes. "What were you doing?"
"School stuff," She shrugs. "Project research mainly."
"Oh cool," Her sister says, and Daphne laughs because the girl couldn't sound more unenthusiastic if she'd tried.
Daphne doesn't get a chance to point it out before their mother's voice is calling their names for breakfast. Alexandra is out of the door in seconds but Daphne pauses to put her slippers on. She heads downstairs, getting to the table before their father who takes another couple of minutes. As soon as he arrives, taking his seat they're allowed to eat, and it's mostly silent as they do so.
Meal times can often be tense in their household, and usually at Daphne's expense. And it's not that her parents don't love each other, they do, but both of them have different approaches to Daphne's education. Her father thinks she's done enough; she has some of the highest grades in her school, she's already been offered an apprenticeship at one of the best labs in the district that she's going to take after she finished school, and, honestly, Daphne's a little inclined to agree. But her mother thinks that she needs to keep going, that she needs to push herself more and use her full potential, and Daphne agrees with that too. She's been given a gift, she thinks, and she doesn't need to settle for anything. She can do whatever she puts her mind to. Well... as soon as she turns eighteen at least.
But thankfully, they leave the subject alone this morning and after breakfast, Daphne's left alone to get ready for the reaping.
She roots through her selection of dresses, picking out a simple dark red one. It looks nice but doesn't scream 'rich kid' like some of her other dresses do. She dons it, slipping on a pair of shoes her mom bought her last week. She's just about to sort out her hair when Alexandra enters again, wearing a sky blue dress that Daphne thinks suits her super well.
"Can you braid my hair?" The younger girl pleads. "Pretty please? Mom's busy and Dad's useless at this stuff."
Daphne agrees and so sorting out her own hair is postponed until she sorts out her younger sister's.
It doesn't take too long and afterwards, Daphne's deft fingers pull her own hair into the braids that she'd just done on her sister. Alexandra beams when Daphne joins her downstairs, and they wait for their parents who appear just as the horn blares across the district.
She hadn't really let herself focus on the reaping for the morning, but walking to the square makes Daphne more anxious than she's ever been in her life.
Becquerel "Bec" Lamarr, 13.
Bec isn't really a fan of how Rusty keeps dragging him into his pranks. The bucket of water took a painstaking amount of time to balance on top of the door, and they'd been crouched around the corner for a while now. It's starting to get boring for him, but Rusty is still grinning with delight.
"Are you sure the bucket isn't going to fall on them and hurt them?" Bec whispers, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.
"'Course it ain't. We tied it, remember?" Rusty giggles. Bec is constantly impressed with how well the odd accent the boy speaks with fits him—Bec had never heard anyone with the accent before Rusty turned up at the orphanage, but he can't imagine Rusty sounding different. "Now, shh! They's comin'!"
'They's' turns out to be one of the orphanage staff members. A younger woman, one of the nicer ones, which reassures Bec a little bit because it means that they won't get into too much trouble.
The boys wait with bated breath as the woman pushes open the door, and then their laughter is filling the corridor as the woman gets absolutely soaked (the rope does its job-the woman isn't hurt, just wet). She doesn't even yell, just slowly accepts her fate and dripping clothes.
They don't hang around long enough to see what she does next, Rusty's grip tight on Bec's arm as he drags him towards their dormitories. Bec wasn't too happy about it but Rust had already bribed the other boys in there to tell the headmistress, if they were asked, that they were in there the entire time the prank was being carried out. Bec didn't contribute anything of his to the bribery fund and made it clear that he wouldn't lie to save their asses.
Rusty had just come back with a simple "just let me do the talkin' if we're asked then." and left it at that. Bec supposes that's fair.
So when the headmistress comes storming into the dormitory as they're playing cards, Bec keeps his mouth shut tight. They end up in trouble anyway, but the confusion that's caused by the conflicting claims—the worker's of having seen Bec and Rusty and the boys' of the pair being in the dorm for the whole time—the sentence is less than it would have been.
Bec can deal with a week of washing up duty. Especially if it's beside Rusty.
When she leaves the headmistress tells them all to go and wash up for breakfast, and so they do. Rusty slips away at some point as they're queuing for the bathroom to use the sink but Bec doesn't follow him as he rounds the corner, aware that he might just end up roped into yet another one of his pranks.
After scrubbing his hands clean Bec heads to the dining room, grabbing the tray of food he's handed at the counter. There are several options of people for him to sit next to, but he opts for sitting between Elesa and Cobalt as usual. The two girls aren't really friends (Cobalt doesn't like Elesa because she's too quiet, Elesa doesn't like Cobalt because she's too blunt and a little bit of a bitch) but they put up with each other for Bec's sake. And he appreciates that. A lot.
"Looking forward to later?" Bec asks, tearing a chunk from his bread roll and dipping it in the warm soup. When the two girls look at him quizzically, he elaborates, "we get cake after dinner, remember? Like, everyone does. Not just the birthday kids."
"Oh yeah, I'm super excited about that, Bec," Cobalt snaps. "I can't wait for cake and the crushing realisation that one of our own is going into the games. Hell. Maybe even two of us."
"Maybe it's our year. Maybe no one from the orphanage will get reaped this year," Bec brushes her off, shaking his head. He knows it's unlikely with the number of kids in the orphanage and the extra entries they have in tesserae.
Last year it was a sweet fourteen-year-old girl that Bec didn't know very well, the year before both tributes had been older kids. They lived in what was called the 'big kids' orphanage' so Bec had never met them before, but there's something that connected all orphan kids together, or at least that's what Bec thinks, so it was still sad. And the year before that the districts' male tribute had been a twelve-year-old boy. Casting his mind back, Bec realises that there hasn't been an orphanage free reaping for at least his formative years. Maybe even further back.
Realising that makes him a little uneasy. But, as he said, this could be their year. Maybe this year will be the much-needed respite that the orphans of three so desperately. He hopes so at least.
After breakfast, they're rushed to get ready for the reaping. Bec is handed a white shirt and a pair of brown slacks by a worker. Neither of them fit, and he has to borrow a belt from Rusty just so his trousers would stay up.
Most of the kids are in the same boat that he is; the clothes mass purchased by those who ran the orphanage from the sidelines. Those who the kids constantly heard about ("they're giving their own money to give you a better life!") but never saw.
Daphne Dagworth, 15.
The tension in the air is almost unbearable as Daphne shifts from foot to foot, waiting for the square to start filling up. Alexandra is behind her in the twelve-year-old section, talking animatedly to her friends, but Daphne is pretty much alone in her section.
There's a few other girls that she knows from school and her parents' networking dinners sometimes, but she's not close enough to any of them to strike up an unprompted conversation. That's the problem with paying too much attention to her studies; her grades are stellar but her social skills are almost non-existent. Alexandra's her only friend, and that's only because they live with each other.
It takes a little bit of time but eventually the square fills up. The orphanage kids are the last to arrive in their ill-fitting clothes, their jaws clenched. Daphne can't imagine how they feel knowing that it's likely one of them that will take one of the spots. Or maybe both.
Their escort, a ditzy woman named Bonnie, starts the ceremony once everyone's in. The district falls silent, everybody waiting to see whether or not they have a chance this year. They're not too shabby in the terms of victors they have, but the selection of tributes over the past couple of years has been less than ideal. The orphanage kids give up as soon as their name is called out, and the richer kids have no skills besides being completely insufferable.
She might be the only one in the district who pays attention to the video, but she finds it interesting. It's quite clearly propaganda, that much can't be argued, but the techniques that they use, the clips that were carefully chosen to envoke an emotional response. As much as she hates the Capitol, she has to admit that it was pretty clever.
Soon enough it's time to choose the tributes, and she watches carefully as the escort plucks a name.
"Daphne Dagworth."
It's not just a name. It's not just an orphanage kid. It's her name. It's a Dagworth name.
Her feet start moving of their own accord, carrying her up to the stage. She doesn't feel anything at first, but then as she's stood on top of the stage there's a rage boiling deep inside her. It isn't fair; she has her whole life ahead of her.
The male tribute does end up being an orphanage kid. A small Asian boy who sobs and sobs and sobs and has to be dragged up to stand next to Bonnie. Daphne feels sorry for him as they shake hands, but she doesn't get time to say anything before she's marched to the visiting room.
Her family pile in, and there's a long hug and a silence that's broken only by sobs and sniffles.
"You can do it," her parents urge her over and over again and she nods, wiping at her eyes as they start to water. She's sure that those words have been uttered to every tribute that he said goodbye in this room, but it rarely ends up being true.
Still, she appreciates the sentiment.
When her parents step back Alexandra approaches, slipping the braided leather bracelet from her wrist.
"Have this as a token," the girl sniffs. Daphne pulls her into a hug. "Don't forget us."
"How could I?" Daphne says softly, crouching down to her sister's height. She slips the bracelet onto her own wrist, admiring it in the dim light filtering through the window. "Thank you, Alexandra. It's lovely. I love you."
They hug until the peacekeepers return and forcibly drag her family from the room. Daphne sinks onto the cushioned chair, head in her hands.
Becquerel "Bec" Lamarr, 13.
When his name is called out, Bec is rooted to the spot. He catches sight of Cobalt across the aisle who looks just as horror-struck. He doesn't know at what point he starts crying, but he's sobbing when the peacekeepers seize him and force him from his section and to the stage.
He had been so relieved when it hadn't been an orphanage kid picked for the female tribute. Although sad of course for the girl herself. But the small bit of hopefulness was quickly dashed when his own name was called out.
Bec collapses onto the sofa in the visiting room when he's shoved in there. He's only alone for a couple of seconds when his friends burst through the door.
Bec says goodbye to Rusty, thanks him for the laughs and apologises for leaving him alone on dish duty. He says goodbye to Elesa, thanks her for listening to him and for caring. He says goodbye to Cobalt, thanks her for her hilarious sarcasm, tells her, good-naturedly, to make other friends. Elesa wraps her arm around Cobalt's shoulder at that and Rusty slips his hand into Cobalt's free one.
It takes all of Bec's willpower not to cry when they leave as one.
A few other kids from the orphanage filter in and out, and they all say the same goodbyes.
Permanent ones. Because they all know that Bec isn't coming back.
How can he?
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
The book that Daphne is reading at the start is Plato's Republic. It's a Socratic dialogue in which the idea of justice is explored with the building of Socrates' ideal city, Kallipolis. It's true, though, that Socrates never gives a definition of justice in the entire thing, just tears down others' definitions. I realise it might not be interesting for the majority of you, but if you're interested in ancient philosophy and haven't read it already then I definitely recommend doing so!