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Any outsider would've thought it was a joyous festival; children running on the streets with thick sticks of cotton candy in their hands, everyone in their most beautiful dresses, laughter filling the air. Then again, Reaping Day was generally a very celebrated day in District Four.

I was wearing my best clothing too, a white dress exquisitely embroidered by my mother with vivid coloured threads from the Capitol. My cousin Vivera threaded her arm through mine while we walked, she batting her eyelashes at every young man we passed on the street. Vivera was one of the few girls who talked to me and treated me like a friend. Mostly because people avoided her like the plague too. I'd heard rumours abound though that once she got a couple of drinks down her, people would take her 'under their wing' for the night. Cousin or not, we were both secretly desperate for the company of others, and I didn't judge her for it at all. Vivi was your textbook-beauty, or at least the kind of woman Gren and I found on Dakon's old magazine covers. She was blonde and buxom next to my stick-like frame, my one redeeming grace being the thick auburn hair that tumbled past my shoulders to my chest.

Suddenly a thought came to my mind and I pulled Vivi down an alleyway.

"Viv, do you know why people hate us?" she frowned and looked around before glaring at me.

"Do you have to ask that HERE? Now?!" she hissed. I shrugged. This was as good a time as ever.

"You know that your father and I are brothers? Well...they had a sister." Vivi's face falls. "She was just 12 when she was reaped. In the photos she only looks about 10, due to her physical and mental...difficulties." I never knew I had an aunt.

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"She was reaped alongside her brother. I don't think that had ever happened in District Four before then, a brother-sister combination. Well...she never made it past Training. Shot through the head with a makeshift bullet. It was passed off as an accident and her brother returned home with the body." Viv had turned a pale shade of green but she continued. "They said he was the culprit, but no one knows for sure. What is certain, though, is that that year District Four had no contestants in the Hunger Games." This is shocking. To be reaped and entered into the Games is a source of pride in our district, but that year is undoubtedly one of the most shaming years. No wonder everyone hates our family. Wait...her brother was the culprit...?

"Which one...which brother...?" I am surprised that I actually made a sound, I was so in shock. Her expression is grim.

"Your father, Annie. It was your dad."

My father wouldn't hurt an eel unnecessarily, let alone kill his own sister! So that's why Dakon hardly ever comes over anymore. He doesn't want to eat food at the table of a murderer. Except my father is not a murderer. This information doesn't change the fact that he's still one of the kindest people I know. He gave his sister a humane and painless death, not one suffering at the hands of some sadistic Career tribute. And if that means everyone hates us, so be it.

"How can you smile?!" Vivi shrieked. "Your father ruined our lives Annie. We didn't have a childhood like the other girls, sleeping over at our friend's houses, giving each other makeovers." It's true. We didn't have a typical childhood. Though she may not want to admit it to the people she keeps company with while inebriated, Vivi is one of the best trackers I know and a very decent fisher and shot. We have skills and very useful ones too.

"Annie Cresta? Make your way to the main Square please." An armed Peacekeeper appeared at the end of the alleyway, briefly casting us in shadows. "Vivera Cresta, join the crowd." The butt of the gun glints in the sunshine and we both make our way out into the square. Vivi squeezes my hand reassuringly and kisses me on the cheek.

"See you soon Annie love," Vivera said softly. "I'll buy you a cupcake from Renwood's later, alright?"

She still owes me that cupcake.