The reaping. The day my already horrible world fell apart.

District 7's escort, Alodia Lockhearst, walks over the stage, her high heels making it almost impossible not to fall over. She is decked out in bright green, and her bright blue hair looks almost fake. It isn't though, apparently. She walks over to the glass ball, the one with my name in 5 times, and looks out to her audience. "Ladies first!" She cries. She pulls the slip out of the glass ball, and I (Like everyone else) silently wish for the name not to be mine. "Johanna Mason!" She cries. I let out a gasp, and don't stop the tears staining my face. I feel the stares piercing my body, my face, my eyes as I fiddle with my hands, walking up to the stage, and straightening out my blue skirt. "Johanna Mason, District 7's female tribute! Now for the boys." She walks over to the glass ball containing the boy's names, and I hope for my brother's name to not be called. "Ivo Galloway!" Someone I don't know. Ivo seems to endure the same thing I did, and he nervously walks up the stairs, with tears in his eyes which he blinks away. He looks about 12, with light brown hair, and green eyes. Good on him for not crying, while I'm a snivelling mess at the moment. "I now present District 7's tributes of this year. Shake hands, please?" I stretch out my arm, and catch a glimpse of my white shirt arm.

I am shoved into a room in the Justice Building, and I sit on the deep purple plush chair, waiting for my parents and little brother to turn up. And they do. "You have three minutes," a peacekeeper warns me. My little brother, Otto rushes on my lap, tears in his eyes. He only had his name in once, and he thought no one in our family would get picked. That's what I thought, too. But I guess that got stuffed up. Otto wept into my shoulder, saying between sobs: "You.. You've," sniff "got... to," sob "win! For us!" He burst into tears again. I pat his head awkwardly, while Dad sits in front of me. "Listen Jo, you can win. You're stronger then most girls your age, and the element of surprise can help you a lot. Be strong, ok?"
"OK, Dad I love you," I smile through the tears now falling thick and fast.
"Honey, just remember to come home, OK?" Mum hugs me and Otto, who's black hair is all I see from where I"m sitting. "I will," I decide.
"Time's up," Comes the voice from the Peacekeeper outside the door, and he ushers my family out of the room. The tears start themselves up again, and I give up trying to contain them. Then, someone I know very well wanders in.
"Johanna!"
"Garric!" I say standing up.
"Look Johanna, you will come home. I know it. Uh... Here," He hands me a ring, silver with a bronze pattern that looks like some sort of snaky pattern, and a red crystal embedded in it.
"Garric! It's beautiful!" I cry, and hug him, slipping the ring on my finger behind his back.
"Times up, lovebirds," I feel like punching in that Peacekeeper's face.
"I-" I can't hear the last thing Garric says. My next visitors are my best friends.
"Johanna!" Lila screeches, hurtling towards me, and to hug me. "Lila! I'm coming back!" I inform her.
"We know you are! Its just... the Games changes people. Your body may come back, but you won't be the Johanna Mason we know," My other friend, Cilia tells me. Trust her to not have any tears, and to be all matter-of-fact about everything. She does feel sad, I know this, but she chooses to be sad in a different way. She will probably go home, and cry her heart out to the large dog her family adopted a while ago. Lila, however, is an incredibly ditzy, open person, who is not afraid to show her feelings to anyone and everyone. We are the outcasts of the school, I'm the normal Johanna Mason, with the afore-mentioned Lila Ballantynn, and the smart, and thoughtful Cilia Erwin. I love these guys, though. They seem to be the only ones actually keeping me from going insane over my incredibly normal life. "Times up," The Peacekeeper calls for the third time.
"See you soon!" Cilia calls to me cheerfully. If only.

"In the car, you two!" Alodia calls to Ivo and me. We oblige, making sure we don't get on Alodia's bad side. That could be disasterous. I sit in the truck, and notice the stares I receive from through the truck windows. As we drive through my District, I look at the trees bodering the roads. I would have had a good life cutting those down, but now the Hunger Games have come along, and will any chance I have at a normal life. Alodia talks at Ivo and I about what we will be facing when we reach the Capitol. I know all of this, I have seen it on the TV screens many times. But, when we reach the train to take us to the Capitol, nothing could prepare me for the brilliance that is the train. I realise there are 12 of these beauties, at least, and I am in only one.
"Get yourselves prepared for the Capitol, my lovelies!" Alodia trills at us. "Johanna, your room is this way, and Ivo, I'll show you yours afterwards!" Alodia walks, no, trots, to what I'm assuming is my room, and I follow her, walking normally, and thinking about the word 'lovelies'.
"And here is your room, Johanna!" I look inside the room, and am amazed at what I see. A large bed sits in the middle of the room, with a plush blanket, and a massive chest of drawres, and a bookcase, with a purple armchair. Some sound of happiness escapes my lips, and I turn around to see Alodia showing Ivo his room. I walk over to the bed, and sit on it, running my hands through the soft surface. No one in District 7 would ever be rich enough to afford something like this, except the victors, maybe. Well, when I go home, maybe I'll get something like this purple throw on the bed in the train.