Chapter 2: Dinner

Finally we are allowed to go home, so I wait for Nette to finish her girly girl chats, when finally she skips over.

"Thanks for taking an hour Nette," I say as I head home.

"Hey! I was talking to Saylor, she was talking to me about tomorrows reaping,"

"What time are dad and Trawl home tonight? It's the eve of the Games and everything." I said, kind of changing the subject.

"Probably about now actually. Race you home!" She took off, and I bolted after her.

I got home first, like I said, I'm fast. We burst into the house and mom was making dinner, probably fish by the smell of it. There's not a whole lot of selection in District 4.

"How was training, Gill?" Mom asked happily.

"Same as always. Trawl here?" Mom nodded at motioned toward the living room. I walked in and saw they had the pre-games excitement going on. Well, exciting for the Capitol anyways. Each year they compile the victors wins from the last year, and some of the best wins over the course of the 73 previous years. Trawl is sitting in between Tackelle and Bayte, our six year old twin sisters, watching the television.

"Hi Trawl!" I say happily, sitting between him and Bayte. He grins at me and tousles my curly hair. We both look a lot alike, same abundant amount of hair, blue eyes, only differences are that he's 7 years older than me and he actually has muscle. I seemed to have missed that gene somehow.

"Gill, shhhh. I'm trying to watch," Dad says, but Trawl ignores him.

"How was training?" He asks.

"Meh, same old, same old," I shrug. "How about fishing today? Bet it was nice to get a short day!" I grin.

"Yeah, but sometimes it's nice to have a full day. I worried all day about you and Nette."

"Oh," I look awkwardly at my hands. I really don't want everyone worrying about me. It's not helping me feel better about the possibility of getting reaped. The television goes to an advertisement for some weird Capitol thing.

"I think you would like training better if you actually tried to you know, bulk up a bit. Look at your brother for example, he's a strong as a man can get!" Dad beamed at Trawl. I can never compare to him. That's the one thing I don't like about my brother.

"Dad, ease up on Gill, he's only twelve. I was just like him when I was his age," Trawl said, sticking up for me.

"At least you tried to get stronger during training, all Gill does is mope around and pretend to do the work," Dad shot back. My head immediately popped up and dad saw. "Yeah, Gill. I know that you don't actually do the swimming laps, or do the stretching or do the weight lifting, or anything else for that matter. I don't understand why they keep letting you come back."

"Maybe he would try harder if you praised him for his good work and effort when he did try. Did you ever think of that approach?" They were talking about me like I wasn't sitting right there, in the same room as them.

"Maybe he would try harder if he wasn't such a small little creature. I have no idea how those genes got passed into him, his sisters are all stronger than he is... and they're girls." Ouch, dad comparing me to girls. Girls who are my sisters. Haven't heard that insult before.

"Welcome back to the Hunger Games Re-Cap!" The TV announcer, I think his name is Claudius Templesmith or something, boomed into the background breaking the silence. I hoped dad would return to watching, but he didn't.

"I think he might be so scrawny because of you and your mother always sticking up for him and constantly enabling him! All you guys do is encourage him not to try and to be the best!" Dad continued yelling.

"Rod!" Mom shouted from in the kitchen. I think her outburst surprised all of us, because we all jumped in our seats. "Apologize to your son! We do not enable him! How do you think he feels? Constant pressure by his dad only to get pushed back down again?" Mom is standing in the doorway, waving some cooking utensil like a crazy lady. She went on yelling for a little while longer, then told us it was time for dinner.

Every year mom always makes a big feast on the eve of the reaping, tonight was no exception. Fish, fish and more fish. There was even some bread and vegetables, and I knew Mom had worked hard to make all this food.

"Alright, grab hands and lets pray please," We did as she asked, this is another tradition of hers. I ended up holding hands with Aqua and mom. "Please protect my babies tomorrow and for every reaping to come. Amen," Short and to the point. That's mom alright.

We dug in, and even though I'm used to fish, it was still delicious.

"Momma, this is so yummy!" Tackelle said shoving a whole fish into her face. Mom just smiled, but I could tell she was trying not reflect her worry.

We finished dinner and everyone helped mom clean up the dishes, except dad, of course. Nette suggested we play a game and have a "family night", everyone agreed, minus dad. He was watching the re-run of the re-cap. He finds that stuff surprisingly interesting. It's weird.

We finished playing Go Fish, Pirate Poker and Sail-itaire (Isn't District 4 hilarious?) a few times, mom sent us to bed because we had a big day ahead. Once I kissed mom, Aqua, Tackelle, Bayte and Nette on the cheek, hugged Trawl and nodded awkwardly to dad, I went to my room and flopped on my bed.

I have been to twelve reapings, one for every year of my life, but I had never had the opportunity to be reaped before, and it was a very unnerving feeling. I decide I don't feel like sleeping, so I grab a blanket and sit on the big window sill just above my bed.

Our house doesn't have a spectacular view, but from my sill, I can see over the houses on the streets behind us and past that, the huge expanse of ocean. The sun is just setting, but the moon is already halfway up the sky, making a nice reflection on the ocean.

I sit for a while, but get bored and a bit hungry. I tiptoe out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen, mom and dad are sitting at the table. I stop, and backtrack to the top so I can eavesdrop.

"Who do you want to bring to the reaping tomorrow?" Mom asks, and I hear her set down a cup.

"The twins and Trawl." Dad said almost immediately. Mom is silent for a moment.

"What if Gil wants to go with Trawl? Will you take him as well?" She says, finally.

"I'll take the twins," Dad clears his voice which is code for: end of discussion, Coral. "I don't need Gil making me more of a laughing stock among the fishermen more than I already am." Mom gasps, and tears well in my eyes.

"EXCUSE ME? Well then, forget it. I'm taking all the kids to the reaping tomorrow, I won't even wake you up OR make you breakfast," She turns toward the stairs, I bolt into my room but can faintly hear her say, "Also, you can sleep on the couch, since you were so comfortable sitting here while we spent time as a family. Blankets and pillows are in the closet. Good night, Rod."

"Coral, wait! That's not what I meant! I'm sorry!" Dad called after her, but mom was already in her bedroom.

I sit on my bed, tears pouring out of my eyes, I can't believe dad actually said that. Is this how is always talks about me? I almost want to go into the games, maybe dad will be proud of me for once, maybe he will show he actually cares about his youngest son.

And with that, I cry myself to sleep.