I for one had been relying on signing up for a tesserae, I hadn't been able to sign up for 1 before but my twelfth birthday was a few days after the reading of the card and I had really needed it. I didn't start working until after my mother died and what an eleven year old child could earn was very little so I'm ashamed to say I mainly relied on Ceres. He's almost a year older than me so was able to sign up for tesserae a long time before I was but this alone would not have allowed him to support me it would have hardly supported his own family. Ceres is a thief. He never steals much and only ever food and he says he only ever takes it from the people who can spare it. Everyone knows he's a thief but luckily for him people had enough sympathy for him or at least his younger siblings not to report him. Because what would happen to his seven and five year old sisters and three year old brother if he couldn't work for a couple of weeks because he had been whipped or even executed… they would starve and even if it 'wasn't their problem' no one wanted the deaths of 3 young children on their conscience, except for the capitol. I wasn't prepared to take the risk though but I came close when they announced formally that we couldn't sign up for tesserae. Eventually due to the outcry against it they came up with a solution if you signed up before the Election Day your name would be put on the first page or the second and so on. So I signed up and it wasn't until the election I realised I had made a mistake, everyone over the age of twelve could vote on the tributes and what everyone wanted to do was get it over with quickly so the people on the first few pages were more likely to get chosen. I wasn't sure who to go for so I went to one of the back pages for both the boys and the girls and chose two people I didn't know, who looked fairly strong and were seventeen years old.
Today is the day the votes are being announced. This time last year I was wishing luck to Ceres and promising to look after Orchis, Aphea and Brae while he was at the reaping, this time I'm going with him. When I find him he's kneeling down in front of Orchis issuing instructions to her. 'yes I know!' she says pushing her hair behind her ear 'it's only an hour, and we'll wait just outside of the square, I know' she says staring into her brother's eyes, she looks about as different from her brother as she can, her light strawberry blond hair, green eyes and small face against his dark brown hair and brown eyes.
'Ok just be careful' he says giving her a kiss and standing up 'Gaia, you ready?' I nod, too nervous to talk. Seeing I'm nervous he takes hold of my hand and despite not wanting to seem like a little kid in front of him I'm grateful. I scoop up Brae and carrying him still holding onto Ceres. After a while we stop and Ceres lets Aphea climb onto his back just leaving Orchis running along ahead of us.
As we get closer to the square and we're pulled into the throng of people heading there Ceres calls Orchis back to us and tells her to hold on to us, so she clutches onto the skirt of my dress, my reaping dress. It's one of the few items of clothing I still have from my old home, my mother gave it to me for my tenth birthday around a month before she died so I was careful to look after it. It's pretty small on me but at least it's clean, the kind lady from the bakery washed it for me, and it's the only smart thing I have.
When we reach the edge of the square Ceres sets Aphea down next to Orchis and I thankfully deposit Brae next to his sisters, for a three year old who's never really had enough to eat he's surprisingly heavy. Ceres gives them a hug reminds and reminds Orchis to be careful before taking my hand again and walking into the square. As we walk he looks back at them and says 'Gaia, if I …'
'Of course' I say stopping him, that possibility is something I definitely don't want to think about. He squeezes my hand and wishes me 'good luck' before we are separated.
The crowd pushes me into my place. I find myself surrounded by girls my age, mainly merchants children who I don't know. I'm suddenly terrified as I search the crowd for someone I know until I see Zinnia quite far in front of me, she's fourteen I think, who when she sees me smiles and says something that I can't quite hear but I think it's 'don't worry'.
Feedback from a microphone being switched on silences the crowd , I look up and see Hayward Kiwi our Mayor at the front of the veranda. Behind him are three chairs on one sits Xabina Pennant, and Maris Piper so far eleven's only victor, she won in one of the first few years of the games before the richer districts had come up with the idea of career tributes. The Mayor starts to speak repeating the speech about the birth of Panem the dark days of the rebellion, the hunger games and then he talks about the quarter quell. Then after introducing Xabina Pennant to us he sits down in the third chair. Xabina stands up and walks over to the microphone her silver hair shining in the sunlight.
'hello, aren't you just so excited the first ever quarter quell is finally here' she says beaming at us 'well as the Quarter Quell is a time to mix things up I think we'll start with the men' she crosses over to the glass ball, which instead of hundreds of paper slips just has one envelope at the bottom. She plucks out the envelope and walks back to the microphone. She opens the envelope and reads out the name 'Ceres Mason'.
I can't think. Ceres Mason. It can't be, it can't, it's not possible. As he walks through the crowd he's looking around, searching for someone, Orchis and the others probably. No it's me, he catches my eyes and stares at me and I know what he means. I nod. He climbs onto the stage and is greeted by Xabina Pennant . 'Well, well done Ceres you have been won the vote for the honour of representing your district in the Hunger Games' he just stares at her blankly. So do we all, voted in for the honour! It's not an honour and how much worse does it make it that he was voted for! Then I realisethat these people here, some of them at least must have voted for him these people my neighbours are to blame for sending my best friend to his death. I can see a few people staring at the floor uncomfortably and the adults at the back of the square a lot of them look uncomfortable. Maybe I was wrong maybe it's not the idea of a guilty conscience that prevents them from turning Ceres in but the idea of other people finding out because if they had a conscience surely they would not have voted to send this boy to his death and therefore cause the deaths of his three younger siblings. But I guess no one really has a conscience when it comes to the hunger games. Maybe the people I voted for were in a similar position to him younger siblings depending on them. I'm so shocked and upset staring up at him, standing there defiantly staring into the sky refusing to look at the people who condemned him to this, that I don't fully register Xabina walking to the other ball, pulling out the envelope and reading the name. There seems to be some sort of gasp or muttering and I'm wondering why then I notice the people around me are staring at me but it still isn't until one of them prods me in the back saying 'Gaia Hawthorn?' that I realise it's me…