The Reapings Part One of Three

The reapings will be in three parts, each part encompassing four districts. This is Part One, with the Career districts and Three.

Isa Smithstone POV\

"Eric! It's morning! Get up!" I call to my lazy brother. I was always the early bird of our family, and became quiet independent that way. I always wake my brother up first. He's the one I trust more than anyone else, even more than my parents. Never really liked either of my parents.

Ah, today's reaping day. All of us children in District One have to go to the center square where four of us will be chosen to participate in the Hunger Games. Even worse, this year the tributes will have to be siblings. I don't want to be chosen. That would mean fighting, and talking in the interviews. I hate talking, especially public speaking. Just terrifying.

We all get dressed in some nice clothes to head out to the square. District One is always first in the reaping, the other Districts are scattered throughput the day, so you can always see them on TV. My mother Uee can't come, she's really sick. So we, Eric, Wyne my father, and me set off for the square in front of the Justice building. We're about half an hour early, so I just wait in the square as it fills up with people constantly. Eric goes off to talk to his best friend Shakjun, they've been best friends since before school.

Finally most of District One is gathered, and the escort is on the stage with the reaping ball ready. We, the children are called to stand in these two pins, one for girls and one for boys. Eric leaves for the other one as I stand in the girl pin. I'm in the front since I'm only thirteen, but Eric stands in the back since he's at the maximum reaping age,18. The escort starts off the ceremony with a speech about how the rebels rebelled against the Capitol twice and were defeated twice. This years a Quarter Quell, where the tributes need to be siblings.

"And now for the reading of the names!" the escort cries out over the din of the crowd.

The escort puts her hand in the reaping ball and draws out a name.

"Samanda Frinder," she reads, "with her sibling Dammy Frinder."

Some girl behind me walks up onto the stage. She can't be older than me, only fourteen. Her sister is 16, and is a whole lot taller than her but with the same long blond hair and blue eyes as Samanda.

"And for the boy tribute, Eric Smithstone! With his sister Isa Smithstone!" the escort finishes.

Usually the boy tributes all yell, I volunteer!, but this time, no one says a peep. Eric gives them a stare, his death stare, and says, "If anyone volunteers, I'll kill them." He walks onto stage confidently. With his example, I spur myself to move. This is it. No going back.

Samanda Frinder POV

They just called my name. Out of the reaping ball. Not good. I feel my eyes tearing up. No. Hold back the tears. I'm a freakin' Career. I need to be tough, like my sister. She walks up with me, just to boost my confidence. Thank goodness. I need it. Dammy is my sister that I found just months ago.

I'm an orphan. Both of my parents died when I was young. I was sent to District One's orphanage. I've been there ever since. But that won't help me in the Games. I didn't get the training like some other tributes in my District did. I'm not like them. Dammy turned up months ago in District One. She had been fending for herself for 10 years and she decided to come to the orphanage. She found me there, and stayed at the orphanage.

I stand on the stage, waiting for the other tribute to be called. I hear my best friend call out from the side, "No!" but I ignore it. There are sobs from the other orphanage girls.

"And for the boy tribute, Eric Smithstone! With his sister Isa Smithstone!" the escort says. Oh, Eric. He's got a reputation at school for being tough. But he hangs out with the weirdest folks, like Shakjun, who has a serious depression problem. He seems confident as he shouts, "If anyone volunteers, I'll kill them." He's going to be one tough opponent.

District Two

Chelsea Sapphire POV

Bam! Our house door closes behind us. It always made a loud noise when we closed it. Always annoyed me and scared me when I was little.

Cristie, Catie, and me head out to the square for the reaping. We must look strange, all of us looking exactly the same. But the C's, as our nicknames are, have completely different personalities. Catie's the mean one, I'm the nice one and Cristie is sort of in between. Catie is infamous and I'm famous. But we get along okay.

Over to my right, a tall mountain looms over the square. The Nut. Fully repaired after it was bombed by rebels. Ah, it's just history class mumbo jumbo.

"Hey Chelsea," someone calls. Oh, it's Sarah. Cool, she can come with us. We've been best friends ever since I helped her out during the monsoon. She's one of the poorer kids in Two, but we're still friends. Even all of school couldn't compare to her.

We have just made it to the square. The mayor of District Two has been ranting on about the rebellion and how the Games are supposed to teach the rebels a lesson. Again, history class mumbo jumbo.

"And now, for the reaping!" Some tattooed guy says. He's the escort that takes the tributes to the Games. "Our first name will be drawn."

He sticks his hand into the reaping ball and shakes around. Takes out a slip of paper containing some unlucky tribute's name, and their sibling. Takes a dramatic moment to read.

"Chelsea Sapphire," he announces, "with her sibling Catie Sapphire!"

What? He just called my name. I'm a tribute. I'll probably die. But there's Catie.

"C'mon," Catie says to me as she grabs my hand. "Let's play these Games."

Ross Droke POV

I head to the back of the roped in area for guys, along with Archer. We're about to become uneligible for these Games since I'm 17 and he's 18. At least it's not our sister, who would be young for a Career.

"One hundred and twenty five years ago the rebels defied their leader and lost in the following –" the mayor drones on. And on. And on. I see a group of girls join the pin moments before the escort comes on. They're late.

"And now, for the reaping!" the tattooed man says. He's the escort for all of the District Two kids. How could he be excited about the reaping.

Escort man sticks his hand in the reaping ball to draw the girl tributes name from it. He pulls one out to read out to the children and crowd.

"Chelsea Sapphire, he announces, "with her sibling Catie Sapphire!"

It's the popular girls in school. They may be only 13, but almost everyone their age wants to be them. Except for Catie. She's infamous for pranks and mishaps. I wonder why they were chosen, seeing as they're not the buff, uncaring tributes that Two is supposed to send. Stereotypes.

"And for our male tribute," escort guy says, "We have Ross Dr-"

The last bit of his words were drowned out by the shout of all the boys, "I VOLUNTEER!"

I yell as loud as I can, "NO! I was called! I'm going!" No one else opposes me. I trudge up onto the stage. I'm terrified, because I might be going with my poor younger sister Violet. "Who's my sibling?" I ask as confidently as I can.

"With his sibling Archer Droke!" Thank goodness. Violet will stay home this year. I'm relieved.

Tecna Nightcore POV

"Tron, we're leaving," I say. Then I make a bunch of seemingly random hand signals to him. No one else knows what we're saying, but Tron does. He stops what he was doing at his work bench and hurries up to the front door. I would hurry. I told him Beetee would kill him if he wasn't on time for reaping.

Beetee is our father. No, he's not the Beetee of the rebellion, the brains behind the rebellion. He's Beetee the Third, and we're descended from him. Probably gained his intelligence, because me and Tron are top of the class.

We start walking towards the square. "Hey, Tron, come over here," someone from school says. I don't know who, but Tron has a lot of friends and is one of those social people. I don't find socializing very interesting.

"C'mon Tecna, Tron will go to the square anyhow. We don't want to be late." Our father says.

"Ok, Beetee," I don't usually call father any name like Pop or Dad, just Beetee.

The square's filling up, the reapings will start at maybe 10:00. District Three is third in line for reapings. The reapings are staggered so that anyone can watch them live on TV and still attend their own. Beetee goes off to talk with some of his friends, and I just wait here. I see Tron head over to the roped off area for guys and I head to the girls. The mayor starts an introductory speech about the rebellion and the second rebellion that our great grandfather was in.

I swear, some Peacekeepers are watching our family because of what we did way back in the rebellion. That's stupid, I'm too smart to rebel against the Capitol. They would kill us.

The reapings will start. Some escort walks onto the stage with two other guys. The mentors. "For the girl tribute," the escort says as they reach into the reaping ball. "We have Tecna Nightcore, with her sibling-"

What? I feel myself falling, blacking out, but someone catches me. They pick me up and carry me up to the stage. I'm back in the world now, watching as the escort pulls out the next name.

Josh Micheals POV

"Luke Micheals, with his sibling Josh Micheals," the escort says. No way. H means me. He means me and Luke! I look back and Luke is wrenched in pain. He knows the Quell as much as I do. We have to work together.

I wait, hoping someone would care for us so much that they would volunteer. No one pipes up. Luke didn't have many friends, since he was a nerd and looked like a movie star that didn't comb his hair. I head up onto stage, it's inevitable to resist. Luke knows it too, you shouldn't resist the Capitol, and they would kill you.

I'm up on the stage, along with Luke right behind me. I see the Nightcore's, they're famous for being descended from a genius. Who cares? It was a genius who defied the Capitol and was then killed.

"That concludes the reapings today," the escort says.

We are hurried off stage and are sent inside the Justice building so we can say goodbye to our families. I meet the mentors. One of them is Galvin Morse. I remember him. He won a long time back, before I was born. He defied the Capitol but lived. His family perished, though.

People start flooding in to see us. Only my father stops by to see us go. My mother is deathly ill. I hope she gets better.

Father gives us both a bronze coin with the District Three insignia on it. He tells Luke, "Remember, the best plan always wins in the arena."

Goby Craybess POV

"Who was that?" I ask my sister as she comes back from the door. She had a visitor. I don't see why. It's late at night, no one would come here before the reaping.

"Come to my room, Goby, I'll tell you," she says, she's holding back tears.

"What's wrong," I ask when we're in our room.

"That was a Capitol official at our door. He said I had to volunteer or else they would kill Tarpon." She explains nervously.

"They wouldn't," I say, "Don't volunteer. Prove them wrong. It'll be okay."

The next day we're at the reaping square. It's eleven o'clock. I'm standing in the boy area while Salmon departed to the girl area. She's still really sad from last night. I look around for Tarpon, her boyfriend. He's standing there with a straight face. He must not know about the Capitol official. I don't want him to die.

"For our girl tribute, Bianca Taylor and Claire Taylor!" the escort for Four says. I must have been pretty distracted to miss all of the introductory stuff. A pair of girls walk onto the stage. Salmon doesn't volunteer. Good. She doesn't need to follow the Capitol. I spot a official from the Capitol in the crowd, and he smirks as he makes eye contact with me.

"For our guy tribute, we have Tarpo-"

"I volunteer!" I hear those words come out of my mouth before any other boy says it. I walk onto the stage nervously.

"What's your name, sir?" the escort asks.

"I'm Goby Craybess, and my sister Salmon and I volunteer for the Hunger Games."

The capitol guys smiles.

Bianca Taylor POV

They just called my name for reaping. I wait for anyone to volunteer in my place. Some one must love me enough. But no one says anything. Good.

I wanted to go anyways. To prove myself. But not with Claire. That's the problem with the Quell. I've trained with the bow and spear and all that. But I am confident as I walk onto stage. I'm ready. Claire may not be.

"Tarpo-" the escort begins.

" I VOLUNTEER!" some guy over there says before everyone else there repeats his chant. "I Volunteer!" the kid makes it to the stage before anyone else.

"What's your name,sir," the escort asks.

"Goby Craybess, and I volunteer with my sister Salmon Craybess for the Hunger Games," the kid says. Oh, now I recognize him. He's Salmon's sister, but why'd he volunteer. The kid that was reaped was Tarpo-, um, Tarpon. Tarpon Bouy. Isn't that Salmon's boyfriend? Why volunteer for that? The kid looks so short, well to me, that is. I'm probably a foot taller than a lot of kids here, and slimmer than most of them. Claire is about average height though.

Salmon, Goby's sister, walks onto stage from the other side. She looks like she's been crying and is holding back tears. Probably something I don't know. But they will both be helpful in this years Career pack.