POV District 5 Kaiadra Skeless

"Kaiadra?" I was heading towards where the girls were roped off for the Reaping, when someone called out my name. I turned around, but I didn't see anyone. "Kaiadra!" I then spotted my two younger cousins standing a little ways behind me.

"Oh, I'm sorry Garace, I thought your father told you what to do." It was her first year for the Reaping. I lived with them and my uncle, since my parents had passed on. He had told me to act like a career, for one day. Just pretend the Reaping is nothing to worry about, even like it'll be fun. I just had to bite my tongue until Garace and her brother figured it out on their own - the Hunger Games will be the death of them. Now of course they had seen the Hunger Games and the Reapings, but they just hadn't linked it yet - anyone that's called, at least for our district, is pretty much condemned to death.

She nodded. "He did. But Rilas wanted to say good luck."

I smiled. "Thank you buddy," I said, crouching down to be eye-level with him. "But we need to find your father." I picked him up, looking around the swarm of people. "Garace, you go on ahead to the line. Remember, she's going to prick your fingers - it won't hurt too bad. Then go find the other twelve-year-old girls, ok? Just wait with them, and come find me or your father and Rilas. They'll be somewhere in the back, and I'll be with the thirteen-year-old girls, ok?"

She nodded. "I'll see you Rilas!" She added before charging off towards the line.

"Rilas, do you know where you're dad was?" I asked, not being able to find my uncle myself.

"He was other there!" Rilas pointed towards the far corner of the town square.

"Tell me if you see him, Rilas," I told him before I started running off in the direction he pointed. "This is where he was," Rilas said, stopping me at the very edge. I looked around, but I couldn't see him.

"Yeros! Uncle Yeros, where are you?" I called over the crowd, getting me a lot of looks. I should be in the ropes. Of course, I couldn't imagine any of these people would want me to be there so I could get picked, but they wouldn't want me to get caught running around here. Peacekeepers would beat me 'til I couldn't stand and then force me to volunteer if they caught me 'trying to skip the Reapings'. They'd never believe my real story - they never do. They'd take almost any chance to drive whips into someone's back.

"Kaiaidra? Rilas?" I looked over my shoulder, to see my uncle running over to me. "What's wrong? Where's Garace?"

"It's fine, she was checking in when I left her," I explained, handing Rilas over to his father. "I already checked in so I came to help Rilas find you."

"Thank you," He told me before looking around. "You better hurry, I think they're about to start."

I followed his gaze, and he was right. All but a couple people had checked in already. The mentors for this year and the mayor had settled down, and Risny King, District 5's escort, was on the edge of her seat. "Alright, see you after!" I called to him before charging back through the crowd.

"Hey!" A peacekeeper stopped me before I could get to the rest of the girls. "You need to check in!"

"I already did," I called back to him, though I stopped as he and two other peacekeepers came my way. "I had to go help my six-year-old cousin find his father."

But he didn't care. He grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me over to the peacekeepers standing with empty lines. "Either of you already seen this girl?" He barked to them. They looked at each other, and then to me.

"My name's Kaiadra Skeless, I'm thirteen," I told them painfully. His grip was tight, and he was tall enough to hold my elbow up at an awkward angle. I had always been tall for my age, but now I had never felt smaller in my whole life. The Anthem had started and finished playing, and I looked over my shoulder to see Risny was standing at the microphone, greeting everyone before she started the Dark Days video. She was wearing bright yellow, like a Canary, and her dress was cut off very high. She had a yellow feather head piece, with her blue and purple dyed hair weaved up into it. She had tall yellow boots stopping just below her knees, and black rings were painted around her eyes.

"That doesn't seem realistic," The peacekeeper growled at me, leaning down to look at me in the eyes. "You look fifteen to me. Look at me," He snapped when my eyes drifted to the two peacekeepers behind him, who were exchanging looks. "Look at me!" He ripped his helmet off, and I almost jumped out of my skin when I recognized Vetimy Veserad, the head peacekeeper for District 5. He was the youngest, and the unofficial harshest, head peacekeeper in history. I met his bright green eyes and looked away to the two that were shifting through their names, trying to see if they could find me. They had stopped, watching me almost sympathetically - though I could only guess since they were keeping their helmets on for their lives.

"Hey!" He barked, luckily right before the video ended so his voice was masked.

"As always, we will pick the name of the girl tribute for District 5 first," Risny began. I glanced towards her, and saw her staring directly at me. Her eyes followed me as she walked over to the bowl, missing her first attempt to grab a name she was so distracted.

"Look at me." He yanked on my arm, forcing my body to turn back towards him. I shut my eyes tight, my breath beginning to come fast. I gritted my teeth. What was I doing? "That isn't even a real name is it? Who the hell are you, you little-"

"Kaiadra Skeless." It felt like every person in the world froze. His grip froze on my arm, his words froze in his lungs, my body was frozen in place, my eyes were frozen wide open. There was mumbling from the kids at the Reaping and the people gathered at the edge. The peacekeepers gathered around were sharing looks. I was the first one to break the silence, slowly beginning to shake all over as I broke out of my ice block of fear. I slowly turned to look towards Risny, who had focused on me from the stage. Slowly everyone followed her gaze, and soon all eyes were on me, all cameras were on me.

"Sir," The female peacekeepers sitting behind the desk whispered. He didn't move his head, but his eyes darted to her. "Kaiadra Skeless, she was the 7th kid I checked in. 13, with 3 Tesserae claims." He came back to look at me, and I had turned back to look at him.

"You aren't going to see your family," He snarled, like a dog with rabies. He yanked my arm down, but let go of his deadly grip. I kept my eyes locked on him as I made my was stiffly towards the stage. I then turned around forward, trying to control my shaking. I glanced towards the twelve-year-olds, and I saw Garace leaning out over the ropes, standing in the very front. I could see it in her eyes that she had learned the truth now. I didn't turn away from her as I climbed up onto the stage. I glanced towards the corner of the square as Risny went to quickly grab the boy's name. I spotted my Uncle Yeros, staring at me with a pained look, with Rilas crying in his arms and tugging on his sleeves.

"Aldmos Sulorad," Risny King announced. My eyes turned to the boys. I recognized his name. He was known for being emotionally uncontrollable. His familiar face stumbled out from the eighteen-year-old boys, and practically hobbled up to the stage. When he got up there, I saw could see that his whole body was shaking. When we shook hands, his palm was sweating and I looked up to see his eyes were red and his cheeks were red.

But as Risny signed out, Vetimy Verserad's words starting ringing in my head. "You aren't going to see your family...you aren't going to see your family...you aren't going to see your family..."

"Wait!" I screamed out, but we were now in Justice Building and being led down the halls. The peacekeepers didn't listen, Risny King didn't listen, and Aldmos was clearly too busy focusing on his own problems. I saw two fancy, decorated rooms, side by side with the doors open. We were marched right past them, out to a car with a ton of cameras. He hadn't lied. He had already gotten word to the peacekeepers. We were heading straight to the train. I wouldn't get the chance to say goodbye to Garace, Rilas, or Yeros. The last they would ever see of me in real life would be me being tormented by a peacekeeper.