"How in the world did we lose the comb?" Olive, the second oldest of the four Cresta siblings, wondered out loud, glancing at Annie, her twin, and Gianna, her older sister. The three of them were looking for their mother's keepsake while their father prepared everything to go hunting.
It was an important day. Not only was the reaping a few hours away, but it was also the day on which Theodore, the youngest of the siblings, could finally pick a token. It was a sort of tradition in their family. Before each child's first reaping, they would choose an item of their late mother to wear for protection. It was a silly thing to do since everyone knew it wouldn't save them from having their name put in the ball time and time again. However, it gave them hope. One of the few things they couldn't afford to lose.
Joe Cresta, an illegal hunter that traded in Four's black market, was the father of the four lively and chaotic children. It was the first and last year all of them would be in the reaping together. It was Theodore's first year, so he hadn't attended with his older sisters before. The twins, Olive and Annie, were seventeen, which meant they still had one more year to go through after the day was over. And the oldest, Gianna, would become nineteen in a month. However, since she was still eighteen, she had to attend her last reaping.
"Can any of you go wake Theo up, please?" Joe asked his daughters, who were roaming around their tiny living room while still trying to find their late mother's pink and golden comb. "The animals won't wait for us to hunt them down."
"I'll go," Gianna claimed, getting up from the crouched position she was in to walk towards the nursery, where all the siblings slept on handmade bunk beds.
"Found it!" Annie exclaimed, raising the comb in the air for everyone to see, while her twin sighed in relief. It wasn't the first time they had lost something of their mother's. Most of them were very clumsy and forgetful, which made them leave things anywhere, only to forget where they had left them minutes later.
"Mum would kill us if she knew how often we lose her things," Olive muttered, walking to her twin with a box in her hands. In it, there were most of their mother's belongings. "Let's put it in the box, or we'll lose it again."
"If only you would wear one of your mother's dresses . . . you would look so lovely," their father mentioned, leaving the small kitchen, a bag filled with fruits and berries, which they would eat once they were in the woods, hauled over his shoulder.
"I'm pretty sure that if I wear a dress to the reaping, they'll shoot me on sight," Olive laughed, shaking her head as she left the box with her mother's keepsakes on the table. "Having been born a boy sucks."
It wasn't an abnormality in Panem for people to identify as the opposite gender from which they had been born as. However, only those with money could fully do the transition legally. Because, for some reason, undeclared and illegal gender transition was punished by death before eighteen years-old, and by lashing after nineteen.
"It's just another way of controlling the population as if we were sheep," Gianna always claimed whenever the matter was discussed.
"I can't believe they won't let you change rows. Like, what does it matter if you're on the boy's side or the girl's side?" Annie commented, letting her body fall onto the sofa, patting the side for her twin to sit.
The reason Olive couldn't change rows was simple: she hadn't fully transitioned to the other gender yet. For an obvious reason, such as the lack of money that they had to pay for the legal transition's high cost.
Changing gender was indeed possible in some districts, Four being one of the few lucky ones. The only downfall, it was way too expensive for a normal person to pay. After all, the implementation of such a process had been quite recent, making the innovative Capitol procedure 'worth the high cost', or at least that was what the people said.
Olive could never pay such a price, much less ask for her family's help. A long time ago, she had decided to give up completely on the idea of going through the legal system. Because, as with everything, the transition had the illegal, cheaper, way. It was obviously not as advanced as the Capitol's, but no one had died during a procedure. The only penalty possible could be due to the Head Peacekeeper somehow hearing about it and arresting the person.
"Morning Theo, did you sleep well?" Annie asked their little brother, who was just entering the room with sleepy eyes while holding Gianna's hand.
The boy shook his head, rubbing his eyes with his free hand before saying. "I had a nightmare that I was picked for the Games."
"Well, that is so not going to happen. You want to know why?" Olive stated, walking towards her little brother to crouch down in front of him. Theo nodded, trying to keep his tears from leaving his eyes. "Because your name is only there once. Nothing will happen, I promise . . . Hey, it's finally your turn to choose your token from mum's things. Don't worry, she'll protect you."
"OK," Theo whispered, letting himself be led towards the sofa in front of the living room table. He sat between the twins while Gianna stood in front of the table with their father. It had been five years since the last time they were in a similar position.
The twins' first reaping had been an eventful one. Since they had been raised to share and do everything together, due to their parents expecting one kid instead of two, they spent a long time trying to find anything that would have an identical copy. After minutes of indecision, it was Gianna who finally came up with the idea of each twin taking an earring from a set, which their mother had.
The set consisted of four simple golden objects. Two small identical golden earrings, a bracelet, and a locket. Gianna had already picked the bracelet as her token, so there were just the earrings and the locket left. Annie liked the idea of not only matching with her twin but also her older sister, so she immediately put one of the earrings in her right ear. Meanwhile, Olive put the other in her left ear.
The last piece left at the moment was the locket, in which there was a photo of the children's grandparents, another of their parents together, and finally, the four of them playing in the sea.
Theo had been present during both token pickings, but since he was so young, they doubted he remembered it too well. No one had told him about the matching set, nor wanted to do it. Everyone agreed Theo should choose something he truly liked, not something to match his sisters.
"I like this one," Theo claimed, opening the matching locket to his sisters' tokens to encounter the different photos of their family. "Mum was so beautiful."
Magnolia Cresta, the children's mother, had died minutes after giving birth to Theo, which made him the only one out of the four siblings not to have any memories of her. The only thing he knew was through his sisters' vague stories and some more details from their father.
Since Olive and Annie were only five when their mother passed, they had a few memories of her. Most were simple, like framed pictures. Their mother smiling at them. Their mother cooking. Her amused face while telling them a story to sleep. Mostly, they were slightly blurry but gave them a weird sensation of being protected. As if someone was watching over them, even if they couldn't see them.
Gianna was almost seven when it happened, which allowed her to have more memories of their mother, but nothing too detailed. Most of them were the same as the twins. Perfect, still images that seemed to be stuck to her mind, as if a constant burning flame wouldn't let it fade.
"Yes, she was," Olive muttered with a loving smile, rubbing her brother's back comfortingly. She had a few vivid memories of her mother, some that she had told no one, as not even her mother herself seemed to want anyone else to know when it happened. The last vivid memory she had of her was the same day Theo was born. The day her mother died, she had such a bright smile that no one would doubt that, even if she had known she'd die after giving birth, she would still do it.
"Welcome to the world, Theodore, my fourth little blessing." Those words never left Olive's mind. Even as a child, it didn't matter if her instincts told her to blame her little brother for her mother's death. How could she, after hearing her mother say that? Theodore was a blessing. And her mother had taught her not to mistreat blessings in any way. They were meant to be loved and cared for. Just like they did every day of their lives from that point on.
"She was just like our beautiful Annie," she teased, glancing at her twin, who scoffed playfully at the comment. Olive and Annie were indeed twins, however, not identical ones. Annie, the younger twin, resembled more their mother with her sea-green eyes and tangled brown hair. While Olive, the older one, resembled more their father, with her dark brown skin and wavy black hair.
"Good choice, Theo," their father interrupted with a pleased expression, kissing the little boy's head before lifting the game bag from the floor and securing it over his shoulder. "All right, kids. It's time to go to work."
"If by work, you mean, 'I want to shoot a deer!'. Yeah, sure, let's get moving," Gianna remarked playfully, which made her little siblings laugh.
Quietly, they walked towards Four's fence, which, although it did usually have voltage to protect the district against any potential dangers, was easy enough to surpass. The trick was to know where to find an opening. Normally, on the reaping day, there was never voltage due to the hundreds of cameras they would install all around the town square. It took away the power from the fence and directed to the town square, where surely all the preparations for the ceremony had already begun.
"At least today we don't have to crawl through the tunnel," Gianna muttered, helping Theo pass through the fence without getting his clothes tangled with the threads.
"Yeah, can you imagine their faces if they saw us approaching, all covered in dirt?" Olive said, causing her siblings to chuckle.
After a good twenty-minute walk, the family arrived at the meadow where they hid their weapons. Inside two separated hollow trees, the weapons were divided into two groups: the knives and spears together, and then the bows with their own quiver and arrows.
For every child's tenth birthday, their father gifted them a handmade weapon. Gianna had chosen the spear, although she also had a few knives for small targets. Annie had picked throwing knives, though she barely used them since she preferred to pick berries. And Olive and Theo had picked the bow as their primary weapon.
While hunting, Olive would teach Theo how to increase his accuracy, or simply how to stand properly. He learnt rapidly, although he still had a long way to go. Meanwhile, Annie would bring a few berries she saw around, which she knew were edible, and put them in a separate bag of trading.
Some berries had an extremely high-trading value if they knew the right person to sell them to. The rest could be exchanged for a pot of hot soup. No questions asked about the meat, plants, or roots being used in it.
"Did you two catch anything?" Annie asked them after leaving the berries in the bag. Olive and Theo were sitting down on the grass beside the twins' game bag, which Olive used way more than Annie.
"Yeah. Theo shot his first bird. It was quite impressive," Olive answered while watching as their little brother's smile became wider. "We're waiting for dad and Gianna to decide we've hunted enough. We can't just present ourselves with a bunch of squirrels and birds like two months ago. That day, we almost didn't slip away from the Peacekeepers."
Annie nodded, remembering that stressful day, before acknowledging her little brother's archery skills' improvement. "Well done, Theo," she praised, sitting next to him to watch their older sister throwing a knife at a tree, where a bird descended seconds later. Dead. The knife in his eye.
"Wow," Theo mumbled, widening his eyes at his sister. It wasn't the first time they watched Gianna hunt, but it sure was impressive to see her hit the bullseye every time. It had become a sort of entertainment for the siblings. Gianna tried not to miss, while the other three were concentrated to see if that would ever happen.
"Dad, can we stop now? I don't want to run away from the Peacekeepers with the game bag full. It will be difficult to go past them," Gianna called, causing Joe to snap from his hunting daydream.
There was a minor detail about hunting that the siblings had noticed about their father. He became another person when he was in the woods. A much more glowing, livelier person. Usually, he was already all of those, with his usual cocky remarks and sarcastic character. However, those traits incremented once he was in the woods with a bow in his hands.
"Sure, let's go back," he replied, taking the arrows from his game to leave them back in the quiver. As he did that, everyone hid their weapons again inside the hollow trees before hauling their game bags over their shoulders, waiting for him to pass the fence and go towards the black market.
By the time they arrived, there wasn't much time left until their district's reaping. Since it was a celebrated event in the Capitol, it was scheduled as such. In every district, the reaping was at a different hour, just so everyone in the Capitol could watch them one after another. Being from District Four, they were one of the first reapings. Therefore, earlier than most.
"Kids, go home to have a bath and change. I'll be there before the reaping, I promise," Joe said, turning around to get the twins' bag over his shoulder. He kissed their foreheads and waved them goodbye as they left to go home.
"OK, who bathes first?" Gianna questioned, rolling up her sleeves to prevent the dirt from falling inside the tub that she had just filled with warm water. "Theo? We can't possibly let you go all muddy in your first year. How unsightly would that be?" She added, mocking the Capitol's accent their district's escort, Piscia Crescentia, had.
"That would be abominable!" Olive commented playfully, resting her head on the palm of her hand while watching her little brother laugh at their antics.
While he was bathing, the twins sat on the sofa, watching Gianna disappear after leaving the room to go inside the nursery. Annie moved closer to her twin, resting a hand on top of Olive's, trying to comfort her. They were all notoriously scared. "It's Gianna's final year. She'll be free once today is over."
"But it's also Theo's first year. A life for another. Annie, it's our second-to-last year. Next year, no one will be able to protect you. And in two years, no one will be able to protect Theo," Olive muttered, resting her head on her twin's shoulder while Annie did the same on her head.
"Theo will be fine. No one has taken Tesserae since two years ago. His name isn't there more than necessary. Nothing will happen to him. And, about me, don't worry. After all, I'm not going anywhere without you. We're a team, right? There's no 'I' in our plans, so neither of us can disappear," Annie assured, wrapping her arm over Olive's shoulder. "Hey, and aren't you supposed to be the older one? What happened to the whole 'I was born five minutes before you. I'm the oldest. I rule'?"
"I never said 'I rule'," Olive chuckled, raising her head from her sister's shoulder just as Theo left the bathroom all clean and dressed up. "Well, would you look at how handsome you look?"
"Who do you even take after? Certainly not dad with your good looks," Gianna commented teasingly before grabbing her clothes and heading to the bathroom herself.
"Said the one who looks like dad's twin and is still gorgeous," Olive muttered with a light tone as she watched her sister close the door behind her. "I still think it's unfair. Gianna is just like dad. Annie is just like mum. Meanwhile, Theo and I are just weird combinations of both."
"Come on, don't whine now," Annie chuckled, resting her head on the palm of her hand with a soft smile, the type Olive couldn't go against even if she tried. She had a soft spot for her twin.
After everyone was already clean and perfectly dressed, they made sure to be wearing their tokens. As always, the twins wore matching outfits, with only the slight variation that Annie was wearing a skirt, while Olive wore trousers. With a hair tie her twin had lent her, Olive put her hair up in a ponytail and adjusted it, so it wouldn't be uncomfortable.
Just half an hour before they had to leave for the town square, their father opened the door hurriedly, leaving the game bags on the floor before hugging his children tightly.
"It'll be fine, dad. It'll be fine . . ." Gianna kept whispering reassuring words, brushing her brother's hair with her fingers to calm him down, while the time continued ticking away. "Come on, we have to go."
There wasn't much small talk until the registration entry. Most of the chatter was from their dad, who promised a grand meal once the reaping was over, and bragged about how he had achieved to make a fair deal with the baker. A squirrel and some berries for a couple of expensive, typical District Four loaves of bread.
"I'll see all of you later," he promised, kissing the kids' foreheads before leaving to the parent's section around the town square.
Once they had passed the registration entry, the four siblings gave their goodbyes to Theo, who stood next to his row, which was the furthest away from the temporary stage in front of the Justice Building. As the rest kept walking towards the end, Olive said goodbye to her sisters to walk towards the boys' seventeen-year-old row.
When the clock announced the reaping's initiation, everyone was already in their positions inside the rows. The mayor got up from his chair, positioned on the stage, and walked to a podium in the middle of it. A glass ball with all the kids' names gathered on each side. One for the girls, the other for the boys.
As he stood in front of the podium, he began explaining Panem's history. Every disaster that had resulted in the creation of the Capitol and the thirteen districts. At some point, the Dark Days came, causing uprisings in the districts against the Capitol. Twelve districts were defeated, while the thirteenth was brought down to ashes.
Simple translation, 'Look what we did to Thirteen. Better watch out, or you'll be the next ones. Olive thought, clenching her hands into tight fists inside her trousers' pockets.
"The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated. It gave us the Hunger Games." The mayor recited. "It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks."
Then he read the list of all past District Four victors. In sixty-eight years, they had seven. All of them were alive, quite surprisingly. The oldest and most loved of all, Mags Flanagan, a seventy-year-old woman with a difficulty in speaking. If there was a reason why Mags couldn't talk too well, Olive didn't know it, but it didn't make the woman any less friendly.
There was also the victor who had surprised everyone with his victory, even his own district. Finnick Odair, eighteen-year-old at the moment, won at the young age of fourteen four years ago during the sixty-fifth Hunger Games, which made him one of the youngest victors ever.
The mayor moved on to present Piscia Crescentia, District Four's escort, who was a young woman with the usual Capitol look everyone was used to see in the recurrent Capitol propaganda.
Piscia walked happily to the podium, welcoming everyone to the sixty-ninth annual Hunger Games, before adding, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!"
As the escort announced the drawing time, she chimed with her usual short phrase. "Ladies first." She walked to the glass ball with the girls' names and reached in, digging deep before pulling out a slip of paper.
She went back to the podium, smoothing the paper to read the name. Olive didn't know who it was, but it wasn't Gianna's or Annie's name. Not even a minute passed before a girl, around the sixteen-year-old row, appeared on the main path, walking to the stage nervously.
Everyone kept their eyes on the girl as she went up the stairs and was positioned next to Piscia, who asked for volunteers. No one said anything. There were no volunteers for the girl, who was shaking like a leaf in front of the entire district and Capitol cameras.
"Lovely!" Piscia exclaimed happily, her white smile shining brighter than her pure blue wig. "Now for the boys!"
Here it comes. Olive thought, unknowingly keeping her breathing to a bare minimum to listen to the escort's words. As if the microphone on the podium wouldn't be enough to hear her voice loud and clear.
Piscia repeated the same process she had done before. She walked to the glass, reached almost the bottom of the glass ball, and took a split of paper. In front of the podium, she smoothed it and read the name. One of the names Olive didn't want to hear at all.
"Theodore Cresta!" She announced with a smile.
Her voice resonated in Olive's mind, trying to make sense of what just had happened. Her brother's name had just been put in the bowl once. The odds were completely in his favour. How could he be picked in his first year?
With her thoughts racing, Olive looked everywhere, trying to find her little brother, who she eventually found leaving his row. His black hair flickered blue each time the rays of sun landed on it. His sea-green eyes didn't dare to raise his sight from the ground. He was clearly scared, trying his best not to let his tears run down his face.
"No . . ." Olive muttered, pushing herself past the crowd to reach her little brother. She was too slow, way too slow. The people wouldn't move as fast as she'd like, forcing her to see as Theo passed her row right in front of her. "No! I volunteer! I volunteer!"
Her cries made everyone turn to look at her just as she left the seventeen-year-old row. Theo was in tears, looking at his sister with a stunned expression. Perhaps trying to process what she had just done. Volunteer herself for him. Take his place in the slaughter show.
"I volunteer as tribute!" She repeated, running to her little brother to hug him protectively as the Peacekeepers let go of him. She knew Four was somewhat used to volunteers. However, not such desperate ones. The few people that actually volunteered weren't for their families, but to try their luck to become famous and rich. "Theo, listen to me―"
"No! You can't, Olive! You can't!" he cried, trying to control his sobs, although there was no way he could. His body was shaking like a leaf, just like the girl from earlier. His sobs were loud, driving even more attention to them. If they stayed like that anymore, the peacekeepers would intervene to take one of them away. It didn't matter who it was.
"Theo, go look for Gianna or Annie. Stay with them until it's over, OK? Please, go," Olive begged him, rubbing his arms while he kept crying and asking her not to go. Gianna left her row, picked Theo up, and walked towards the girl's seventeen-year-old row's entrance, where Annie was bawling her eyes out.
With her little brother safe, Olive walked toward the stage with perfectly feigned confidence. Not daring to cry in front of the cameras while her eyes were still staring at her siblings. Piscia tried to point out the premature volunteering, but the mayor didn't allow her to do so and asked her to continue with the ceremony. "Well, brilliant! That's the spirit of the Games. What's your name?"
"Navin," Olive answered, knowing she had to use her legal and registered name in front of the Capitol. "Navin Cresta."
As the mayor read the Treaty of Treason, Olive couldn't help but keep her attention on her siblings, trying to take in every little detail about them. As if it was her first time seeing them, or the last. Sadly for her, all the traits she found adorable in her siblings had completely disappeared. Their eyes didn't reflect the same lively colour. Their faces were pale, with tears streaming down their once rosy cheeks.
The mayor finished reading and motioned for the two tributes to shake hands, forcing Olive to turn to meet eyes with her district partner, who seemed to be freaking out internally. After that, they turned again, facing the crowd for the playing of Panem's anthem.
Then, just as the melody stopped, Peacekeepers appeared on each side, guiding the two to their separate rooms inside the Justice Building for their last hour to say farewell.
Olive couldn't concentrate on the room. Of course, she noticed the sudden change of luxury from what she was used to. However, when she had just given up her life to save her brother, it was hard to appreciate the lavishness.
She sat down on one of the couches, tracing a pattern on it as if it was some sort of therapy. When the door opened, her family walked, or rather ran, in. Theo jumped on her lap, wrapping his arms around her neck. It reminded her of the peaceful days back when he was just a toddler. When, together with her twin, they had to figure out how to take care of him while their father was hunting.
Annie and Gianna said nothing. They surrounded their siblings, sitting on each side of the couch while hugging both of them tightly. Their father sat at the table right in front of the couch, admiring the moment he didn't know could ever happen. His little girl, who was once his little boy, had grown up so much without him noticing.
"I'll be fine," Olive spoke the first words after minutes of silent sniffing and sobbing. She knew her odds of winning weren't that high. Maybe not incredibly low, since she wasn't starved and had practice with weapons. But, in a fight against District One or Two, she would clearly lose.
"You're smart, and you know how to hunt. If you try, you could win," Theo muttered, burying his head on the collar of her shirt.
"Olive, you have to promise. You have to come back," Gianna said softly, caressing her sister's cheek as Annie seemed to be achieving to pull herself back together.
"You're my twin. My other half. We're a team. Please, don't make me lose you. I don't care about anything else. Just come back to us," Annie begged, gaining enough strength to look at her twin directly in the eyes.
"I will be back. I will win," Olive promised, raising her eyes to meet her father. "Anything else you would like to add, dad?"
"Just come here," he said, opening his arms for his children to throw themselves at him. After so many years, in their father's arms, it felt as if they were children again. Scared of a thunderstorm and wanting a story to distract them. The same comforting sensation engulfed them, making them forget the flow of time.
With the yank of the door, everyone opened their eyes, acknowledging the cruel reality. It's time to go. Olive thought as she gave the last goodbyes to her family, kissing her brother's head and hugging her father and sisters tightly before they were taken away.
I have to survive. For my family. Olive decided as the door opened again. It was time to go to the train station.