I've always loved having traditions. There's something about doing the same thing every year that makes things seem a little more stable. Makes life seem a little more like it's in your control, even when you know it isn't. That's how I survive reaping day - by knowing that my little traditions will give me something I can hold on to, something to look forward to so that I don't rip all my hair out and scratch my skin raw in anticipation of the reaping. Rider and I started meeting up on the morning of the reaping five years ago. I was taking a walk when I couldn't sleep one reaping day morning when I saw a small face peering at me from behind a house. When I called her out she sheepishly admitted that she'd been following me, curious of what I'd been doing. I let her walk with me, and we've been close friends since then.
That's why I'm sliding my window open quietly this morning, trying not to wake Halina and Ida, who lay next to me in bed. I wrap myself in a light jacket - even though the weather outside is warm there's a chill I can't seem to escape. I tuck two thermoses of hot milk and honey in my bag, along with some paper scraps and charcoal before heading out.
Rider is already at the field when I arrive. We chose this as our meeting spot when we learned that by laying flat on the ground's slight incline we can perfectly see the sunrise on reaping day. Rider's sitting up in the grass, picking at some brown stains on the bottom of her pants and chewing on a thick wad of her favorite "mystery plant". We're not really sure what it is, only that it grows sparingly in the far out fields we aren't allowed on, and that chewing it makes us lightheaded and giddy. I can only handle in every once in a while, but Rider chews in like her life depends on, which it very while might - or at least her sanity does. But I'm worried about her using it on reaping day.
I creep over silently and whack her on the back of the head, causing the wad to fly out her mouth. "Hey!" She yells. "I just picked that!"
"Really, on reaping day? One look from a peacekeeper and there'd be a bullet in your chest! I thought even your tiny brain was smarter than that."
"Oh please, no one can tell. And now you've gone and wasted it all!"
I shake my head and chuckle at her. "Whatever, I've got something better anyways." I toss her one of the milk bottles and her eyes widen in excitement.
"Is this fresh?"
"Just milked it this morning," I tell her with a smile.
"Georgie, you are the greatest girl in the world!" She exclaims, before guzzling down half the bottle.
"Slow down or it'll come right back up you idiot," I laugh. I pull my drawing supplies out from my bag. I start on another sketch of Rider, my favorite subject.
"I can't believe you beat me here this morning, sleepy head," I say to her.
She puts down the milk bottle and her smile fades. "Dad came home real early today. I just couldn't really fall back asleep with all the yelling."
I move closer and stroke her hair. Rider's dad has had a problem with drinking too much ever since her mom died. Wasting all his money and spending every moment he isn't working down at the market instead buying liquor. I've learned that there isn't really anything I can do in these situations but be there for her.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm okay," she says, and tips her milk bottle to clink with mine. "Here's to another year of surviving this place." I drink to that, and face forward to see the sun rising.
Back at home the twins are setting the table for lunch before the reaping. Having a family meal on reaping day is another tradition. It means eating pork tail and beans for a week before, but we always save our best food to have a meal where everyone gets enough to eat. "Good, you're back!" Halina yells, "can you stir the soup while I try and find another bowl?"
"Sure thing," I reply. Ida is sitting quietly, trying to clean some stains off a cracked drinking glass. "You okay?" I ask, giving her shoulder a squeeze. She looks up at me with wide eyes.
"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling." This will only be the twins second year in the reaping, and I remember being just as afraid. "Everyone has a bad feeling on reaping day, but we'll get through it," I tell her.
"Time to eat!" Halina calls. Cole coming rushing into the room, still wearing his pajamas.
"Cole, it's almost one o'clock, go get dressed!" Ida yells at him. Cole just sticks his little tongue out at her before sliding into his seat at the table. My parents also come in, a baby Cora at my mother's hip.
"Time to eat!" Cole calls, banging his wooden spoon on the table.
"Prayer first," my mother replies, ruffling his hair.
We've always done prayer before meals in our home. Apparently my parents parents did it before the war, and we've carried on the tradition. It's not really something I understand, or something that other people do, but my parents have found something that brings them hope, and that's more than I can say for most people around here.
We all close our eyes and join hands. "To whatever higher power may be listening," my father starts, "we thank you for our home, our food, our five beautiful children, and we ask you to please keep them safe today at the reaping." I open my eyes and peek at Ida and Halina. I begged them not to take out tessera, but they refused. I know we wouldn't survive without it, but my heart is torn. Their names will be in the reaping ball sixteen times each. Mine will be in forty. I hope my parents prayers are enough.
At the reaping that day I squeeze Halina and Ida tightly before letting them join the other thirteen year olds, while I go to stand with the sixteen year olds. I spend the majority of the speeches gazing off at Rider fidgeting in the roped off area for the fifteen year olds, or at the twins, wearing matching blue blouses that hang off their thin frames.
Our escort, Quintillius Lacer, seems bored and miserable on stage. If only he knew what it was like to live like us. "Hello hello," he says, in an unenthusiastic voice, "happy Hunger Games, district ten. Now let's not waste our breath and get on with the choosing. We'll do … boy's first." He shifts around for a moment before choosing a name, "looks like it's Beau Irwin. Congratulations Beau, get up here." A shocked looking fifteen year old boy walks slowly up the stage. Something about him looks familiar, but I can't quite place it.
"Time for the girls now." I take a deep breath and say my own small prayer. Quintillius is taking his time gliding his hand around the names before choosing one.
"Alright, the name is Georgina Draper."
He said my name. Quintillius just said my name. Could this really be? Maybe it was a mistake. But no, no one stops me as I walk with wobbly legs up to the stage. I was reaped for the Hunger Games.
My family comes to see me first. It's a blur of tears and hugs and screams and I'm not sure any of us really accept what is happening. The peacekeepers have to tear my sisters out of my arms when it's time for them to leave, and I crumple into a mess of tears on the ground, knowing that I will never see them again.
There's another minute before Rider bursts in. "We have to get out of here Georgie, now. I have some things with me, we can go out the window, run to district four. Or we'll go to the woods. Live off the land. But we have to get out now."
"Slow down, do you even hear yourself? If we try to leave we're both as good as dead, but at least you'll survive if we stay put."
"Now without you I won't! I don't have anything without you Georgie! I can't live without you," she says, tears sliding down her cheeks.
"You have to Rider, you have to! You have to take care of my siblings, and help your dad get better. You have to tease Cole for me, and teach Cora how to milk a cow. You'll get it out of here one day. But it won't be with me."
"It will be with you, it has to. Because you have to fight and kill and try to win. Do whatever you have to to try and get back to us."
She gives me a deep hug and a soft kiss on the cheek before the peacekeepers tell her that my time is up. It felt like so much less than an hour with my visitors, but I know that each of their faces will be on my mind the whole way to the capitol.