MARIS LILA, 16
The morning of the reaping, I decide to go for a swim before the sun even comes out. I stroll out of our home, on the outer part of the district, and dive right into the water.
I go to the deep portion of the water and decide to touch the ground and sit there for a while. Most people would drown by now, but I can hold my breath for nearly five minutes. I learned how to swim before I could walk, after all. Eventually, I get bored, so I decide to swim around some more, looking for any odd things that landed in the water. I work my way through the different rooms in a boat that fell to the bottom of the ocean floor. I grab statues of hands that I find and plan to carry them up to the surface with me. I find a piece of an old wheel, too.
Before I can look any further, my spine starts to tingle and I get a strong whiff of something fishy. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see a shark heading in my direction. I make my way out of the water and swim towards the top, getting out before I can get hurt and walking inside, where my three much older siblings, Coral, Beck, and Adair wait for me.
Coral tsks me. "What on earth have you been doing? You need to get ready for the reaping!"
I roll my eyes. "Gee, thanks mom."
Obviously, she's not my mom. My parents are older than most, and had three other kids before me that could pass as my parents. It doesn't help that they have kids close to my age.
I rinse off and put on my reaping outfit, a bright blue dress that has been in my family since Coral's reapings. As a family, we all walk to the center and wait for the names to be called. I join the other 16-year-old girls, and wave at them. None of them wave back, and some even gawk at me. Hard to become friends with them when I didn't join the Academy and live in the poorer part of town.
Vivi, the escort, prances onto the stage and digs around the bowl before finding what she wants.
"MARIS LILA!" She screams, her voice echoing. Hearing my name shouldn't surprise me. I have to take more tesserae than most. When no one offers themselves as a volunteer, I can feel my stomach doing backflips. I keep my hands tight at my side as I walk up to the stage. I won't let them see the fear building inside of me.
FLYNN DE MER, 16!
A few weeks earlier…
"Finn, honey," our nanny Paul says. "You need to get up and go to work with your dad."
I groan as I hop out of bed and join my family for breakfast. I take a seat next to my siblings, Kai and Darya. Paul struts over to my dad and hugs him around the waist, and my dad playfully shoos him off and whispers "not in front of everyone, honey." But we all know they're together, even my mom. She has accepted it. My parents are more friends at this point anyway. Kai and Darya head to school, both of them giving me a tight hug before they leave. Every now and then, I join them, but my family doesn't have enough money to send all three of us every single day, so when I was around 13, I volunteered to give up as much school as I could so my siblings wouldn't fall behind.
Once I finish eating, dad and I walk to the water and grab our materials we need to fish. We spend most of the day and afternoon out there, making a few decent catches. Sometimes, we talk about things, but now, he's just quiet. Staring out at the water. When we finish, we put all of our fish in a bucket. Dad tries to carry it, but falters. I grab it from him, and though it probably weighs more than Darya, I carry it without a problem.
That night, Mom comes home somewhat late with all of the leftovers from the pub where she works, at the wealthy part of the district. The three of us stuff our faces with food. I eat some, and I want to grab some more, but Kai and Darya's stomachs grumble at the exact same time, so I wait until they finish what they need.
The day of the reaping..
Hearing my name called makes my eyes teary, but I cannot let anyone see the tears. I hear Kai scream out "NOOO" and run up to me, even though he can't get reaped yet and goes beyond the boundary. I squat down to hug him and tell him to go back with our family and that everything will be okay.
But do I believe that myself?
Hi everyone! Still waiting on the girls from 5, 10, and 11, and then I'll have everyone. Also if anyone knows how to make something bold please let me know because I haven't figured it out yet!