I stare into the smooth, glossy mirror. I look into my deep brown eyes and sigh. Today’s the reaping. I sigh. If i’m picked i’ll never see my family again, not my baby sister Claray, my father Mik, and my mother Annibli. I shut my eyes closed to hold back the salty tears that want to emerge out of my eyes. I feel a warm hand on my shoulder, I open my eyes and see my mother. She has big brown eyes like mine, we both look alike with the splash of freckles on our nose, our big brown eyes, and our short eyelashes. The only difference is that my mother has long wavy blonde hair. I have short and stringy brown hair. Just looking at my mother makes me emotional. She can tell, she’s the best. She wraps her soft arms around me as reassured me that it will all be okay. “Shhhh.... It’s ok it’s your name against hundreds.” she tells me in her soothing voice. “But... What if I AM picked?!” I start lightly crying into her light pink blouse. There’s only been one victor from district 6 Rusec Tarrer he won his games by camouflaging himself till there was no one left, that was smart. “If you’re picked, i’m almost sure someone will volunteer for you, you are extremely helpful and no one wants to see you go.” my mother responds back to me. I sure hope that’s true. “Now let’s get you ready, okay?” my mother tells me pushing me out of the hug and holding my shoulders, “okay” I sniffle. My mother straightens out the bird nest that I call my hair. She puts me in a pastel yellow dress with black flats. “You look beautiful darling!” says my mother. I nod my head, but I don’t agree. I slowly trudge downstairs and see my father trying to feed my sister some food before the reaping. She really doesn’t want it. “Dad we gotta go!” I tell him. “Okay.” he says as he picks us Claray. My mother quickly comes downstairs and we all hurry out the door. This may be the last time i’m with my family.
I walk to the little white desk where a woman gets a needle and pokes it into my finger. I flinch. I know it’s not much, just a needle but still! I’m extremely sensitive to pain, one time I tripped and scraped my knee and I was howling in pain. I bet the capitol citizens heard me and wondered why there was a wolf so nearby! I slowly walk till I get to the area for district six’s 15 year old girls. I’ve been waiting for a while now, waiting for everyone to shut their humongous mouths so I can get the reaping over with and go home! As if everyone can read my mind they shut up (thankfully). I got kinda freaked out and pushed the rude thoughts to the back of my head. I see our escort come up onto stage wearing what looked like a dress made of vulture feathers and a hat which made her look like a vulture was perched on her head. Ew. Her eyebrows were arched in a weird position and her skin was a dusty gray. Her 3 inch heels clacked loudly against the stage. It sounded like a screeching cat with diarrhea was trying to tap dance, I don’t know why her heels sound like that and I would not like to know. Escamia (the escort) stops in front of the stage and says in a squeaky voice “Welcome to the 57th annual Hunger Games!” she squealed after saying that. I bet the girl next to me is deaf now. “Well, we shall start with the men this year!” she walks over to the bowl with all the boys’ names. Her heels clacking annoyingly all the way there. She puts her gray hand into the bowl and pulls out a thin piece of paper. Escamia walks back over to the microphone, unfolds the tiny paper and reads the name “Brombo Hulii” I’ve never heard of him. He must be important because many people look shocked. I see a bulky guy that looks to be about 17 or 18 walk up to the stage. Oh I remember him! He’s extremely smart and athletic and really popular. He could definitely win. He looks like he could kill you by looking at you. Which is why I try not to make eye contact with him. Escamia walks over to the girls’ reaping bowl. I cross my fingers and say to myself “Don’t be me, don’t be me...” I look up and Escamia is unwrapping the piece of paper. I just want to tell “HURRY UP ALREADY!” it’s taking forever. Finally Escamia opens her mouth and says “Amabia Isco”. That’s my best friend. My best friend. She can’t survive that, no no no. She’s too weak too scared. I do what I think is right even though I was scared of this. “I volunteer as tribute!” I yell, loudly and boldly. Amabia looks relieved but she stared at me in shock. I mouth “It’s okay.” to her. Everyone stares at me. My dry palms get sweaty, I think my face turns redder than a tomato! I slowly walk out of the mass of girls and trudge up slowly to the stage. “What is your name dear?” Escamia shrieks. “Lilath Couran.” I mumble. “Okay... I present you the tributes of district 6 BROMBO AND LILATH!!!” screams Escamia. Okay, now everyone is deaf. No one in the audience claps. I think they’re shocked, wouldn’t blame them.
Escamia leads us into the Justice Building and send Brombo to a room to the left and me to the right. I sit down on the plush couch just as my parents bombard in. “What were you thinking Lilath?!” my father asks. I can clearly see the concern on his face. I look down to cover my face and let a mumble out saying “I don’t know. But Amabia wouldn’t survive and she’s my best friend.” I say. “And you think you’d survive?!” says my father now anger is bubbling inside him. “MIK!” tells my mother but my father leaves the room and shuts the door with a loud bang. My mother flashes me a sympathetic smile then runs after my father. Now i’m the only one left in this odd room. I start walking around and looking at all the weird statues and paintings. Why do capitol people look so weird? I’m still looking around when I hear the mahogany door creak open, I see a pair of glassy blue eyes peak in. Those eyes could only belong to Amabia! I give her a faint smile, it wasn’t genuine. She walks in and I can see all the salty tears coming down from her cheek. I bet district 4 could make a lot of money if Amabia also cried fish. Okay that’s kinda gross. She gives me a big bear hug, I literally can’t breathe. Though she’s a midget and not very strong her hugs hurt. She looks up at me and I look down at her. “Um here.” she says sniffling and holding out what looks like a rusty nail with leather surrounding it. Like an anklet. I take it from her and examine it. “What’s this?” I ask her with genuine curiosity. I really wanna know what this is! “Um... It’s my good luck charm,” she continued “I think you’ll need it more than me.” she looks down at her toes and starts rocking back and forth on her feet. “Thank you, I’ll wear it into the arena!” I say softly I can see a little grin on her face as she hurries out of the room. She didn’t even say bye, but I guess the anklet made up for it. I sit back down on the couch and start examining every nook and cranny on my now good luck charm. When I finally think I found peace and quiet Escamia bursts open the doors and shrieks “TIME TO GOOOOO!” she drags me off the couch and starts skipping to the train. Ugh, capitol people. Escamia pushes us onto the train and the train starts speeding.
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