Sharp Objects

chapter one

It's already midnight,and yet I still cant leave the garden.i know that I won't be able to sleep. Well, who can?the reaping is less then 12 hours away. How can people look forward it is beyond me .

I selected a knife from the small pile at my feet,and hurl it into a nearby tree .it lodges In the woods.splitting the bark. I smile to myself: despite the fact that I could be heading to the Capitol,and therefore,my death,tomorrow, I have at least reassured that I would be a carrier, and have been training pretty much my whole life for this, 8 years of being in the academy, and now I never miss a knife.

My mind begins to spin as I think of what has happened to the previous carriers tributes from my district. Tributes have been pulled apart by Capitol mutation, mauled by game makers made fires or floods and,the worst,been killed in there sleeps by there own allies. Trust no one in the arena, I know that.

Quite a lot of  tributes from my districts have volunteered, ones that want to go into the games and risk there own lifes,just to prove that they are brave. Not surprising:pride is everything in district 2.

Usually,you can recognize future volunteer in the academy. They are always arrogant,big-headed, and like to think that the world revolves around them only. I don't like them. They are cocky idiots who are just walking into death.

Sometimes thought, it's the parents that make them that way. My parents were the same. They were always telling me that I would  have to volunteer myself when I'm 17, and that was an honour to fight in the games. I didn't agree with them.

They are all gone now though.my mother and grandfather died in a gass leak at my house whilst my little brother, Albert, and I were at the academy. If we weren't training to be careers, then we would be dead too. And my father was shipped of to the Capitol as a peacekeeper two years ago,leaving Albert and I in the community home. His brother went along with home, meaning that are cousin Harper, moved into the home with us, I was around 13 at that time. Now I'm 15, and I'm pretty much the guardian, along with miss cointoyke,the owner of the home. She doesn't really like me, but she likes Albert and Harper, they are among her favourites, I believe. Everyone likes them though. Which is more then I could say for myself.

Albert is 12, which means that tomorrow will be his first time in the reaping. Harper is the same. 12 years old, with only one entry in the glass ball. They are both as same as you can get ,With odds completely in there favour. I'm not in much danger either, there are so many people in district 2 that it would be almost as impossible for any of us to get picked. Almost. As sometimes it happens . You see a kid in the academy one day,and the next, they're gone to the Capitol and your either waiting for them to either die or win. Usually,it's a win, seeing as most of them are lethal career tributes.but,it sometimes, it happend.that time when the tributes are not a career, has not been trained, and they die first day, like the tributes from the outer districts. Just another forgotten face in the never-ending sea of tributes.

I sigh to see myself and look up to the bright moon, the blackness that surrounds it, and the sparkling stars. Then,I gather up my knifes,stand up, and go through the backdoor into the home,it's home with a capital "H" so it's not are real home at all,but it does the job. I'd be in a far worse position if the Home didn't exist.

You see, if my father hadn't  decided to go to the Capitol, then maybe I would have had a chance at a good life.i would be living in my family's huge house in the centre of the district, not in a community home backed on to some huge mountain that serves as protection. I would have people who would loved me, supported me,cared for me, I would have someone to look out for reassurance. I wouldn't be the unwanted girl with the non-existent family that didn't want her, I would be clove kentwell, future career tribute and hunger games victor. But that's not going to happen now.