102nd Annual Hunger Games

District 9

LORA MAIGE

I wake up to a baby crying beside me, he looks at me with her big brown eyes, then he starts wailing and I pick her up and rock her back and forth. Today is the day of reaping and she can sense it, it is my other daughters first time getting reaped and she is really scared. The twins are trying to calm her down and Lilly has gone to her boyfriend's house this early to hunt.

Suddenly the twins come in together with worried expressions worn on their faces, they both look at each other than at each other. "Mum, she isn't waking up, come quick" Molly says to me, her voice wavering "Ok girls, wait here ok?" I reply to them, getting up and laying the baby in Holly's arms before running down the hall to Lidia's bedroom.

Lidia was lying face down on her bed unmoving, taking sharp and shallow breaths. I go over and sit down next to her shaking her gently "Hey time to get up" I whisper to her but she doesn't stir. I roll her over onto her back to see that there on her side was a huge gash, looks like a peacekeepers work to anyone. I let out a shrill scream and suddenly I see Lily running into my room and standing next to me "I was just at the front door.... Oh my god, what happened, I mean I know it is a peacekeeper, but yeah." Lilly puffs.

We finally coax Lidia to wake up and Lilly and I cry with relief, but that is soon taken over with worry once again as she clutches her wound. She sits up after a while and lets out a whimper of pain before she explains what happened to her. "Ok, so I was lying down in bed right and I still had my small hand held light on because I couldn't get to sleep. You know how we aren't allowed any lights on after 10pm well since I still had mine on a peacekeeper came in and..." Lidia explains to us whimpering now and again.

Just as she finishes her explanation the chimes go off telling district 9 that they have got 1 hour exactly before the reapings. We help Lidia up and get her out of bed towards the dressing table where she sits down on the stool in front of the mirror. I start to brush her hair then putting them into pigtails on either sides of her head before braiding them. Lily picks out an outfit for her before pushing me out the room for her to dress Lidia.

I walk back to my room to see that the twins had put the baby to sleep and laid him down on the bed. They look up to me and shove whatever they were looking a behind their backs and smile innocently. "What are you two up to?" I ask with a smile before they shake their heads and giggle "Nothing" I eye them up and down, knowing that they are up to something. "Well if you two are up to nothing and are doing nothing, you can make breakfast" I say with a smile.

We finally eat some breakfast of some grain and berries and a bit of water/milk to make some kind of porridge thing. All of us eat the porridge, Lilly had to keep helping Lidia eat because she was really sick and she couldn't even take a breath properly. The twins keep talking in excited whispers, Lilly is helping Lidia so I am left to feed the baby....

We walk out the house a family to go down to the town square only to be met by Lily's boyfriend with an accusing look on his face. Lily runs up to him and kisses him before sputtering so many apologies I didn't think it was possible, plus she was crying. He has a confused expression on his face as she keeps stammering as many apologies as possible. Finally he gets his word in "Um.... Where were you?" he finally asks. Lily looks over her shoulder towards Lidia and gasps as she realises that she abandoned her from helping her walk. Lidia was leaning up against me weakly instead.

Finally we get down to the town square and we all go to our assigned spots, Lily stands next to me and her boyfriend in the adult section. She and her boyfriend had their year last year, so a little bit of weight was lifted off my shoulders, now I only have 3 people to worry about.

My husband comes sprinting up to us been having to go to work early, he runs his hand through his hair and scans the crowd for our children. He automatically sees the twins, their bright red hair standing out above all other, but he can't see Lidia but I can, she has slumped against one of her best friends.

Finally the escort calls out to all of Panem (practically) "Ok so for the reapings we shall have NO VOLUNTEERING!!!" she then smile and walks over to the girls' bowl. She stands there with her arms cross and a smug smile on her lips "I would pick out a girl's name but..... There was a girl eligible to go into the reapings that went wrong by the rules last night. She decided to keep her light on after lights out, she has already faced a consequence but she will get another one and she has been notified".

I breathe out a sigh of relief as she says that, for a second I thought my daughter was going in but she isn't or else she would've told us. Suddenly Lily bursts out crying and buries her face into her boyfriend's shoulder. I look at her surprised, we both know that Lidia won't go in, or is that just me? I put on my best mother's voice "Lily we both know that she isn't going in unless..." I get cut off by the escort screeching "Lidia Maige!!! Get up here Lidia Maige!!!" and Lily's loud sob and yelp.

I see Lidia trying to stand up all on her own but failing, her friends try and help her but she pushes them away not wanting them to get hurt by peacekeepers. Finally a peacekeeper hoists her up and carries her all the way up onto the stage and is still holding her as the escort asks "Ok so how old are you dearie and what would you say to people???" Lidia looks at her in disgust before answering "I am twelve years of age and I would say to anyone that is an adult 'just because of my age does not mean you treat me like I am six, I can take care of myself even if this is my first year of the hunger games'".

The escort shoos her over to her seat, where the peacekeeper places her down on the seat only to still stand next to her. Then the escort saunters over to the boys bowl before swirling her hand around and plucking out a random name and without even looking at it she yells out "Jason Melony!!!"

A boy stumbles up the steps leading to the stage, he then looks out into the crowd somewhere with a worried expression written all of over his face. The escort saunters back over to where he is standing and asks him "Hi honey... What's your name, age and if you had one thing to say to one person what would you say?" He looks at her in shock as he replies "I'm Jason Melony, 15 years of age and I would say to Katie Hall 'I love you so much and I will try and make it back for you, even if I know that I will never get out alive.' Is that it can I sit down now?"