The Last One Standing [Hunger Games Fanfic]

Untouchable

i felt my mom rip the covers off of my limp sleeping body. the cold air crashed against my exposed skin as i opened my eyes, squinting at the bright light flooding the cramped bedroom.

"Rise and shine honey" she yelled at me in a singsong voice. i grumbled as i rolled flat on my stomach, i tried to steal a few more minutes of sleep but my mom was not having it. she grabbed my ankles and started to pull me off of the bed. i twisted back onto my back and let out an annoyed sigh

"ok ok geez I'll get up!" amused, my mom shook her head "your clothes for the reaping are on the chair, get ready quickly we need to leave soon" i stared at her in disbelief as she left the room. the reaping?! how could I forget the reping was today!

In a rush i slid out of my torn pyjamas and stuffed myself into the old and outdated blue dress that my mom had layed out for me. i tied my hair into a bun as i ran down the creaking stairs, into the kitchen where my parents were talking in hushed voices.

when i bursted into the room i was too busy to notice they had stopped talking as they looked at me concerned. my mom swiftly turned away from us. my dad set the paper onto the crumbling table as he got up to hug me

"my sweet Cherry, you're looking beautiful today" i knew something was up "what's the matter dad? you look weird" he awkwadly looked away towards where my mom as to ask for desperate help "nothing to worry about honey, we're just worried about how many times you added your name in."

ah yes these things, the tesserae, in district 10 we were all very poor, so i did what any kid from a poor family does; i took the opportunity to get more bags of food in exchange of my name being added once more into the reaping bowl.

"dad don't worry dont think about that" i put on a reassuring smile and hugged my dad tightly, sincd i was 16 my name was already in 4 times, plus the 10 tesserae of 2 that i took that added up to a grand total of 28 slips with my name on.

i shivered at the thought but brushed it away.

i have no idea how my parents would survive if i was gone. i brushed away these omnious thoughts and tried my best to be my normal unbothered and cold self but an uneasy feeling dawned on me.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

as we made our way to the center square the feeling of uneasyness did not vanish.

the crowd was pushing and i had no choice but to go in the same direction. people were looking for their friends and people they knew, i had no one, no friends, no social life, no nothing to count on except for my parents. don't get me wrong i love my parents so much, i would kill for them, but i wanted a friend, someone to cry to, someone to count on.

to explain the non existence of my social life you could blame my family, my whole life my parents kept me in, homeschooled me, nursed me, i only went out to get groceries.

i knew no kids my age in the district, i was the odd one out, that weirdo kid who has no friends. nobody would care if i was reaped for the games. i was kinda mad towards my parents for keeping me in, but all the hate was cancelled by my unconditional love for them, as always.

when i separated from my parents a wave  of panic rose in my chest. the years before i never cared of the reaping, a sort of veil protected me from the reality of the Hunger Games,

i thought i was untouchable.

but now, at the top of my 16 miserable years of life i finally understood the full extent of the games. most likely loosing your life in a bloody fight to the death. i really didn't care for my life, as previously stated the only thing that held me back were my parents.

but as the clock approched noon the reality hit me;

I'm not untouchable, i can get reaped, i can die, but most importantly, my parents can die.

Ok so sorry for the short chapter but yay we got chapter number 1!!

Ugh the suspense is killing me is Cherry going to be reaped?!

Anyways I'll update soon so stay tuned!