What if the odds were in our favor?

The night before the reaping

I stare at the ceiling, my mind in a trance. It's almost 1am, and lights out in the community home is at 9:00. Everybody younger than 12 is sound asleep, snoring in the comfort that they have no risk of dying in the hunger games. The reaping is tomorrow.

Suddenly, I feel some stirring to the right side of me. I hurriedly close my eyes and try to steady myself

"I know you're not asleep. You can't fool me, Iris."Lavender says, her bright blue eyes staring right at me.

I share a bed with Lavender and Lily. We live In the community home in district 7. My mom died when I was 6 of tuberculosis and my dad followed soon after. I had no siblings and all of my relatives were dead. Soon after, I was taken into the community home since I had nowhere else to go. Lavender came to the community home a year later, her dad being taken by an accident that happened when he was cutting down trees. She told me when we first met her mom had also died in that accident, but she later revealed that her mom had killed herself following her husband's death. Lily, Oh Lily. Lily came to the community home 4 years ago when she was 4 and me and Lav practically adopted her after that. Me and lavender take turns on who has to be in the middle in the bed, as the person in the middle often gets the least space. Today it's my turn.

"Of course I'm not asleep Lav. Tomorrow is the reaping. You know I took out tessare" I gulp, and lavender looks at me with understanding eyes.

Me and Lav have a few understandings on how to survive. And how to protect Lily. The first one, is that since the community homr barely gives out ANY food. We get oatmeal and cornbread. In order to feed the 3 of us, lavender hunts and I take out tessare. We all have to take out one tessare to use for the group homes kitchen, and you are allowed to take out any more tessare to feed yourself. I take out tessare for me, lavender and lily, inaction to the one I have to take out for the group home, and since tessarae is commutative, I have my name in the bowl 20 times. Lavender hunts, which is equally dangerous, perhaps even more as she could always get caught by a peacekeeper and that would be a guaranteed execution. The peacekeepers aren't so lenient after the second rebellion.

The rebellion was extinguished by the capitol, and district 13 was obliterated. For real this time. Everybody that lived in district 13 was executed, all of the surviving victors were too, besides a pregnant Annie Cresta to show how "merciful" the capitol is. In order to get people in district 12 again as literally everyone there was dead, as a result of the 12 bombing or the13 obliteration, families from other districts were randomly assigned to go live there, reaching a population of only 3,000. I feel bad for all the kids in 12, the upcoming reaping has such high stakes for them

"i know. If you get reaped and die, it'll be all my fault." Lavender looks at me with tears in her eyes.

"It's not. Lav. Its none of our fault. Here me. Nobody besides Snow. Nobody besides Snow." I attempt to reassure her.

me and Lavender go on in our conversation for another half hour, Intill Lily does her adorable snort that she always does when she's about to wake, and me and lavender turn silent to make sure she gets a good nights rest. She's only 8, and our goal is to make sure she has as good of a life as we can get her.

I stare up at the ceiling, specifically at the ceiling tile that is broken, the harsh winters of District 7 being able to be felt but all the children in the community home.

On the right side of me, there is Lily. She is sleeping soundly, cuddling with my arm like I am her own personal teddy bear. Her caramel brown hair sprawled out across her pillow. I gently push a loose strand of hair behind her ear. On the other side of me, Lavender has finally fallen victim to tiredness. Lavender has bright blue eyes and jet black hair, her face is dotted with freckles. She is gorgeous. I have blond hair and brown eyes and a huge forehead and an off center nose and instead of freckles my face has pimples. So, I'm not the prettiest, but it's not the top thing on my mind. Lily has big brown eyes and caramel brown hair. Eventually, around 2:30 am I drift off, thoughts of the upcoming reaping swirling through my head.