The Capitols Child | The Hunger Games

Rotten Wood

I was in charge of breakfast that morning. I made toast and jam for everyone, extra jam for Solon, who I wasn't sure if I would continue to see or not.

Today was all of our first reaping day. Well, first actual, in person, reaping day. So far it was much different than how our reaping days went in the Capitol. We used to sit around our television with excited faces, eager to see who would be competing in the years game.

This year? We are all terrified. Solon is 14, but only has his name in one time because we were not citizens of the district the last two years. Lucky on his part, but it still made all of us nervous.

I think our mom was the most nervous. She didn't speak a word all morning. The most we got from her were sudden glances over at Solon; she would stare at him for a few seconds before turning back around to finish completing whatever task she had going on.

She did, however, help him get dressed up.

"Here." She said, handing Solon a rectangle shape wrapped in tissue paper.

He took it from her and slowly opened it, revealing a light blue and white plaid button up shirt.

"It's for today." She said, slightly nodding and smiling as she tried to hide her, very obvious, tears.

Solon thanked her, and then she reached for two others and handed them to Emeline and myself.

One of the weirdest parts about moving to the districts is that our clothes did not match everyone elses. While Lavinia, her family, and everyone else I have come in contact with during my time here had more battered, neutral colored clothing, we wore more colorful clothing in the Capitol. Colorful, but not over the top. 

Clothing in the Capitol was clean, and matched with every other item of clothing we owned. Fashion isn't much different, just the clothes. Slowly they are becoming more and more colorful, but I guess I and my family will never get to experience those further changes in clothing.

Upon ripping off the tissue paper, I noticed a shirt that looked similar to Solon's. except mine was plain white, with no plaid on it.

On a typical day, I could've looked over at Emeline and seen her already standing up, holding the new, floral printed, dress in front of her as she twirls in a circle. Today she wasn't doing that, just staring at it. 

I don't think any of us knew what to do. My mind was stuck on the reaping, how it would work, what would happen, who would get reaped, where they would go, and what all district 5 does after the reaping.

It was all too much for my 8 year old brain to even try to understand, but I did my best.

It was silence until Solon's cracky voice spoke up, "I'm meeting Blake by the library before the reaping. So I won't have to worry about not knowing where to go."

Our mom smiled back at him, bringing her hand up to her necklace that our dad got for her when we still lived with him in the Capitol, fidgeting with the charm as she choked out a response, "Thats good, sweetheart."

Our long breakfast was interrupted by the warning alarm, motivating us all to take a few more bites of food and then head upstairs to change and get ready.

Solon finished changing before I did. He waited until I had my shirt on to put his hand on my shoulder and turn me around.

"Gavin," he said, his lip twitching from the sadness I knew he was feeling, "If anything happens to me, I love you. I don't say it as often as I should and I'm sorry." When he finished speaking, tears began to stream down his face and he wrapped my small body in a hug.

"I love you too, Solon." I say, wrapping my arms around him the best I could. We may only have a 6 year age gap, but my 8 year old body was much much smaller than his 14 year old body. I've always been small for my age, but it really comes in handy when you need it to.