.[Ocean Eyes]. Cato Hadley x Oc

.[The Reaping].

Rain thundered against the ground outside, it's sharp pellets causing splashes in the small puddles that littered the muddy streets.

Dark puffy clouds scattered the horizon as dawn was on it's way, birds and their songs echoing across district 4 like any other morning, except..

This one wasn't so normal.

It was the day of the reaping, the day two kids from each district would be picked out to fight to the death in those bloody games, the day kids would die for no good reason...the day the victor would loose their sanity.

She had always dreaded this day, since the time she had turned the raw age of 12.

Cordelia was now 16, she was hoping since she still hadn't got picked she would be lucky enough to make it past the age of 18 and never have to worry about being pulled into those dreadful games, she was lucky among any other teens.

Her mother had died during giving birth to her and her father had disappeared when she was only 4, probably dead by now, but she didn't have many memories of him anyway so she hardly felt sad at the thought of them both. She had no siblings she had to provide for and hardly any friends in school, either people were envious of her or just didn't acknowledge her presence with even a twitch of their eye.

With no one but herself she didn't enter the tesserae much unless she was desperate for food, but that had only happened the year she turned 13, the ocean had got polluted with trash and oil so the fish had moved away for the entire year until it was clean. District 4 was starving and now and then she would come across people bickering and throwing fists over a small piece of meat that was moldy on the ground.

But since then she had learned how to use a spear for catching the slippery fish that swam through the shallow ends of the waters, but the thought of using her spear against a human...she felt sick at the image.

She was sprawled on her bed, staring blankly at the dusty ceiling, lost in thought. Usually you could hear the town people getting up and out of their small homes to head for the ocean, breath in that salty cool air and get to work.

Not today though. The streets were empty and a dust bunny seemed to run across the dusty ground as though running from responsibilities. Might as well sleep in since the reaping starts at 2.

Cordelia managed to heave a sigh and roll out of her bed, not that it was much comfortable, but she didn't have a choice. Setting her feet down on the wood floors, they creaked every step she took towards the kitchen.

The kitchen was small and ragged, curtains torn and the stove burnt. The house was so small it only had three rooms, but she managed just like everybody else. Opening a random cabinet out of pure curiosity, she was met with crumbs and one single apple that looked rotten and old...when the hell did that get there?

Shaking her head in defeat, Cordelia decided to head out to the ocean and fish, breath in the salty air and enjoy the freedom of the ocean at her doorstep. Grabbing her hairbrush from the nightstand, Cordelia shook the hair from it and combed it through her jet-black hair with quick and long strokes.

Pushing some hair behind her ears from tickling her nose, Cordelia changed into her regular clothes. Some black sweatpants with a baggy white T-shirt and dirty brown shoes, she hadn't enough money to buy any fancy clothes, either way, if she had a chance to earn money you always bought food from the local market down the street.

Stiffling a sneeze as a cloud of dust tickled her nose, she stood up, grabbing a bag laced with rope that she usually carried the fish in.
Using her other free hand to grab her spear she carved out of a stick that leaned against the wall next to the door, luckily the peacekeepers here didn't give a shit because they knew this was the only way to fish, or at least the most common way.