The 66th Hunger Games

The Core

The cotton dress floated gently onto Mollier's shoulders, yet they sagged under the weight of the terror that was woven into the fabric. It was a beige floaty thing, buttoned at the chest and tied at the waist. Her dark hair was pinned away from her face and a sprig of white flowers  known as baby breath was stucked into the pinned section, just behind her left ear. Her legs were visible from below the knee where a pair of beige cotton slip ons were pinching her toes. The dress had two pockets in which the teen had placed the plaited lock of her mothers aurbun hair. It was one of a few keepsakes that Mollier had of her mothers. The other, a crystal stone that her mother would often roll in her fingers at times of stress or contemplation, lay nestled in a little knotted bag of twine that hung from further length around Mollier's neck. She tucked it into the dress. Her father Ohmran had already been in the kitchen preparing their breakfasts with not much to say to either sibling, the usual distant silence that took him over on the reaping day drowned them all in the house. As Mollier brought the mirror from her room and back into the little corridor where it usually sat until needed, she eyed him busying himself but placing the sandwhiches into three small tote bags that they usually took to their respective power plants.

Taking slow, quiet steps, the teen made it to the doorway of the kitchen just her her father picked up his bag and brushed down his shirt as usual, turning to leave for work. He started at her sudden appearance and took in the sight of her in her reaping day attire before looking to the floor, brown knotting as if she had intentionally worn it to harm him.
"I will see you after work." He said without looking at her. Mollier tried not to show the twang of pain that pulled at her heartstrings that he wasn't going to lookat her. 
"Dad I-" She started but he shook his head.
"I will see you after work." He said again, moving forwards to pass her, his hand clutching her forearm. She twisted to let him pass and turned to see Fission walk into the main room where Ohmran was stepping into his shoes.
"You not going to give her a hug dad?" He asked bluntly. Ohmran froze for a moment before continuing to push his feet in his shoes, a little faster than before, mumbling quietly to himself.
"Huh?" Fission pressed. Mollier felt her cheeks burn and her eyes prickling as they too found their way to the floor.
"I'll see you after work. I'm going to be late." And witht hat, Mollier's father left the house, unable to look back at either of them. Fission looked to his sister and shrugged.
"He's only doing that because he knows you won't be picked." there he went again, saying things he couldn't possibly know with so muhc confidence, that hope Mollier had let herself bathe in the night before bubbled away in her stomach. She lifted her gaze to him and smile softly, nodding. 
"Right let's get going."

One of those same buses that brought them to their repective jobs sat at the meeting point of the various village paths. There was a small gethering already when Mollier and Fission joined Valvine who was dresses in a pale blue skirt and cardigan with a white shirt underneath, her mousey hair that usually hung straight and brushed her shoulders was pulled back in a tight bun, only a few strands framed either side of her face. Hiding at the Valvines side was Piper, her little sister. Her young face was pale with nerves, making the tan of her arms from playing in the summer heat look a little abnormal. She had been put in the same flowery sundress that Valvine had worn her first couple of years at the reaping. Unlike her long legged sister, Piper was swamped in the garment, it's hem brushing against the ground. Her hair was lighter than Valvines and was draped over her shoulders in soft waves that reminded Mollier of the way long grass curved at her touch when she walked the fields in the breif summer breaks. They greeted one another Mollier made sure to compliment young Piper quickly, trying to ease her panic. 
"She's right Pip, you look very grown up." Fission added, able again to make a lie sound scompletely convincing. But as Mollier took in what he said, she thought Piper had never looked younger. The dress made her look like an infant in her mothers heels. It was a pretty dress but it looked almost grotesque on someone so innocent.