Indy's Games | Hunger Games Fanfic

Peace before the Reaping

It's hot. So hot! This time of year is the worst, with the hot sun blazing down on your bare skin and the heat burning through your straw hat summer is the most difficult time to focus. All I can think is 'How am I not burning alive?' My older sisters two lines beside me are usually good about the heat, and it doesn't bother them nearly as much as it does me, but even they are struggling. Even they look like they are very ready for the work day to be done. Then I see it, the thing I've been praying to see all day, the flag. The flag that symbolises that I'm done. The flag that symbolises that we can go home.
I walk down and dump the contents of my basket in the pile of wheat, I then stand behind both my sisters in the line. Once at the front, two peacekeepers pat me down and I'm free to go home. Fern is standing, waiting for me so we can walk home together.
"I'm guessing that Sable isn't coming home with us?" I ask.
"No, Reed invited her over and nobody can refuse to have dinner with the bakers," replies Fern kind of enviously.
"Just imagine it, not having to work out in the fields, always having food on the table, and not having to take tesserae," I imagine. It would really be blissful, not to be worried about the reaping as it's so unlikely you'll get chosen with all the children in the village taking scores of tesserae just for their families survival.
"It would be nice! Do you think we should pop in to check on little Rue? Posey says she's been sick and hasn't been at school recently. Maybe we should ask her mother if there is anything we can do to help out?" asks Fern.
"Yes, let's check on her. She's a sweet kid and I know her mother would appreciate anything," I reply.
The walk through to the village is a long one. With the amount of people living here in eleven the amount of houses are crazy. When walking home from work and trying to be fast so we can make it home for dinner it's annoying but when you look at your chances to be chosen for the Games each year with this many people and so many of us taking tesserae it's comforting. It's so unlikely that you'll get chosen, because only two unlucky people get chosen each year.
"I hate the Games!" I blurt out. I didn't mean to say it, especially with so many peacekeepers around though I don't care. Nobody heard but Fern who gives me a puzzled look.
"Why all of a sudden? You've been in the reaping bowl for two years tomorrow your third, your best friend was reaped last year and died but all of a sudden you only hate the games now?" Fern replies angrily.
"I should rephrase that. I hate the games more. More than ever. I hate that Rowan had to die for people in the Capitol's entertainment. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it," I say. This time the anger is in my voice.
"Indy, how many times is your name in the bowl tomorrow?" asks Fern.
"Eighteen. What about you?" I reply.
"Twenty-six. You know, Meadow has her name in there fifty-seven times. I think we'll be okay!" Fern says. I know she's trying to comfort me and it does work. Due to the poverty here, having your name in a lot of times isn't unusual.
Our parents have tried their best to make sure the youngest kids have their names in the bowl the least times possible, therefore they are the least likely to get chosen for the games. My oldest sister Sable is three years older then Fern, so she took the tesserae for four years until it was Fern's second year of the reaping and she was thirteen. Then from the age of thirteen to fifteen she took the tesserae and now since last year I've taken it. This year is our younger brother Rory's first year in the reaping so he only has his name in there once. Then next year twice, then the year after that he'll take the tesserae so it'll be ten times. Because of my two years of tesserae on-top of the four times that it has to be in there I've managed to get in the bowl eighteen times. Though most families in the village aren't as smart as our parents and have all the tesserae on their oldest child which is what happens with Meadow's family.
The rest of the walk home we're quiet both of us have ran out of things to say. Before going into our little house we knock on the door next door and greet Rue's mum. She smiles at us and welcomes us in.
"It's been rough with Rue ill as I haven't been able to go to work. But she's feeling better now and I should be able to go back tomorrow," she tells us. I look at Rue, she's sat on the floor playing with her mother's straw hat. How peaceful it must be to be four years old, how I wish I could go back to when I was her age.
I play with Rue and her siblings for a bit before heading home. Mother's set out dinner for us, not a fancy affair but exactly what we are used to. On the table there is seven plates set out each have a slice of bread, apart from two where the bread is sliced in half and shared between the two plates, as well as an apple sliced up into six sections. Fern runs over to the table and puts the contents of one of the plates onto hers. "Sable isn't coming for dinner tonight as she's with Reed. I call dibs on her food," she claims. I can't be bothered to fight her for it, but I don't have to as our mother comes straight to my aid.
"You can have the bread but give half the apple slices to Indy. If she's to get reaped tomorrow she'll need that bit more food more than you," my mother tells Fern. With that I find three more apple slices on my plate. Rory and Posey are sat on the other end of the table next to our dad, well Rory next to him and Posey sat on top of him. They are lucky, Posey being only four her name isn't even in the bowl and Rory's name is only in there once. Out of the thousands of children in the District most of which have their names in the bowl multiple times Rory's safe, well as safe as you can be as soon as you turn twelve.
I try to push all thoughts of the games and reaping out of my head, as even if I do get chosen worrying about it now won't help me. Once dinner is done and it's all cleared up and go into the children's bedroom. It's a small room, barely enough room for the three mattresses that lay on the floor two double and one single. I lay down on my mattress and kick off the blanket, in this heat it has no need. I don't know when Fern comes and goes to sleep but I do know that by the time she does I'm fast asleep.