Rue's Games

Chapter 19: Reaping

The four of them left soon. I was sad to see Prim go, I had liked her, the others I didn’t mind them leaving.

The reaping was the next week.

My mother dresses me in the same clothes I wore to the reaping last year. Seems like a bad omen to me, since I was reaped last time. I don’t say this, though.

I needn’t have worried. The escort pulls the slip of paper from the bowl, and Seeder’s name is chosen. Chaff is chosen out of the male victors. He was Thresh’s mentor last year. Both our mentors were reaped: is this a coincidence?

I feel guiltily triumphant. I am sad that Seeder is going back, she’s probably too old to survive, but it feels sort of “I-told-you-so” towards Haymitch.

I go to see her before she is carted off to the Capitol.

“See you later,” she says.

At first I think she means that she hopes to win, then I think she means that we’ll see each other in the afterlife or something. As I walk out the door, it occurs to me that maybe she means that she’ll see me in the Games. But that’s silly, because I’m not going.

At home, we all gather in the living room to watch the reaping from other Districts. I have not watched many Hunger Games, so I do not recognize very many of the tributes. I recognize Finnick Odair from District 4. He is the heart throb of the Capitol, so even though I was only a few years old when he became a victor I have seen him many times since then. I also recognize Johanna Mason. She is the one that Seeder showed me lots of footage of last year: she wanted me to try to copy Johanna’s strategy of acting weak. She realised this wouldn’t work, but it was still worth keeping in mind. She told me that my only hope was to ally. I wasn’t going to at first, but then I realised that Katniss was really nice. I’d tried to forget that it could come to down to just the two of us at one point, but in the end it didn’t matter.

I am offered a seat, but I choose to sit on a cushion on the floor. All my brothers and sisters are squished together on the large sofa, and each of my parents sits on a chair. My grandparents sit together on the smaller sofa, right behind me.

Our house is big enough for all of us, which we all love. We even have spare rooms here; we use them officially as “guest rooms”. What we really use them for is to take in sick or hungry people, give them a place to stay for a few days where they have a chance to get better. We don’t advertise this, as there are far too many hungry people in our District to take care of; we would run out of space, and probably get into trouble with the Capitol.

We watch through all the Districts, and by around District 5 my siblings get bored. A couple of them sit on the floor with me playing Snakes and Ladders. I am not really watching the game, I roll the dice when they put it in my hand and move my counter, but really I am focusing on the television. Each time someone wins, we start the game again to keep them occupied.

It reminds me of the Capitol; showing them the Games each year to keep them busy and not bored.

When we get to District 11, all the family goes quietly to watch. We see me and the other victors in the roped off area on our own. We all look reasonably calm. I find this surprising, considering I was a bag of nerves at the time, wondering what Cinna and the rest might do.

Seeder looks lovely. I don’t even know how she managed to smile that genuinely when her name was reaped.

My parents are about to turn off the television and start making dinner, but I ask if we can watch the District 12 reaping too. I’m intrigued to see what they are going to do, as only Haymitch is going to go. Will they reap another non-victor? I sense of dread flows over me for a second and I am not even sure why.

For some reason, they put Haymitch’s name in the bowl anyway. The District 12 escort, Effie Trinket, pulls his name from the bowl. Obviously.

An interviewer is at hand, how odd. They aren’t normally interviewed until they meet Caesar.

“You don’t have a District partner, as there are no other District 12 victors,” he says.

Haymitch snorts. As if he didn’t knowthat.

“President Snow has a solution to this,” the interviewer continues.

“Ah, yes,” says Haymitch.

“You have been given choice between any of the female victors to accompany you to the Games. Which will you choose?”

No!

I leap up.

“What’s wrong, Rue?” my mother asks.

“Hmm,” Haymitch pretends to think. I bet he knew about this beforehand.

I can’t believe this is happening.

“How about last year’s young victor, Rue?”