District Nine and three quarters

Reaping Day

The rest of the week was spent making sure everyone in the district knew what they were doing on the day of the reaping and visiting Arnold, Louien, Comley and Gregory at Muffie’s. All of them were making a good recovery although Louien wasn’t doing as well as the others. I woke up on the day of the reaping with butterflies in my tummy. I realized that I’d been so busy during the past week preparing the district that I hadn’t prepared myself. I climbed out of bed and though open the cupboard in the corner of my room. There weren’t many cloths inside, I don’t own many cloths, nobody in the district does. Next to my Hogwarts robes hung my old peace force uniform. I took out my green jumper and trousers and popped them on. My tummy rumbled and I groaned. I walked out of my bed room and down the stairs. Rio sat at the kitchen table eating toast when I walked in,

“Are you OK?” He asked me, offering me a slice. I nodded,

“I think so, you?” Rio shuck his head, he was being more honest than me,

“Not really but I’ll be fine, it’ll be over soon,” he said,

“Unless we get chosen for the hunger games,” we both thought but neither of us said it. I took a bite of the toast but I’d suddenly lost my appetite. After breakfast we headed down to the justice building with Mum, there were lots of peace keepers swarming all over the place, they were peace keepers taking DNA on our way down to the crowd. I quickly hugged Rio and went to stand with the sixteen year old girls, next to Riza. I looked at Riza in her uniform she was staring straight ahead, scared. Everyone apart from those from capitol was wearing the uniform I could see Arnold standing in the crowd that had gathered to watch, he didn’t look too well but I’d seen him look worse. Suddenly everybody seemed to go quiet. A lady from the capitol stepped out in front of the crowd she had puffy, lime green hair with dark green strips in and she was wearing a matching dress,

“Happy Hunger Games!” she cried, “And my the odds be ever in your favour!” I looked nervously at Riza,

“Good luck,” I mouthed. The lady stood next to two bowls full of pieces of paper, one was full of all of the boys names and one was full of girls names,

“I am Quil Manet, the capitol repersentive for your district now lets get on with the reaping, lets do the boys first,” she said, she reached out to the bowl closest to her and dipped her hand in. She picked up the first piece of paper that her hand touched, she unfolded it and read the name on it,

“Rio Martins!” she cried. Riza silently took hold of my hand. The crowd slowly parted around my brother who just stood there frozen, “Rio Martins,” Quil cried again. Rio slowly began to walk towards the front of the crowd, “Now, it is a tradition to ask if anybody volunteers to take Rio’s place so does anybody volunteer?”

“Me!” I cried, I wormed my way out of Riza grip, “Me, I volunteer!” I pushed my way through the crowd to the front,

“You’re a girl,” Quil said bluntly,

“Well noticed,”

“Now, I know that you’re new to all of this but a female cannot volunteer for a male,”

“Why not?” I asked, “you’ll still get two tributes,” Quil shut her eyes,

“Fine, you can volunteer for him,” she turned to Rio, “You can go. Now what’s your name?” she said to me,

“Yazzie Martins,” I said,

“That was your brother then?” I nodded. Everyone was quiet for second,

“Lets do the girls then!” Quil plunged her hand into the other bowl, this time she rummaged around in the bottom of the bowl. She finally picked out a piece of paper and read out, “Elethia Williams,” The crowd parted again to reveal a tall seventeen year old girl with slim hips and long, golden hair.

“I volunteer!” Somebody cried before Quil could even ask, I rather chubby, fifteen year old boy stepped forward. Andrew Marconi. Andrew’s a squib so he doesn’t go to Hogwarts because of this lots of the people in the district take the micky out of him, the only thing he really likes is his brother who is dating Elethia William. Andrew reached the front,

“There,” I snapped at Quil, “You have a boy and a girl tribute now,” Quil sighed

“What’s your name?” she asked,

“Andrew Marconi,”

“Ok, a round of applause for our tributes, Yazzie Martins and Andrew Marconi!” the crowd began to clap as Andrew and I were ushered off stage.