The Hunger Games: Separated

Chapter 1- The Dream

Ivy, Rue and I are at the reaping, waiting in the almost unbearable silence. Gripping each others hands, and trying not to tremble uncontrollably with fear. Waiting for our ridiculously dressed Capitol escort Sunshine to announce the unlucky female, who will be forced to fight to the death in an area filled with 23 other tributes out to kill her. Ivy's face has drained of all colour at the thought, mine probably has too. Sunshine's hand finally reaches into the clear glass reaping ball filled with all the names of the 12-18 year olds here in District 11. She plucks out one of the tiny, insignificant slips of paper from the very top. "Ivy Walker!" She calls, ceasing the unbearable silence.

I wake up with a start and quickly realise I'm not at the reaping yet, and that my identical twin sister Ivy is sleeping soundly beside me on our double mattress on the floor, safe and sound. A wave of relief soothes my body, but there is no way I can go back to sleep now. I decide to go for a walk in the soft golden glow of sunlight that is now beginning to streak the sky as the sun rises. I sit up in bed and attempt to slip silently out, but Ivy's eyes immediately flutter open. She gives me a hug and whispers: "Lets go find Rue at the meadow before everyone wakes up." I nod in reply and we silently slip out the door. Avoiding waking the rest of our still sleeping family.

We begin to walk up the dry gravel path that leads to the meadow, when suddenly we hear the crunching sound of someone running behind us. I whip around prepared to sprint in the other direction away from whoever it is, when I see that it's just Rue our 11 year old best friend. "Calm down Lily, a peacekeeper wouldn't run to catch up to you would they?" Rue reassures me, seeing the fear in my chocolate brown eyes.

"No, probably not." I agree looking at the ground in embarrassment.

We are all so alike in appearance that Rue could easily be mistaken for our sister. We all share the same chocolate brown eyes, dark eyes and frizzy hair. "We better get down to the fields to gather some food now that we've found you." Ivy stated, with the glint of fear in her eyes not unlike mine. "Yeah." Rue agreed, obviously thinking of both of our younger siblings that needed feeding.

After that the walk to the fields continued in silence until we arrived. Gathering as much food as we could without the peacekeepers noticing, we continued until we could take no more. Suddenly Rue pulled three different coloured woven necklaces with carved wooden pendants, out from underneath her tattered t-shirt. "They're to protect us at the reaping this afternoon, my mum made them." "She explained, handing us one each. "Even though you two are only 12 and I'm not even old enough to be chosen yet."

"Thank you Rue." I whispered, taking the purple one meant for me, scared that one of us would be chosen later. "Lily we won't be chosen, we are only 12, and Rue's only 11." Ivy said softly "We don't need to worry, our names are only in there three times each. "But what if one of us is chosen though, what will we do?" I asked fearfully.

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it." Rue reassured me. "Besides we each have a good knowledge of eatable plants, so we wouldn't starve in the arena even if one of us were chosen."

"Rue is right Lily, it'll be okay." Ivy added softly.

"Well I guess we'd better be getting back." I stated realising that the sun was fully up. "We don't want to get caught do we?"

"No, you're right we have our families to feed."

"Lets get going then."

We arrived back at the tiny hut our family calls home and said goodbye to Rue. "See you at the reaping." We chorused, our voices shaking at the thought of it.

"It'll be fine." Rue reassures us hugging us in turn. "I'll see you then." We enter our house to find our whole family up and waiting. "Mum we got some food!" I said cheerfully.

"Great!" She replied smiling, as she cleared a space on our cluttered old wooden table.

It doesn't last long with our whole family of six eating hungrily. Once everything is gone, I take my littlest sister Millie by the hand and help her get dressed. Realising what I am doing, Ivy takes our other little sister Abbie and copies. Abbie and Millie are twins as well, identical just like us but only 3 years old, so they don't understand that one of us might not be coming home after today. I glance out of the window at the sun and realise that Ivy and I should probably get dressed in our reaping outfits. Reading my mind, Ivy pulls out two identical pale blue dresses, the only items of clothing we own that are half decent, and hands one to me. I take off the threadbare clothes I was wearing, and pull the dress over my head. Afterwards we walk out into the only other room in the house to find our mother waiting.

"Don't you two look beautiful!" She says, putting on a smile and trying to hide her worry. "I got you some new shoes to match."

"Thanks Mum, they would have cost a fortune!" We gasp staring at the two pairs of beautiful silver sandals meant for us.

"No problem." She says holding back tears. "Here, put them on." We put them on, and glance at our reflections in the cracked mirror that stands by the door. "Now for our hair." Ivy whispers taking out our hairbrush. Ivy starts by gently pulling my hair up into a ponytail, and I do the same to hers.

"There, now we're ready. I say, my voice shaking.

"Okay, then let's go." Dad says.