Rising Tide

ONE

It is reaping day. That is the first thought to grace my mind in the morning. The second is how many times my name is entered into to the pool of potential tributes. Thirty-six. That is twenty-six more times than the average sixteen year old from district four. Technically, I will be seventeen in a month, but, because the games fall on a date halfway through the year, I will be grouped with the girls who are either in the same predicament as me or the ones who are actually sixteen.

According to that reasoning, claiming me to be sixteen instead of seventeen, my name should have only been written ten times, however, because it was a rough year with a lag in the fisheries and exponential shipping of sea food to the Capitol, my father was paid less than expected. In District Four, you and your family are allotted a cerain amount of food per month, and, if need be, you can choose to buy more or trade with the Capitol. To trade you must give up your name more times. Into the games, I mean; the only raffle you do not wish to win. The only raffle where the prize is not a trophy but rather something much more sinister.

The only raffle where the prize is death.

My family had not wanted me to do it, but watching my little brother eat less than a bowl of rice a night was torture. In the end I had done it. I had sold my soul so my brother could keep his.

*****

"Spike, buddy, it's time to wake up," I shake my little brother awake, smoothing his brilliant blond hair down in the process. I study his features in the morning light. He looks uncannily similar to me. His abnormally pale skin is just a tinge more tanned than my own and I know that when he opens his eyes, striking gray orbs will shine back into mine. Sometimes looking him in the eyes is strange. It is almost as if I am staring into a mirror. A mirror that makes me twelve years younger and miraculously transforms me into a boy.

Okay so it is not exactly like a mirror.

"Ari I'm tired," Spike whines from his blankets. My heart squeezes at his words and I immediately wish he could sleep a couple more hours, however I had already put off waking him until the very last second. Spike is a very troubled sleeper. Some nights he does not drift off until the early hours of the morning. On those nights I tuck him into my own bed and count stars with him through the window until he dozes off. I can never bear to sleep when my little buddy cannot.

"I know buddy, I know," I coo to him, pulling him into my arms, "but it is a big day and we need to get ready." I carry him to the small washbasin I had previously filled with warm soapy water and help him get situated.

"Spike I have a surprise for you," his eyes light up at my words. I pull the strawberry scented soap from behind my back and watch as a smile breaks out on his face. I had traded a woman at the docks for this, handing over one of the seashell necklaces I had fashioned in my spare time. I usually do not spare my shells but this was worth it. I normally wash Spike with the regular sea soap from the market but it is a special day. Who knows if if I will see Spike after today.

No, Arista, do not think like that.

"Strawberry, strawberry," Spike babbles from the basin. I smile at him and he grins back, unaware that the soap is a symbol of my fear. That I may never see him again. All he knows, and all I will ever want him to know, is that he loves strawberries. Well the scent of them. We have never actually seen one. I never want him to be stripped of his innocence.

Because of the Capitol, I mean. The strawberries I am not so worried about.

I let him enjoy the fading warmth of the water for a couple minutes after I finish washing him. He plays with the leftover bubbles, giggling occasionally as they pop. I remember when I was a child. I used to sit in the bath, just as Spike is now, and pop bubbles. Mine had smelled like blueberries, another self proclaimed sweet smell. My mother had always let me play until the water turned cold. She would then wrap me in a blanket and tell me stories until I was dry. I, now, do the same for my brother but I wish she could be the one to cradle her little boy.