Friday afternoon. Just one more lesson to get through, in this sweltering heat, and then home time. Normally this would be a good thing, but tomorrow was Reaping Day, so no-one was really in a mood to be laughing and joking about. I tried to listen to the teacher about Pythagorean theorem, but it was no use. Across the room, I could see Katniss Everdeen fidgeting with her pencil case and Peeta Mellark, the baker's son, was sat behind her, in a world of his own. You see Reaping Day was a day when two of our own, a boy and a girl each aged between 12 and 18, are chosen to go to the Capitol and fight in an arena to the death, with 22 others, all from the other 11 districts. This is to remind us of the parts our ancestors played in the rebellion nearly a century ago. It's the Capitol's way of telling us "See, we can take your children and make them kill each other and there's nothing you can do about it." This is called the Hunger Games, and sickeningly, we are forced to celebrate them, like a family sporting event. But only one person can emerge from the arena alive, and Reaping Day is the day when two families know there is a 99% chance they will never see their child again.
The bell rang to let us all know it was home time at last, but none of us seemed in a rush to get back.
"You ready, Solly?" I knew that voice and it's owner. I smiled and turned around.
"As ready as I'll ever be, Peep," I sighed, grabbing my bag and walking out with Peeta.
Peeta and I had been best friends ever since I could remember. We lived just a few doors down from each other, him at the bakery and me at the butchers. Our homes were above the shops - made it easier, especially on those cold winter mornings when you didn't want to get out of bed. The warmth of the ovens in the shop would draw you in. As well as selling raw meats, dad would sell hot meat to those who weren't lucky enough to own an oven. Those in the Seam were the poorest of our district and not all of them had the luxury of something simple as an oven, somewhere to cook what little food we had. As slowly as we dragged our feet, we still ended up at our destination in a reasonable amount of time.
"Well, er, I better get in before she.... I mean, before it gets too late," Peeta said, going red.
"Yeah, I better go too, dad doesn't like it when I'm too late, especially today. See you tomorrow?" I said, wishing in all the world I could give him a great big hug right about now.
"Tomorrow," he smiled, and walked off down to the bakery, leaving me outside my home, watching him go.
That night was restless. Not just because it was hot, but also because everyone in the country knew what day it was tomorrow. I woke up in a cold sweat so many times that I lost count. At about 5am, I crept into the kitchen to get a glass of water, and found my brother Jasper sat at the kitchen table. He looked as though he had had very little sleep too. Not surprising, he still had 2 more years to go before he was old enough to not worry too much about the Reaping. We stayed up chatting for a while, until the sun was up, along with the rest of the house, picking at a day-old loaf of bread from the bakery. We had some of Primrose Everdeen's goat cheese to go with it -Katniss's little sister, she was the same age as Nova, my little sister - which was delicious, but we were careful not to eat too much. It was still a luxury after all, and despite living in the Merchant area, we still had to be careful with food. The Reaping wasn't until 2pm so we still had time to lie in bed and sleep, but I don't think many of us wanted to.
When it was time to get ready, I chose one of my best dresses, a teal blue which brought out the green in my eyes, with red buttons down the front and tiny white dots all over. We always dressed up smartly for the reaping, scrubbed ourselves clean, because if we were chosen, we want to look nice for those in the Capitol. Plus it is always televised, and we wouldn't want to let our district down. As Jasper and I left the house, we saw Peeta and one of his brothers, so we raced to catch up with them. It was always better to walk with someone.
