Becoming Adamant [#1]

Chapter 1 - The Day of The Reaping

The first thing to fill the air of silence is the noise of my brother jumping next to my bed. He always does that…every goddamn morning. It’s sad to say it, but he’s kind of the only alarm-clock I don’t throw against the wall. It still annoys the hell out of me though. It’s his way of getting to me and he’s old enough to know it too. It’s never my parents, but it’s always him. My parents know I actually would try to throw them against the wall, but I’d never do anything to my brother. He’s a little more innocent than them…for now.

I live in the saddest nation, Panem. I should probably mention that out of the 12 districts still existing in Panem, I live in the district of Lumber…that is District 7 just so you’re aware of that. The industry around her resolves around lumber, paper-production, furniture and so on. My parents keep trying to push me into one of the finer specializations in the District, and note me saying trying. I don’t care about my social status. Heck, I’m probably one of the few that might not even need one. I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say, and I could not be happier about it.

At school they call med Feisty- Mason. It has a good ring to it if I might say so myself. It’s usually because I don’t really care about what people say about me or do to me. I always answer back, and I always make people back off. Even the ones at the age of 17 or 18 back the hell away from me. I know how to handle myself and they’ve found out more than once. I usually shrug when they turn insecure. They’re scared of a teeny tiny 14 year old girl…God that really tends to make my day.

I’ve heard talk about how I would make an excellent tribute to the Games. You know the Hunger Games? Where each district has to send one boy and girl to fight to the death until one kid remains? I can’t say I’m flattered about my reputation among the kids, although I enjoy the fact that they fear me. Have I given the idea some thought? Maybe…well, who am I kidding, of course I have. I’m in the annual reaping now anyways, I have to think about it. I hear the kids talking behind my back that I would fit right into the Career-pack and for once, they’re not stupid. But then again, if that’s to ever happen, I have to get reaped. I’ve gotten away two times already, what’s to stop me from getting away the next five?

“Wake up, wake up, wake up…” My brother keeps on saying as I try to cover my ears from the floor’s squeaking sound, with a poor excuse of a pillow. I can’t ignore that sound once he’s woken me up. “Damn it, Sharp! Can’t you just leave me the hell alone?!” I let out as I bury my head underneath the pillow, but as usual, it doesn’t help. Sometimes I wonder why he does this in the mornings! I can be a very nice person if I’m allowed to sleep for however long I want to. I wouldn’t be that feisty if I did.

“Sylvia, time to get up!” I hear my mother call from the kitchen. Good lord, will this day ever end?! I turn away from the door. “Damn it…leave me alone for five more minutes, would ya?” I let out irritated before I suddenly notice I don’t have any covers over me. Damn it, mum! “You’ve had your five minutes…get dressed, we’re all four having breakfast together!” She answers firmly as she walks out of the room.

I usually don’t argue with my mother. Especially in the mornings when I’m at my crankiest mood, but so can she be so we’ve learned to just tolerate each other. She can usually tell my mood when pulling off my covers in the morning. It’s like she and my brother have this sworn alliance against me in the mornings. I can ignore my brother Sharp, but my mother really makes it hard. Especially today. It’s the reaping day…the infamous reaping day. Today someone loses the rest of their life when being sent to an Arena in the Capitol to be slaughtered…yey. I’ve been a part of that reaping for two years as mentioned. That’s why my mother’s a bit extra cranky in the mornings…especially these mornings.

I finally manage to pull myself out of bed and put some saggy pants on and head over to the kitchen. They’re all sitting there just waiting for me to get there. I don’t really get the point of this…this breakfast with all four of us. Nobody says a word and there’s hardly anything to eat. I might be Feisty-Mason at school and a smartass over there, but when it comes to this, I’ve never really managed to wrap my head around it. I guess it will be even worse when little Sharp enters the reaping in four years. By then, I’m most likely still here and my parents will have to worry even more around the reaping day.

We don’t have much to choose from on the table. We get by just about with the food and the power that we have. My father working as a lumberjack doesn’t give us much. It’s the low-like job in the District. My mother is in the paper-industry, which is slightly better, but it’s still just barely enough. You can tell why they want me into some other specialty that pays better. I on the other hand, I’m not the kind that cares. If I can manage on the pay as a lumber-jack, then that’s what I want to do. My father’s taught me how to use the axes too so I’m practically ready for it.

I finish eating and then I get up from my chair. “Where do you think you’re going, missy?” My mother asks me. I can tell she has that emotional bonding need that she has every year, but now it’s the third year and I’m honestly getting tired of it. “I’m just going to catch up with Axel before the reaping. I’ll be back in time to play dress-up for the reaping afterwards.” I let out as I grab my worn-out  coat and walk out the door.

Axel is my best friend in the District. We got to know each other through many detentions a few years back. He’s two years older than me but sometimes it doesn’t seem like it…mentally that is. We’ve had this friendship going on for years now. He’s the only one I truly ever talk to. And since we got to know each other, we have had this special hideout in the woods where we’ve practiced knives before the reaping day. Sometimes we’ve always hid out here during the Games. It’s not like our District has any tributes making it far anyways.

“Good morning, Mason.” I hear Axel say as he’s throwing knives at an old tree-stem. “It’s never a good morning, Axel. I thought you knew that by now.” I answer as I bend down and pick the knives out of the stem. “That’s right…the Sharp-clock.” He lets out slightly laughing about it. Makes me sometimes wonder why I’m friends with that guy in the first place. He has no sympathy. “It tends to go off right in my prime-time: my sleep. If he could just annoy me any other time of day than the mornings, I’d be a lot happier.” I say as I throw the knives on the tree-stem. Axel just smiles as he shakes his head. He’s 16 years old so he’s a lot like that dreamy boy…muscular, good-looking, blue heavenly eyes…hold on! I’m talking about my best friend here and I’m sounding like the desperate girls back at school. Yuck!

“What do you think about this reaping then?” He asks me as he throws a few knives. I stand next to him just watching, but also thinking through the question he just asked me. “I don’t usually think about the reaping…I mean I know my parents do, but that’s not exactly news. I think I’ll be thinking even more about it when my brother enters the reaping in four years.” I let out as I pick up the knives once more. He looks over at me as I throw the knives. “I wish I was your age…I’d take his place if he was reaped in his first year.” Axel then lets out. I look over at him, not surprised, just taken aback. We’ve never talked about that. He used to have a sister my age, and I know I would go in her place, but here, Axel can’t. He’s too old by that time. “Yeah, I know you would…” I let out slightly smiling at the thought of it.

He smiles back at me before he goes to pick up the knives. He then looks up in the sky. The sun is almost in the middle of the sky. Axel has his way of telling time like this, but I’ve never figured it out…and he won’t tell me either. “We better get going. It’s less than two hours until the reaping.” He then says. “We better go and make ourselves look pretty.” He says as he hides away the knives. “Hah!” I mutter as we start walking. “Looking pretty…you know I’m the only girl in that crowd that doesn’t wear a dress?” I admit to him. I just simply see him nod at first. “I do know…everybody talks about that in every reaping before the reaping actually starts.” Axel lets out. “It’s who you are…people are scared of that.” He then adds right afterwards.

I smile a little to myself. I remember back to my first reaping when my mother tried to force me into a ‘pretty-dress’. God I remember the argument, but I won it and she never tried to put me in one ever again. “My mother gave up on the dress-thing after the first year…if I’m wearing one I won’t be Feisty-Mason, I’ll just be Mason…I’ll look like the rest of them, you know? Like the rest of the girls?” I then say, trying to gain his support but instead I hear him chuckle. “Well, you do know that you are a girl, right? Like the rest of ‘them’?” We stop by my house as it’s the closest one to the woods. We have a friendly hug before we separate. “Okay, I’ll see you afterwards?” He then asks. “You bet.”

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I would love some feedback on this angle of writing! I've never posted writing this personal angle before, but I've also done it on purpose considering we get to know John Wintergreen so well in the other stories and that I mainly focus around his thoughts. I thought I'd write this one slightly different so that you would get to know Sylvia Mason ever better :)