it's time to fight for your life

The Reaping, Pt 1

"Kali, c'mon, it's time to get up" my mothers warm breath whispered to me and kissed me on my forehead. i slowly sat up and sighed. it was reaper day. there's me and my bigger brother Arden that have chance of being chosen in our family, but neither one of us wants that. we're in district 12, the district where katniss everdeen lived in many years ago. but her time is over, and it's even worse now after her rebellion. the laws are more strict, we're poorer and the other districts got more money.

you see, im thirteen and my brother is seventeen, and we live with my mom and my younger sister in an cheap and pretty much ruined house here in the seam, the poorest area in district 12.

-
"hey you psycho" my brother said to tease me.

"hey you hairball" I said back, though, he's not that hairy. he is rather good looking. he has short brown hair, a sharp jawline and and dark brown eyes. all the girls always fall for him until they figure out how poor we are. because that's what we're taught here, marry a rich man, support your parents and all that hoodle doodle. but well, Im not that ugly either. my tall brown hair goes down to my belly button and I have bright, grey eyes. we're both pretty pale, we got like 0 pigment.

i carefully got dressed, i chose my most prettiest dress to go with my cleanest shoes.

"hey, I know that our names are there a ton of times, but don't worry." my brother came and said to me with a low voice. he loved teasing me, but he actually cared for me. i nod for an answer and took on my shoes. arden was already fully dressed and when all of us were done we started walking to the square. when we came there a lot of peacekeepers were making sure that no one did anything reckless.

we had to leave some blood but before doing that me and arden gave mom and our little sister a hug before we split up and he went to the boys section and i to the girls. we all waited patiently until a lady came out with a disgust look on her face. her clothing and makeup looked weird, or well, for us it were weird, but in the capitol they all probably looked like that.

"I'm Cressida Flores" she said in that kinda way that made it sound like if we were all just useless people to her. i looked over at the boys side and tried to find arden, but I couldn't find him in that big crowd.

"as always, the girls first" she said and gave us girls a fake smile. we all stood there silent, so you could heard when she walked across the stage to the bowl with names. she felt around in the bowl, until she decided over one note. she picked it up, and read it silently to herself first.

"Kaliana Balker"

after that everyone looked around, trying to figure out who this girl was. i didn't need to do that. i knew who that girl was. it was me.