The night it started was the most terrifying night of my life. Kaeso came home, beaten and bruised from the other boys at school. He tried to hide it, of course, his shaggy red hair covering his black eye, his sleeves pulled over his arms. But I'm his sister, I always know when something is wrong, so I stormed out the door to find them.
"Viria! Wait!" he called after me. I remember it all so clearly, him reaching for my jacket but not quite reaching me in time. He followed me to where they took him, and they all sat there, laughing about what happened with Kaeso.
"You," I said as I looked over them.
'Us?" one boy asked.
"Oh, look, it's Kaeso! He told on us!" another said, a twinge of laughter in his voice. I narrowed my eyes at him and intwined my slender fingers in his dark, curly hair.
"Never touch my brother again," I growled, taking a swing and hitting him square in the jaw. The four of them started screaming, and a peacekeeper ran over to us, quickly.
"What's going on here," he asked, grabbing my tanned arm.
"S-she just came out of no where, attacking us for no reason," the boy with a bruised jaw sobbed, "I don't know what got into her.."
He narrowed his eyes at me, dragging me towards the goup of wooden poles nearby.
"Kid, you may want to go get your parents," the peacekeeper growled at Kaeso. (I keep thinking queso?? like, the mexican dip??) He ran back in the direction of our small shack as the peacekeeper tied me to one of the poles, lifting my shirt to reveal my dark back.
"WAIT!" I heard someone scream. Of course, I was tied to a pole, so I couldn't turn around. But the voice was familiar.
"WHAT. I WAS JUST ABOUT TO GET TO THE GOOD PART!" the peacekeeper growled.
"She's innocent, just let her go."
That's it. I know who it is.
"Alister..?" I whispered.
"hey."
"So, Alister, what are you doing back in District 4? I thought you moved to the capitol to fulfill your dream of being a reporter?" my mother asked, interest tainting her voice.
"My father called me home, said that Kelpie wasn't feeling too good.." he responded.
I couldn't see them, but I knew what they were doing. Alister's hands would be cupped around his mug of tea, and my mother would be smoothing out her apron, organizing things every now and then. I was placed on the couch, Kaeso curled up next to me.
"Viria," he whispered, "What are they talking about?"
I smiled at the 10 year old, "mommy and Alister haven't seen each other in a while, they're just catching up."
"VIRIA!" I heard my mother call, "turn on the tv! the quarter quell revealing is about to come on!"
I sat up, grabbing the remote for the small tv. Kaeso sat in my lap, watching my fingers move. I clicked the "on" button, and sat back.
"Good evening, Panem!" the young man said as my mother and Alister rushed into the living room, "I am President Snow, and I would like to officially welcome you to the first quarter quell! First, let us watch the treaty of treason."
The clip started to play, showing us the events in the war that led to the hunger games. blah blah the usual. A tiny redheaded boy walked up to him, a wooden box in hand. President Snow unlocked it, revealing envelopes with years written on the front. 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, and so on and so forth.
"For the 25th annual hunger games," he said, picking up an envelope and removing the contents, "the tributes will be receiving Greek God/Goddess based powers."
Confused, Alister and I looked at each other. Out of habit, he reached to grab a strand of my dark brown hair.
"I guess we'll find out at the reaping," he muttered.
