The Games

The Reaping (Emerald's POV)

I woke up late in the afternoon. My dad was telling me to hurry up and get dressed. I put on my white dress with gold glitter on the bottom and pearls on the neckline. I put my long, wavy, platinum blond hair in a braided bun. I neatly made my canopy bed and brushed my teeth. I headed downstairs and saw my parents sitting on the couch. My mom has blonde hair and blue eyes. My dad has dirty blonde hair and green eyes just like mine. My mom was going to have a baby in a couple weeks. Just another reason I don't want to get reaped I thought. Today was the reaping for the 100th Hunger Games, the 4th Quarter Quell. This year, the male and female tributes will be split up by a forcefield in the Games. When there are four girls and boys left, the forcefield will be opened and it will be a free for all. The last person standing is the victor. The arena is designed to harm every tribute, sometimes even kill them. I looked at my parents.

"I thought you said we are leaving."

My dad said, "First, were going to watch a recap of the reaping."

I turned around and ran back to my room and threw my head on my furry pillow.

Stupid Games, I thought, stupid reaping, stupid Capitol

I heard a knock at my door. My mother popped her head in.

"What's wrong?"

I sat up on my bed as my mother sat down in a sparkle gold chair in the corner of my room. Her light pink dress was very long on her. It had birds on them that seemed to come alive, like they would flutter off the dress at any moment. Her petite body was the same color as sand.

I sighed, "You know I hate the reaping. Kids being sent of to their deaths just because of a mistake some people made a hundred years ago?"

"Emerald, I understand. My best friend was sent to the Games and won! You will be fine. You won't get reaped. Your name was only entered twice!"

The older you got, the more times your name got entered. I am thirteen, so my name has been entered twice. If you needed food, you could enter your name more to receive supplies. My family never needed more things because we owned a successful jewelry shop here at District 1.

I heard my father calling us. I trudged downstairs behind my mother to a large flat area outside. This is where the reaping is taking place.

"Oh no! It's already started!" my mother gasped. We found an empty place in the back of the crowd. Usually, kids from ages twelve to eighteen would be split up by age.

We had missed the introduction speech. A tall Capitol lady with a purple beehive hairdo and a pink dress so bright, it hurt my eyes stood on the stage.

She said, "Now it's time to select our female tribute!"

She strolled over to a bowl filled with lots of crumpled pieces of paper. She went back to the podium and opened up the paper.

She cleared her throat and said, "Emerald Mariposa!"

-end of chapter-