The 67th Hunger Games

Chapter 2 - The Reaping, part 3

Chapter 2 – The Reaping

Part 3:

Never before have I been so eager to get home after the Reaping and see it on television. I have never actually been eager to see anything involving the Hunger Games in the TV, before now.

We bring Machelle with us home. She is still devastated, but she has stopped crying. I think her tear ducts has dried out. She just doesn't want to be alone and we understand her pain better than her parents and brothers, though I'm sure they can understand why she feels the way she does.

When we get home I go directly to the living room and sit down in front of the television. They won't show the Reapings until tonight, since the Reapings is still going on in some of the other Districts; the Districts that are closer to the Capitol. Everything is well organized. The districts that are furthest away from the Capitol, such as 11 and 12 have their Reapings first. That way all the tributes arrive in the Capitol roughly at the same time. From here it only takes about a day to get to the Capitol. Less than a day, I think. Joe should be in the Capitol tomorrow before noon.

Eva joins me on the floor.

“Would you please take off your shoes?”, she says, but she doesn’t sound mad. She just sound hopeless. So I stand up, go to the hall to take off my shoes. From the hall I can see into the kitchen. Mom is talking to Machelle, she cries again, though not as hard as before. Mom is crying too, but I think they find comfort in each other. I'm glad they are.

Before going back to the living room I go to the bathroom and I am shocked when I see myself in the mirror. My eyes are red, completely red, and my face is slightly swollen. I guess I cried more than I thought I did. But I don't cry anymore. It was like the 20 minutes walk we had home cleared my head. So many thoughts kept flying through my brain: is he going to make it? Am I going to see him again? Will he survive the blood bath? If not, who will kill him? Will it be quick and painless, or will he die in a brutal way like Dalia did?

On top of that I keep wondering how the arena will look like. If he will have any advantages. If the Capitol will like him. Will he get any sponsors? Thousands of thoughts, and in the end I couldn't cry anymore, because my brain started denying everything that had happened this afternoon. Joseph didn't get Reaped. We weren't in the Justice Building, we didn't cry unstoppable for half an hour. We didn't say goodbye to him, because he didn't get Reaped. I mean, I know he did, but he didn't. It can't be true, it just can't.

I had to many things going on in my head, and it left me with a blank expression. But my face is still swollen and my eyes are still red. And everything inside me still hurts. And my brother is still going to the arena.

“Do you think he has a change?”, I finally ask Eva, after having sat next to her in silence for 20 minutes.

“I hope so,” she just says, defeated.

I nod and look at the screen. Nothing yet, but it can't be long. The last Reapings should be finished within an hour and then they just need to edit everything together. I just want to see the other tributes so I know who Joe has to compete against. And I know that I will sit glued to the screen for the next week, sucking up every detail during the chariot ride, the interviews and all the recaps they will show us. My brain will work non-stop to find out how good a change Joe will have in the Arena, even though I now it's hopeless, because I can't tell him what I'll find out, if I find out anything. It haunts me.

Mom enters the living room with some fruit. I didn't notice before now but I'm starving. I grab an apple. She sits down in the sofa and says calmly:

“Dad and I won't go the Inn tonight. If you want to go, you can't, but we just want to stay at home tonight.”

I look at my mother. Is she kidding me!? How should any of us be able to go to the Inn tonight where people celebrate that their kids, girlfriends, boyfriends, relatives, friends, whatever DIDN'T get reaped, when my brother can be dead in a week? I am angry, anger hits me quite suddenly and I am about to fly out of my chair, scream that she is stupid for thinking that any of us would go to that stupid Inn until I realize: she is just trying to be nice. She won't force us to sit here at home, sobbing, looking at the Reaping tonight if we don't want to. My anger disappears and now I just feel bad for being so angry with her. I blink my eyes and turn away from her, looking at the screen, biting my apple. Everything still hurts and I am so confused. About everything. Mostly about myself. Why am I feeling this weird all the time? I can't cry anymore, I feel angry about small things and I can't focus on anything but the Reaping.