I slowly wake as the rays of sun Temporarily blind my eyes. I sit up on a ledge attached to the wall about 10 feet off the ground , which i call my bed. I toss my cover off of my body , making it land with a big pop next to my younger brother. I crawl over to the large window by my ledge , and sit down on it. Listening to the birds chirping , the sun shining. It's a nice hot sunny day. I crawl up off of the window back onto my bed , where I jump off landing with a roll to make sure I don't injure anything. As I land I make another loud noise , which wakes my younger brother , as well as my younger sister.
" ehhh cant I sleep innnnn? " my little brother , Ethan whines.
" but I need to get ready for the reaping and you're going to help me! " I say excitedly trying to make it sound as if it's fun. He lets out a happy squeal as my little sister , kaya jumps up from her bed. Ethan and Kaya's beds , arent really beds. Just covers that are place on the wooden floor and a pillow , but they don't seem to care.
" oh oh oh I want some juice! Is it the re-pin? " she asks , making a pause in the middle of reaping trying to pronounce it right. I nod.
" oh boy! Can I put my name in!? "
She asks with a giant smile.
" no , you're too young " I say wearily
" aww but Ethan is 8 and I'm 5 , I'm 5 and a half!! " she exclaims.
" well I'm 13 , I'm oldest , so I I go to reapings! " I say.
After 15 minutes of explaining why they cant be reaped , I walk down the hallway and open the door to my mothers room.
" Goodmorning Bruce! " she says. She is making her bed. Her bed is actually a real bed , with a mattress and all. " here I have this for you! " she says with a smile as she reaches into her closet and pulls out a black tuxedo , a white dress shirt , and a black bow tie. " cousin Jack gave it to you. " she says as she lays It on her bed, " you know...before the rebellion. " she adds with a sigh. We don't like to talk about it much.
I decide not to comment , so I walk to the bathroom to take a shower , as mother leaves the outfit on the rack and hands me a towel. After I shower , I step out. I dry myself and climb into my underpants and some shorts. I realize my black hair is very messy , sticking every way, but I don't have time to do it now. I throw on a plain white t-shirt , and a dress shirt , then a bow tie , and the suit jacket. I walk out the door to mother , as she immediately orders me back inside to change my shorts to the pants that came with the outfit. After we're all dressed , we walk to the district square. In 3 chairs , there is one , where President Paylor sits , another , where the districts mentor is , I believe his name is Ian Piran , and the third occupied by nobody. President Paylor walks to the podium and announces " welcome , District 3! " in a loud Capitol voice , as the mentor and a few peacekeepers clap. " welcome to our 9th hunger games! " she squeals just as energetically. She starts talking about the history , why we have the games. Saying its punishment. But this is what really happened. 9 years ago , the rebellion happened. The Capitol fell down , and the districts won. The major people in the rebellion decided to have one more hunger games , just to end it , but they promised it was a one time thing. The next year , they announced it would be an annual " holiday " to remember what those before you did. This didn't affect many people though , because they only selected from a pool of people who were closely related to any major Capitol people , even peacekeepers. For 4 years , they had this arrangement , they were running out of young relatives though. 3 years ago , a big change happened though. All Capitol citizens, were appointed districts to live in. They had no choice , they just did it reaping style. All of the district citizens were moved to the Capitol , and because there were so many people , too many , they took parts of district 1 and 2 and 3 , to be part of the Capitol. Then it was announced that everybody was now able to participate in the hunger games , and was now mandatory , as it was before. This was the new beginning.
