The first hunger games- Abandoned

Chapter twelve: Panic

Children running, screaming, laughing. That's what you usually hear on the way to school, not today though. No ones running, or laughing, although there are a couple screams here and there when the eldest sibling explains to the younger ones more in detail what's going on. How they could be sent away forever, or some of the stronger siblings, for a little while. I didn't come by Emeralds house on the way to school today, I needed to figure things out in my head. After we went back into the 'living room' of Emeralds house, her parents and my mom explained everything to us. We where to wear our very best outfit, and where to stand in marked areas for our age group, others that aren't eligible will stand off to the sides. The reaping will be held in front of the justice building, for the two tributes picked, they will have an hour to say their goodbyes to family and friends. A women from the Capitol, called our escort, will be the one to pull the names from the reaping ball. You can sign up for tesaree starting today, you will get a month worth of grain and oil for one person, you can sign up for it as many times as you need, it just means your name is entered more times. Both my mom and Emeralds parents said that we both weren't allowed to sign up unless we were in a dire situation. All of this information all in one night, it's a lot to take in. Especially considering what I'm taking in. As I walk through the doors to my school, I see kids all over the school crying. A couple look relieved here and there, the ones to young to be entered and that don't have siblings, but they know that eventually they will be entered too, so even they look depressed. I start to walk to my first class with my notebook and pencil in hand, and I'm glad that I don't have to walk past the wall of faces today, with so many emotions going through me at this moment I don't think I could handle seeing the three faces that always end up breaking me. As I walk into class, what I see depresses me, but what I don't see depresses me even more. Emerald is my first thought. I go to take a seat next to the stool that Emerald always sits in and begin to look around the classroom. The teacher hasn't arrived yet but most of the students have, there are a couple kids talking to one another but most are sitting alone, many are trying to cover up the fact that they have been crying by burying their face in their arms, but that just gives it away even more. Everyone's been crying though, so there's no use in trying to cover it up. I can see people crying around the room, others tearing up but holding it in, and others just staring into space, I'm starting to tear up myself, but not for the reason everyone else is, I mean of course I'm upset, well, more then upset, about this little 'arrangement' but at this moment my biggest concern is about Emerald and where in the world she could be! It's not like her to miss class, and she is always at school, I get why she would want to stay home, since she's really upset, but everyone is and they're still here. Then the teacher walks in and begins to take the attendance and even her, through her voice you can tell that she's upset. Right, she has a son and a daughter, her son is seventeen and her daughter is twelve. The only reason I know this is because I've met the girl once, two years ago while I was out collecting rations for my mom and I, I ran into her while she was collecting for her family and we decided to go into town together. Other then that I haven't ever really 'hung out' with her. Anyways, as she's taking the attendance the whole time I'm cheering on Emerald to get here and sure enough she does, and to be completely honest I'm actually surprised, I was all to prepared to face a day without her. Just as her name is being called she runs into the room. "Why are you late?" Our teacher asks her, although even she is feeling a little more forgivable today. "Sorry Mrs. Axel, I had to take the long way here because of the construction" Emerald says, she's always been a good lier, but I can always tell if she's lying or not, she didn't take the long way, I'm not exactly sure why she was late but I know that's not why. "Alright, take a seat" Mrs. Axel says with a sigh, "thank you" Emerald responds and comes to sit next to me. As Mrs. Axel continues the attendance, I start to quietly ask Emerald questions, "where were you?" I hiss at her. "I took the long way here, and lighten up will you. I get you're stressed but I'm pretty sure if I didn't show up you would've been fine, gosh" Emerald also hisses at me although a bit harsher than I did. Gosh, what's her problem, now I'm positive that she didn't take the long way around. Although, I might have said that a little to harshly but she didn't exactly respond to nicely herself. "Guys! Pay attention! I understand that we've taken some harsh news lately but you're still in school! And remember that I'm not so happy about this news myself either." Mrs. Axel yells at the class, huh, I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I completely forgot that we were in math class. The class must have forgotten too by the way Mrs. Axel was yelling at us. Now I can't talk to Emerald anymore for the next fifty minuets, great.

The next fifty minuets are awful, but once class is over a could finally ask Emerald where she REALLY was this morning. She admitted to me that she had had nightmares all night because of the reaping next week and that she ended up moving super slow this morning. I feel bad for her, I mean she's the strong one, I've never heard of her having nightmares before. I'm sure they'll just get worse everyday till the reaping which makes me worried that I'll start having nightmares as well. Anyways, after science, engineering, and English it's time for lunch and Emerald and I can finally actually talk. This time we're sitting under a tree outside the school since neither of us have a lunch today.

"I say we ditch school tomorrow" Emerald says toward me once we sit down under the tree. "What?! You NEVER miss class, plus your parents and my mom would kill us!" I say to Emerald as she shifts around trying to get comfy on the hard grass outlining the school as the field. "Only if they knew, and plus the school can never contact our parents to tell them that we weren't in school, our houses don't have telephones and our parents are working all day, come on, please!" Emerald practically begs while tugging on my sleeve, I start to laugh, she's acting like a five year old. "Maybe, what would we do?" I ask her, "why not sneak behind the construction of the victors village and watch the peacekeepers working on the houses?" She answers and asks at the same time. "That would be cool, but what if we get caught? We would be... I don't know, but we would be in huge trouble for sure" I answer very wearily, "exactly! You don't know! So you can't be scared!" Emerald answers me, what a stupid answer, "that's exactly why I CAN be scared! They're peacekeepers, they'll do anything to Hurt us" I counter argue. "Please, please, PLEASE" Emerald begs me again, "ugh, fine, but we need to make sure they don't see us" I give into her pleading, "yes!" She screams, and then we both start laughing, and we keep laughing till its time for our last class of the day.