I woke up early in the morning, cuddled between my four other
siblings.  They were still asleep, and I didn't bother to wake them up.
 I saw that one of my sisters, Lily, had fallen asleep on top of me and I slowly and carefully pushed
her off, then got out of bed and grabbed my crutches.  My mother was sitting at the table, and when I got up, she looked up from her book.  "Oh, good!  Finally, someone's awake!"  I rubbed my eyes and asked, "Mom?  What's going on?"

My mother looked exhausted.  "I need you to stay
and watch the kids while I go run some very important errands, and I may take a while."
 I said, "Oh, okay.  What about the reaping today?"
 Mom looked at me under the baggy, tired eyes.  "That's later
today.  And anyways, I'll be back by then.  Your father's in the fields, harvesting like usual.  There's soup on the table and I think a bit of bread in the
cupboard."  She swooped down and kissed me.  Then she left, only pausing at the doorway to wish me a happy birthday.

* * * *

The one-roomed house was very busy at seven in the morning.
 I tried to convince Tulip to swallow just a spoonful of the veggie soup.
 She was only six, but she still seemed to notice everything, and it was almost impossible to get her to eat.  "Rue,
where's mom?  Did she go somewhere?  If so, when?
 Where?  Why couldn't I come?  How did they-"  I shoved a spoonful of the soup in her mouth to shut her up.
 She swallowed and opened her mouth to continue, but got her hair in
her mouth and spat it out, then tried to talk again, but was quieted by the
look in my eyes.

I got up to try and reach the bread in the back of the cupboard, but I couldn't reach it.  Luckily, the umbrella could.  Soon I had opened the package to find one whole loaf of stale
bread inside.  I gaped at it.  We were lucky to even have half of a
loaf of bread, but a whole one?  I wondered how my mom had gotten it.  Eight
year old Lily ran over and grabbed it with her bony hands, smiling.  I stared, having
never seen Lily smile before.  She had a hard time doing normal things and fitting with other people because of her brain damage.  Well, a whole loaf of bread is something to smile about, I guess.  All of our attention was drawn to little baby Violet, who was making a mess of her soup.

Nalin, my little and only brother, ran over and started to wipe her off with a rag that was already dirty.  I took the bread back from Lily and ripped it up into twelve pieces, giving everybody a piece and putting the rest back into the cupboard.  We all enjoyed breakfast that day.

* * * *

Six hours later, my mom came back.  I got dressed in a plain blue dress, and put my hair up in a bun, tying a ribbon in it.  Nalin was wearing a long sleeved blue shirt with a grey vest on top and black pants.  Lily had a little blue ruffly skirt and a cute pink cotton shirt with a silk collar.  Tulip was in a green dress with a red bow in her hair.  My mother was wearing a plain brown dress with braided hair.  Violet was in Tulip's old orange shirt that looked like a dress on her.  Violet's hair was in two little pigtails on the sides of her head.

We all had to rush to the reaping, which was going to start soon after we had finished getting ready.  When we arrived, I looked around at all of the somber faces, wondering which ones I will never see again.  I saw Chaff and Seeder, one of the only living victors of District 11, standing in two seats on the stage.  I got separated from my family and herded to the twelve year old group in the front.  The mayor finally comes up to the front when people stopped arriving and says, "Welcome to the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games!  Now, let's see here..."  He fumbles with his papers, clears his throat, and continues.  "This er, celebration started long, long ago.  Seventy-four years ago, in fact."  

He cleared his throat again.  "In a place once known as North America was where Panem rose up out of.  There were many disasters; floods, earthquakes, droughts, fires, storms...  The brutal, gory war that resulted in Panem, where the Capitol and all of the thirteen districts lived in.  Then came the Dark Days.  The districts were uprising.  All but one were defeated, all but one spared.  District Thirteen wasn't so lucky as the other twelve, and was destroyed.  The Treaty of Treason was created for peace between the Capitol and districts, but as a reminder, also created the Hunger Games."  

I stopped listening about there.  I already knew what he was going to say, as he says it every year, explaining the fairly simple rules.  I knew them already, where each district reaps for a boy and girl each year, known as tributes, to participate.  The tributes will be trapped in a vast outdoor arena, and will have to fight to the death until only one tribute is left standing, and that one tribute wins the Hunger Games.  The winning district gets grain and oil, even sugar, while the other districts starve to death.  

I felt my stomach grumble and my thoughts turned to the feast.  Every year after the reaping, everyone gathered together and celebrated it with a big feast because they have to.  Their families were spared for another year.  But each year, two poor, unlucky families burrow into their house, weeping, knowing their child is gone forever.  I never want to be that family.  Finally, the mayor says, "The winning tributes that are still alive today are Chaff and Seeder."  They went up by the mayor and smiled wryly, then sat back down.  

The mayor continued, and introduced our new escort, Lilia Wright.  The mayor said, "Bella Hatchet is unable to be District 11's escort because of an," he pauses to clear his throat, then looks at all of our faces and whispers so the microphone can barely pick it up, "accident."  I could tell he was hiding something, but listened to Lilia all the same as she addressed the crowd in a serious voice.  

"I know you're all thinking the same thing for you and your families.  I agree with you and hope that the odds will be forever in your favor."  Everyone was silent, pondering her words.  She said in a more cheerful voice, "Well, ladies first!"  I watched as she fumbled with the strips of paper in the big, glass ball containing the girls' names and finally pulled one out.  I held my breath as everyone else, waiting for her to call out the unlucky name.  Lilia read the paper, looked at all of the nervous faces in the crowd, looked again at the paper and said in a hushed voice so that everyone had to lean in to hear the name.  It was me.