98th Reaping [District Six]

Standing back when the District needed him the most, who thought it a good idea? Or was it the Capitol pulling him back?  Six has deep seated scars, the protests were long overdue. An entire workforce fighting to keep the cracks sealed but so many have fallen through them. Old colleagues of Parson's taken away, even some parents of the kids in Georgie’s class.
And they keep reminding her of that.

”Your father is a Capitol ass liker!”

”Your dad arrested mine!”

”Your father has made me an orphan!”

It is quietening down in Six now, the peacekeepers have made sure of it. The Capitol made sure of it by gifting Six a victor after a decade of nothing. A distraction. A new face to focus on.

It hasn’t worked for Georgie.

The kids whose families have been torn apart will never be distracted. Georgie hasn’t been to school for months. She is home schooled now. One of the endless perks of her life. She is fourteen. Not the six-year-old that thought the mayor’s mansion was the biggest place in the world when her dad first got the job. Now it is the smallest place ever. It’s cursed. It is like her dad forgets his predecessor was shot.

The first time Georgie sees her father after waking up on the day of the reaping, she doesn’t say good morning, she says ”Are you not worried they will assassinate you?” Parson hasn’t even managed to rub the sleep from his eyes, or top up on shaving the stubble from his chin. Georgie is still in her pyjamas; she doesn’t have to queue for a bathroom to brush her teeth. Another perk - she has her own.

”What the fuck…what kind of question is that?” Parson manages to rub his eyes, not because of the crusty bits in the corners of them but because of the disbelief. This isn’t a conversation he expected to have in the hallway of his house - with his own daughter.

”All those people whose family have been taken. Are you not worried that they will do something?” A lot of questions for a girl who got out of bed just five minutes ago. She has ben awake hours though, the perks of the reaping night. Sound sleep for someone whose got a lot of questions is impossible.

”Are you worried that someone is going to hurt us? Hurt you?” Georgie’s dad is really good at answering a question with a question.

”No. Not me. You.”

”Don’t worry about me. The peacekeepers will protect me!”

”You’re really good at hiding behind the peacekeepers, aren’t you?!” Georgie ends the conversation, she turns her back to her father and strides down the stairs.

”Georgie!”

”Tortoise needs his breakfast…” If there was a door to slam, it would be shaking every wall in the house right now but stomping down the steps will do.

The maid gets the reaping day off, so the morning’s breakfast is scrambled eggs, pancakes and a few bacon rashers that Georgie makes herself. Tortoise gets his bowl topped up with lettuce leaves, tortoise food mix and as a treat, a few ripe strawberries. Georgie pats his shell as the little odd, shaped menace that caused a whole rescue mission a few years ago gnaws on his fruits.

She gives her father a breakfast to go, they never sit at the table for reaping breakfast. Unlike everyone else in the District, Georgie’s dad is probably the only one who has a role in the whole thing. They make the journey together though. Both draped in their very best clothes. A three-piece suit for Parson and Georgie in a pastel blouse and skirt to match. It is a guarded journey, chaperoned by the white armour that makes the hair on Georgie’s bare forearms rise. Their presence doesn’t stop her from talking to her dad though.

”Tortoise will outlive us both.” Is how Georgie opens the conversation.

”You really shouldn’t be worried about us getting hurt.” Parson rubs his neck, looking to his left where one of the peacekeepers walks.

”He is only 10. They can live for 100 years! You know that right?”

”Right but don’t worry about Tortoise, your kids will be able to look after him and maybe your even your grandkids!”

”Yeah, unless you lose him again!” Georgie kicks a piece of broken tarmac on the pavement. There is so much she wants to say to her father. There is so much that Parson wants to hear from her. But the mayor is sworn away as they reach the Justice Building. Mayor duties call. They always do.

”I will see you later okay. We’ll drop by Meredith’s and buy more strawberries. Not just for the tortoise!” Parson’s parting see you later to his daughter is delivered with a pat on her shoulders.

”He is not the tortoise, he is just Tortoise!” Other than the occasional pet name of Torty, there is no explanation as to why the shelled beast did not get a proper name. A perk of gifting a four-year-old a hatchling when she asked for a rabbit (that she would have called Bunny).

Georgie watches her dad march away with his own personal protection service. Once upon a time she used to be proud of his job. Not lately. Not now that she must stand in the crowd of children that he has hurt.

Staring eyes and whispers surround her as she finds her place amongst her ex-classmates. Not one of them has asked where she has been the past few months. Georgie’s only friends are some Mayor office officials, the Ursas and a reptile.

It feels like there is an entire spotlight shining right on her. Everyone in front, to the side and behind have given a bigger gap from her compared to the other people they’re standing next to. Her dad has tried so hard to rebuild the District but to Georgie it seems to irreparable.  Becoming Mayor was once an aspiration of hers but seeing how hated her dad has become, it is not something she ever desires. Now her own reputation is in tatters. Maybe she should take her mother’s name, disappear like her. But it is her dad who her eyes are focused on now. The man who has spent fourteen years fighting for her, providing for her. This is just one bump in the road. One gigantic bump involving District politics.

Georgie only looks at her dad. Not the escort who is dipping his hands into the bowl. She watches her father’s face change. Watches as he marches across the stage and snatches the paper from the escort’s hands. It is only when her father says her name that she suddenly hears it.

Georgie Cham.

Silence.

Not a single gasp for the mayor’s daughter. Just a smirk. Just a whisper of he deserves this.

The only motion is from the mayor who is arguing with the Peacekeepers that were once escorting him and are now ready to escort his daughter.

There’s a long list of perks to Georgie’s life and she thought being immune to all of this would be one of them. She is not even a young girl in all of this. Not just the daughter of the mayor. The asset to his punishment. The punishment for an entire District’s wrong doings.

And who does she blame for her fate?

What about the children who have teased her the past year and step out of the way as she walks to where Teddy, Sera and Flynn stand? Or what about the parents who form the back of the crowd, the ones who protested? Or what about the man who stands on the stage, the one who brought her into this world? The one whose immature drunken mistake turned her mother, Aeryn Kight’s life upside down? The one she has been visiting in secret. Or what about herself? The little naïve spoilt girl who has only just started to wake up.

It doesn’t matter. To the people that matter, she is just an asset for a punishment. Whose punishment? She has the next few weeks to find out.

And when Georgie stands on the stage. She can’t look at any of them, her head is down. Their eyes aren’t on her anyway, they’re on her father. Waiting for a reaction. A response. A hope that he will stand up to them like he should have done months ago. But he is not on the stage anymore. Mayor Parson Cham is gone.

Deserter.  

Georgie Cham accepts her position as District 6 tribute.

Dars.