OOC Games Reaping Post Thread [Ratmas Day 4]

Life in District 11 was pretty damn awful, I wouldn't lie, but it was like Shangri La compared to what I've seen of the Hunger Games on the small television my large family owns. I have five sisters, and seven brothers, four of which are barely hold enough to properly harvest fruit. It's hard, taking care of them; being thirteen, I too was once looked after by my older siblings, but I'm much too old for that nonsense now. I wish I was young again, getting all of the attention. Now, I feel like a fly on the wall. I know I'm incredibly selfish for thinking this way, but I wish they would just talk to me some times. "Matt, I'm too busy, maybe another time", they would say, and I would frown and trot back to our shared bedroom. With a house full of children, an outsider would think that I would ever feel alone. But I do.

And so, when my name was called from the large stage in the Town Square, to be a tribute in the Hunger Games, I should have been in tears. I should have cried, and cowered in fear for having to leave my family behind, having to be sent to my death, being murdered by the hands of someone close to my age. But I felt none of those things. I felt happy. Everyone's eyes, including my family, were on me. I felt like I was a star, like I was the only thing that mattered in the world. I turned to look at my District partner, an older, Asian girl, who had a reputation for being one of the sweetest people you would ever meet. Sapphira, was her name, and it was very pretty, unlike my boring old name of Matthew. I gave Saph a reassuring smiling as we shook hands, and knew that within a few weeks, at least one of those hands would be cold and lifeless.