"Willow. Willow? Willow!" I hear my dad yell as I tumble out of bed.

"I'm up, I'm up!"

"Please help Rose and Fin get dressed and ready for breakfast."

"Yes dad," I mumble

Why do I always have to take care of the little ones? Mom used to take care of them, but now it's me. Why me? Then I remember, it's either me, my sister or my dad taking care of them. My sister lives with her husband and daughter. And dad is always busy. So I guess that leaves me, but that really stinks. I wish they could just take care of themselves. I wonder if they will ever grow up. They seem so, I don't know young and helpless and every year they don't seem to grow up at all.

I grumble as I walk over to Rose's bed and quietly wake her up. When she wakes she groans and gets out of bed. I grab a purple poke-a-dotted dress and help her into it. I braid her hair into two braids and she runs out of the room to the table before I can even finish. She sits down politely and waits for breakfast to be ready. Then I go over to the bed and wake up Fin. He pops right out of bed and I help him into a loose shirt and torn jeans. He quietly walks to the table. I think he is finally old enough to realize what day it is. I put on a green shirt, pull up a pair of jeans, put my hair up in my usual messy bun and go to the table.

We each have a slice of bread with a tad bit of butter on it. The silence is bitter. Until Rose pipes up and says, "look at the bluebird, it's so cute!" No one answers, not even Fin. He seems so much older than he is, he is always so good and acts mature. Rose, on the other hand, is a typical 4-year-old. She is always talking and bothering us. And I guess she does not get that today is the reaping. The reaping for the 100th Hunger Games.

After breakfast, I grab my knives and head outside. I go to the gate of the fence and Maria, the one and only kind peacekeeper, opens it for me. Over the past year, we have become good friends (well as good as friends as you can be when one of you is a peacekeeper and the other is just a normal person). I follow my path to the beautiful river I found a few years earlier. I sit there thinking. I shouldn't be worried, I am only four slips out of probably a hundred or more. But for some reason, I have a sinking feeling. What if I really do get picked? Surely I would die and never see my family again. I push this thought out of my mind, as I see a bunny.

I walk quietly over to it and then stab the knife right into its neck. Blood slowly trickles down its neck and onto the earth below. I never really felt bad for the animals I killed. After all, we need them to live and they don't really matter. I pick up the dead bunny and put it in the bag I brought for the meat I get. I keep walking and kill a few more animals before heading home.

When I get home I give dad the game I got and help him clean, prepare and cook it. After the meat is cooked I take Fin with me and go to dad's little shop hidden behind our house and hang the meat up there. We give Debra (a helpless old lady) a cooked bunny and then head home.

When we get home the delicious smell of cooked game fills the air in our house. We have a little lunch of meat and then we sit in front of the TV to see what President Covington will choose to do this quarter quell. After waiting for about 5 minutes the TV flicks on and President Covington walks on stage and over to the podium. His smile makes a shiver go down my spine. 

He begins, "as you know this year is the fourth quarter quell and I have something very exciting this time. Now I won't leave you waiting any longer. This quarter quell we will be having the usual 26 tributes, but there will also be 26 adult tributes and 26 more tributes that are 6-11 years old. And to make things better there will be no volunteering this year. Well, that is this years quarter quell, or so you think. I must warn you there will be some surprises in the arena as well. Well happy hunger games and may the odds never be in your favor."

The screen flicks off and we all sit there, fear covers my face and I assume everyone else's faces too. We sit there for a while. Well me, my dad and Fin sit there, Rose had watched the Presidents speech and then ran off to her room.

After sitting there for what seems like forever I get up and head into the one room that we all share and change into my favorite white floral dress. When I come downstairs I help Rose and Fin into their little sandals of fur that dad had made. Then we head down to the city center and wait for Maizy to come out and begin the reaping. The dreaded reaping! But this time I'm not just worried for my life, but also for Dad, Fin, my sister, her husband, and Liam's lives.