Filed To Story: Sunrise on the Reaping Book PDF Free
Huh. Maybe she loads up on the jewelry because it’s the only way she can be herself.
“The Capitol provided this clothing,” says Mags. “Everyone will be dressed the same in training and the arena. But Magno should provide your interview costumes. Last year, he sent your district’s tributes out in their training outfits. He’s on probation for that, so, hopefully, he’s finding you something worthwhile. You’re due in training soon. Shall we begin?”
I try to focus. This will likely be all the help we get.
“I’ve mentored several times over the years,” Mags continues. “In the early Games, I didn’t ask the tributes what they wanted because the answer seemed so obvious. You want to live. But then I realized, there are many desires beyond that. Mine had to do with my district partner. Protecting him.”
Wiress offers, “I remember I didn’t want to die at night. I didn’t want to die in darkness. The thought terrified me.”
“So we’ll ask you now, what do you want?” says Mags.
We sit in silence, each trying to formulate an answer. Yesterday, mine had to do with protecting Louella. Now I mainly think about the people I love, making my death as easy as possible for them.
I say, “I don’t want my girl and my family to watch me die some long, horrible death. Like, I keep thinking about those weasel mutts a few years ago. . . . They’d never get over that.”
“Yeah, if I’m going, I want to go fast,” says Wyatt. “I don’t want people who bet on my death being drawn out to make money on it.”
It’s a shocking thought. “Would your family take bets on that?” I ask.
Wyatt shrugs. “Somebody would. I’m sure somebody already has. On yours, too. That’s how it works.”
“I don’t want to beg,” says Maysilee. “Or plead for my life. I want to go out with my head up.”
After a pause, Mags asks, “All right. Anything else?”
There is something else gnawing at the back of my brain. Something to do with Sarshee and Pa, with Lenore Dove’s rising sun, with Maysilee’s welts, and holding Louella up to the president. What was it Ampert said about Louella last night?
“She’s the one you made President Snow own?”
“I want all that, too. What you just said. But if I could, I’d also like to . . .” I glance at the camera in the corner. How do I say it when the Capitol might be watching? That I want to make the Capitol own what they’re doing to us? “I want to remind people I’m here because the Capitol won the war and thinks that, fifty years later, this is a fair way to punish the districts. But I’d like them to consider that fifty years is enough.”
That sounded sufficiently diplomatic. I wait for them to laugh or roll their eyes, but no one does.
“So you want to make them end the Hunger Games for good. How?” asks Maysilee.
“I don’t know yet,” I admit. “I guess, for starters, by reminding the audience that we’re human beings. The way they talk about us . . . piglets . . . beasts. They called my fingernails claws. You saw how those kids outside the gym looked at us. Like they think of us as animals. And they think of themselves as superior. So it’s okay to kill us. But the people in the Capitol aren’t better than us. Or smarter.”
“If anything, they’re stupider,” says Maysilee, who clearly doesn’t give two hoots about the cameras. “Look at the mess they made with our reaping. The chariot parade. Or Wiress’s Games last year. They couldn’t even get her gifts to her. Show them something like that.”
“Yeah, force them to admit we’re people, too,” says Wyatt. “And they’re the beasts for killing us.”
“Right. But I’m not as clever as Wiress. I can’t outthink the arena,” I say.
“Maybe you can,” Wiress encourages me. “The arena’s just a machine really. A killing machine. It’s possible to outsmart it.”
Wyatt rolls his coin over his knuckles. “The trick would be getting them to show it on camera.”
“If it involves killing someone else, they’d show that,” says Maysilee.
“Or killing yourself,” adds Wyatt.
“It’s something to think over carefully. You could easily put yourself or your allies at risk,” warns Mags, nodding at Wyatt and Maysilee.
“Oh, Haymitch doesn’t want us for allies,” says Wyatt.
Really? That’s where he’s going? “Nice, Wyatt. So I’m the jerk? Not the meanest girl in town or the guy who sets the odds so scum can make bets on dead kids?”
Mags gives me a worried look. “It’s a good thing to have allies. You may find yourselves gravitating toward one another anyway when you go into training.”
Maysilee addresses Wyatt. “I could be your ally. If you’re not too choosy.”
“Okay,” he says.
Even though everything I said was true, I regret saying it. It’s not like I’m perfect. They both get under my skin, but I’m blaming them for too much. They didn’t kill Louella or pick me in the reaping or create the Hunger Games. I need to back off. Besides, if I’m going to paint a decent poster in the arena, I’ll need time, which allies could buy me.
“Okay, look,” I tell them. “There’s this kid from Three, Ampert, who wants me to join his alliance. He’s got Seven and Eight. Eleven might be in. I don’t know if I’m doing it, but I can ask if they want you guys. I can tell him you’re both smart.”
Maysilee gives a little shrug and Wyatt nods, saying, “Pack members have better odds. At least in the beginning. Someone to watch their backs.”
I wish he’d shut up about odds. “I’ll keep that in mind. So, what’s training like?”
“They’ll be holding it at the gym where they groomed you,” Mags tells us. “There will be stations set up to allow you to prepare for what you’ll face in the arena. Don’t be distracted by what others are choosing; prioritize what you will need to survive.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.