"Reather Handam!"
Mona stiffened when she saw the beast that approached the stage. She stood over six feet tall, and was even more built than the girl from 8. She was the product of endless hours of hard labor in the slaughterhouse. She scowled at Mona, which was simply the way her face rested, but Mona didn't know that. To her, she encapsulated the disenchantment of the poverty-stricken children of 10. She put distance between herself and the monstrous girl tribute and continued with the boys.
"Cyan Mintro!"
Cyan's face lit with panic. He was one of twelve children, so it was only destiny that one of the Mintro kids was Reaped. The reason for rearing so many kids was that infants in 10 were especially prone to death. That was the way there and in the subsequent districts; the more kids one has, the more that will reach adulthood. The Mintros were lucky, perhaps, since none of them had yet to die. Yet.
Cyan had never had so much attention in his entire life. Being a middle child of twelve kids, he was mostly ignored by his parents and siblings. He had to learn how to be an adult quickly. His childhood was lonely because of that, and although he acquired a lot of practical skills that would soon prove useful in the Games, his upbringing nurtured a mixture of dejection, loneliness, and vindictiveness that swelled inside of him. And then suddenly he was drenched in a downpour of attention. It felt good, despite the reality that he would probably never make it out of the Arena.
Oh well. Anything was better than here.
