Living happily ever after...? Yeah, right! [OPEN!]

Carefully, Blaire opened the shutters, which covered the windows to her room. When she saw the first rays of sunlight peek through, she opened them up wide and smiled. It was a beautiful, sunny day outside. No stars to be seen for at least another ten hours. Summer was probably the season she liked most, because the days were long and the nights were short. And while the sun was bright in the sky, the stars remained hidden and blinded and weren’t able to watch Blaire. She was safe during those hours of bright sunlight and was able to live like any other person in District Seven without her biggest fear.

Blaire pulled a worn down jeans and a green shirt out of her dresser. The shirt had once belonged to her older brother so it didn’t fit her properly even though Blaire tried to alter it a little bit so it looked a little better. She managed to shorten it and make it a tighter fit around her waist, but it still looked, well like a shirt that once belonged to someone who was quite a bit bigger than she was. Her family wasn’t exactly what you would call well off, so she had to wear things that were handed down from her older brother and her younger sisters would have to wear them after her. Working in the paper factories provided barely enough money to feed the whole family, so buying new clothes for everybody was impossible. The only good clothes the White-kids owned were the dresses they wore on reaping day. They were kept in a separate compartment in her parent’s dresser so they would remain nice.

Blaire sighed as she left her room, thinking about the last reaping that took place just a few days ago. As always she was sick to her stomach while the District Seven attendant started pulling the names of this year’s tributes out of the big glass balls that stood in the middle of the stage. Blaire had her eyes closed tight while she waited for the girls name to be called out and sighed in relief when it wasn’t her sisters name nor her own name. She didn’t have to worry about her brother. He turned nineteen just before the reaping, so his name wasn’t in the reaping anymore. Still, she felt her stomach twitch, when the two kids walked up on stage. She knew neither Amadeus nor Jade any closer, but it still was terrible that two families and so many friends had to say their final goodbyes.

But the reaping was over and life in District Seven went on as usual. Blaire walked from her room into the small kitchen and looked around to find something edible. She was lucky today as her family left her a small piece of bread and a few apple slices. That would calm her stomach down until she had the chance to find something else. Blaire wanted to head to the woods that stood all over the place in District Seven. She knew that in most other Districts the trees inside the districts fences were cut down but since the paper factories needed wood for the paper production, the woods in her District were wide and dense. Blaire loved the woods. Walking in the shade of a roof made of leaves with nothing else to be heard but the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and the birds singing was so peaceful. Well it was peaceful most of the time unless the workers were nearby and used their massive and loud motor saws to cut down trees.

The brown haired girl grabbed the bag she had packed and left the house, pulling the door shut behind her, before walking towards the woods. The sun was still bright in the sky tickled Blaire’s skin with her warm rays of light. It was a perfect day to be outside. The bag, that bumped against her thigh with every step she made, was filled with a big blanket and her favorite book. She had read the book so many times that it looked all beaten up, but Blaire didn’t care. Her family got that book for one of her birthdays, knowing how much Blaire liked to read. It was expensive and her family had to save money for quite some time until they were able to buy the book, which made it even more valuable for Blaire.

When she had reached the edge of the forest, Blaire pulled out the blanket and spread it out on the floor. She was afraid of sitting down, so she let herself fall to her stomach in one quick movement. Laying down, for some reason even she couldn’t really explain, wasn’t a problem at all. Blaire reached for the bag and pulled the book out. She opened it on the first page and started reading. As always, the story captured her the second she started reading and Blaire wasn’t in Panem anymore. She wasn’t in a place anymore where kids were sent to an arena to fight to death or where people were left on the streets, dying from hunger. She was in a better, a nicer place where all people were able to live happily ever after. Living happily ever after in Panem? Yeah, right! You wish!

Word count: 890