The Celebrity Hunger Games

Chapter 24: "I Failed"

District 12

Justin Bieber’s p.o.v

It wasn’t as hard saying goodbye to my family as I thought it would be. The only person that I really wanted to say goodbye to was Jam, but I would never have the chance to do that. I thought my mother wouldn’t care, and I was right. She wanted me to win, she wanted me to win for her, for Jam. I didn’t know why I volunteered. Maybe to make mum proud, as I had thought initially, but maybe it was to make her guilty. I wanted her to know what her words had prompted me to do. Her comments had made me sign my death sentence, and she needed to know that this was her fault.

I met up with the other district 12 tribute, Victoria Justice, on the train. She looked sad, as if she was in shock and didn’t care who was watching her. “Are you alright?” I asked her softly. She looked up at me, smiled and nodded, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “Emotional goodbye?” I asked her. She shook her head, before taking a deep breath. “I-just thinking, about what we signed up for. We actively chose to kill people, to fight to the freaking death. What kind of person would do that?” she shrieked. I didn’t know what to say, so I thought that silence would be the best option. As the silence became deafening, two women walked onto the train, one blonde and the other brunette. “Hi guys, my name is Kitty Wilde, I’m your stylist” the blonde one said, kissing us both on the cheek. “And I’m Marley Rose, I’ll be your mentor” the brunette one said, also kissing both of us on the cheek.

We sat at the dinner table on the train an hour later, talking about what we could bring to the Games. “I think you’d be good at climbing Victoria” Marley said, looking her up and down. Victoria shrugged and kept her head down. “What about you Justin?” Kitty asked me. “Um, I think I could be good with weapons?” I said, phrasing it like a question. I was quite a skinny guy, but I thought that maybe I could find my way around a few weapons.

Victoria went to bed early that night. She didn’t really say anything to anyone and I was worried about her. I knew I shouldn’t be, after all, she was my competition. By signing up, I had to be willing to kill her. But I didn’t know if I would be able to.

In the training centre, I become worried. There were so many big guys here, some of them weren’t even career tributes! I walked around the building, watching the guys with the weapons. I knew that I wasn’t as strong as them, but maybe I could be faster than them. I picked up an axe and played around with it, working out what I would eventually show the Gamesmakers. I had no idea what they would think of me.

Eventually, the time to show our talents came. Victoria and I would be the last two, as we were in the last district. I sat and watched each person go in and come out, many of them, especially the Career Tributes, looking really pleased with themselves. I got more and more worried. Then it was my turn. “Good luck” Victoria said behind me. “Thanks Tori” I said. I hadn’t planned to call her Tori and didn’t know why I had called her that at this moment, but I couldn’t worry about it now.

I stood in front of the Gamesmakers, before picking up and axe and throwing it around, imagining myself being in the arena and having to kill anyone that came near me. When I finished, none of the Gamesmakers looked impressed, and I knew, without a doubt, that I failed.

Victoria Justice’s p.o.v

Jamie Lynn Spears came to visit me. She couldn’t understand why I had volunteered in her place, why I had saved her life in place of my own. I couldn’t explain it, to her or to anyone else. No one knew what it was like to be me, to be made to feel extremely worthless. I couldn’t stop crying, tears of frustration, tears of anger. I was angry at my bullies for making me do this, making me sacrifice my life just to prove a point.

I got onto the train before Justin Bieber, the other District 12 tribute. I used the time to think about what I was doing. Why was I here? I was about to cry when he walked in. I blocked out what he said to me, nodding occasionally. He also volunteered. I looked up at him and wondered why. He wasn’t a big or strong guy. Why would he leave his family like this? It made me sick to think that he wanted to prove how ‘hard’ he was, he was choosing, as I was, to die.  “I-just thinking, about what we signed up for. We actively chose to kill people, to fight to the freaking death. What kind of person would do that?” I said to him, trying to stop myself from crying.

Our mentor was Marley Rose and our stylist was Kitty Wilde. They were nice enough, but I couldn’t concentrate for long enough to tell whether or not I liked them. But then again, I guess I didn’t have to like them, I just had to put up with them.

Climbing was my chosen skill, but in the training centre there didn’t seem to be many opportunities for me to show my skills. I walked towards the knives. This seemed to be quite popular so it was easy for me to sink into the back of the crowd and not be noticed. I picked up a knife and practiced throwing it “Good aim” I heard behind me. I turned around and saw Justin standing directly behind me. “Thanks” I said, smiling at him. “Seriously, you are definitely competition for me Victoria. I’ll watch out for you” he said, smiling as he left. “We’ll see about that” I said, my voice the hint of a whisper.

2 days later and we had to show our skills to the Gamesmakers. I was so nervous I thought I was going to be sick, especially as I was the last person to go. “Good luck” I called to Justin as he took his turn. “Thanks Tori” he said. I was startled into my usual silence. I had no idea why he called me Tori, but I knew that I couldn’t let it continue. I knew that I had to stop myself from getting close to him, as it would make it that much harder for me to kill him.

I stood in front of the Gamesmakers, picked up a knife, and threw it into an adjacent wall. I didn’t know what to expect, but it hit the wall and stuck there, which I was eternally grateful for. I couldn’t tell from the Gamesmaker’s faces whether I had done well or badly, but I knew that I had to ignore it. I had to win, otherwise I would be at the other end of the knife.

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I hope you're enjoying this so far!

Each tributes scores are coming next week, and after that is the opening ceremony!