"District 12 boy," mayor lipp says into the microphone. He reaches into the bowl and a silence falls across the town square " Jessup Diggs" I freeze. No, i thought, I was one year away from freedom. From living out the rest of my life working in the mines with my father and caring for my grandmother. I see the peacekeepers walking over and i step out from the crowd.
I have just placed my foot onto the steps when my father runs out from the crowd. " take me instead , not Jessup , please not him " hes screamed. I watch as 3 armed peacekeepers emerge from the back of the crowd.one grabs him and forces him to the floor "get your hands off me" he says to the peacekeeper "give me back my son, it should be me on that stage not him, he wasn't even alive when the war started why is he being punished" i see the other two peacekeepers put their hands on their guns , they nod at each other and just as im about to scream. They both shoot him, He's dead almost instantly.
I can feel myself getting nauseous, my fathers the only thing I have left here , my grandmothers forgotten everything and my mother died during a capitol airstrike. Im about to be sick when the mayor shouts " district 12 girl, Lucy Gray Baird." Its The girl who sings in the covey at the hob after my shifts in the mines. Im relived its someone I know going into the games with me. Then I realise , only one of us can make it out. As im thinking this i see her walk out in a rainbow dress , the colours are faded as almost everything is in district 12, but it was beautiful. I watch as she puts her hand into her pocket and in one movement drops a snake down a red haired girls dress, as the girl falls to the ground screaming I look up and see Lucy Gray walk up towards me on the stage, just as her feet mount the steps the mayor lunges forward and slaps her so hard she falls to the ground . I run forward to help her but im being held back by the guards. I hear a voice come from the crowd, she hears one of her cousins, Maude Ivory, singing one of the coveys songs and stands up , she grabs the microphone and starts singing, im trying to tune out from everything and just listen to her song but i cant help but looking at my father, cold, lifeless. Still on the floor as no peacekeeper would touch a district 12 resident with a 10 foot pole unless it was them putting a gun to our heads.
He looks so young, the creases on his forehead have seemed to disappear and he almost seems relaxed. I start to cry, this is all my fault. If i shouted out in time for him to hear things might've been different. Id rather die in the games than come back here without father. I feel i have to protect Lucy Gray , dad loved her shows and she is the best thing to happen to any of us around here since the dark days, I sometimes help her write her songs . So, If only one can live I want it to be her, she has so much more here than I do.
