Stars Align - Johanna Mason

Volume I: Act II

Out of all kids in this district my name is chosen? Elita just keeps smiling out into the crowd, that stupid, sweet smile. Peacekeepers walk out into the crowd of kids towards me.

As they drag upon the stage, I can hear my father screaming aloud. He's never yelled, I don't think he has ever really raised his voice.

Soon, they place me on the stage. Elita goes to pull from the boys bowl. "For the boys," She swirls her hand around before picking just one slip, "Coron Jameson!"

I've never heard his name before, but he walks out of the crowd more willingly then most. Nobody screams for him. As he approaches the stage I realize how much bigger he is then me, he might even be eighteen. He has golden blonde hair that passes his ears.

Elita speaks, and ends with infamous words, "happy hunger games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" I don't think they are..

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The peacekeepers leave me in a room that's nearly empty. Soon, they let my father in and he runs to me. He wraps his arms around me, he combs his hand through my brunette hair.

"How did this happen! How could I let this happen?" He pulls back, holding me by my shoulders.

"I'll come back dad, I'm gonna win for us.." he kisses my forehead after I say this, and wipes a few tears staining my cheeks. Peacekeepers rush in and pull him away because "our time is up" he doesn't fight against them, but keeps looking back at me, I swear it won't be his last.

Elita, Coron, and I hop on the train to the capitol. At first sight, there's food everywhere, stuff I couldn't even imagine, line the tables. Just looking at all the desserts give me a toothache.

Coron happily sits in front of a big hunk of food, Elita leads me to a chair and forces me to sit down. She hesitates a second and then leaves the room.

As soon as the door is closed, Coron starts to shove food down his throat. I just look over at him before he looks over at me. "It's pretty good, eat some," he says, spitting his food everywhere. I grab some sort of pastry from the middle of the table. Slowly, I take a bite of it, and damn was Coron right, it's good. As he seems me continue to eat it, he says, "I told you, very good."

I look at him, he's big, and strong. But he's a teddy bear, sweet. People in the capitol will love him. Me, I'm not to sure. Maybe our mentors will actually come help us?

As I keep thinking of what the mentors could be doing, they walk into the room with Elita following behind. Brandy, the girl, seems a lot more approachable then Bryon, who just grabs a drink sits down. After a minute of silence, Bryon goes behind Coron and pats him on the back, "I want to speak with you, come on," he says nodding along, breaking Coron's focus on just food.

As I look away from them, I realize Brandy is looking right at me. She waved me over, so I sit across from her. "We're going to be in here for a while. We'll talk more in the morning, but things aren't going to be easy." I cling onto every word she says. I need all the help I can get, how am I supposed to win? Brandy stands and walks to Coron and Bryon. They definitely have more faith in him then me, who wouldn't?

As Elita sees me alone, she walks over and smiles again at me, but this time it doesn't upset me. "How about we go see your room?" She leads me to a separate room, probably cost more than my house. Elita leaves me, and I go lay on the extremely soft bed. If I could sleep on a cloud, I imagine this is what I would be like. But I can't fall asleep. It's unnatural, I've gotten so used to my rough springy bed that I struggle to fall asleep.

At some point I must've dozed off because I'm woken by Elita shaking me, "Kyra! Get up." I groan and try to stay in bed before she rips the cover of my body, the cold air of the train hits my legs and arms sending chills along my body. "Get up now."