Through the Struggle (Through the Eyes Sequel)

Chapter 2

"Get out of here before I kill before the games even start," Hummer warns at the boy. "and if you lay another finger on her, I swear to God that you'll be the first person I come after in the arena."

The boy grunts and walks away. I look up at Hummer, my breath still taken away.

"Are you alright?" He asks. I nod my head a little too quickly and swallow, trying to shake off the heat of the moment.

At that moment, everyone else chosen for the Quarter Quell fills the room, andI see the other tributes for the first time. Every single one of them is taller than me. Almost every guy is a buff as Asher or Hummer. I'm defiantly the smallest person here. A blonde girl walks up to me and smiles.

"Oh my gosh, you're Ariston Mallow! I watched you last year and you were incredible!" She says and nearly bounces up and down.

"Um, thank you." I say. She looks up at Hummer.

"Hey, I bet you and my brother would become great friends! We should be allies! My brother over there, his name is Kyan." She points over to a tall blonde boy leaning against the wall, watching us intently. He's the protective type, I can tell. "My name is Amma. We're from District 7."

"Both of you won?" Hummer asks. She nods her head.

"We were a few years apart, but we followed the same technique, and look where it got us!" She exclaims.

"Back to the same spot." I say, answering her question. Her smile fades and she looks at me like I've lost it.

"Yeah, well, um, I'll see you guys later." She says nervously and hurries off.

"You alright?" Hummer asks again. I nod and regret how uncomfortable I made Amma feel.

"Alright, tributes! Listen up. Line up against the wall in order from your District. This time we're starting with 12 and going backwards." A man announces and everyone shuffles to get in order.

"Here we go," Hummer says and I nod. We make our way to the back of the line and let the other tributes fill in in front of us.

The two from 1 seem to be awfully quiet. Hummer tries to spark a conversation, but they refuse. They're both nineteen and very muscular. If I got into a brawl with that girl, there's no way I would win. Her strength would defiantly overpower me.

The Interviews finally begin with the boy from 12. Not a victor, and neither is the girl. They didn't have any victors from 12 so they had to have a regular reaping. The boy is goofy and cracks jokes. He's defiantly a favorite. The girl is the same way on stage. She throws jokes at the crowd and they return with laughter.

The two from 11 are very quite. They're big too. The boy reminds me a lot of Demarcus, who died in the Bloodbath last year. The girl seems confident that she'll make it through to the very end. I hear Amma's name slip up in her conversation. They're probably off to a bad start.

The pair from 10 are calm and collective and talk in a twangy accent. Not much excitement in their interview, and I can tell that the crowd is starting to get bored. The same goes with the people from 9, minus the accent.

But when it gets down to the tributes from 8, it's gets exciting for everyone except me.

"Who would you say is your biggest threat?" Loan Foreseen asks the girl from 8.