Hunger Games Perspective Project (Lavinia the Avox)

Lavinia the Avox

Entry 1

My name is Lavinia. I live in the Capitol, the very place I hate the most. You might be wondering why. I mean, this place has everything I could ever need and want, right? I don't have to lift a finger to live comfortably in this society, but still I find myself wishing I was born into the districts instead of the Capitol. Sure, most of the districts are poor, starving and are forced to participate in the Hunger Games, but they have something the Capitol will never have. Authenticity. The people in the districts are real. They can't hide behind plastic surgeries, dyes and gaudy outfits. Everything they have is real, the grass, the dirt, even the air! The Capitol's air is saturated with pollution, so the the government installed machines around the city that suck out the toxins and replaces it with synthetic oxygen. The very air I breathe is fake-

"Lavinia! Put that away!" Mrs. Julius's voice rang out. I jumped in surprise and stuffed the pale blue book into my backpack. I should've known better than to write during class, if that book was found by anybody, I could get arrested. Nobody spoke out against the Capitol like that without thorough punishment. If you were lucky, all you would get is a death sentence.

"Good, now as I was saying," Mrs Julius continued, "The hunger games was established to bring peace after the war. In exchange for peace, the each district was to sacrifice one boy and girl to the Capitol," I tuned her out. We had this lecture each year before the annual Hunger Games. This year was the 73rd Hunger Games. I never liked it, unlike my classmates. I sighed and stared out the window. We were pretty close to the mountain range that trapped us in this terrible, fake city.

When class was over, I was walking down the hallway when someone knocked into me, spilling all of my books out of my backpack. I turned around to see who caused me such an inconvenience, and my eyes locked with Marcus's pale green ones. Any bad feelings within me instantly melted away. We have been dating for about a month, and he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

"I'm so sorry, Lavinia," he stammered, "Here, let me help you,"

"It's fine, Marcus, really," I said as I quickly put away my diary. He picked up the rest of the books and put them in my backpack.

"So, um Lavinia, are you free today?" He asked, blushing.

"Yeah, what did you have in mind?" I asked.

"I don't know, I just thought we could hang out," He replied.

"That sounds great! Should we meet at four, by the fountain?" I asked

"Yeah, see you there!" Marcus said. I smiled and walked away, maybe this day wasn't so bad after all.

I met Marcus by the large fountain in the center of town, just like we agreed. We went and watched a movie called Simply Fabulous! I didn't really like it. It was one of those crummy Capitol movies. Marcus made up for it though, and bought us some smoothies. We watched the sunset over the mountains together.

"Hey, Marcus," I asked cautiously, not knowing how he would react, "Do you ever feel like leaving this place? The Capitol, I mean,"

He sighed "All the time," he admitted. We went on to talk about all the things we hated about the Capitol. I showed him my diary and told him that I had enough of the Capitol and I was on the brink of tears.

"Shh, calm down," he said softly. He leaned in very close. "We will leave this place," he pressed his lips against mine. They lingered there before he pulled away. It was out first kiss.

"Together," he said softly.

"Together," I repeated.

We had a plan. We would leave the Capitol and never look back. Neither of us had anything left here. My parents probably wouldn't notice. They never loved me anyway, they are the same as the rest of the self loving Capitol citizens. My parents don't even love each other, they just married for the marriage benefits the Capitol offered. Our school is going on a field trip to District one tomorrow. That is when Marcus and I will make our escape. Instead of books, we have crammed our backpacks full of food for our long journey. We haven't decided where we are going to go yet. Just as far away from the Capitol as possible for now. The train ride to District One was only a half hour long on the high speed trains. Once we got off, Marcus and I broke away from the class while the teacher wasn't watching, and ran away from the train tracks. We got passed the fence and were finally free. I grabbed Marcus's hand and we ran into the wilderness together.