Hunger Games (Band Version)

Chapter Two: #TheChosenOne

Rey's POV

It was time for the Hunger Games again. Great. Every year, I pray that I won't make it and every year I somehow squeeze by. We're not the poorest district, so I don't take risks by putting my name in more than once. I haven't watched that many Hunger Games because I can't stand people getting killed.

   I went to the submission desk and showed them my latest SnapChat photo: me with a stray cat. Yep, that's the best I could do. I proceeded to the girls area and kept quiet. That is, until a girl approached me and started talking. She kept saying,"What if one of us are chosen? What would you do?" I mumbled my answers to her. I really didn't want to be jinxed. I wanted to stay alive for at least until the maximum age of eighteen. I'm fifteen right now.

   A woman with a white-powdered face tapped the microphone on the stage, making sure it was on. Everyone turned their attention towards her. Her hair was in a curly woman-fro and she was in all pink. She looked like a clown.

   The microphone whined for a second. Everyone put their hands on their ears. After it stopped whining, she spoke into it. "Ladies and Gentlemen,"she said. "Welcome to the reaping for the annual Hunger Games. Of course, we will start with the ladies first." She turned to the enormous bowl. After swirling her hand around a little bit, she pulled out a card and walked back over to the microphone. "Rey Barlow,"she read. Everyone turned toward me.

    "No," I said, shaking my head. "That's not true." My voice rose. "That's impossible!" then, the SnapChat picture of the cat and me appeared on the screen. I turned to glare at the girl still beside me. She jinxed me, I know she did.

I reluctantly walked up to the stage and climbed the stairs. The woman rubbed my shoulder and congratulated me. Then, she turned to the boys' bowl.

"AJ Morsa," she read. The sea of boys parted to reveal a dark, curly-haired boy about sixteen years old. He had a triangular face and nerd-glasses. He looked just about as excited as I was to be there. AJ climbed the stage and stood on the clown-woman's other side. She grabbed a hand from each of us. "Ladies and Gentlemen," she said. "Give a round of applause to the tributes for this year's annual Hunger Games." She then raised our arms as if we were pumping our fists. I looked out at the crowd. This could be the last time that I see my district. As I was looking out at the crowd, I heard a four-note whistle ring out. A mockingjay whistle. Except, it wasn't from a bird. The sound was from a trumpet.

                    * * *

    We said our final goodbyes to our families and boarded the train. AJ and I were sitting across from each other at one of the train's tables.

"So," I said, trying to strike up some friendly conversation, maybe form some alliances,"how are you handling this?"

"Well," AJ said, adjusting his glasses, "do you really think I really want to get killed in front of the world like it was some kind of game show!?"
"You have a point," I reply.

I took a selfie and titled it #TheChosenOne on SnapChat. In the previous Hunger Games, to get sponsors, you had to get people to like you through how fit you are, etc. As time wore on, we could get sponsors by posting awesome SnapChat photos. I decided it was a good time to get a head start.  There was a TV on the train. Our trainers weren't there yet, so AJ and I decided to watch the other reaping video footage. From District One, there were two boy tributes named Taylor and Troy. In some districts, opposite genders were allowed to volunteer for each other. Troy had volunteered for his girlfriend. However, he looked a lot like a career. This other Taylor guy looked like he wanted to kill everyone.

District 4 had a dark-haired, freckle-faced girl that was really nervous when she was called. However, the boy next to her was talking her ears off. I could tell she was mildly annoyed by the end of the Reaping.

There was a set of tributes from District 5 that looked really interesting. A girl about my height walked onto the stage. Her name was Lane. The boy next to her was just about as nervous as her when he strode onto the stage. He had wild hair. Suddenly, AJ said,"I bet we could work with them."

"What?"

"Well, you can already tell that they're a nervous wreck, so they're gonna need all the help they can get. We might make a good group. They're just a bunch of underdogs, like us."

"Hmm," I said. "Maybe. The girl looks to be about my age."

"Yeah," AJ said,"And the boy is probably my age."

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head in agreement. "The four of us could probably be a good team."

AJ turned to me. "Yeah?"

   "Yeah," I said. I was glad that I was already forming alliances.

We watched the rest of the Reaping ceremonies. There was another pair of boys from District 8. One guy was short and lanky. His name was Joey. He had a curly (what was that???) toupee? I have no clue. This other guy, Trent, was a tree with a fro. By looking at him, he looked like he could snap someone in half, but when he got called up to the stage, he strode up there like royalty. Like a princess.

The only other interesting pair were two boys from District Twelve. And, let me tell you, they were an interesting pair. One boy was named Niko DiAngelo.He was short, only about 4'9 or 4'11. The other boy was named Anakin Barren. He was about 6 feet tall. "Man," I said,"That little guy won't be able to keep up if he decides to team up with Anakin."

AJ laughed. "You're right," he said.

All of the other tributes looked like either underdogs or Careers, nothing much. I do know something, though: none of the other Reapings ended in a mockingjay whistle.

A/N Hey guys! This is Rey! some of you guys probably know me as @reyjedi16 . This is my first collab book. I'm really enjoying it. Just as a side note, AJ's last name-Morsa- is Swedish for Mom.