My Name is Silver (A hunger games fan fic)

Chapter 2

As usual the videos started off in the far away places, where the circus comes from. I always liked looking at them, looking at how they were different or the same. Frown always told me to focus on the entertainment, the people, but I couldn't help it. What I saw on the screen was so different to everything I saw at home that I had to drink it all in.

The first place was, in my head, the Sparkle place. Everything glittered and shone, even the people. It was the closest I ever saw to home, and yet so different. Everybody looked similar, with gleaming blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and everybody looked fit and beautiful. The buildings were made out of smooth rocks and there were banners with people I had seen before hanging from the windows, faces of people who had beaten the Game fluttering in the breeze. They looked scary but they didn't scare me. And then there was the usual procedure; woman up on stage - this year she looked like Yellow - she pulled a name out of a shiny, colourful box, she read out the name and somebody else walked up onto the stage. This was normal for the Sparkle place, and a few others. People cheered happily, which I liked because it reminded me of myself. I never paid attention to the names. The boy grinned and laughed at everybody. The girl giggled and cheered. Both of them looked strong, but I knew better than to be fooled by that. All I would have to do is take them by surprise. Piece of cake, as Yellow might have said.

The second place was the Shiny place. I liked it; it was all blunt edges and gleaming metal, with sharp hills that I would have loved to run around on. It was always windy; I'd never felt wind. Not that I could remember. The wind played with the people's hair like it was actually alive. And everybody there looked cold and tough. They mostly had dark hair and eyes and they were like the complete opposite of the people in the Sparkle place. They didn't smile but to me they still looked happy. Content, that was the word. Only I didn't know it at the time. The boy was like all the others I'd seen come from there, only he didn't seem proud or anything. He just looked cold and emotionless. That worried me; what was he hiding? But then again, Frown had told me not to be bothered about that because they were still children, after all. They still had emotions. The girl was like the opposite, pretty like I was used to, and with a softer face than everybody around her. She even smiled as she ran up onto the stage. I remember thinking her name was quite silly and decorative. Which was odd, thinking about it, because so was mine. Anyway, she didn't look so tough. And the Shiny place were usually very tough indeed. They often lasted longer than the others.

The third place was the Cold place. Everybody always seemed to be wearing a lot of clothes, especially compared to the first two places, and it was always quite windy. It looked cold in the other way too; not much colour or shine, and people didn't seem happy. Lots of them looked angry. That confused me; I had never been told about people being angry about the Games. But when I asked Frown he'd said it didn't matter. The Cold place seemed very dull and uninteresting. They never did well and people cried a lot when they had to go on stage. The girl didn't cry, which was disappointing. There didn't seem to be anything else special about her. I wouldn't even need weapons to deal with her. The boy was different. For a start, first they called a boy up on stage who looked just like him. But then the other boy came up. He surprised me. His narrow eyes seemed to see everything; I wouldn't be able to sneak up on him. He fitted the Cold place well, brushing off people trying to shake his hand and turning away from the speech. 

I liked the Water place best. Yellow had been and told me that it smelt badly of fish, but on screen it looked so pretty. Everything was draped in blue and green paper and things glittered and there was just so much to look at that I nearly missed seeing the people come up on stage. I had never seen a real fish before. The weather there was always perfect and girls floated around in frothy dresses, smiling. In the distance a huge body of water gleamed and danced. I just wanted to jump into it. But then I reminded myself that I wasn't allowed to be distracted, and I watched the people instead. The girl stormed up onto the stage, stamping her feet and crossing her arms. She was angry, or fed up, or both. Usually people in the Water place cheered, but not for this girl. I thought she might try and run away and I could hit her in the back with a knife and she would never see it coming. People cheered for the boy, who smiled nicely at everybody and apologised in his speech to those people who would have wanted a go. He seemed too nice. Frown had told me; the nice ones are the easiest to kill, but it seemed to me a little like this boy was acting.