The 31st Hunger Games

Reaping Ceremony

        "Attention, attention!" the lady at the front called. 

I didn't understand why she was saying this, she was acting as if people were actually talking. All eyes were already on her. 

        "Welcome and happy Hunger Games everyone!" she said in her over-joyous Capitol accent. She was wearing a tomato red skirt with a tomato red blouse and, guess what, a tomato red wig and matching heels. "Before we begin , I believe the mayor of District 7 has a few words."

I rolled my eyes. Every year it was the same thing. The creepy Capitol lady came, ran the Reaping Ceremony, drew names and took two kids that were most likely never seen alive again. This was my fifth year and I understood how everything worked so that's why this year I allowed my self to daydream. I started off thinking about how someone could make a colour look that bad. Then I drifted to what I actually thought of this stupid ceremony. We didn't deserve this, no one deserved to go into the Hunger Games. 

No, I thought to myself, I won't think about it today. Not on this day... 

        "Isn't that your name?" A boy beside me said startling me from my thoughts. 

        "What?" I said confused. Something was going on. And that's when I heard it.

       "Ho-ly?" The lady at the front attempted to say. "Holy Two-a-bake? Do we have a Holy Twoabake here?" She was starting to turn the colour of her outfit. She was embarrassed, no one was coming up. Her eyes darted towards the Peace Keepers on duty as if they could help her. 

She thinks the girl just isn't going up, I thought to myself. Really what was happening was there was no one in District 7 with that name or last name. Or someone was pulling a prank. The odds of that were unlikely since the result would probably be a public flogging and community work. The thought still made me smile though. 

        "is she trying to pronounce you name?" The boy beside me asked. He was tall, taller than me, with blues eyes and light brown hair. 

        "Well I sure as hell hope not." I hissed at him. 

        "Oh! I'm sorry," he rushed as his eyes widened, "I didn't mean it like-" his gaze darted towards the stage and I followed it. A small man was coming on stage and making his way to the extremely red lady at the microphone. When he got there she had to bend down to hear the man. She was too tall in those heels. The man started to whisper in her ear.

        "Oh. Oh alright." She said as her face turned an even bright shade of red. The man whispered some more and the lady took a step back. "Me!? This is your District and your funny names! You should do it!" She whispered harshly. She didn't realize that anyone who bothered to pay attention could hear her. The man shook his head and walked off stage. "I hate your District and its funny names!" She hissed almost directly into the microphone. She smiled awkwardly at the audience after realizing her mistake and turned a shade of red that I didn't even think was humanly possible. "Well on with the show!" She cheered but it died as soon as she realized no one else was cheering. She cleared her throat and said "Holly Toabik, could you please come up?"

 I was frozen standing there. The only reason they knew it was me was because everyone around me had quickly as if being near me would somehow make them tributes as well. Everyone except the boy. 

        "Holly?" He said shaking my shoulder. "Holly, you gotta go up" He said slightly pointing to the stage. I didn't move. The Peace Keepers had to come get me. They were leading me down the isle when I started thinking. 

        Well that's just beautiful you idiot!, I thought to myself. Now everyone is just gonna think you're just some wimp who freezes in the face of danger! We were at the stairs and they let me climb them myself when I had an idea.

        "Not in this lifetime." I whispered under my breath. I jumped off the side of the stairs and started running. I could hear shrieks and gasps behind me but also cheers. Most were probably because some of gamblers had bet that at least one tribute would put up a fight but they were cheers none the less. I was running as fast as I could and I wasn't going to look back. That's when I felt something tackle me. A blur of white. A Peace Keeper. We fell to the ground and I heard a bone shattering "CRACK". I didn't know what happened but my head really hurt and things were blurry. 

        "Over here!' The Peace Keeper shouted. "I caught her!" Other Peace Keepers were coming and were going to be here soon. Like hell you caught me, I thought. I struggled to get up but the Peace Keeper had my one shoulder pinned. "What the-" He started but never finished. I grabbed the back of his head and used him being this surprised to my advantage. I smashed his face into the ground. He let go and I stood up and ran. I couldn't go fast or I would fall and I wasn't running straight but I was running. Unfortunately the other Peace Keepers had caught up. I heard them behind me. Then something quickly pulled me back and turned me around and before I could process anymore than white I felt all the air being sucked out of me.

There was a horrible pain in my stomach and every thing was going black. The Peace Keepers were talking but none of it made any sense. It was all gibberish. I saw out of my closing eyes the Peace Keeper who's face I smashed. He had had his visor on so there wasn't much damage to his actual face but the thing was completely shattered. He looked me in the eye and then I felt a streak of pain in my cheek and neck and I was now facing the other direction. I saw a dark red liquid now pooling beside me and I could feel it too. But it didn't matter. No, none of it mattered because I was already sentenced to death anyway.

I was going to the Hunger Games. 

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Authors note: sorry if things arent capitalized or something my shift key is broken (long story) and kinda hard to use so sorry about that! and if you dont know how to pronounce Holly's last name its tow-a-bic (like bic pens) anyways hope this helped :))