A Million Fireflies | A Hunger Games x KOTLC Fanfiction

Chapter 1

My heart pounds in my chest.

You won't get picked, I remind myself. Your name has only been in there seven times, unlike some of the other girls.

I eye the bowl filled with the names of every teenage girl in district twelve.

My name was put in once when I was 12, then 13, then 14. Then again when I was 15. But things had gotten a bit harder in the last year, so for the first time I took tessarae for me, Grady and Edaline.

I notice I am shaking uncontrollably as Effie Trinket, the District Twelve Capitol representative for the reaping, daintily sticks her hand in the bowl. She pulls out a slip of paper. My chest tightens as she takes a breath and opens her mouth to speak.

"Sophie Foster."

It's all I can do to keep from screaming. The girls around me step back, opening a path to the stage. They look scared of me, as if getting any closer to me would give them a fatal disease.

Slowly, I make my way down the dirt path to the stage. I feel like crying from the shock, but I have to stay brave, mostly for the cameras. The tributes from the other districts watching the TV replay of our reaping will mark me as an easy target. A crybaby.

I hold my head up high and march to the stage. Effie beams at me. She says something but I'm not listening.

Her white hand then goes into the bowl of boys' names. It digs around for a second. I don't feel nervous as she does this. I don't have any brothers or close friends who are boys. I don't have a boyfriend either. What's the point? He'd probably just get chosen at the reaping and then murdered in the arena.

Another slip of paper is chosen and Effie holds it up to the dim sunlight. "Dex Dizznee!"

Oh my god. I nearly fall off the stage. That's my cousin!

The one boy who could possibly be reaped that I care about!

Dex stumbles forward to the stage. He catches my eye. He's already been crying with the shock of me being chosen. He doesn't do much to stop the flow of tears. I want to grab Dex and shake him. With his strawberry blonde hair, skinny build and his innocent freckles, he already looks like a sure kill for the Careers. Crying will make him seem even more pathetic.

I watch as our mentor stumbles onto the stage. He's a blown up old man, wrinkles and everything. He smells awful.

Effie beams at the crowd. "This is Errol Forkle," she says. Errol raises his hand as Effie continues. "He will mentor the chil-"

I stop listening as Effie drones on.

Errol Forkle, I think. Only four people have ever won the Hunger Games in District Twelve, three of which are dead. Being the only victor left, he has to teach us how to survive. Help us win. But by the looks of this rusty man, we aren't making it through the first day.

I realise Effie has just finished her speech.

"Happy Hunger Games!" she trills. "And may the odds be ever in your favour!"

Safe from the cameras now.

That's all I can think as I huddle on a chair in the small room behind the reaping stage. Effie said that Grady and Edaline will come and say goodbye.

Say goodbye.

It sounds so eerie. The way she said made it sound like. . . she thought I wasn't coming back.

Well, I probably wasn't.

Grady and Edaline burst through the doors. Edaline is crying and Grady's expression is unreadable.