Dying is easy, living is harder

Part 2

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Growing up, they had called themselves the Dragon Riders. It had been her, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Annie. At the age of five, they used to play pretend but where others would play act family, they would pretend to be dragon riders. Their parents started nicknaming them that as a joke and it stuck.

She couldn't remember a time before Annie had been in her life. All of her earliest memories contained the clumsy girl who couldn't help but get into trouble at every turn. The misadventures they had all been dragged into because of Annie's inclination towards accidentally starting chaos was legendary. The twins loved it.

One big adventure that always brought a smile to her face was the time they built an ant farm in Annie's room when they were six.

Tuffnut had stepped on an ant hill. Ruffnut and Snotlout had laughed at the swarm of ants running around in panic but Annie had cried and cried over the insects losing their home to Tuffnut's sneakers.

Astrid and Fishlegs ended up helping her gather as many of the ants as possible into a box before bringing it to her room to "give them a home after destroying their old one". They hid it right behind her wastebasket, and it stayed hidden for three days. The twins and Snotlout ended up bringing candy, half a donut, a slice of bread and a chicken nugget to feed the ants.

Stoick found out by walking into his daughter's room only to find her cousin in the middle of peeing into the box to "water the ants" as he had explained. She still can't remember the logic behind that one.

Stoick's face was so red, she had been scared he would explode but when she explained it all to her parents later that night, her father had been unable to keep a straight face and her mother had explained through her cackling that the ants would do just fine without being peed on.

She remembered the first time Annie had needed to go to Panem. How her red eyes and freckles had jumped out against her pale, scared face. She was staying close to Gobber and Stoick as if she would never see them again. She was just twelve and Panem wouldn't even let her father come with her! It had been arranged that she would be staying with her grandfather, the mayor of District Four during her time there.

Astrid had been so angry that her closest friend was missing weeks of the end of sixth grade because of that stupid technicality of her being born in Panem but seeing Annie's shaking arms and clenched fists, she had forced herself to calm down and to hold her hand reassuringly.

"When you come home, you're going to have to tell me everything!" She tried to add some excitement to her voice as she smiled the fakest smile that ever crossed her face. "We'll have to have a sleepover right away, just the two of us. And I'll tell you everything that you missed at school."

Astrid turned expectantly towards Stoick. Under the gaze of the two little girls, his tired eyes softened a fraction and his face relaxed slightly under that giant beard that hid his scowls and smiles.

"I suppose missing one night more with my daughter when she comes home is a small price to pay in the long run."

Tightening her grip on Astrid's hand, Annie had turned towards Astrid.

"I'll be holding you to that," she said, relief making way for the familiar glint that warned of chaos to come in her eye.

"It's a dragon rider promise," Astrid held out her pinky confidently. "And you know that can't be broken."

A crooked smile crossed Annie's lips at their coined phrase and she crossed her pinky with her own.

If only Astrid had known it would be the last time she ever saw that expression on Annie's face.

"Annie Haddock was an intelligent student with a bright future ahead of her. She had intended to go to CalTech in engineering, the world was truly her oyster. She will be dearly missed." Principal Higgins' voice brought her to the present. Mrs. Reynold let out a sob. "If you have any questions, Mrs. Reynold's is here to answer them. I will be announcing this on the intercom in two hours for the rest of the school but I thought it would be best to give you all, her classmates, some warning in advance. Once again, towards her friends and family I'm so sorry for your loss."

Leaving them all to stew in their stunned silence, he walked out of the classroom.

"Mrs. Reynolds?" Heather raised her hand slowly and hesitantly. "What are the Hunger Games exactly?"

"Are you kidding me, Heather! How do you not know this already?" Snotlout angrily said. As surprised as she and everyone else was at Snotlout getting frustrated with one of the prettiest girls in school, she couldn't blame him.

One of the only things that is known so far about Panem is how isolated it is, its advanced technology and that it holds death matches between the children of the districts every year on live television. Ten years ago, someone hacked into Panem's televisions and posted a five minute video from the Hunger Games on YouTube. It exposed the event for what it is, brutal murder of children by children. It went viral and while she had never seen it, she knows that it was so gory and brutal that it got banned within hours.

Not much is known on how the Hunger Games work, if they make them duel to the death one at a time or just drop them off somewhere without letting them leave until just one child is left alive. Pretty much everyone has heard about the event, if only to condemn Panem's actions while gossiping. It fascinates people too as who isn't just a bit fascinated with death?

It's pretty unbelievable that Heather hasn't heard about it before. Granted, the Dragon Riders know just a bit more than most because of Annie being forced to return to District Four just to watch it.

Mrs. Reynold's wiped her eyes.

"The Hunger Games are what makes Panem so infamous. Every year, they nominate children between the ages of twelve and eighteen from each of their twelve districts and pit them against one another in an arena where they fight to the death. It's absolutely disgusting!" She lets out another small sob against her will. "At the end, only one survives. And now Annie has been nominated in her district!"