Fatal Reality: The 800th Hunger Games

District 5 Reaping

*Alexandria Bairner's P.O.V.*

I pull my neat, dark brown hair back into a ponytail.  I usually wear it up in a cap, but today's the reaping of the Hunger Games.  You're supposed to look nice. 

"Al, sweetie, here's your outfit," Mom calls softly through the door.  I crack it open and take a peek at it:  A simple black blouse and blue dress pants.  Perfect, not too girly.  Maybe I should explain the whole "tomboy" thing I do.  To put it simply, my parents wanted a boy.  A beautiful four-year-old daughter wasn't enough for them.  All I can remember is that when I was little, I heard them say things like "Oh, another girl." or "Oh, I wish Alexandria had been a boy."  I convinced myself that I was a boy; I wore my hair in a cap, I wore boy's clothes, I hung around boys.  It wasn't until kindergarten that I truly realized that I was a girl and I couldn't change that.  I walked into the boy's bathroom, and I was immediately thrown out and told to use the girl's.  I've gone by "Al" instead of my real name nearly my whole life.

"Thanks, Mom," I mumble as I close the door.  I slip the cool, cotton pants on and the silky top on over it.  I take one more look at myself and run down the stairs, eager.

"Al, honey, are you going to volunteer?" My father, the axe prodigy, asks.  I nod; my dad has taught me everything about axes: throwing, using them for defense, and killing.

"That's great sweetie!" Mom cries, hugging me.  I may only be fifteen, but I can surely whoop anybody in that arena.  My family, including my nineteen-year-old sister Victoria, head out of our large home towards the town square.

*Cameron Maynor's P.O.V.*

I  stand impatiently in the seventeen-year-old section.  I can't wait to get the reaping over with so I can go home with Mom and eat.  As the last people straggle towards their sections, Advaine Tollisula takes the stage.  She's about fifty, with jet-black hair highlighted bright green.  Her nylon jumpsuit is way too bright; it hurts my eyes.

"Hello, District 5!  Let's get this reaping on the road by starting with the gentlemen today!  Yes, we're changing things up a bit!" She crows in her ridiculous accent.  I bite my lip, waiting for that fateful paper to come out of the bowl.  "And the male tribute is...Cameron Maynor!"  I feel my eyes widen and I bravely take the stage and look out into the crowd, dazed.  No one volunteers.  Of course not, this is District 5.

"And the girl is Daisy--"

"I volunteer!" Alexandria Bairner, daughter of axe prodigy Marc Bairner, walks up to the stage.  Everyone is shocked.  Volunteers here are rare.

"What's your name, love?" Advaine chirps.

"Al Bairner!"

"Okey-dokey, then! Let's get going!"

~*~

"Goodbye, Cameron, I love you," my mother says while stroking my hair sadly.  We both know, deep down, that it will be hard for me to come back.  Veda, my cousin, doesn't care one bit.  She's hugging the living daylights out of me.

"Win, Cameron, win for me," she whispers.  They leave, still crying.  Alexandria and her parents are eagerly chatting.  Her parents leave, and we're taken away to the train where the other tributes are.