Girl on Fire (Avatar/Hunger Games Crossover)

Volounteer

My name is Katniss Everdeen, a firebender from District 12, the smallest district in the Fire Sector of the nation of Panem. My sister was reaped in the Hunger Games, and I volunteered for her, now I'm on a train headed for a fight I can't win.

The words repeat over and over in my mind as I pace the train car. Hunting with my best friend Gale, hearing Prim's name called in the reaping, and even the tearful goodbyes seem to have happened years ago.

"Ms. Effie wants you in the dining car,"  a voice says from the door.

I jump a little and turn quickly, but it's just a capitol attendant poking his head in.

"I'll be there in a minute,"

He nods and leaves, and I pull out the gifts I received during my goodbyes, setting them on the dresser. A bag of cookies from the baker in town, who is also my fellow tributes father. A golden pin that was given to me by my friend Madge as my token in the games. I pick the pin back up and pin it to my blue dress, it's a bird suspended in flight. I think it's a mockingjay to be exact, and on the dress, it looks like it's soaring through the sky.

I leave the cookies in my room and go to the dining car as requested. Peeta, the boy who was reaped from my district, Haymitch, my mentor, and Effie, our escort, were already present. 

Effie looked up immediately and ushered quickly for me to sit down, I swear that woman does everything briskly. Peeta was shoveling food onto his plate with gusto, and Haymitch was drinking. Haymitch is always drinking, whenever he shows up to the black market in District 12 he always seems to be standing around Ripper, the one armed woman who sells white liquor. 

"Now we can actually begin eating," Effie says shrilly, like they were waiting for me for hours instead of just a few moments. 

"Already eaten," mumbles Haymitch, and he stumbles out of the train car. As he passes me, I get a whiff of the alcohol he's been drinking and I think its a miracle he can walk at all.

"What did he eat?" I ask to the group at large, "Wine?" 

"I'm pretty sure it was whisky," he says with a sardonic smile.

"Don't talk like that," Effie snaps. "He's your mentor, and a good firebender when he puts his mind to it,"

"He shouldn't be firebending in that condition," Peeta says.

I laugh and light a flame on my finger. "With all the alcohol, no one should be lighting a match within fifty feet of him,"

"Well he's your only lifeline in the arena," Effie says with her lips pursed. Then she leaves, mentioning something about upset digestion to one of the capitol attendants in the room.

"Do you know how hard it is to work with those two? Effie was grilling me with questions the whole time," Peeta says, then he slips into a high pitched capitol accent. "'Can you hold a fork and knife properly? Do you know how to speak to a crowd? Do you have any meaningful survival skills? Are you a firebender?' It was crazy,"

I'm not used to this, people talking to me like a friend and I know I don't I like it. Considering the position Peeta and I are in, it's not time to be making friends. I need to stop this before he thinks his little "nice guy" act has gotten to me.

I let the small spark on my finger fill my palm and hold it out to him. He instinctively backs away and I let the flames warm up  until they're nearly white hot and I know he can feel the intense heat. 

"So, are you a firebender?" I say.

"No," He says quickly. "But you're clearly a good one, I think you scared Effie away when you lit the flame on your finger,"

I close my fist and the fire goes out, Peeta visibly relaxes and I smile a bit. There, lets see how nice he's willing to be if he knows I can and will burn him to a crisp.

We continue the rest of the meal in silence, but the food is so good I don't think either of us cares. I've never had food like this at home, being from the poorest section of District 12, the Seam. Peeta grew up in town, so he could be considered "well to do" by our standards, but now with the decadent meal in front of us it makes even the mayor look poor.

"We should watch the reaping," Peeta says once I'm scraping the last of my third helping off my plate.

He's right, the recap of the reaping is our first look at who we are up against. Very little is shown from the first glances, we still don't know who can use weapons or who has the potential to be an experienced bender. 

I try to make a list in my head of the tributes, but only a few stand out in my mind. A large boy from the Earth District 2 volunteers, and he's a career too. Technically you aren't allowed to train for the hunger games, yet the Airbenders of District 1, Earthbenders of District 2, and Waterbenders of District 4 all volunteer for the hunger games and come in with mastery of their bending and the ability to use many deadly weapons. 

There's a girl from District 5, with bright red hair and quick eyes that reminds me of a fox's who's also called, boy from District 10 with a crippled leg has to limp up to the stage when his name is drawn, but the tribute who stands out to me the most is a girl from District 11 who looks like Prim. Small, thin, with dark skin and curly black hair, she's a little wisp of a twelve year old and unlike Prim, no one steps forward when they call for volunteers.

I look frantic as I rush up to the stage when Prim's name is called, and Peeta looks like he's about to cry, but nothing stands out at our reaping except Haymitch falling off of the stage in a drunk stumble.

"Well I'm going to go check on Haymitch" Peeta says once the reaping program has concluded. 

He's being nice to Haymitch for no reason because that's who he is, a nice person. I don't like nice people, they get inside me and unless he drops the kindness thing early, it's going to be very very hard to kill him.

Author's Note:

Hello people, and welcome to the end of chapter 1. This took me longer than I am willing to admit so I'm not going to make a set time for the next one to come out, but I'll be generous and say I'll try to get it out within the next week. If you're reading this good on you, if you skipped the author's note all together than I can't blame you. Also if you read the first chapter and decided that you hated my writing style and never want to see anything written by me again.... I'm sure you're a good person. Questions, corrections, or concerns are welcome, and I won't keep you from better fanfics any longer.