Broken Ones

Nicole- Chapter 6

"Arie-" the escort calls out but she doesn't finish.

"I volunteer!" Someone yells. 'Idiot. They just volunteered to die.' I think. The crowd was silent, and not a single soul moves forward. Someone pushes me forward. That's when I realize that I was the stupid idiot who volunteered.

A decent looking boy of a name I can't remember got reaped. He had orange curly hair, and he was, maybe fifteen or sixteen. I decide to call him Curly.

The lady tapped her heeled foot repetitively on the marble flooring. She gestures for us to shake hands. I rub my sweaty palm on my blue, frilly dress and hold out my slightly shaking hand. He takes it, and I look out to the silenced crowd. My younger sister looked like she was about to burst out in tears, but she held them in. Curly takes my hand and we slightly shake. The teal lady tapping her foot forcefully pushes us into the building while smiling and waving farewell to the still silenced crowd.

The flashback ends and I sit in my quarters in the Capitol, and the TV was playing the beginning of the District One reapings.

The girl, looked like a Barbie. Blonde hair, green eyes, pink dress. Barbie. The boy was tall and lanky. He looked like more competition than the girl, who was examining her hair. But to be honest, One wasn't very much competition this year.

Two was anything but weak. Seriously. The boy, tall, blonde, blue-eyed, muscular, looked like he could snap your neck with the twist of his arm. And he probably can. The girl, short, brunette, freckled, blue-grey-green-eyed or whatever the mix of colors her eyes are, on the outside looked weak. But the smirk she sent to the camera tells a different story. It's a 'don't judge a book by its cover' moment. She will be my ally, and that's a good thing, unless the other Careers were too ignorant to see Clove's, at least I think her name was Clove, strong quality, at least physically. I can't speak for her mental state. The only reason she is probably like that is because something tragic happened in her life... or its just her district. Or both, I don't know.

There was one second she took off her mask. It's when she saw the boy, I don't remember his name. For a split second, I saw sadness, and it looked like she was completely shattered. In an instant when she realized it went down, she strapped it on again. His guard went down as well, but looked like it never exactly went back up. They knew each other.

Three's reaping had a decent looking boy, even being only fifteen. The girl looked, and was, weak. What is surprising is that she was my age, 18.

Our reaping showed up. I skipped through it.

Five had a girl with fox-like features and fiery red hair. Her name was Finch or Ellanyiea or something like that. The boy was only thirteen. Weak as well.

Six through Nine nothing stood out at all. There was a cripple from ten, but he otherwise looked quite strong. He was eighteen. The girl was only fourteen.

Eleven had a really small twelve year old girl and a huge eighteen year old male. She looked like an ant next to him. He was huge. Probably one of the toughest competition, besides the Two boy, Clove, and the One boy. Well maybe more of just Two...

Twelve had a little twelve year old, very weak, blonde by the name of Primrose. I catch the names I like most of the time.

That's when the unthinkable happens. Remember when I said Twelve had a twelve year old? It's because Twelve had its first volunteer. Ever. Her older sister, comes out and volunteers. She had dark hair, braided into a bun, and wise, grey eyes. I missed her name. But the only reason I know it's her sister is because the escort said, "I bet my hat that was your sister!" And she nodded in response. The boy looked decent, he could also be part of the alliance. It said he was the bakers son. I missed his name as well. Typical...