"Alexander Lightwood" Effie Trinket said after picking his name from a bowl of hundreds for the district 12 reaping. The first this he did was look over to his sister, Isabelle, who slightly shook her head in pain. She couldn't lose another brother, not after Max.
Max had died in last year's hunger games at just age 12. Every day since, Alec had regretted not volunteering, but Isabelle had forgiven him, it's not your fault, she had said, she always forgave him.
But this was not a co-incidence, Alec thought as he walked toward the meagre stage a few district 12 workers had put up. How could it be? Two brothers had been picked for the reaping two years running.
All he could think was at least it wasn't Jace. Jace was Alec's adopted brother who he'd always had a crush on, since he was ten and he had moved in with Alec's parents. His mother had died when he was 2 in a house fire and his father had died when he was 10. This meant that the lightwoods had taken him under their wing at that age.
Isabelle was the only person that knew Alec's secret.
Alec stepped on stage next to Effie Trinket, and Effie was stood next to a girl called Maia. She was pretty for a girl from 12 and smiled at him, he awkwardly smiled back. She had dark, thick hair and eyes that were slightly too dark to be brown, but too brown to be black.
"Alec?" Effie had asked him a question, but he was too deep in his own thoughts to have listened.
"Sorry?" He replied, hoping to hear the question again.
"I said," She said, smiling impatiently at the cameras, "How old are you, Alec?"
"Just turned 18." He said into the microphone Effie held at his mouth.
"Well, good job you got here in your last chance, isn't it?" Alec felt a strong urge to punch her in the face, but managed to fight it.
"I guess." He replied.
"Well, isn't this all brilliant?" Effie tried to lighten up the mood.
For the first time since he was reaped, Alec made eye contact with Jace, who had been staring at him, looking lost, since Alec's name was called out.
"Let's all have a big round of applause for this year's district 12 tributes!" She took Alec's right hand and Maia's left hand, held them up in the air and brought them down again. As if this was all some theatre show and they were the actors in it. The rest of district 12 solemnly applauded, "Bravo!"
She then led the two tributes off stage and showed Alec his "goodbyes" room and led Maia on to her room.
The first people to come in, of course, were Alec's family, but for some reason they wouldn't let Jace in because he was adopted. He'll be coming next, Alec thought.
"Alec, I'm so sorry!" Izzy said, hugging him.
"Mum, dad, I have to… I have to tell you something." Alec said, his vision blurred with tears.
"Alec, it's all right." Izzy tried to interrupt him, but when he stared at her, she asked him, "are you sure?" he nodded.
"I'm gay." He said, at which his parents left the room, angrily pulling Izzy away.
"No, dad, let go of me!" Izzy yelled.
Alec could hear his parents saying things like, "what is wrong with you?", "was it our fault, our parenting?", "Izzy, you're straight aren't you?" and, "it's just not natural!" but all he could do was cry.