D7, Johanna Mason:
I groggily open my eyes an inch or two, the world seems obscure and fuzzy with different colours merging into different shapes. I see a blue here, a red there. I prop myself up on my left elbow and rub my eyes. Now I can make out objects, a dresser with a dusty and cracked mirror, the door handle with chips of gold paint left on it revealing the bronze colour underneath. I groan, my muscles ache and I think I feel a bone or two crack as I start moving my joints. The bed I sleep on is very cold, I smooth out some creases eventually realising it doesn't do squat so I start the process of getting out of bed. I will admit, I am not a morning person in the slightest, usually you can't get me out of bed before 10:00 am, but today is an exception, today is the day of the reaping. I gradually lift one leg, my left leg, out of the covers. I then proceed to do the same with my right leg, I then lift myself up and place my feet gently on the cold wooden floorboards. This is when I get a glimpse of myself in the dusty old mirror. My facial expression makes me looked bored, the half-closed eyelids and the frown. Then again, I always look like that. That may have to change today, if I do indeed get reaped, as I had come up with a strategy when I turned 12 and I have been prepared to do that strategy ever since, 4 years later at the age of 16. My hair is a tad messy but I can easily fix that with a cold shower. I smirk to myself, our district is that poor that we don't even get showers. I walk down to our "great" bathroom, and get undressed. Our shower is basically a tap that we have to duck under, obviously it is one temperature, you guessed it, cold. I've had enough of these makeshift showers for a life time for them to really affect me. I let the cool water run over my body, I wash my bed hair and get all the dirt out. I look at my nails, there is dirt practically embedded into them, I doubt it will ever come out. I turn the grungy tap off and dry myself with our one filthy towel. I then enter my room again and get ready for the reaping. I choose a green dress that goes down to my knees. I then tie my raven black hair into a typical pony tail. My Mother then walks into the room to check on me. I turn to her and she looks like she is about to cry.
"Oh, Johanna, you look beautiful" she almost sobs. She then walks up to me and embraces me into a hug.
"There, there Mom" I say awkwardly while I pat her on the back. I'm not really the cheering up type, I'm mostly quite hostile to people, my Mom and Dad are one of the few people I care about. She lets go and looks at me.
"We are going in about half an hour" she informs me. I nod in response. She walks out of the room right after and I sigh with pity. When my Mom was 13, her sister was reaped at the age of 15 for the 49th Annual Hunger Games. She did very well, and made it to the top 6. She got stabbed in the left shoulder by the girl from District 1, and was left there to die. A boy, from District 9, found her and took her to his base. Apparently he had fallen in love with her and desperately tried to save her. She bled to death, this drove the boy to madness, and he went insane and slaughtered the boy from 10, the girl from 8, the boy from 4 and finally the girl from 1 with my Mothers sisters' axe. That was the fourth year in a row an outlying district had won, the previous three being 3, 11 and 5.
I walk outside into our small backyard and crawl under the fence. The hole was made by a fox that had thought we had some type of animal out here. I follow a path made by years of walking up and down, day by day. I come out this way every day to take out my anger on the Capitol. I reach the end of the worn muddy path and look under a particular bush. They were still there, sharp and shiny as ever. I pull out first a tomahawk, extremely sharp at the blade, patterns carved into the metal. Next I pull out my light weighted but menacing looking axe, can chop through almost anything. For a couple hours per day I usually tend to practice throwing the tomahawk, and then use the axe against trees as if they were my enemies. Both weapons were from the dark days and belonged to the rebels of District 7. I honestly can't remember how our family got these though. My parents thought it was lost once my grandfather died, but they don't know he gave them to me on his death bed. I practice combat with my axe for about 25 minutes until I realise that the reaping was on. I quickly stuff the tomahawk and axe under the same bush and bolt back to my house. I arrive to a panicking Mom.
"There you are, where have you been, we need to go"! she exclaims.
"It doesn't matter, let's just move" I scream. Both me and my Mom head to the town square, my dad is busy working so he is not able to make it. I give my Mom one last final hug, she looks at me with a comforting look.
"No matter what happens, be strong" she instructs. I nod in response. I head over to the Peacekeepers and get my finger pricked, it stings but I barely flicker an eye lid. I walk over to the 16 year old girl section and stand there in silence, I don't really have friends, it's only because I never really attempted to make some. The girls around me were all muttering to each other, wondering what age will get picked this year, saying it will be them to get picked. I notice the mayor is about to speak and so do the girls around me.
"Mia, shush" says one putting a finger to her lips. The mayor taps the microphone and clears his throat.
"Attention, now it is time to read the Treaty of Treason" he announces. I roll my eyes since this happens every year and basically everyone has memorised the Treaty of Treason. I tune it out and distract myself by looking at the balls full of slips of paper, my name is in there 26 times. I look up and the mayor is about to read the list of past District 7 victors.
"Blight Frewil, Wert Luok, Euca Mern and Jey Trut" he calls out. One by one they walk onto the stage, the 4 victors we have that are still alive. Blight walks out first, I believe he is mentoring this year, next is Wert who won the 41st Games, next is Euca who is the most recent District 7 Victor, she won the 63rd, I think she is the second mentor this year, lastly comes out Jey, she won a while ago, I think the 35th.
"Please give a warm welcome to our Escort for this year, Tulip Quail" he says starting a round of applause. He is succeeded by a few weak claps. Tulip strolls onto the stage, high heels clacking, hat almost bobbing off her head. She reaches the microphone and smiles at all of us.
"Welcome, to the 71st Annual Hunger Games" she says in the typical high Capitol pitch.
"I hope we are all very excited to see this year's man and women District 7 tributes battle it out, aren't we" she asks with excitement. It is so silent that you could hear a rain drop throughout the town square.
"Let's move on shall we" she says obviously feeling a bit bewildered. This almost makes me smirk if it wasn't for the possibility that I could be taken away forever in the next 30 seconds.
"As usual, ladies first" she says. She walks over to the bowl filled with innocent girls of District 7's names. She makes an act about deciding which slip to choose for about 10 seconds. I am almost about to snap at her when she plucks out a slip of paper from the bowl. She unfolds it slowly and speaks.
"The female tribute from District 7 for the 71st Annual Hunger Games, is, Johanna Mason".
My name echoes throughout the town square, Tulip looks around for a girl that made a reaction. The girls around me look at me with a look of utter horror. I take a deep breath and start bawling my eyes out, the steaming hot tears drip down my face, some going into my mouth so that I taste the salt. I let a waterfall pour out of my eyes as I start to walk up, my nose is dripping with mucus so I sniff it back. Through my blurry eyes, I see people shooting sympathetic looks at me, thinking I won't last a second in these games, that I will probably fall off my plate and get blown to smithereens. I almost burst out laughing, this is hilarious, they are all falling for it. Tulip has put her hand to her eyes and is shaking her head with her eyes closed. She's probably thinking she will get another pair of dud tributes again. This strategy is working great, for good measure I trip over my own feet and fall face first onto the stony ground. The Peacekeepers pick me up and carry me the rest of the way, dropping me next to Tulip. I stop crying as heavily and just start to sniff. I have got this game in the bag.
"Onto the boys" says an exasperated Tulip. She walks over and this time plucks out a slip as quickly as possible, probably just to get this reaping over and done with. She unfolds it and reads it out.
"The male tribute from District 7 for the 71st Annual Hunger Games is, Bark Terrace". I watch as a slightly stocky, tall boy comes from the 17 year old section. I can already tell, he will be a favourite, wavy blonde hair, kind green eyes, the colour of the trees, fair skin, probably experienced with axes, but not as much as me, I think to myself. I also can tell that Tulip is a lot happier that she actually got a decent tribute that may have a shot at winning.
"District 7, your tributes for the 71st Annual Hunger Games, Johanna Mason and Bark Terrace" she says with a higher voice then before. We are rewarded with a light round of applause, but maybe a bit more enthused this year as we have someone who has a shot at winning, and that is me.
"Shake hands" instructs Tulip. I turn to Bark and take his hand, he is giving me a sympathetic look, just like everyone else, if only he knew what I was capable of, he doesn't know me. I give him a slight friendly smile, even though I am still sniffing and my eyes are still red. We are separated as the Peacekeepers whisk us away and we are escorted into the justice building. I am led into a creaky musty old elevator which I feel will fall at any second now. It doesn't, we reach the top and I am led down a royal looking hallway and then I am almost thrown into a room. I sit down on a plush red sofa and keep on sniffing, although I am actually admiring the room. Suddenly my Mom bursts in, she is crying more than me. She embraces me to the point where I feel she might snap me in half. I let go and look at her directly in the eyes.
"Mom, no matter what happens to me in the arena, just forget it happened, and don't fade away because of it" I demand.
"Okay" she reassures me.
"Mom we don't have much time, but I need to tell you something very important" I say.
"What"? she asks.
"If you go into our backyard and crawl under that hole in the fence, you will find a path. Follow that path till you reach the end and look under the bush directly in front of you. There you will find Grandpas axe and tomahawk" I say. She looks at me bewildered and then the door opens. The Peacekeepers take hold of her and escort her out.
"I love you" she calls.
"I love you too" I call back. Did she hear me? I may never know.
A/N: And there it is, the first chapter to Johanna Mason's games. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I am currently on school holidays so I will have plenty of free time to write new chapters. Please review what you think and ideas that you have, also tell me what Characters Games I should do next, I want to do either Finnick or Titus from District 6. Thanks for reading.