Chapter 1
I should have known it would be my class. I should have known, should have known! As soon as they announced the 400th hunger games quarter quell, I should have known that I was my class that would be in the reaping. We were the only all girls class in District 11. There were a lot of us, but since this was a quarter quell the usually rules didn't matter anymore. An all girls class from every district was going to be chosen. Somehow that saved more than half the distrcits because they didn't have those kinds of classes, pretty much disqualifying them from this year.
So that left Districts 3, 6, 8, 9, and 11 in the games this year. My problem? I was part of the only all girls class in District 11. Which meant my friends and I would be thrown into the arena to die. I didn't even need the reaping to prove that to me. That didn't mean I could skip it today though, unless I wanted to get hauled off somewhere and probably become an Avox.
One thing that was clear to me though, was that I wasn't coming home today. I teared up a little. Also... All my friends... We were going to have to kill each other. We also knew each other and that gave each of us an advantage. It's good I never really mixed in with those girls, They barely knew anything about me and that might be the one thing that saves me...
"Mock! You up? The reaping is going to happen in about an hour! Hurry up!" My boyfriend, Daeken, shouted from behind my door.
Mock was my nickname. My real name was Mockingjay. My parents loved the bird and the beautiful sound of it's voice. So they named me after it. Daeken had shortened it to Mock, which I liked. Try going around at school while everyone is shouting Mockingjay. You stand out more than you'd like.
"Yeah I'm getting up! Just wait. I'll be, like, fifteen minutes," I answered.
Daeken wasn't thinking about me being in the hunger games. All he thought, was that if I got in it, which I would, then I would win and come home. He didn't even think about my situation being frightening. He would have been more scared if the career districts had qualified for this years games. None of them did, which was lucky. That gave the other girls classes from the qualifying districts a more fair chance. Careers had practiced all their lives just to walk up and volunteer for the glory of it. They were all killing machines.
With them gone, all of us had to worry about other problems. One good thing, though. I hadn't let any of the girls know about my skills. I could throw knives as easily as I could walk. After seeing so many hunger games on tv, I knew a lot of tricks that others seemed to not pick up.
I put the games out of my mind while I got dressed. I wore my mothers dark blue and black dress with lace flowers. It was the most expensive thing we owned. This was the first year that I fit it. After getting into it, I put on my cheap masscara, and pulled part of my hair from each side back and pinned it there. After making sure I looked alright, I put on my matching blue flats. When I stepped back to look in the mirror, I almost cried.
I looked almost exactly like my mother. I had her redish blonde hair and blue eyes... We looked a lot alike. More than my sister and her had. She had died after my older sister, Yuri, didn't make it through her hunger games. Only because her ally stabbed her in her sleep. Her ally was a tiny little boy from District 5. Yuri felt sorry for the kid and took him in to see if she could protect him as long as she could. The boy ended up being a backstabber. He did the same thing to another person. The first night, he murdered them without a second thought. In the end, the boy from District 5 ended up winning the games that year.
My mother became ill soon after and died from an "uncurable" illness. I believe it all was grief, but noone could be certain because mother wouldn't talk anymore. I didn't like bringing it up. Everytime it brought tears to my eyes. So I walked out to where Daeken was.
He looked peaceful, but his eyes showed something different. He might as well have just cried with me. Then we'd be fine... But instead we were going to pretend that I wasn't going into an arena that I didn't even know what it was, and fight to the death with other people. Most of which I knew...
"Happy hunger games," he teased.
The next thing I knew he jumped onto my lap.
"Tell me a story?" Daeken said in a childs voice.
"How about a song instead?" I asked.
He nodded. Daeken always wanted to hear me sing. I was always being told by him that my name fit my voice.
So I sang a song that I had heard since I was younger. It was called The Hanging Tree. It was spooky, but it was a song that relaxed my somehow. I guess my mind found the song rebellious and asking the person you love to free themselves, because for you... It was too late.
Daeken listened to the entire song, then kissed me. I sang that song a lot to him, he never minded it. I think he found it peaceful as well. Especially for today. I saw some tears go down his cheeks before he wiped them away and grabbed my hand.
"Come on. We should get moving. The reaping is in fifteen minutes."
We hurried to the town square. We checked in and walked up to our places. Daeken sat in the seventeen year olds section. I sat with the other fifteen year olds. We just waited for our escourt to come. All my class mates were around me. We all looked indifferent, while everyone else was relaxed and happy.
Our escourt finally showed up. She seemed in a hurry.
"Let's see who our girls are!" She exclaimed in her annoying capitol accent.
She opened a list. Being as we were the only girls class, there was no real reaping needed this time.
"District 11! Your tributes are:
"Janice Keeters, Aroura Vanzan, Natalia Lokline, Karria Hechers, Mockingjay Hamren, Raven Pokersen, Vitanya Mells, Strawberry Lewis, Rose Liane, Maybelina Rossetta, Tulip Jackle, Rulia Dannic, Lillith Meran, Honeyseed Tooler, Tallia Kellen, and Mallium Hertant!"
Everyone cheered, mostly because it wasn't them this year. All sixteen of us were between fourteen and seventeen. Janice Keeters, in the fourteen section was the first down to the sage, followed by the only other fourteen year old, Mallium.
Janice wasn't much to look at. She has wavy blonde hair and was quite chubby. Also her face was too fat and her cheeks weirdly clung to her cheekbones. The wasn't really anything good looking about her. Even her personality was horrible. Noone liked her. I had a feeling that she was going to be one the big Cornucopia deaths. Even I didn't like her and I was very accepting of people.
On the other hand, you had Mallium. She had chocolate skin, dark brown hair, and looked like she was thriteen instead of fourteen turning fifteen. She was sweet even though she had a speech issue. Everyone loved her, so I think she might live for a few days before another district tribute finds her.
We all got up there. All sixteen of us. We wern't intimidating, except Raven, Natalia, and Vitanya. I tried to put on a scary face, but I felt I was only making people laugh at me. Mallium, Janice, Strawberry, and a few others were all crying. I wanted to, but decided against it as a way to get sponcers later on.
The Peacekeepers all gathered us into the Justice Building. All of us only had about three minutes with each of our vistiors. I knew that my father, Daeken, and maybe a friend or two would come to say goodbye. My first visitor was none other than Daeken.
He had tears streaming down his eyes. "Hey. I'm going to miss you."
I flung myself into his arms. "I'm going to miss you too... I won't come back so I want you to know that I love you so much and I always will!"
"You are going to come home. You know it and so do I."
I nodded. "I'm going to try, but I can't garentee that I will. I have to try. For Yuri and for my mother... And you. I can't leave you like this. I will try and... And... And..."
"And you will win, Mockingjay."
I smiled and kissed him.
"Listen, you know how to hunt. I taught you that. When you're out there, you know better than to run into the full fight during the Cornucopia. Just get something and get out, like the smart tributes do. Also get your hands on a weapon. You're best with knives, but you can probably handle a spear as well. At night, until there are less tributes, don't start any fires. If you get cold, huddle up and bear it for the night. Mock, you can do this. Just try. For me, your mother, and Yuri."
Then a Peacekeeper came in and told him his time was up. Next was my father. He looked sad, but like he was trying to stay strong. We sat there in silence...
"I hope you come home. I'll be all alone if you don't... With Yuri and your mother also... Being dead... I won't have anyone."
"Dad, please be strong for me. I will try my hardest to come home. But if I don't come home, you better not go out the way mom did. That was too hard to bare. I know Yuri wouldn't have wanted her to have done that, but it's too late now. Promise me you will stay strong?"
He nodded. A Peacekeeper came and got him soon after that. There was noone else for me. I had to wait for the others to finish. Soon they all did and we were loaded onto a train. It took the rest of the day to get to the Capitol.
The sixteen of us were taken into our new home for the next week. Since the eleventh story wasn't big enough for sixteen tributes, some of us had to use the main room as a bedroom. Our escourt introduced us to our mentor, Helen. She looked frail, but maybe that's how she won the gamse. Being sneaky and using her looks to her advantage.
"Welcome. This place isn't much, but hey... Our district has the second biggest chance of winning this year. Districts 3 and 4 have ten girls each. District 9 only has five. But District 8 has seventeen. Most of them look less than frightening, but there's got to be a fighter amongst them, and those odds are pretty low compared to what we though they would be. Sadly the career districts didn't have any girls classes at their school, proving to be an advantage for all the girls here today," She explained.
I listened closely. Rulia and Karria looked bored. They never paid much attention to anything. That would be their downfall in the games. Janice was paying attention, but I think that was only because she knew she was one of the biggest targets out there.
After Helen was done talking to us, we watched a recap on all the districts. I noted that the girls in 3 and 6 looked like a mix between fear and confusion. None had really expected to be on that stage. Almost all of them were crying. I paid attention to the names though. The ten girls in 3 were Zaphanee, Impellia, Twill, Carienne, Fritani, Bielle, Nemeah, Willow, Spall, and Yandra. In 6, Scarlet, Alyssa, Dragon, Vasalissa, Marie, Metalliana, Hallien, Rekiana, Blodalia, Ana, and Midnight.
District 8 had seventeen girls as tributes. Ever, Combellimum, Lacey, Penelope, Alieana, Saphara, Xandria, Ulli, Frances, Janhem, Brenda, Amalia, Haylie, Aryna, Cellia, Dhalia, and Forria. They all looked surprised yet at the same time ready. These girls were going to be a problem. Maybe their teachers had gotten news of the quarter quell early, and had trained their girls. That would make them the careers for this hunger games. Which would also make them the toughest and most murderous girls we had to fight against.
District 9 was almost sad. Sollia, Hydary, Beth, Bianca, and Idealli were the only girls they had in the hunger games this year. Their chances of winning were so small, they were probably thinking about killing themselves as we were watching this. All those girls looked fearful and timid. Except Sollia. Her black hair and eyes made her look angry and ready to kill a person the first chance they get.
Our district reaping was pretty much the same as the others, except we looked more... Intimidating somehow. We went from best friends to vicious looking girls in seconds. I guess that's what these games do to you. Either way we all looked like we were ready for anything almost. Maybe that could help us get sponcers.
Chapter 2
After the chariot rides, we all got out of the crazy costumes and relaxed in our place. We all seemed to feel awkward around each other now. Since we were going to have to kill each other, it was weird to be friends at the moment.
Raven spoke first once Janice left. "I think we all know that Janice is going to be our first district casualty... Just to get it out there."
There were nods and murmers of agreement. I could imagine how many of us would go after her the second the gong rang. Mallium stayed silent, though. I guess she felt a little closer to Janice being they were the same age. Strawberry was the closest person to Janice, but even she agreed that Janice would die first. It was almost sad.
"I don't think Janice will be the first. Maybe second or third, but not the first..." Mallium said in her tiny voice.
"Well that's sweet Mallium, but I think most of the people here are going to try to kill her," I said.
"Call me Malli, Mockingjay. While we're here, we might as well be called what we want to be called... Before it's all over."
"Then call me Mock. Not Mockingjay. If you call me Mock, I'll call you Malli," I explained.
"Then call me Honey instead of Honeyseed. I never liked my name, it could be better. It makes me sound more like my brother. We don't even look alike!" Honey exclaimed.
She was always complaining in a funny way about something. A lot of people called her Honey, though. Even our teacher. For some reason most our class didn't feel the need to call her anything other than Honeyseed. Same thing with Strawberry. Most people, outside out class, called her Berry. And it was also the same way with Lillith. The only difference was that we actually called her Lil. So we all decided we'd at least call each other by our nicknames until we all died in the hunger games.
Janice walked back in and we got silent again. So we decided to be friendly like we always did before. Even though we were being thrown into an arena together, we were still friends until then. That left me talking to Berry and Malli. Janice was talking with Aroura, who we also knew was going to die the first day because she annoyed everyone with her poking. Then she got mad whenever you did it back to her. Made all of us extreamly mad. Even Janice and that was saying something.
I already knew Raven, Natalia, and Vitanya would make it pretty far in these games. They were very tough and I knew their skill, which they had a lot of. Then there were the people I knew wouldn't make it past the first day, which upset me, because those were my friends. The ones who had a chance, I barely knew or didn't like.
"Malli," I whispered. "Do you think me and you will make it past the cornucopia?"
"I think so. You're skilled and I'm quicker than most girls in school," she sounded so confident.
Everyone went to bed a few minutes later. Tomorrow we were going to learn some new things. I needed to learn how to trap. There was a voice at the back of my head saying that I wasn't going to have time to grab a weapon before the fighting starts.
Chapter 3
When going into the training area, I expected to see a bunch of weapons laying around. Instead we had instructors and sections. I almost immediatly went over to the knife throwing area... Then I changed my mind. I didn't want anyone to know what I could do. That kept me away from a spear too. So I went over to the snare and trap section.
I learned a lot there too. Daeken taught me how to hunt, and I was good at it, but the snaring and traping was definently going to help me out. I could leave and come back later. Hopefully none of the other people would find my snares and wait for me to come back. Either way, if I got far enough away they'd never find out where I was until there were more of them dead.
That was my strategie. I was going to get far far away and hopefully be forgotten until later on when there were less. After that I would make my way back and claim the cornucopia for myself. I doubted there would be much competition for it and I could defend what I wanted pretty well. By the time I took it, there would be so little people that they'd be afraid to team up with anyone.
Janice walked up to me. "This is so stupid. I think it's clear I'm going to win. I mean... Raven and her friends are fake. Berry is going to die the first day. I don't know about you. You're a fighter. You'll probably make it to the final... twelve and then get killed by Dragon or Ever. They look tough and honestly tough. I'm kind of scared of them..."
"You don't have to worry about them. Trust me, your fellow district tributes are who to worry about. I hear Raven and Natalia are practically recruiting people to help them take you out the second the gong sounds. Berry and Malli are smart, they can get out of there before too long. After that it's up to stamina. I already have a plan," I smiled.
I knew Janice was aching to know what I was going to do. She knew I'd never tell her though. And I had no intention of telling anyone. I just liked to worry people. It was easy to tell that Janice had no plan for the hunger games and knowing her, she would act on impulse only. There were no second chances in the hunger games. She had better be able to move quicker than she looks. If not, Raven and Natalia would surely murder her that second. Come to think of it, Rulia might be trying to get me killed during the blood bath of the cornucopia. Ever since we met Rulia and I have not liked each other. She treats people like slaves and I didn't like that so I wouldn't be her friend. Raven and I didn't have many problems, but there was this wall that kept us from being close for some reason.
Raven was friends with most the girls in our class, so she could easily make allies. I had a problem with that though... Aroura, Berry, and Janice were almost the only people I could become allies with, but I'd have a hard time trying to protect them. Janice and Aroura were the main targets and Berry was slow. My best chances were with Malli or maybe one of the girls from the other districts. I doubted they really wanted to make friends, though. They already had each other. Maybe some outcast would be friendly enough, but I was so untrustworthy, that I would probably kill her the first second I got. Which would make the plan I already made my best choice. Allies were just trouble to happen... And like I said before. In the hunger games, there are no second chances. One mistake and I'll be dead. That wasn't how I was going to go out. If I did, I'd go out fighting. No other way.
"Hey Malli," I walked over to the camoflage area where Malli had been drawn to. She was pretty good. Back home, Malli had been quite an artist. I guess that was helpful.
"Hi Mock," She smiled at me.
I swear if I hadn't known her for more than a year, I'd think Malli was only twelve or thirteen. She was just that adorable and it was frightening thinking about her going into that arena with malicious people all trying to kill each other.
"You're really good at this," I said.
Malli had made half her body look like a mud bank. If she was lying next to a river like that, I'm sure noone would ever find her.
"Thank you," Malli beamed a smile.
Malli had a thick accent. I didn't know where it came from, but it was dificult to understand exactly what she said at times. But when she talked slowly, it was easy to understand her. Also it seemed she was always saying something positive no matter the situation. I admired her for that. It was well known that I couldn't do that. Almost all the time, I was very negative.
"You looked like you were doing very well over by the snare area. Is it hard?" She asked.
"Not really. I'm going to need that skill though. Just in case I can't get to a weapon in the cornucopia before the other girls start murdering each other. But so far, we don't know our arena. Not until we get inside..." I explained.
"Well I'm sure no matter what it is, we'll be able to survive. Why would they have the hunger games if they just wanted to watch a bunch of tributes starve, freeze, or just plain die. No they want to keep us alive enough to get a good show and see some bloody fights," Malli awkwardly smiled.
She had a point. The Gamemakers wouldn't just leave us in an arena to die "boring and dull" deaths. There would be enough to survive... But would they make the arena smaller than usual to push us together since there were more? I didn't know and honestly rather not, for now.
"You're right. I need to relax..." I explained.
She slightly nodded. Then, in front of everyone, hugged me. Almost everyone looked toward us. I wasn't hugging back, but I wasn't exactly looking confused or angry either. She let go and smiled. I wanted to pinch her cheeks, she was just too cute. Instead I walked over to a food gathering area.
