Fic: #1
Prompt: #82: If
POV: Prim
Title: And then There Was a Volunteer
Book: Hunger Games
Word Count: 316
"Primrose Everdeen."
One slip in thousands. Just the one. And Effie had managed to pull that one. I feel the tears begin to well up in my eyes, but I fight to contain them. I square my shoulders, grit my teeth, clench my fists as tight as I can, and make my way toward the stage. It's as if I'm floating, because otherwise I am certain my knees would give out beneath me. I jut my chin forward, head carried high, not looking at anyone – particularly not at Katniss.
Then, just as suddenly as my name had been called, my sister is standing before me shouting that she volunteers. And my world shatters again, as I had never dreamed it could. And I'm left clinging to her, begging her not to leave, pleading and shouting and crying as I never had before. I feel the pressure under my armpits as large, rough hands lift me from the ground, pull my grasping fingers from Katniss's back.
Once released, I run weeping to my mother and turn to watch dutifully as Effie ruins a boy's life, too, and a family along with him. I recognize the boy as the son of the baker, and then I struggle to contain my emotions for the anthem. But I can't stand to see Katniss looking glumly out at nothing, at no one, knowing that her connections here are about to dissolve, and she will likely never see any of us again. It hurts so much to know she's up there for me: to know that I should be the one facing the games, not her. But volunteers are perfectly legal, if unexpected in District 12 with its timid, weak, untrained children.
I see her fighting to keep her gaze above us, eyes all ready locked on some unseen arena ahead. And I know I need her to find a way home.