"Primrose Everdeen,"
Effie Trinket's voice echoed inside my head. Primrose Everdeen. Primrose Everdeen. I blinked hard, trying to contemplate what had just happened. Everyone turned around and a thousand eyes starred pitifully at me,
"Primrose Everdeen?" Effie Trinket repeated, in her stupid Capital accent, which me and Katniss always used to make fun of, but her accent didn't seem very funny anymore. Slowly I made my way up to the stage, a peacekeeper's hand was pressed against my lower back, guiding me towards the stage. I frantically searched the audience for Katniss. I didn't know what to do, she said the Mockingjay would keep me safe, so why was this happening? I gently climbed up the steps to the stage and the sound of my cheap, plastic shoes hitting the wooden stage echoed throughout the whole square. A tear escaped my eye and started running down my cheeks, what was I going to do? Out of the corner of my eye I saw my mother, tears were flooding down her cheeks and various other mothers from our village were starring at her, with their faces filled with pity. "Now, would anyone like to volunteer?" Effie asked politely and looked around the square excitedly, as if hundreds of volunteers would step forward but the silence was deafening until Katniss' hand shot up.
"I VOLUNTEER," she yelled, "I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" she hurried up to the stage in a matter of seconds and the peacekeepers found it hard to keep up with her, as she sprinted to me, wrapping her warm hands around me and gently shoving me off the stage, I felt relieved and panicked and the same time, I couldn't let her do this for me, but I knew Katniss and she wouldn't let anyone or anything hurt me. Effie Trinket's smile spread from her left ear to her right.
"Excellent, my dear" she smiled, brushing Katniss' shoulder. "Now may I ask your name?" she asked and tilted her silver microphone towards Katniss.
"Katniss Everdeen," Katniss mumbled into the microphone, Effie looked dazed, and her smile dropped
"Katniss, are you by any chance related to Primrose Everdeen" she asked and Katniss nodded, confused. "I'm afraid if you are related you are unable to volunteer, as Hunger Games rules clearly state, that a sibling cannot take another siblings place." Effie smiled again, but this time it was more like an evil, twisted smile as a peacekeeper grabbed Katniss by the shoulder and violently escorted her off stage as she tried to resist. Panic rose in Katniss' eyes and she let out tiny screams, but we both knew there was nothing we could do. "Anyone else?" Effie asked, but the town stood still, "No? Okay, well time for the boys,"
My mind blurred, I couldn't win the Hunger Games, what was I going to do? A million thoughts raced through my head and they were so loud and overpowering I didn't even hear who the boy was who got nominated. A boy with hair as yellow as a lemon and eyes as blue as the lakes made his way up to the stage, Peeta Mellark. My stomach turned.
When I was younger I used to beg Katniss to let me look at the cakes in the bakery, she thought it was because I loved the sweet smell of the freshly made cakes and that I loved looking at all the swirly icing on the pastries, but really it was because the baker's son, Peeta, was in love with Katniss, he told me one lunch time at school, and whenever we went into the bakery they always used to talk and he would sometimes give us some of the burnt cakes, for a cheaper price, and sometimes even for free. Sometimes I thought maybe Katniss might love him to, as one night she told me that he gave us some free burnt bread that saved our lives as we were about to die of starvation, but she never really seemed too interested in him, but then it hit me. One of us would come out the arena dead, and one of us maybe alive. I couldn't kill Peeta, he saved my life, in fact I didn't think I could kill anyone. A lump swelled in my throat, making it difficult to breathe. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, guiding me off the stage, I hadn't realised that the reaping was over, I looked over my shoulder, people were hugging and crying with relief that their children hadn't been picked, but Katniss and mother were nowhere in sight. I tucked my shirt in at the back, as it had come out, and I straightened the mockingjay pin. As the cold metal hit my fingertips, I couldn't hold back the tears much longer, and they uncontrollably spewed from my eyes like a waterfall. I was taken into the a big building with white pillars guarding the doors, and then pushed into a gigantic room with a large selection of cakes and pastries, the smell tickled my nose, but the lump in my throat made eating seem almost impossible!
"Why am I in here?" I asked the peacekeeper, "What's going to happen?". The peacekeeper didn't say anything, and just walked out of the room, slamming the big mahogany doors behind him. I picked up a cupcake with blue frosting, which was swirled around the top of the cake like a mountain, when suddenly the doors shot open, however it wasn't the peacekeeper on the other side of the door, it was Katniss and mother.