The 71st Annual Hunger Games
Chapter 1: The Reaping
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games franchise, which consists of the books The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay and the movies The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2. That also includes The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide and the video game The Hunger Games Adventures. The characters of Johanna Mason, President Snow, Caesar Flickerman, Claudius Templesmith, and Blight are the works of Suzanne Collins. Enjoy my story!
15-year-old Johanna Mason pulled her hair back and started toward the Reaping Square in District 7 with her older brother and parents.
"It's not fair. Why do they think that they can just put us in an arena and kill all but one off?" she asked her parents.
"Johanna, it's to remind us of the rebellion." said her father.
"Well why?" she asked.
Her father didn't answer and she saw that she was at the square. They all separated as they signed in. Two large bowls stood with thousands of little envelopes with everyone between the ages of 12 and 18 in them. She knew that if she was chosen in the games, which is unlikely because 7 takes lots of tesserae, she would have a clear advantage because of her axe throwing abilities and strong arms. After watching a brief video, the District 7 escort, Viola Gold, stepped out.
"Happy Hunger Games," she said in her silly Capitol accent, "and may the odds be ever in your favor. As usual, the young woman will be reaped first, or in other words, ladies first."
She took out an envelope. Usually Johanna felt okay at this part, but her stomach sunk and she had a bad feeling. Viola opened the envelope, looked inside and smiled. She took the microphone close to her mouth and said:
"Johanna Mason"
The audience froze. Johanna was hoping that there was another Johanna Mason, but none stepped forward. The girls surrounding her started to walk slowly away from her and the Peacekeepers grabbed her and took her on the stage. She was frozen. She could hear her mother sobbing.
"Very good!" chanted Viola. "Now for the young men."
She picked up another envelope and read from it:
"Carver Underwood"
The boy was escorted onto the stage and Johanna recognized who he was. He was her best friend, Lucie's, brother. He was not just her brother, he was her twin brother. If Johanna ended up killing him in the arena, they would no longer be friends. They were escorted into the justice building where they said goodbye to their families and friends. Next they went on a train to the Capitol where they met their mentor, Blight, and watched the Reapings from other Districts, and Johanna tried to remember a certain few:
Bronzer and Leatherette, the Careers from District 1. Griffith and Dianthus, the Careers from District 2. Jonathan and Cora, the Careers from District 4. Titus, the male tribute from District 6. Travis and Roxanne, the tributes from District 9. Paxton, the female tribute from District 10, who was only 13. Randolph, the male tribute from District 12, who was very, very skinny.
Johanna had a plan to win: get the worst score in the training with the Gamemakers and do really bad in training. Then pretend to be very weak and get ahold of an axe. After finding the right apportunity, she would hunt down the remaining tributes and kill them with her axe.
A few days later, after the tribute parade and introduction to their stylist, Johanna and Carver hit the training center. Blight, who she told her plan to, told her not to show off her skills with an axe and just focus on some other things. On her first day of training, she learned to make snares. On the second day she perfected her snares. She closely watched Roxanne from District 9, whom she knew was using the same strategy as she was, because she was pretending to be unable to use a scythe.
A girl from the wheat district unable to use a scythe. Yeah right! she said.
On the last day before the private training session, the tributes filed out and Johanna and Roxanne where the last ones left. Johanna started to unzip her jacket, but the zipper was stuck. Wordlessly, Roxanne took a scythe and swung it at Johanna. Johanna looked down and saw that the jacket was cut straight down the zipper. Roxanne smirked and walked away.
At that moment Johanna knew that that girl was no joke.