Light: Chapter 1

a/n: Hello everyone! It is I, Lauren, back with another Hunger Games fanfiction! My last two were really, really fun to write. This story will not be about Prim or Katniss—they will be mentioned quite a bit, however—but instead about characters that I make up. I haven't done a fanfiction in awhile, but I felt like it was time to start up again. So please, enjoy Chapter 1!

Chapter 1: A Little Introduction

Lux's POV

I dig my hands into the sand, the grains spilling out of my grasp and plummeting to the ground. My hair blows across my face. It's unusually cold and windy today. My district is always warm and pleasantly sunny. Today it feels like the images we see in school, of ice caps and snow. Snow fascinates me. I'm sure I'll never see it. District Four will see snow when District Twelve wins a Hunger Games.

Why is it this cold? For a moment, fear strikes me. What if we did something the Capitol isn't pleased with? What if they're purposely making it like this, to shut down businesses? What if the fish die? The seafood, like crayfish and crabs? The seaweed? What if District Four is in the midst of a famine? Anxiety floods my system.

But I relax soon after. It's one day. One day will do nothing.

This one day, however, happens to be reaping day. So maybe I should back up a bit.

My name is Lux.

I live in District Four, in case you didn't catch that.

I was born a healthy baby into a wealthy, loving family. My mother and father happily married, two older sisters nearly identical to me. Our only difference is in the eyes. Everyone in my family—and nearly everyone in Four—has blue or green eyes.

I got black ones.

Pippa is the oldest, followed by Noely. Then me. We've all got the same blonde hair, except mine is just the tiniest bit curlier. Pippa's always in the eye of a guy, while Noely mostly focuses on grades, although she'd not say no to a date either.

Me? I get lots of requests. I just don't like the whole idea of dating. I know eventually I'll get around to it. I'm more of a solitary figure. I don't drool after guys or flirt openly.

I have friends, but I never feel like we're as close as they'd like me to be. I just always feel that I'll turn on them somehow, ruin everything. So I tread carefully, watching every step.

As I grew up, I watched every Hunger Games. Now I'm fifteen. The Sixty-Sixth Hunger Games will approach, happen, and pass. I'll watch them avidly, taking notes. I'll keep up my training at the Academy, and in three years I'll volunteer. Just like everyone else does.

I just have to be first one to raise my hand and run up to the podium. Every year, it's mass chaos. After realizing that they can't control the mass number of eighteen-year-old volunteers, they have everyone raise their hands if they would like to volunteer, input the names into a computer, and randomly select two—male and female. The ones reaped originally have a choice. If they would like a volunteer, they simply request one. If not, they state that they will fight.

I'm sure Pippa will be one of the names randomly selected this year. She's eighteen, after all. She's been buzzing about these Games for awhile. She's been training with her specialty—a scythe. She can rip apart three dummies at once with that thing. She's also excellent with a machete and a sword. I've seen her flip her machete behind her to stab and then twirl it around her in a perfect circle to take out anyone in any direction. She can throw her sword from one end of the room to the other and hit the target each time.

Noely would rather use a smaller weapon—knives, daggers, sharp throwing disks—because her arm and accuracy is phenomenal. She can tear through two dummies at once and throw a disk with both hands perfectly. It's incredible.

Me? I'd rather use an axe. Axes or maces. Something that balances nicely in my hand. I've got strong arms and hands. I can fling them as far as I want. I like how fast they work, how if I were ever in a sticky situation they'd kill quickly. How the axe could help me escape in a hurry. It sounds despicable, but it's almost a relief how rapidly someone would bleed out or die with the use of a spiked mace or jagged axe.

I'm not like the other awful Careers that laugh at the screams that the dying make or swagger around like they've got the ability to kill anyone who snaps a branch within twenty yards of them. I do want to win, though. I want to win and bring pride to District Four. Last year the gorgeous, seductive Finnick Odair won with his trident. I want that to be me someday.

Pippa finds me on the beach, sitting rigidly on a wooden bench, ankles crossed and jacket pulled tightly around myself.

"Lux?"

I give a start. "God, Pippa."

"Sorry. Mom wondered where you were." Pippa offers me a mug. Hot chocolate. I usually only drink it when it's the middle of January, when it's actually somewhat normal for it to be this cold. Even then it almost never dips this low in temperatures.

"Thanks." I sip once, the warm brown liquid searing my tongue. "Are you going to volunteer?"

Pippa laughs. "Why wouldn't I?"

"You'll win," I say instantly. "You'll win. I've seen you with your scythe. If there's not one in there, I'll get you one somehow. I'll find your mentor. I'll send you a scythe."

She smiles at me and ruffles my hair. "Glad to know you're on my side." She slips her fingers around my mug and drinks some. "Something seems weird about this weather. I hate the cold." Everyone in Four does. It's natural.

"I thought that too—for a second I thought the Capitol might be angry," I say under my breath, counting on the wind to drown out my words.

"What?" Pippa stares at me with a mix of shock and thoughtfulness on her face. "I don't know about that, Lux. That's a bit extreme."

I nod. "I sort of realized that too. I don't know, though. If it's like this much longer…" I don't need to finish. Pippa understands.

She pulls her hair into a complicated twist. "Let's go inside before you get hypothermia." She pokes my shoulder. I smile and follow her inside of our house. Way to go, Pippa, lightening things up effortlessly.

My mother Josie grins at us. "Cold?"

"Yeah. Pippa stole my hot chocolate."

"I was cold too!" Pippa interjects.

"Well, just clean up for the reaping. Pippa, I understand you'll be volunteering?"

"Yep!"

Noely walks into the room. "Lux! Lux, can I borrow a dress? Mine seems to have vanished, and I can't wear anything of Pippa's, that's all too big."

I nod. "Which one?"

"How about the pink one with the glitter?"

I smile. "Sure."

She thanks me and goes to find it. "What dress are you doing to wear, Lux?" Mom asks.

"The blue one with the diamonds," I respond.

"Oh, that's gorgeous. You'll look fantastic."

"Want me to do your hair?" Pippa says slyly.

"No," I retort. "You'll probably snip it all off."

Pippa laughs and goes off to get ready.

I stare at myself in the mirror. Pippa's fingers work furiously, tucking my hair into a magnificent fishtail braid. My makeup makes my dark eyes pop, my lashes drawn out dramatically. I wear shoes that match my dress exactly.

In short, I look beautiful.

"Good god, Lux," Pippa states, smiling. "You look amazing."

"So do you," I offer back. Pippa wears a yellow dress with intricate with swirls coating it. Her hair falls long and straight down her back. She looks much better than I do.

Pippa takes a deep breath. "Are you ready?"

"I think the real question is, are you? You're the one volunteering."

Pippa nods. "With you getting me that scythe, I should be. I request a blue one covered in rubies?"

I laugh and we walk out of the room.

Noely looks flawless in my pink, sparkly dress and her hair curled to perfection. "Oh my god, Lux." She grins and hands me a pair of earrings, each baring a deep blue eye. "They're your reaping present."

"Thank you, Noel," I say. They're gorgeous. "I love them." I put them on.

"Pippa, this is for luck." Noel hands Pippa a silver anklet. A tiny moon shimmers on the black band. "Because the moon is lucky."

That's one of District Four's superstitions. Whenever there's a full moon, the fishing is supposed to be great and luck is supposed to blossom everywhere. Whenever there's a new moon, the waves are supposed to be rough and the fish seemingly will evade capture.

"God, Noel." Pippa embraces my older sister.

"Pippa, I have something for you too," I say. I just thought of it. I go to my room and open my dresser drawer. My fingers close around it.

I run back to Pippa and hand her my gift.

Her eyes widen. "No, Lux. That's too valuable."

"Please take it. It's for luck. It's so you'll win."

I slip the pearl around her neck. A moon, a pearl. Two lucky figures.

Pearls aren't really that valuable. We find all kinds of them around here. But this one was valuable.

Pippa, Noely, and I were pawing around the beach one day. I was sitting near some rocks, trying to catch a crayfish when a glimmer caught my eye.

A tiny, perfect pearl sitting on top of a shell.

I remember scooping it into my hands and running to show Noely.

"Noe! Noe! Look!"

She wrapped her fingers around the tiny sphere. "Where did you find it?"

"Over there by the rocks!"

Pippa had smiled. "Not in an oyster?"

"Nope! Let's show Mom!"

Noely had objected. The beach we were currently at was about a half hour walk from our house. But I had pleaded. Begged. Pippa stated that there wasn't really much to do anymore. Rain had begun to fall, lightly. So Noely agreed. We packed up our things and left to show our mother.

The Peacekeepers came soon after we had left.

There was a riot soon after we had left.

Almost everyone near the beach was dead soon after we had left.

Riots in Four are exceptionally rare, as rare as this cold. But one happened. Something about Avoxes. Something about the Hunger Games. Something about the Capitol.

Something about death.

Then gunshots and fire.

"Pippa! Noely! Lux! Time to go!" My father's voice is urgent. "We can't be late!"

All three of us girls step into the room. We are the perfect image of what District Four daughters should look like—skilled, beautiful, and smart.

"You all look wonderful," my mother exclaims.

"Pippa, it's your time to shine," Noel smiles.

"We're so proud of you all," my father says with a grin.

I tap Pippa on the shoulder and link her pinky finger with mine. "There."

"There what?"

I smile. "Now I've given you all my luck."

Finnick Odair gives one last grin and steps off the stage. If Pippa makes it in, he will be one of her mentors. The crowd goes berserk when he blows a kiss and tosses his hat into the audience. Many young women tear at each other hysterically and the Peacekeepers have to step in.

Our escort, Ursula Jones, is wearing a vivid orange dress to match her vivid orange hair. "Let's start with the girls." She almost skips over to the ball. I glance at Pippa. The words "I volunteer" are already forming on her lips.

"Lux Rosaria."

I freeze.

Me?

A thousand people are screaming I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE, but Ursula Jones is shaking her vivid orange head. "Let her choose!" Ursula smiles at me.

"Would you like a volunteer?"

Do I want one?

Yes, of course you do. You're not ready to fight.

But don't you want to bring fame to District Four?

I find Pippa's face in the crowd. She's frantically trying to signal me. I'LL VOLUNTEER! she's shrieking.

"No, I'll fight."