I woke up that morning with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. I felt that feeling grow when I realized with horror, what day it was. No, not Monday, it was the day of the Reaping. I dragged myself out of bed and stared in my old mirror at the face that I tired of looking at. The face stared blankly back at me, as if it too wondered what to do with its life.
I tugged on my Grandmother Grace's necklace, something I did when I was nervous. It was the only thing that I had left of her. On a delicate golden chain, a jade dragon hung from it, it's sturdy body swung from side to side when I walked. A small grimace surfaced as I pulled on a dress, an old ratty thing, the Reaping didn't deserve my best dress.
"AMY!" I grabbed my hairbrush, desperately trying to yank out the knots in my red-brown hair.
"HURRY UP, IMPUDENT CHILD! WE MUSN'T BE LATE FOR THE REAPING!"
Aunt Beatrice's shrill screams made me wince, they hurt almost as much as the brush did. I finally had my mess of hair under control and flung the wooden door to my room open. My feet already in their, comfortable leather boots. I trudged across the dirt floor, dust swirling in my wake.
My green eyes scanned the room. It was a simple, one story, hut-like home. Most every item of furniture was wooden and the kitchen and living room were all in the same space. It seemed almost spartan. Nothing to divide the tiny space that me, Dan, and Aunt Beatrice occupied, a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and three tiny bedrooms with barely any space for anything larger than a bed.
Aunt Beatrice stood at the door, her eyes were hard and unfeeling, she didn't like us, we didn't like her. The feeling had been mutual from the moment we had arrived at her home. The only reason she'd taken us in was to make Grace happy. They, being sister's, were close. She huffed and swirled out of the house, leaving the scent of fish and cheap perfume as a memoir.
Dan was leaning against the door, his blond hair flopping into his eyes. Our eyes seemed to be the only thing that was remotely similar between the two of us. He was loud and brash, bold and brave. I was quiet and shy, cowardly and unwilling to fight. He nodded slightly at me, and left the house swiftly.
I quickly went out to catch up with him. Not wanting to be left behind. We were inseparable, we have been since birth. We had our fair share of fights, but it didn't matter, one of us apologized in the end.
We arrived at the public square, to find it packed with people. Of course, all of District 2 would be there. They all loved to fight, most were raised to be those nasty Peacekeepers. Peacekeepers are the people that are sent from the Capitol, too keep other districts under control. They made sure that there wouldn't be another uprising like there had been years ago, with 13.
I'd lost Dan, it didn't matter, he'd probably be with his friends. A hand reached out and grasped my shoulder, I yelped and stepped back a little. Whirling on my feet, I met Nellie's laughing eyes. She was laughing at me and my crazy antics. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't do that!"
"Do what?" Her eyes as innocent as a baby deer. If not for the wicked hair style and eye makeup, she could've passed as a very naïve teenage girl.
"You know, sneak up behind me like that."
Like this," a deep voice whispered into my ear. I jumped again, nearly screaming but the boy's large hand clamped over my mouth.
"Relax, it's just me." The hand released me.
"Ham?"
He smiled a toothy grin, his eyes lighting up. "The one and only."
I laughed, only Hamilton could do something like that and get away with it. We were close, not as close as Nellie and I, but we'd known eachother for a long time.
We met on a rainy day in front of the school. I was under the cover of some trees and was quietly eating a sandwich. I'd been hiding from the teachers, they all scared me.
A boy had come out, he was much bigger than I was, and more muscled, too. I cowered back into the trunk of the tree.
"Can I have some?"
I blinked. He wanted my sandwich? But I was hungry, I didn't want to give it to him.
I shook my head vigorously. His face turned downwards into a frown.
"Why not?"
I shrugged, I hated to talk.
"That's not a good answer, dummy."
I felt hot tears well up in my eyes.
"I'm not dumb!"
He looked at me for a second, long and hard, before he smiled.
"I like you! Let's be friends!" He stuck out a meaty hand. I stared at it, he wanted to be friends with me?
Slowly, I reached out for it and gripped it loosely. "Friends." My voice was quiet and soft.
He shook it. "Best friends."
"Amy!" Nellie was whispering into my ear, "The Reaping's about to start!"
My body went numb, mind snapping immediately out of my reverie.
Sinead Starling had walked onto out stage. Her hair in her usual wild Capitol fashion and her face painted on with tons of make up. Her golden, talon-like nails, gripped the mike. I gulped, those things scared me. She was talking cheerily about the years of tradition the Survival Games represented, and I zoned out. I knew this speech from heart, she'd said it time and time again.
I hated these games, they made 24 of us innocent kids from the districts fight to the death just for people's entertainment. It made me sick. I remember hearing about the most recent of the Games, how one girl had killed all of her victims and carved her name onto their hearts, just to show her mark. I remember how everyone wanted to be in the Games, all the kids talking about it at school. They all wanted to fight and win for our district and win.
I didn't , I hated blood and fighting. Grace had told me that my mother had once been good with herbs and medicines, she treated everyone who got hurt. She was like an angel. The angel, that my father had fallen in love with. Grace used to tell me time and time again how they'd met. The memory of her proud smile tugged at the back of my mind. I missed her sorely. It hadn't been the same since she'd died.
"And now, for the real treat!" I looked up, and waited for the unlucky victim of this year's Games.
Sinead strode across the stage and stuck her hand into the large glass bowl. It was filled with thousands of scraps of papers, all with someone's name on it. Someone's life depended on the luck of this draw.
She finally pulled one out and walked back to the podium.
"And as always, we chose the ladies first!"
Please not me, please not me, please not me, I chanted this over and over again in my head.
Sinead called out a name, her voice loud and clear. I felt the same horrid feeling that I'd felt this same morning. It wasn't my name, though. It was someone I knew had been called out to fight for her life.
Nellie Gomez, had been called to her death sentence.
A/N New multi-chaptered story! So, I'd finished reading the last of the Hunger Games Trilogy (Mockingjay), and thought that what if Amy had been in there? I wondered if she'd survive at all? I mean, these people have been trained to kill! So, I decided to throw, poor old Amy into the terrible world of the "Survival Games".
The plot is basically the same, but it might be different. . .you never know. . . And instead of putting all of the 39 Clues kids into the Games, I wanted to incorporate them into characters outside of the arena. Now is your chance to compete in the Games!
Here's the template:
Name:
Age, anywhere from 12-18:
Appearance: You know, eye color, hair color, body characteristics, clothing type etc...
Personality: Remember there must be good guys and bad guys in this story, let's try and have some villains!
District Number:
District 1- luxury goods for the Capitol
There will be no District 2, since the main character'll be from there!
District 3- Machinery/Factories
District 4- Fishing
District 5- Breeding/ Splicing DNA
District 6- Scientific Research
District 7- Lumber and Construction
District 8- Weaving/ Clothes-making
District 9- Hunters/Food Processing
District 10- Mathematics.
District 11- Agriculture
District 12- Coal
Strengths:
Weaknesses: Yes, there must be some sort of weakness.
Weapon of Choice:
Token: Something that was given to the contestant to represent his/her district.
History: Anything funky happen in their past? If I can incorporate it I'll try!
Other Need to Know Facts:
Let the Games Begin. . .
Happy Surviving!
~purpleNailZ