Katherine Everett, 16,
District Twelve
"Katherine, I'm scared."
Looking up, Katherine looks into the azure blue eyes of her little sister, Periwinkle, who was gazing at her pleadingly. Her fluffy blonde hair is tied into a messy ponytail at the back and her gingham dress is worn and frayed at the hem. Her fingers, which seem to curl in on themselves, play with one of the buttons on her dress, bespeaking her nervousness at the upcoming Reaping.
Gripping Periwinkle's shoulders, Katherine - otherwise known as Kat because she loathed her full name that is extremely common in the twenty first century and Kat sounded spunky - spoke in a sympathetic tone, trying to calm down her little sister. Peri was only twelve, after all, and clearly you couldn't trust those idiotic little kids to do anything remotely responsible aside from look adorable, "Peri, you are not going to be Reaped this year. Your name is one slip in thousands; you will not be picked."
Little did Kat know that by saying those words, she had jinxed the Reaping, but Periwinkle was naive enough that those words were successful in calming her down as she takes a deep, shaky breath, "Are you going to be okay, Kat?"
"Sure I will. I've survived every other Reaping, haven't I? As long as some random child who I don't know gets picked to die horribly in the Games, then everything is perfectly acceptable and we shouldn't bother doing anything about it whatsoever!" Kat replies cheerfully, not at all perturbed by this fact. Why on earth would the great Katherine Everett care about some stupid child getting what they deserved in the Games? Their names had never been Katherine or Periwinkle Everett, so they didn't matter.
She then notices - as if it were for the first time - just how thin Periwinkle was. Katherine was extremely observant and intelligent in this respect, "Are you hungry?"
Peri nods, eying Kat with a strange gleam in her eyes, "Kat, I'm always hungry."
"Well, I'm due to go hunting with Kale soon, so I can get you some food then, completely disregarding the fact that you're an animal lover and that dead animals is one of your worst nightmares." She replies in a matter-of-fact way, "Make sure you don't set the house on fire while I'm gone."
"I'll try not to." Peri mumbles weakly as Kat ran out of the house and set off at a jog towards the fence that separated District Twelve from the forest. Considering the fact that the fence was constructed so poorly and it was never on, it was a surprise that nobody else had seriously considered trying to escape from the Capitol's reign, but Kat supposed that the prospect of starving to death or being whipped for stealing a bread crust was just so much more appealing than living in somewhere as primitive as a forest.
Taking her bow from behind the tree, Kat's eyes scanned the forest like the expert hunter she was as she strutted around the forest, looking for something to shoot. Before she had searched for long, a deer conveniently jumped right in front of her, eyes wide as it realised it was in the presence of the Almighty Katherine Everett. Almost instantly, Kat had notched an arrow in her bow and was prepared to shoot before a conker thrown at her head distracted her. As she rubbed her head at this incredibly painful injury she had just received, the deer scampered out of sight.
"Kale! That's the first deer I've seen in a year."
Grinning at the fact that he had just jeopardized Katherine's chances at having a decent dinner tonight, Kale appears from around the tree he had been hiding in, "That's because you shot them all last year."
"I regret nothing!" Katherine laughed, "They had it coming."
"They sure did," Kale agreed, adoration evident in his eyes as he recalls her killing all the deer. She meant, he couldn't be looking at her like that because he liked her as anything else but a friend. He had been Kat's friend for years; no way did he think of her as a love interest, "Anyway, because our entire lives revolve around the Hunger Games as they are so important in running this country, let's use this time where nobody else can hear us wisely and discuss how much we hate it."
"Great idea! They don't really affect my life much and never have done, but it's still a horrible way of showing that the Capitol are in charge. Not to mention that children die in them!" Katherine gushed. Usually, Kat was a stoic, reserved girl who didn't speak much and tended to correct others with her withering sarcasm if they stepped out of their place, but around Kale, she opened up. He was the only person that Kat could truly be herself around, "I mean, children die of starvation all the time in District Twelve and I don't actually care about them either, but let's just say I do so I look sympathetic."
"What do you think would happen, Katherine, if - wait for it," Kale deliberately leaves a pause for dramatic emphasis, "If...nobody decided to watch the Games for a year!"
She hazarded a guess, "Er, the children would die anyway?"
"Close enough."
Silence falls on the crowd as Etta Trinket struts onto the stage. Her clothes automatically stood out as she was wearing a tight pink hoodie that she had pulled up over her head and baggy grey tracksuit trousers with a cap that was turned to the side. Her tatty blonde hair extensions poked out of the sides of her hoodie and there was a bottle of beer in her left hand. Two fingers on Etta's right hand were making a rude gesture at the audience as she scowled at them.
"Oi you mingers! It's time for the Tenth Hunger Games, yeah? Time to pick which one of you is going in." She then looks slightly lost as she reconsiders her math skills, "Wait, I meant two. Eh? Whatever!" Ungracefully grabbing a handful of slips, she throws most of them over her shoulder in an attempt to open them until she encounters a slip that has already had the seal broken.
"And our female sket is...Periwinkle Everett!"
Ah well, it's just another weakling, even though I can class as one of those, Kat thought. I know I'm supposed to hate the Capitol for doing this because that's the mainstream view in the twenty-first century and my views have to coincide with theirs so I'm not controversial. However, I'm not actually going to do shit about hating them aside from secretly moan about the Capitol for fear of being punished like a strong ro - oh wait! Did she pick Peri?
"Peri!" Kat shrieks, immediately shoving her way through the aimless crowd of children to the front of the stage without thinking. Her mind was consumed with shock as she realised that her sister could be shoved into the Hunger Games, "Peri, no!
Etta just wrinkles her nose at Periwinkle's outfit while Katherine was screaming in the background, "Ugh, that girl is minging, man."
Ignoring this comment, Kat storms up to the stage, bravely showing no emotions on her face despite her desperate screaming just moments ago. Showing fear was a weakness and if Kat had anything to prove, it was that she was not weak at all, "I volunteer as tribute!"
"No! You can't go!" Peri wails as Kale started to drag her away before the Peacekeepers could get her, "Katherine!"
"What you sayin'? You volunteer?" Etta grunts out when Kat reaches the stage, "That is well sick, innit bruv?"
Kat just nods, not understanding Etta's Capitol accent or slang whatsoever. She's such an idiot, looking like that. I'm clearly better than her. I mean, I don't bother with such trivial things like hygiene or wearing clothes that actually cover my body decently. Who cares about that?
"Our bruv dis year is...Rye Mallard!" The escort spits out, glaring as a blonde haired, blue eyed boy blinked several times in order to clear his mind before stumbling onto the stage, "Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!"
It was immediately obvious from the chariot rides that Katherine was the fan favourite among the Capitol to win the Games. Her outfit happened to represent a volcanic queen that had just arisen from her home to wreck havoc on the other tributes. In order to make this more evident, the other tributes had to wear sooty, tattered rags and be smeared in makeup that resembled burns to mimic the victims of Katherine's rage.
Even the President couldn't take his eyes off the glorious figure that was Katherine Everett, despite the fact that he was well-aware of the fact that she hated the Games with a passion. Well, she only hated them when she was involved, that is. Everyone else could burn in hell for all she really cared.
Training had gone spectacularly for Katherine as well. Despite the fact that she was supposed to originate from the worst district of the lot - apparently - she was skilled in plant lore, using a bow and knives and had good knowledge of survival skills and how to cope in the wild. Since Katherine was so intelligent, only she knew that the bright yellow dandelions in the Meadow were edible and was the only one in her entire district to have actually ventured into the wild. None of the other tributes had any skills whatsoever, aside from one; Lamb from District Ten. She had grabbed Kat's attention right away due to her striking resemblance to Periwinkle. Lamb was twelve, she was dumb and naive and she also had blue eyes! She was the splitting image of Periwinkle and right away, Kat felt an urge to protect Lamb. However, she didn't go up to Lamb and ask her for an alliance. The fact that Lamb was a crack shot with a slingshot probably had something to do with it, or maybe it was the fact that Lamb's climbing skills were so intimidating. In any case, Kat and Lamb did not ally during the pre-Games.
Nobody else that wasn't already in an alliance was worth her time, so Katherine didn't really pay much attention to them and concentrated on taking out the main competition; the Career pack.
Honestly, they were so vile, doing something as despicable as trying to increase their chances of surviving by using weaponry. Not to mention that they actually volunteered! Well, Katherine had volunteered as well, but she had done it because she couldn't bear the thought of the innocent Periwinkle being in the Games. Naturally, none of the Career tributes could have volunteered for a reason as selfless as that! It wasn't possible that they might have volunteered for an untrained kid that would almost certainly die in the Games, gosh no.
Surveying the training centre, Kat felt vindictive satisfaction at her fellow opponents - not children, opponents. All the Careers weren't worthy of living; they had chosen to be here, and Katherine was sure that the other tributes would find ways of conveniently dying off so that she didn't have to do it. Aside from Lamb; she was far too clever to die off on her own, and how could Kat ever kill off someone that reminded her so poignantly of Periwinkle?
Oh well, Katherine figured. Lamb will probably get attacked by one of those savage Careers and then I can use that as an excuse to kill them all in vengeance. I'll be fine.
Sixty seconds. That was all the time Kat had left that she could be sure that nobody would be trying to kill her until she left.
She wasn't worried about that at all; why would she let anything as inconvenient as fear get in the way? She had just noticed a shiny new bow placed neatly on top of the pile of backpacks, after all, and Kat couldn't wait to get her hands on it and shoot at random. It was obvious that the other kids were the real enemy here. Any prospect of the Capitol actually forcing the kids to kill each other for survival was completely ridiculous and really should be ignored.
Clearly, everyone here was just as murderous as Kat was naturally, so it was okay to kill them; especially the Career tributes. They weren't children like everyone else here was, since they had committed the crime of...training for the Games so they actually had a better chance of not dying! Atrocious! Besides, it would never do for Kat's stellar reputation as a protagonist to actually kill anyone portrayed in a decent light, would it now?
In any case, Kat needed that bow to eliminate the other Careers, seeing as they were the only threat to her. They would target her first, Kat reasoned as the slightest vestiges of guilt began to grow in her mind at the thought of killing other condemned children. Kat had managed to score that perfect twelve after she had screwed up once with a bow and arrow and then shoot an arrow at the Gamemakers' roast pig (and that demonstration is clearly worthy of such a score). Not to mention that Rye Mallard, Katherine's attractive district partner, had confessed his love for Kat ever since she had been a toddler. Wasn't that romantic?
How could I have been so blind to his undying love before? Katherine thought, worry clouding her mind as the threat of something bad happening to the Great One became apparent. Maybe she wasn't as isolated as she first thought. Who knows; I could have pushed away everyone that could have helped me!
Needing some reassurance that there was definitely someone waiting for her back home, Kat reaches into her pocket to take out and stroke the pin. However, as she stroked her thumb over the smooth metal, the metal pin overbalances on one side of her hand. This goes unnoticed by Kat, but her fatal mistake was when she pulled back her hand too fast to shove it in her pocket again. That sudden burst of momentum plus her loose grip on her token meant that the pin slid from the elegant hands of Katherine Everett and straight onto the unassuming patch of grass.
The last thing that the eyes of this body ever saw was the world fracturing into a collage of red and orange as a cannon fired.
"Hello? Hello, are you okay?"
"Huh?" It was the most eloquent sound that this new girl could make right now as she stretched her tanned arms. She noticed that her brown hair - pulled back into a braid - was soft and silky; something that easily entranced the girl.
The sensual blue eyes of the boy that was tending to her seemed to stare right down into her soul, and the girl could feel desire course through her, although she immediately tried to suppress this. Girls like her were not supposed to fall in love or feel emotions; that was something that stereotypical prissy girls did, and whoever this girl was happened to not be the stereotypical prissy girl! In reality, she's the stereotypical tough, defiant girl, but that's another matter.
"You just kind of fainted when you saw that girl from our district last year drop her token. Did you know her, Kalmia? Is that why you fainted?"
As soon as those words had been spoken, Kalmia immediately was overwhelmed with memories of the girl that had once been alive, a girl who also had a sister she was protective other, a girl who had ended up volunteering for that sister and had ended up falling in love with her district part -
Kalmia gasped in shock as she realised what had happened. As that other girl - Katherine, her name had been - had been blasted into unrecognisable bits of gore, her soul had been dispersed into her. Katherine had been such an amazing, creative character that she had been given another chance at life! Instinctively, Kalmia knew that she had to make the most of this new opportunity and act in exactly the same way as Katherine had done. She had been tasked with making sure that the Almighty Katherine Everett and her unique, three-dimensional personality went down in history, and what better way was there of doing that than by copying exactly what Katherine had done? Well, minus the dying part, of course. She had to take down the monster that had killed her predecessor, didn't she? It was only fair that she got revenge on the Capitol for orchestrating such an awful event!
However, Kalmia knew perfectly well that she couldn't admit this to her district partner, so she shakes her head. Showing weakness was a bad idea in the face of her enemy, although deep down inside, Kalmia doubted wherever she could hurt anyone with such beautiful eyes as this boy. They were the most breath-taking shade of cerulean blue, "Oh no, I barely ever talked to her. I'm fine now though; nothing's wrong with me."
Being the gullible soul that he was, he just nods, hypnotized by her every word, "Well Kalmia, if you ever want anything, you can always rely on me. I'm really sorry that your sister got picked; such a pretty thing like you doesn't deserve to be in the Games."
Kalmia smiles at her district partner and his smile widens before he disappears, leaving Katherine Incarnate on her own to reflect on her new responsibilities. Surely she hadn't just been given a name to immortalise in history, had she? Kalmia had a sister to get back to at home. She was only twelve and wasn't ready to face the responsibilities of realising that her sister was going to die soon because all twelve year old girls are that stupid and incompetent.
Oh yes, now I remember everything about my new life! My name is Kalmia Everley, I am sixteen and I live in District Twelve. I have a sister named Peony who is twelve and I love her very much. Today, I volunteered for Peony when her one slip was inexplicably chosen by Enna Trinket for the Reapings for the Eleventh Annual Hunger Games and -
I am Katherine Everett reborn and I will proudly continue her legacy. This time, I will win these Games.
For those of you that didn't bother looking at the genre, this is a parody - a fantastical and somewhat bizarre one at that - so don't think I'm being serious here. This is just me mocking the fact that you see so many of the same characters - same personalities, histories, familial relationships, reactions to being in the Games - in OC stories (most of them copying Katniss). I think I started parodying Mary Sues somewhere during that as well.
Anyway, since this is my first time writing a parody and I'm not entirely used to third person, you're welcome to offer criticism about my writing, as well as anything else you feel needs improving.
By the way, it may say that this fanfiction is completed, but I might write one for a Career tribute if anyone would like me to. I mean, everybody knows that all Careers must either be airheads (if from District One), bloodthirsty maniacs with no lives outside of training for the Games (for Districts One and Two typically) or chilled-out fishermen (for District Four).