By the way this is movie verse, meaning District Four isn't a career district. So HA!
Waves crashed, the cry of seagulls filled the air, and the smell of sea salt was strong. I sat on the beach, my arms wrapped around my legs, and I stared out into the horizon. The 73rd Hunger Games, my first year. I sighed softly and watched as some kids ran around laughing in the sand. I know I don't really have much to worry about, my name is only in one time, but I can't help it. My first reaping. I closed my eyes, and breathed in deeply as I tried to calm my nerves. It'll be alright. It'll be alright. You won't be picked, your name was only put in one time. The odds are in your favor. They are.
"Sandy" I jumped, and looked around, my dad was standing near our house, his arms crossed, and a faint smile on his face.
I still don't know how he won The 55th Hunger Games. He doesn't seem like the kind of person to kill. He looks well, kind, and a little wise.
His face is round and he had twinkling blue eyes. He hardly had any hair on his head, save for a bunch of blonde hair in the middle of his head. And he always is wearing suits. And I swear I've never seen him frown, he's always smiling.
"Come on, you need to get ready." I nodded before standing up, after I wiped all the sand off of me. (For some odd reason I'm a sand magnet.) Then I headed to the house, in my usual slow pace.
Dad smiled when I got there, and put an arm around my shoulder.
"It'll be alright Sanders" he whispered to me. "Your name is only in one time, what are the odds of you being chosen?" I shrugged and let him lead me to the house. Once we got in I headed to my room to put on a stupid outfit. Going off to our death, might as well dress up nicely, huh? As I entered the room I saw the outfit my dad had laid out for me, and I smiled. Yellow, my signature color as everyone who knows me says.
It was actually a pretty simple outfit. The shirt was long sleeved, and sort of had this kind of cool design in it, like waves. The pants were similar. And for shoes there were soft boots. Everything was yellow. Once I bathed and got the clothes on I started at the rats nest I call hair. Which like my dad's is blonde, and unlike my dad I've got plenty of it. After ten million minutes I gave up on taming it, and headed downstairs.
I found my father talking with the stupid capital escort, who at my entering stared at me, before she clicked her tongue, and shook her head.
"The hair" she said with a sigh. Dad turned around, and smiled at me.
"Come on, Sandy, time to go." I nodded, and walked over to him. He put an arm around my shoulders and we left, leaving the idiotic escort behind to be stupid.
Once we were at the reaping place, Dad removed his arm, before squatting down to look at me in the eyes. Times like these I realize how short I am.
"It's going to be alright" he said with a small smile on his face. Faint, I could see he was worried. "Your name is only in once, so you won't be picked." I nodded, and then hugged him, and smiled softly when he returned it. I could feel tears prick my eyes. "It's going to be alright, Sandy" Dad whispered again, his voice choking. I nodded, and then we pulled apart. Dad smiled, and then wiped some tears from my eyes. "Now you have to go, they're going to need some blood from you, but don't worry. It won't hurt much." I nodded. "Now go my little sandman." I nodded, and walked off to the line.
As I stood in it, I couldn't help but look over at the beach. And at the sand, I smiled a little. After a few minutes it was my turn to get blood drawn. After the peace keep stabbed my finger I headed to the area roped off for the twelve year olds. Great. Penning us like animals, I guess that's what we are to the capital. Animals. I stood there listening to the idiot escort ramble on and on, and then showing a clip. I don't really know what happened. I sort of fell asleep, until I was rudely jerked awake by her screaming the name:
"Pearl Life" I watched as some older, last reaping, girl headed to the stage. By the look of her, I do not want to be in the games. She looks confident. That's when Idiot went over to the boy's bowl. (Her name isn't Idiot, I just like calling her that.) Then after a few minutes, or seconds she pulled out a slip of paper. I could feel my heard hammering against my chest. She unfolded the paper and then spoke. "Sanderson Moon!" I froze, all the other twelve year olds turned to me, a few smirking. A few looked away, those are the ones I punched in the face. Knocked them out, actually. I smirked a little at the memory, before taking a big breath. Then I walked out of the pen, and went to the stage. Once I was there I looked out at all of the other kids, and adults, and the works.
And then I did what I normally do. I yawned. Idiot giggled a little before saying what every Idiot says.
"Shake hands" I looked at Pearl, and saw a glint in her eye, which I could read easily.
'Easy kill' I smiled at her, and shook her hand. She squeezed my hand, not in a comforting way, more like an I'm-trying-to-break-your-hand way.
Aww Sandy's going to be in The Hunger Games.
A humming bird girl was flying in the air directing us to find some teeth. I followed one of her directions slowly, and took a tooth from under a little girl's pillow. Before heading off, this was fun! This was a game! I smiled as I started to take in the excitement. One time an oversized rabbit, and a large man were stuck in a hole so I took the tooth from that room. The large man told me it was his tooth, but I didn't care. And another time a white haired boy froze a roof so the rabbit would slip. The white haired boy then took the tooth, but I took it soon after and flew away on a cloud of sand.
We were about to go back and leave coins under the pillows of children, but that was when Dad decided to wake me up.
"Sandy? Sandy?" I slowly opened my eyes to see worried blue ones. I sat up, and tilted my head at my dad. He smiled softly, his hand clenched in a fist. "Sandy" he said again.
'Yes, that is my name' I thought a smirk on my face.
"I… I have something for you, a token." He opened his fist to let some sort of necklace thing escape his fingers, and it fell in my lap. I picked it up, and looked at it. It was a small little bottle on a golden string, and inside the bottle was golden sand. I looked up at Dad. "It was your mother's." Dad said as he sat down on the bed. "She got your name from that, she loved sand." He chuckled. "She did something amazing with it one time." I tilted my head in a question. "She didn't exactly finish it, before she died. She wasn't able to add something to her creation, but…" he took my hand. "I love what she made, just the way it is."
I smiled at Dad as I looked down at the bottle, the golden sand was glowing.
"Sandy…" Dad whispered. "There's something I have to tell you. You see your moth…"
"Hi, hi!" Idiot said barging into the room with her stupid smile. "We're here are the Capital! Come on!" I looked at Sandy, and once again titled my head. He shrugged, before standing.
"Come on Sandy." He said, I stood up and ran my thumb over the bottle. It was so tiny, like me. Dad put an arm around me, before leading me off to see the idiots of the Capital.
Any guesses on the sand creation Sandy's mother made?
It's official. I. Hate. Prep. Teams. Ugh. My arms, and legs hurt so much, but hey. Even they couldn't tame my hair. As I sat in the stupid room, I kicked my very short legs and looked down at the bottle. Smiling a little, Mom liked sand. She named me Sandy because she likes sand.
"Hello!" I jumped, and looked up at the girl who had just walked in. Talk about being a capitalist. She was blue, and I mean blue. Neon blue. Everything about her was blue. Blue hair, blue eyes, blue dress, blue shoes, blue makeup. Her skin was even a pale shade of blue! "I'm Rosebush, and I'll be your stylist!" I shrugged, and put the bottle away. Rosebush shrugged, and then walked over to me. "You know after the reaping I was inspired! Your name and the color! So with Deff we decided on a theme. You are to be sand, and your district partner will be water!" I shrugged.
"Well let's get you in your outfit! It'll be fun!
It was not fun. I wanted to die, that's how bad it was. Torture, that's the word. I crossed my arms, and glared at Rosebush, while we were near the chariots getting ready. Deciding that she wasn't worth the time I looked around at the other tributes. I made it a game to see if I recognized some from the reaping. I started with District One, and kept a mental note in my head.
District One Male: Pitch Black
District One Female: Unknown
District Two Male: Lime
District Two Female: Sil
District Three Male: Unknown
District Three Female: Unknown
District Five Male: Unknown
District Five Female: Unknown
District Six Male: Fred
District Six Female: Ginny
District Seven Male: Jack
District Seven Female: Mahogany
District Eight Male: Demin
District Eight Female: Lace
District Nine Male: Unknown
District Nine Female: Unknown
District Ten Male: Bunnymund
District Ten Female: Unknown
District Eleven Male: Unknown
District Eleven Female: Tooth
District Twelve Male: North
District Twelve Female: Unknown
I shrugged after that and just glanced around. I noticed a lot of people looked at me, some with pity and some with smirks.
"Ugh" I jumped, and looked over at Pearl who was blue like Rosebush, but not to that extreme. "How long is this going to take?"
"Not long Sweetheart" Deff said with a chuckle. Pearl rolled her eyes, though I have to admit the outfit works for her.
She was wearing a long flowing blue dress that had different colors making it look like the ocean. She was wearing a pair of blue flats. Her hair was highlighted with blue which really went with the black color of her hair.
I on the other hand was wearing a pale yellow robe thing, it even covered my feet! The detail in it, made it look like it was made of grains of sand! And Rosebush used some sort of gel to make my hair stick out in points, and then she put glitter in it.
"Time to go!" Rosebush said a squeal. "Get in, get in!" I rolled my eyes, but did as she said. No point in arguing.
