Let me say now, I do know that I'll include Artemis, Roy, Jade, Oliver, Dinah, Dick, Billy, Queen Bee, Lex Luthor, and Kaldur. The other tributes from the other districts will either be the same name but the physical description is different, or a character from later in season 2, because I can't bear to kill most of the original characters.
On with the story
The sun was just rising, the air still a bit cool. I was pulling my long blonde hair away from my face into a ponytail at the nape of my neck. In the other room I could hear Roy's snores. Today was Reaping day, so everyone with a job was pardoned so they could attend the Reaping. Not that it mattered. Unless a person was at Death's door, attendance at a Reaping was mandatory.
Roy Harper was nineteen, red-haired and blue-eyed, and head over heels in love with my older sister Jade, who was eighteen, and had the typical apperance of those lving in the Seam; olive colored skin with wild black hair and dark, almond-shaped eyes along with an air of hardship that makes her seem older than eighteen. I was similar except for my blonde hair, a gift from my father.
Anyone with half a brain in their head knew that marriage for Roy and Jade was not far off. What only the three of us knew was that Jade was two months pregnant. When he had turned nineteen, to help support his soon-to-be wife, child, and sister-in-law, Roy immediately applied for work at the mine, which was pretty much the only source of income for someone living in the Seam.
The Seam was the poorest part of District Twelve, with most of its residents either dying young from starvation or sickness. Six years earlier, a massive explosion in the mines had killed both our parents, as it had Roy's and many others. And in the years afterward, Jade and I managed to survive, sometimes on nothing more than brains and skills.
Our parents were some of the few that knew alternative ways to survive, and they taught us, teaching us both how to hunt with a bow and arrow (though I was better at it and prefered it) and to identify the edible plant life that existed in the Meadow, the name for the dark, scruffy woods that lined a chain link fence that was supposed to be charged with electricity, but most days was not.
Today was one of them, and I quickly crawled under a large hole in chain link, making it halfway into the woods before stopping at a hollow tree containing two bows and two quivers of arrows wrapped in waterproof tarp. I briefly wondered if my sister and Roy would join me, before hoping they would not.
Roy and Jade had felt it necessary to work to offer what hunting could not, and usually both came home exhausted and bone weary, Roy even more so because he was no longer eligible for tesserae.
You see, if you are poor and starving, like almost everyone alive in the Seam, then a person can choose to add their name to the draw for the Justice Games in exchange for tesserae, which is worth one year's measly supply of grain and oil. This lasts until the age of nineteen, when one officially becomes ineligible to enter. When we and Roy lost our parents, Jade and Roy started to apply for tesserae. I, who was only nine when the accident happened, offered to sign up when I was eligible, but Jade told me in no uncertain terms that she would kill me if I did.
I couldn't complain after that. From Jade a death threat was the equivalent of a hug.
Farther into the woods was Dick, who was hanging from his knees from a tree branch at least thirteen feet from the ground, laughing that gleeful, mischief filled laugh of his. Dick was as close to a friend as I would ever say I have, though I know many look at eigthteen-year-old him and fifteen- year-old me and think there's more to our relationship than there really is.
"I come bearing gifts", said Dick, carefully removing from his coat pocket a small loaf of bakery bread, the good stuff that most people would save for a special occasion.
When his parents were killed in the mine explosion, Dick Grayson, along with two other boys and girls named Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, and Stephanie Brown, were adopted by Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle-Wayne, who had their own children, Damian and Helena.
Bruce Wayne was the current mayor of District Twelve, and the man who managed to stay extremely wealthy, at least by District Twelve standards. And though he was wealthy enough that he never had to, Bruce Wayne was just as capable a hunter as a poor man, and taught Dick and his step brothers and sisters to do the same.
"What did that cost you?" I asked him. "A squirrel", Dick answered, "I guess the old guy was feeling bad given today." For the longest time we just sat at the base of that tree, doing nothing other than enjoying the bread and each others company. The woods were the only place where we felt free, where we could say what we wanted without fear of repercussions.
Finally, we couldn't ignore it anymore and we got up to return to our homes, both of us knowing that tonight two families would lock their doors and grieve for the child that they would surely lose in the Games.
When I got home, I found Roy and Jade sitting at the table, both dressed as nicely as they could be. "I laid something out for you", Jade told me, who gave a quiet thanks and, after a quick bath, found a dress, one of our mother's, a jade green number with cap sleeves that stopped just at the knees, laid neatly out on my bed.
"Let's put your hair up", Jade said, giving me a braided up do, trying to keep the slivers of worry out of her voice, because, however tough she may have appeared to be, I knew that she loved me deeply and hated the idea that this could be the year I'm taken away to die.
"You look nice", Roy told me, leaning on the door frame, also trying to keep up his calm. We weren't buddy-buddy, but we were friendly, for Jade's sake anyway."Thank you", I said.
The walk to the square seemed to take a much shorter time than normal. Already at least half the population of District Twelve was arrived and signed in. When Jade and I were signed in, we were quickly moved to stand with the other girls in our age group. I find myself standing next to Bette Kane, a blonde girl from school whose parents were merchants in the market.
Up on stage was Bruce Wayne and his wife, Selina, and next to them was Beatriz, or Queen Bee as she was known around the Capitol, a dark-haired and skinned woman whose attempts to not seem cold and ruthless failed miserably. When the clock struck two, Bruce finally stood up at the podium and said the usual speech: about the history of Metropolis, how it rose up out the ashes and all this other nonsense that I (having had three years of practice) managed to totatlly tune out.
In the middle of Bruce's speech, Oliver Queen, the only living winner for District Twelve, a total drunk, was half dragged, half carried onto the stage by his wife, Dinah Lance Queen. Bruce finally ended his speech with announcing Queen Bee to the podium.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome. Happy Justice Games everyone! And may the odds be ever in your favor." says Queen Bee inher usual cold voice, "Ladies first!" she said, already walking to the glass ball that held the names. She reached in and dug around, and after what felt like forever, she finally pulled out a name. And when she said it, it hit me dead center in the heart.
"Jade Crock"
And that's all for now.