Let me get this straight: I am NOT quitting my MR story...
I'm just gonna try a little something new. :)
Oh, and just pretend Catching Fire was a little more...
normal?
lys
*
Hi.
My name is Taylor Knightson.
I am, most definitely, a girl.
Why, exactly, am I telling you this?
Let's rewind...
District 11 Reaping
I yawn and put down my plow, sighing as the mayor of Eleven starts his bland Panem speech. (Now, if it were a musical...) Our escort, Mony, (which to me sounds too much like monkey) starts his bland speech about doing this for our country, odds ever in your favor, blah blah blah-blah. He finally shuts his trap and announces: "Ladies first," as our mentor, a twenty-something year old girl named Micah, smiles and waves, though her smile is frigid and emotionless.
Micah won the Seventy-second Hunger Games, nine years ago, at the age of fourteen when the sponsors sent a simple farming hoe...
An immediate massacre had taken place shortly, and Micah had won, and her hoe was now a violent blood-red. I know this for a fact, since she still uses it to clear the land, no matter how rugged it has become.
I pray for me and my best friend, Lauren: not me, not Lauren, not me, not Lauren... After all, this is our final year of eligibility.
"Shanna Wheatley!" Phew.
"Gentlemen!" I guess I could stop praying now...
"Ben Knightson!" Oh, no.
Ben Knightson is my brother.
And I think I've already made it clear that I am totally without question a GIRL.
But maybe, just maybe, I could pull it off, and before I know it, my mouth opens and the words spill out...
"I volunteer!" I yell frantically, even though I know I'll be stopped...
"Excuse me, ma'am, you can't volunteer for the opposite gender," A gruff Peacekeeper puts his hands on his hips in the universal "uh-uh" gesture.
"I, uh, I..." I decide right then and there to make the difficult decision, clearing my throat so as not to sound shrill and girlish. "I am a boy."
The crowd is awestruck by what I had just done, but the Peacekeepers are totally oblivious, yet another sign that they either don't know us or don't care. (I personally think it's the latter.)
Mony grabs my hand, and Shanna's, too.
"Our District Eleven Tributes!"
And the Eighty-First Hunger Games have officially begun.
*
After the Reaping
I'm still wearing my sweatpants and baggy t-shirt, giving nothing away, glad I hadn't dressed up, when my family comes in to visit me.
"Oh, Taylor," my mom sobs. She and everyone else knew the sacrifice I had made, and she and everyone else knew that I had to do it. I just had to. I couldn't sit around and watch my skinny thirteen-year-old brother's death on TV...
Lauren hugs me and tells me that I'll do great, but I don't really hear her, I'm thinking about what tomorrow will bring...
I shush them quietly. I don't want anyone to see me or my family right now, and I especially don't want the Capitol to see any of this. I have to stay strong.
"Five minutes," a Peacekeeper warns, and it is then that I fully realize what has happened, the weight on my shoulders, the pressure to stay covert and my family and friends at stake.
My last five minutes with my family drags on, nobody really saying anything, until finally an older man knocks on the door.
"Time's up." Lauren hugs me one last time, then she is gone, and a single tear rolls down my cheek.
And, for probably the first time in my eighteen years, I am totally, entirely, completely, definitely, alone.
*
Shanna comes to join me, her face already wiped clean of emotions. She's a nice girl, average height and build, really sarcastic, normal in almost every way.
Except for her striking red hair and blue eyes. I really feel sorry for her, because although it's a distinguishing factor, it would make it utterly easy for enemies to track her down.
I decide that she's a decent fighter and could hold her own, plus that hair is just too much of a risk.
I do not want her as an ally.
Shanna leans over to whisper in my ear as we are led to another room.
"Good luck," she murmurs almost unintelligibly. "and your secret is safe with me."
Even though we will not be allies, I know I'll always have someone who will take my secret to the grave.
*
So?
Yay?
Nay?
I also have a new CU chapter up!!!
Lys
