Author's note: my first Hunger Games fanfic! I hope you like it. Pleasepleaseplease review. Should I write more?
Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it's not my sister.
It's me.
The crowd is even more silent than before the name was read. If such a silence can even be possible.
But now I know the true meaning of a deafening silence. Because though no one is speaking, the blood pounding frantically in my ears threatens to burst out of my veins. And a horrible, far-off scream is in the background of it all...
But wait... That scream is real. I whip around, and it's my sister. Shrieking. Protesting. But no comprehensible words can find their way off her tongue. She just stutters, helplessly and unhelpfully.
The crowd begins to murmur. Sighs of disappointment - I know no one is happy to see me go. Everyone in the district knows me and my family, and I'm like a daughter to all the parents of orphans, a sister to the only children.
My sister's hand touches the small of my back ever so lightly. The contact is barely noticeable. But I notice it all right, and I notice the meaning of it, too.
I love you, but I cannot help you now.
It hurts to know she doesn't care enough. But I know family loyalty only goes so far.
I straighten up, my fists clenched at my sides, and square my shoulders, trying to look as brave as I can. But I know the blood has drained from my face, and that my small, hesitant steps display anything but confidence.
Effie Trinket smiles brilliantly as I step up to the stage. I feel smaller than ever under her blinding white grin.
And my name rings out over the district again, in her impossibly cheerful voice, but this time, her sentence holds more irony than anything in the world.
"Welcome to the Games, Primrose Everdeen."