This is made by all three of us. This is characters that we made up, alongside Divergent and Hunger Games characters. This will (probably) be made from our original characters' point of view. Thanks for reading! -R, C, and K
Claire's POV… District 3 -C
As I wake up, I hear the silence in a deafening pitch. I am all alone ever since my parents died. Disease. Overworking. The same in every district. Now I am alone. Not totally. I have Zeke, but I am the only one who lives in my house.
I love Zeke. He is the best boyfriend in the entire world. We have been dating for four years. Now we're eighteen. Almost out of the Reaping for good. Of course, we still have a year left.
Today is the Reaping. Our last reaping. I don't want to be picked, and I don't want to let go of Zeke. I know that he could win the Games, but he doesn't agree with all of the murder. He is too sweet.
When I finally get up, I think about how this could be the last time I see this house.
#Juanque$ha (That is a pagebreak. Sorry. R and K told me to use that as a will understand later. Hopefully.)
As I get out of my boring, grey room, I notice that the sun started shining. No school. Finally.
Reaping day. I just had to kill my happiness high.
Due to me only being eighteen, I can't get a job yet. I think that is because we have the chance of being in the games, and they don't want to go through the process of killing our space and whatever.
For being a district full of geniuses, I would expect that to be easy.
I want to work. I don't want to sit alone in my house anymore, but that could easily end today.
#Juanque$ha
At 9 am, Zeke walks right into my house. No knocking, just opening the door and walking in. He sits next to me and I look up at him. I have tears in my eyes as he looks at me.
"Claire," he says. "You won't be picked."
"You can't be sure, Zeke. No one can. My name is in there so many times. I needed some way to get food. I put my name in there so many times to survive, but now I will probably just die. I put off death, but I can't anymore."
Zeke just pulls me closer to him. "If you get picked, I know that you can survive. You can do anything. I know that."
I laugh. Zeke looks at me like I am insane. "I couldn't win a fight. There is no possible way. I am a nerd. You are a nerd. This entire district is full of nerds. We were raised by technology. I can't win."
He laughs too. I love his laugh. I love him so much.
He stops laughing after a while. "Claire. Just be the underdog. Let them think that they can beat you, but then fight back and take everybody down." He smiles.
I feel a lot better now that he has talked to me, but one thought leaves me very unsettled. What about Zeke?
"Hey, Zeke. What about you? You are so obsessed over how I feel that you aren't facing the fact that you could be chosen," I say.
His face drops. "I refuse to think about it. But, now that you bring it up, I could be chosen. I don't like that fact, but it could happen."
Then more realizations hit me like a butter knife to my eye. "What if we are both picked?" I say, while looking away from him. I don't want to see his realization.
"I will always be there for you. No matter what because I love you. You won't be alone."
"I love you too, Zeke," I say before giving Zeke a quick kiss.
We spend the next hour and a half talking about anything other than the Reaping.
I realize what time it is and say to him, "Zeke, you have to go. The Reaping is soon and your parents will be mad if you don't look good."
"My parents are always proud of me. I always look gorgeous," he says, giving his beautiful Zeke Pedrad smirk.
"Seriously? Just go home and get dressed up. I have to, too," I remind him, smiling.
He gets up and leaves, not before giving me a hug.
As he exits my house, I think about how we first met.
Flashback
My parents just died
I am running away from the hospital, but I know that I have no where to go. My parents were my only friends.
I start crying. Everything gets blurry, but I keep running, until, of course, I crash into someone and they catch me before I hit the ground.
I wish that this person would have let me hit the ground. It would be better than feeling nothing. The numbness that comes with the loss of my parents.
I fight against this random person, but they keep a hold of me, while whispering things like 'what happened' and 'you're okay'.
When I finally stop fighting, he sits down with me on his lap. I am obviously still crying, but he gently caresses my hair until I be quiet.
When I stop crying, I look up and see an extremely handsome boy that looks my age. He has brown hair that goes to his ears and warm brown eyes that are staring at me, worried.
"What happened?" he asks me when I am totally calmed down.
I don't answer right away, hoping that the more I put it off, the less true it will be.
"You don't have to tell me right away if you don't want to," he tells me.
"No. I might as well get over it as soon as possible," I say. He nods at me, encouragingly. "My parents just… died… a few minutes ago."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"No. I should be sorry. Thank you for helping me when I was crying," I whisper.
"No problem…?"
"Claire. What is your name?" I ask. I can't believe that he actually helped me.
"Zeke."
(Flashback Over)
With that, I walk into my room and get changed, knowing that this could be the last time I get changed in this room.
END OF CHAPTER ONE -C
Jade's POV...District 12 -K
I tried so hard to fall asleep, but I couldn't stop thinking about the Reaping today. My dad wrote it on a wall in my room so I wouldn't forget - "Reaping at 8:30am...Don't forget, Jade!" Like he cares if I actually go. And yes, I'm kind of known for forgetting things. I have a very short attention span for the average 17 year-old girl. Every year I always accidentally forget about the Reaping, and then get there late as everyone stares. The PeaceKeepers told me that if it happened again, I would be dead. I always forget about it, because it's not something I really care about. Everyone always obsesses over it, but I figure that if I can tolerate Gale and my dad's smell from working in the mines, I can tolerate anything. But this year, I couldn't stop thinking about the reaping. It was because of my conversation with Gale yesterday…
~~~~~ (page break)
I waited for him in the woods by the stream. Our stream. Where we first met. I started to think about it as I waited for him…
I was bird watching in the woods by the stream, when a strange boy appeared out of what seemed like nothing. My dad always told that if I jumped the fence into the woods, I'd be dead, but I still snuck out every chance I got, anyway. It was peaceful here, and the best thing about it was that no one else had the guts to come. Or, so I thought. The strange boy aimed one of his arrows at the bird I was looking at, and I screamed. Out of shock, he released the arrow, but way off its mark. We looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity.
"You monster". I said. "How could you even think about killing those beautiful animals?"
"Well," He began. "what would you like me to kill?"
"Jerk."
"Go on a date with me, and you'll see that I'm really not."
"What makes you think I'll say yes?" I stared him down.
"Uh, all this." He pointed to his face. I laughed, but tried to hold it back as soon as it escaped from my mouth. He smiled, proud of his accomplishment.
"So, I'll meet you here tomorrow morning?" He asked.
"Um...I…" I started.
"Great. But I should probably learn your name first."
"Jade." I said. "Jade Ashcraft." I don't know why I told him my name, it just shot out of my mouth like a cannon ball.
"I'm Gale. Gale Hawthorne…"
"Jade? Um, Jade? Hello?" Gale waved his hand in front of my face, breaking my trance.
"Oh hey, Gale. Sorry, I was just thinking…"
"Well, thinking is normal for human beings. But I'm pretty sure not for that long. What's on your mind?" I smiled, and he smiled back.
"How we met." I said, looking out deeper into the woods.
"Ahh, yes. I still can never understand why you love animals so much. I get lonely hunting without a partner." He followed my gaze as he spoke.
"Maybe you should put up a flyer." I joked. He laughed, then looked at me, turning very serious.
"Are you worried about the Reaping tomorrow?" He asked.
"What?" I said, spacing out.
"Come on, Jade, focus. Are you worried about Reaping Day tomorrow?"
"No. I've never been chosen and I'm already 17. Why would I be selected now? It would be much more likely for an 18 year-old who's never been picked to be chosen in his last year."
"Shut up." He grinned. We laughed, and I gave him a little shove. He shoved me back, so I pushed him towards the stream. He caught himself right before he made contact with the water.
"You got lucky, Hawthorne." I declared. He chuckled.
"But seriously, Jade," He started as he pulled himself up. "Anything's possible. I don't want to lose you."
Anything's possible.
Those words were the reason I wouldn't be able to sleep.
I looked at my watch, and it said it was 4:30 in the morning. Great, how am I supposed to stay occupied for four hours? I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. I will not stay up and yawn at the Reaping...again. I opened my eyes, hoping my watch would say 5:30, but was disappointed when it just said 4:31. I gave up, and attempted to quietly get out of bed. I didn't want to wake up my dad, or he'd just make me want to punch a wall like he always does. My mother died at birth, and he blames me for killing the woman he loved. Now he's really rude and sarcastic to me. I bet Dad would have left ages ago if it weren't for the promise he'd made my mother before she died - that he wouldn't leave me. Don't get me wrong, my dad's a total butt face, but that man can sure keep a promise.
I opened my closet, looking for something to wear. I hate how everyone dresses up for this. I especially hate dressing up in general. In years past, I've just shown up in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt. Gale scolded me, and tried to hide me from PeaceKeepers. Like anyone would really get me in trouble. This kind of thing was so normal for me, people just accept it. It's not like my dad cares what I wear, anyway. He never even comes to the Reaping. He probably could care less whether or not I die in the Hunger Games.
I blindly grabbed a random hanger. If I turned the light on in my room, my dad would for sure wake up. I brought the randomly selected outfit to my window, hoping that some sort of light would shine on it. As soon as I could see it, I dropped the dress I was holding in my hands. It was my mother's wedding dress. I saw my dad throw it out a few years ago, but I snuck it back to the safety of my closet. The dress was a beautiful shade of green - my mother's favorite color. It had a beautiful flower pattern all over it, and a matching necklace with a sparkling green jewel. My dad said he found the jewel in the mine. You were probably picturing the dress as really white and poofy, but you don't know my mother. She would never have picked a traditional dress. She would have wanted her wedding to be different. How do I know this? True, I never actually, physically met my mother, but I know her personality from, believe it or not, my dad. Turns out, he never really hated me in the beginning. He tried to love me, and told me stories about him and mom. After I turned seven, he just gave up. That's when the silence treatments started.
As I slipped on the dress, I felt like it was finally satisfied to be worn again after so many years of isolation. I guess this is it. I said, as I looked at myself in the mirror, thinking about how today could change my future forever because of one a piece of paper with my name on it that might be pulled by Effie Trinket.
~END OF CHAPTER 1~
Brittany's Pov….. District 7 -R
I lie on my bed trying to slow time as much as possible. I try to think about other things than the reaping ceremony. My bed is warm. My brother is snoring in the other room. I start to doze off when my mom wakes me up, and I can't deny the fact that today 24 people will be forcefully taken from their homes. They will be taken to the capital, for everybody to make a big deal out of them. Then they will be put in an arena and forced to kill each other. All of this will be televised. And the one person that wins will get to live, but they will never escape the horrors in their memories of the Hunger Games.
I eat cereal in the living room. MMMMmmmm it is Raisin Bran I really like Raisin Bran. I look across the living room at my brother Chris. He is 12, and this is his first time his name will be entered in the bowl. He looks really worried, and I just wish I could comfort him, I remember how scared I was when I turned 12. Every year on reaping day I get that bad feeling in my chest. Everyone else has this feeling too. I am prey to the same thoughts that everyone has on reaping day. I am very afraid I will get chosen, but my odds are so small I know I shouldn't be. I look across the living room at Sharque$ha who is mashing her face together with my dad, Juan. I flip my hair looking disgusted at their show of affection.
I get up from the chair and see my cat, I run over and hug him. Midnight, my cat, lets out a squeal trying to get out of my loving arms because I probably squeezed him too much. I chase after him but then he runs under my bed. I sigh. My room is tiny, but I still love it. My room isn't painted my favorite color, and it isn't fancy, but it is comfortable. It is filled with the things I love. I have a bed, and a dresser, that's all. But I have more than most. I look under my bed, and grab my special box. It is a wooden box, and I store my favorite things in it so when I feel sad I have things to make me feel better. The box squeaks when I open it. Inside it is my favorite book. Since I live in district seven, lumber and paper products, such as books, are plentiful. Lying in the top right corner of the box are some pretty stones I found on the beach from the lake nearby. One of the stones is a black rock with a bit of crystal. The other one has a tiny fern fossil in it. I look back in the box and my eye catches on my old blanket. I pick it up in my hands, this blanket means everything to me. I've had this blanket for as long as I can remember. Others would call it a rag, I guess it is. It is frayed on the edges, and torn in places because of me holding on to it, or curling myself in it. An overwhelming storm of memories comes over me, and I realize that I would never change the things that have happened to me. My family might be poor, life in district seven may be tough, but there is no where else I would rather be.
My mom, Sharque$ha, comes into my room. "It's time to do your hair honey." I sigh, and get up from my bed. Why does everyone have to dress up for this occasion? If I had it my way I would go to the reaping in my pajamas. I walk to our small bathroom. I look at our wood flooring. In district seven our whole lives are shaped around wood. It is kind of the whole meaning of our existence. My mom follows me into the bathroom, it is hard for both of us to fit. Living in district seven is much better than living in district 11 or 12, but it is still poverty stricken. My family has it better than most, My dad, Juan, works as a manager in the paper making company, which is a much better paying job than being a lumberjack. My mom starts curling my hair in a fancy bun while I look out the window. All I can see are the trees, which are district seven's foundation. They are pine trees and their branches sway beautifully. I can't imagine being born in another district. I have come to love the pine trees, the smell of dirt, and the swing of and axe. My mom steps away from my hair and looks at me through the mirror. "Perfection!" I smile at my mom. I wonder if one day I will be doing my own daughter's hair for reaping day. My mom holds my hand for a couple of seconds, then squeezes it and lets it go.
"You'll be alright," she says, then she leaves to go get my brother ready.
The reaping is so close, and I want to rely on statistics, but there is a bad feeling in my gut that won't go away until I return home from the reaping ceremony. I don't know if it is better to wish horrible death upon others if I am saved, or if I should accept that my death is okay as long as it saves someone else. I am 15, my name is put into the bowl four times. Chris's name is put in the bowl once, he is 12, I just desperately hope he doesn't get chosen. I suddenly feel enclosed. I walk outside for some fresh air. I feel like I want to chop something with an axe. I see people milling around, Some of them are walking toward where the reaping will be held. I better get going. I back walk inside where my dress is waiting. It is a pale pink dress, and the sleeves are adorned with pretty lace. I could love this dress, but I don't love the reason I'm wearing it. I slip on the dress then look at myself in the mirror. I have blonde hair and blue eyes. My hair is up in an awesome blonde bun, but little pieces of hair still stick out of it. I take a deep breath. I walk back to the living room where Juan, mom, and my brother are already standing, waiting for me. The clock hits 7:45, and I know it's time to go.
*End of chapter 1 -R*
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