I sway my legs back-and-forth, searching desperately for a distraction. Our teacher - whose name I can't be bothered to remember - continues speaking loudly, voice booming off the cracked and paint-splattered walls and making my ears buzz. I focus on a small drawing on my desk - a face, I think, with unspeakable words written at its side - and let my heart slow.
I don't know why I continue to get nervous whenever he starts doing this speech. Maybe it's because the very thought of having to stand up in front of everyone and admit that I don't actually have any friends is too humiliating. My face flushes red and the very thought.
He stops speaking and analyses the room. I scratch blindly on my desk and grab my pencil, sketching on my notepad without a purpose. I breathe in slowly, looking down busily at the paper. I can already feel eyes on my back, and I quietly mutter the unspeakable engraved in the desk.
"Katniss Everdeen," he says stiffly. A muffled laughter comes from behind, but I keep my expression placid. "Come to the front, would you?"
I pause, licking my dry lips. Someone - anyone - please help me.
I rise from my seat, palms sweaty already. My chair scrapes the ground as I push it back under the desk with vipe, and I make my way toward the front of the room with my knees buckling underneath my weight. I stop infront of him and regain my composure, just to have it collapse again when he asks the question I dread most.
"And your partner, Miss Everdeen?"
Another unspeakable.
I look towards my audience and feel a wave of nausea wash across me. Great, I think, opening and closing my mouth like a fish out of water, bring on the taunts.
I see a small movement in the corner of my eye, but don't draw it to attention. My eyebrows furrow only slightly, and I try to look as natural as possible as I look around to face the small girl in the back of the room.
Madge, I think her name is. Yes, that's it. Madge Undersee, daughter of the Mayor.
She's small and delicate, with long, blonde hair tied back in a messy bun. Her lips are thin and curved in a faint smile, and she's nodding her head as if to say - 'choose me'. I don't have time to re-think it, because the teacher has made an impatient groan, and her name slips out of my mouth.
"Madge."
