The Districts Among Us
District 1 is overrated. My family own a hair salon which I rarely help with because it's closing soon due to lack of customers. None of us have been eager to work within the last couple of weeks and certainly not tonight. I've been brought up as a career. I've been training in knife-throwing and combat for my whole life, waiting for my year to step out of the crowd of my district on the day of the reaping and announce that I wish to volunteer. Although this year isn't my year to stand up, I'm still getting butterflies in my stomach about the reaping in a few days from now. I'm not going into the Arena, but I still have to train. "Hey, Grace!" Walking into training I hear his voice, Owen's voice. He's volunteering for the Hunger Games tomorrow. It's unlikely he'll die in there, he's extremely skilled and will probably distract the female tributes with his appearance. "Excited to see me on the victor's tour of the districts? It'll be televised, and probably next week. The Games shouldn't last too long." His boots are a tad too small for him. Walking into training is as normal as it is every single day, but this day there's only one mat out and chairs surrounding it in a circle. Coach Laurie calls us over. "Sit where you want, I don't care" Walking past her enables my nostrils to inhale the heavy scent of vodka on her. "So, Owen and Polly are entering the Arena tomorrow" Owen and Polly nod and smile with pride. "Let's give them the chance to show off their moves. Pick a partner" Owen chooses a random male whom I've never spoken to and Polly choses her best friend, Fi, to spar with. "Begin" Laurie falls asleep. On the mat provided, Polly and Fi gesture to Owen and his friend should spar first, so they do. Everyone sitting around the mat claps with excitement that the two largest and most skilled fighters are sparring together for the last time. If Owen wins the Games, he'll be a mentor and won't need training anymore. Owen and his friend spar for a couple of minutes until Owen throws the guy to the floor and holds him down for more than five seconds. Owen won. The rest of us clap as the two of them return to their seats. Polly and Fi stand opposite each other, giggling. Fi throws the first 'punch' which results in a fit of laughter between them, everyone else stays silent. "Just fight, will you?" Owen says. The girls widen their eyes and turn serious. Polly punches Fi hard in the stomach and she winces in pain. Fi punches back, in the jaw. Before Polly can hold onto her jaw in pain, Fi kicks her in the knee joint sending Polly to the floor. We all heard the click. "You punched me first, and hard. Don't cry over it." Fi spits it out at Polly, whom is now screaming in pain gesturing towards her legs. Laurie wakes up."What now?" "My legs!" Cries Polly. Laurie sighs as she crouches down to Polly's side and grabs her legs, examining them. "Oh God" Laurie's shaking her head "No" She's breathing heavily "They're broken, and you're supposed to be volunteering tomorrow." Polly's still screaming in pain, but now at the fact that she can't volunteer with Owen tomorrow. Everyone in the room begins to shake their head at Polly. "We need someone else to do it. Go to the scoreboard" As a group, we shuffle to the far wall to the scoreboards to see how everyone's doing with training. The male side has Owen at the top with the most points, and the female side has Polly. The name underneath hers is mine. "Grace, make us proud out there, okay?" "Okay."