A/N: I have been wanting to write a Hunger Games fanfic ever since I joined ! Hope y'all like it! Please Follow/Fave and Review! *I do not own Hunger Games. Duh.*
Chapter 1
The whole population stands still, breaths caught.
Thousands of oppressed faces with eyes turned toward the stage set up in front of the Justice Building.
There is a nervous feeling in the air, the way there is every year at the reaping.
A man in a flamboyant red vest with spiky black hair takes the stage.
He is our district's escort, Levithan Torum.
We have a new escort every year.
I can't stand any of them.
In fact, I hate the whole of the Capitol with a burning passion.
They, who starve us, punish us, and force us into their Games every year, are too powerful.
And all the districts know that If we ever try to rebel again, they will crush us.
I am standing next to a girl from my school, Landry Armstrong. She and I exchange tense looks.
We are standing in a roped area with all of the other fifteen-year-olds in District 7.
The youngest eligible for the reaping, the twelve-year-olds, are near the back, while the eldest eligible, the eighteen-year-olds, are near the front.
All of us are waiting truth from the lottery that is the Hunger Games.
After the reading of the history of Panem, the dull Treaty of Treason, and the list of victors, It is time for the reaping.
Levithan Torum steps up.
"Happy Hunger Games!" He barked in his grating Capitol accent.
"What an exciting day for you all!"
It's an unfair lottery to figure out contenders in a fight to the death, not a picnic.
"Ladies first."
He walks over to the glass ball that holds thousands of our names.
Rustling around for one piece of paper, he mixes up the slips.
He grabs one.
Rips the tape.
Reads the name.
And "Johanna Mason" is amplified all throughout the square.
It takes a while for my brain to register that my name was the one called.
When I do, I stumble up to the stage.
Levithan Torum calls for volunteers.
There is no sound.
He raises my hand like I am already the victor.
"Johanna Mason, everyone!"
There is no sound.
"Time for the men!"
He walks over to the boy's bowl.
"Rhian Tule."
For one moment, I stare into the shocked eyes of my boyfriend.
Then he approaches the stage, grips my hand, and stares straight out at the audience.
We are led through the Justice building to a room where we will say our goodbyes.
I sit down on the ridiculous red velvety pouf as the door closes and locks behind me with a click.
Putting my face in my hands, I allow myself one tear.
It rolls down my cheek and drips onto my shirt.
Then door opens and I look up.
My mother and father enter, holding hands.
They sit down on either side of me.
Mother clasps my face in her hands.
Father grabs my hand and squeezes tight, stopping the blood in my veins.
I don't pull away.
"Jo, we love you." My father speaks for both of them.
"I love you too. And that doesn't stop when I go to the games."
"We know that, and we wanted to give you something."
My mom pulls out something wrapped in crumpled brown paper.
I glance at her.
Her wide-set brown eyes are rapidly filling up with tears.
"Mom…" I trail off. There is nothing for me to say anymore.
I open the package.
It is a tiny pinecone on a piece of twine.
I swallow.
Instead of saying thank you, I give a weak sound halfway between a whimper and a sniffle.
The peacekeeper slams open the door and orders my parents out.
I stand, hug them, and don't let go until the peacekeeper comes in and pulls them roughly away from me.
The fire in my eyes must scare the peacekeeper, because he loosens his grip slightly.
After he drags out my parents, he returns with two more peacekeepers.
They gesture for me to follow them out of the door and into a waiting car.
Rhian is already there.
He looks at me and I can't look back.
There are multiple cameras outside of the window.
And I don't even care anymore.
I put my face to the window and one tear, then two, then three pile out and catapult down my face.
And the cameras blur.