I walk to the town square, my sisters hand in mine. Looking up at me she says, "good luck Jezzy!"
"Thanks sweetie," I say giving her one last hug as I turn and walk off towards the peacekeepers.
Once I get there a lady in a white outfit, heavily padded, and tool that looks like it's used for beating grabs my hand and pricks it. I flinch a little at the pain, then the peacekeeper pushes my finger against the paper, scans it then tells me to pass.
As soon as everyone's done and lined up, the mayor comes onto the stage, telling us how much of an honor it would be to be chosen for the games, and that we should all be really proud about representing our district in the games, blah blah blah blah.
Finally when the major is done our escort Sycamore comes up and plays a video of the 'Dark Days'. I don't know whether they play it to scare people or just plain annoy them, ether way I find it stupid, and redundant.
After many endless minutes of the video playing, it ended and the reaping began. "Welcome!" Sycamore's voice boomed through the crowd of people, "to the reaping of the 28th Hunger Games!" He paused for emphasis then continued. "As custom ladies first!"
The person beside me cheered a bit, but stopped when almost joined in. Slowly Sycamore reached into the bowl and moved his hand in 3 circles before plunging it in and grabbing a slip of paper at the bottom of the bowl. I have 19 slips with my name on them in that bowl, he could of picked mine. What if he picked MINE! Sycamore walked back over to the microphone, his excitement making him move faster then normal, the bright rainbow colors of his hair were almost like a blur. Tapping the microphone and clearing his voice, Sycamore opened the paper. A couple people shift, either out of nerves or excitement. Some parents move in front of others to get a better look, and the girl beside moves herself so she is in a better position to get to the front and volunteer.
Sycamore's mouth opens and he utters the very words I never wanted to hear anyone form the capitol say. "Jezabell Miller!"
I register the shock in stages, first my head whips around and looks at him, I was originally looking at the ground, then my feet start moving. I can't control them, but they still move, they just don't stop. Finally I look over and see Luna standing in the crowd beside my mother and father.
As I get to the stage my mind starts to clear, I was reaped. Me. How could this be happening! Then I realize, it doesn't matter everyone in two volunteers, everyone. I look around the square, hoping that I can see someone eager to volunteer, but no one seems to care. Even the girl who was standing next to me seemed to straighten up a have a small smirk on her face.
"Come, come." sycamore says hurriedly pushing me towards the microphone, obviously wanting to see who could be a volunteer.
As I stand by the microphone scanning the crowd my eyes fall onto one person. Alex. The one person I would trust with my life. And he was starring back at me. I tried to send a discrete message to him with my eyes saying not to volunteer. But I'm not to sure if he got it or not.
"Any volunteers?" Sycamores voices breaks through my thought, and my eyes stop focusing on Alex and turned to focus on everyone else. Still no one made any noise. I looked around again, panic starting to rise back into me. No one. I looked again, and again. Still no one. It felt like an hour of just waiting, until finally Sycamore spoke again. "Okay! Your District 2 female tribute, Jezabell Miller!" I look over and see Sycamore's smile huge and gleaming. My eyes widen, but only for seconds. I know thought seconds are something that if anyone noticed, would bring down their chances of betting on me. I would have to win them back with my individual scoring.
"Now time for the boys!" Sycamore smiles even wider, almost as big as his eyes, and that's saying something. People start to get ready to run to the stage again as Sycamore stalks over to the reaping bowl for the guys. I smile a bit seeing how eager these people are to bring pride, and something starts to warm inside me. I don't know what it was, but as soon as it was there it was gone. Sycamore came back to the microphone and called out in a loud booming voice, "Graggory Stone!" A small but eager boy walked out of the crowd and towards the crowd.
I've seen him train at the academy, he failed at almost everything, all but plants. My eyebrows went up, how did he think he could win? But before he could make it up to the stage, a flood of people ran forwards, pushing his way into the front of them all was the one person I would never suspect. Ever. "I volunteer as tribute!" Alex called from behind the boy. He walked forward with a confidant stride, and a obvious smile on his face.
I frowned and starred at him, when I finally caught his eye he gave a little shrug but kept walking, why would he volunteer? Is he really stupider then I thought? Or maybe he's like everyone else, maybe he just wants to watch me die. Or maybe he wants to be the one to kill me. Hate rid started to bubble up inside me. He wont be the one to kill me. No. I wont let him. I'll kill him first if I have to.
"And what might your name be?" Sycamore asked excited that he got at least one person to volunteer this year, a down fall form last.
"Alexander Jones." Alex said with even more confidence then I thought he had.
"Well then! District two's tributes Jezabell Miller and Alexander Jones!" Sycamore smiled for a minute then spoke again. "Now shake hands!" We did. And as I shook his hand memories of all the time we'd spent together came flooding back into me, and it was at that moment when I realized, only one person is coming out.
Only one of us is coming out.
Thanks for the review and following me. It means a lot to me that your reading this. I didn't think anyone would.
