Oh my gosh guys! Thank you all so much for reading! I was so shocked, and ecstatic, that I already have one review on this story! Thank you so much! Those really make my day.
I wanted to respond tot hat review as well...*and please don't take any of this as I'm being snotty or mean it's all sincere I promise* I'm sorry that I don't have the best grammar and/or sentence structure but I promise you that I'm looking for a beta reader. It's hard to find one and I am looking because I'm not the best editor obviously. If you want to bear with me until I get one I would TOTALLY love you 5ever! :)
Thank you all for reading and I hope you all like this chapter! If you did feel free to follow and fave it and leave me some feedback...I'm always open to any feedback you want to offer up!
Mace groaned as his mother tried to urge him to get up.
"Five more minutes," he groaned and pulled the shabby blanket he used up under his chin more.
"Get up now before your step father gets back," she said and he groaned as he sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes.
"There ya go," she smiled softly and left his room to get ready.
Mace sighed as he stretched and stood to go shower.
He showered extremely quickly then dried himself off just as quickly.
He dressed into a pair of nicer jeans and a white, long-sleeved buttoned up shirt. He rolled the sleeves up to his elbows so that the muscles in his lower arm could be seen.
He never really had to do anything to his hair because it always looked good so he walked out to the kitchen where his mother was.
"Ready?" she smiled softly at him and he nodded, giving her a confident smile back "then let's go."
Together the mom and son left the run down shack and started to walk to the Town Square for the Reaping.
"I will see you after," she smiled at him as he stood in line and she walked away to the crowd of adults and young children.
Mace stood in line and as he did so he searched for Haley. She was at the front of the line getting her finger pricked. Her long brown hair fell in loose curls down to almost her mid back and she wore a sky blue dress that complimented her fair skin tone. She walked away to stand in the section for 18-year-old girls as Mace smiled to himself as he stepped forward with the line. Soon he was at the front getting his finger pricked so he could stand across the aisle from Haley's section with the other 18-year-old- boys. He smiled and turned back to the stage. There was a line of people sitting behind the podium where the mayor would speak here shortly. The line consisted of almost a dozen previous victors, including the dynamic siblings who won back to back games Gloss and Cashmere Ritchson, the mayor, and the District's escort.
Mace watched ahead until finally the mayor stepped forward to give his opening speech.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the 99th Annual Hunger Games Reaping ceremony!" he said excitedly and everyone clapped and cheered more enthusiastically than the citizens in other districts "now before we start with the festivities a word from our very lovely escort, Kathrine Gold!"
Everyone cheered for the Capitol lady as she stepped forward, waving. She wore an incredibly tight dress with extremely poofy sleeves on her shoulders and a very high collar that came up to her ears on either side. She wore heels that made anyone's feet hurt just by looking at them and her hair made her almost a foot taller that she truly was.
"Thank you Mayor Peterson!" her voice was super bubbly but the citizens loved her because she had been their escort for almost a decade now "before we truly begin we have a video brought to you ALL the way from the Capitol!"
Everyone clapped as the video started.
"War, terrible war..." the video said and the citizens all watched with rapt attention until the very end where they all clapped.
"No wasn't that lovely?" Kathrine beamed at the citizens and they all clapped "And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! Choosing our male and female tributes! Ladies first."
Kathrine walked over to the bowl on her left to choose a name. She delicately reached her hand into the bowl and shifted around for a long second. She carefully plucked out a slip of paper and walked back to the microphone. she cleared her throat as she opened the paper and spoke.
"Haley Ritchson," she said delicately and Haley's heart missed a beat. She waited for someone to volunteer but no one did and she knew exactly why. Yes everyone wanted the glory of winning for themselves but they had a more desire for at least District one to win and everyone knew that if any girl had a chance of winning it was Haley.
She took a breath and her legs shook as she walked out of her section. Her eyes locked with her dad's and he looked worried as she approached the stage. Peacekeepers joined her on either side and escorted her up the steps.
"Ritchson?" Cathrine smiled and looked back at Gloss and Cashmere "are you Gloss's daughter?!"
"Yes" Haley's voice was very small when she answered. She was honestly, truly scared. She never planned on being in the games and she never wanted to be.
"Oh how exciting!" she gushed and Haley swallowed "it must run in the family!"
Cathrine positioned her on the left side of the microphone.
"And now for the boys," she smiled as she walked tot he bowl on the right.
She stuck her hand in and Mace's eyes were trained solely on Haley as Cathrine walked to the microphone.
"And..." "I volunteer!" Mace shouted as loud as he could before anyone else could or before Cathrine even started to say a name.
"We have a volunteer," Cathrine beamed as Mace smoothly pushed his way through the crowd of boys.
Haley didn't look away from him as he strode up the aisle and smoothly mounted the stage.
"Now what is your name young man?" Cathrine asked him with a brilliant smile.
"Mace Peters," Mace said into the microphone and Cathrine smiled.
"Let's hear it for our tributes," Cathrine said and cheers started "Haley Ritchson and Mace Peters!"
Haley turned to face Mace and they shook hands. He looked at her warmly and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He looked into her soft eyes and could tell that she was scared. He volunteered to protect her in the Games, he wanted her to have the best chance of survival in those Games.
Peacekeepers led the duo into the Justice Building and took them to separate rooms so they may say goodbye to their friends and families.
The first people in Haley's room was her parents, Ashley was probably with her friends.
"I'm scared," she said and her dad hugged her tightly.
"I know," he whispered "but you'll have me. I promise I'll help you in every way I can."
He pulled away and her mom hugged her.
"We'll be rooting for you the entire time" she whispered into Haley's ear "if anyone has a chance of winning it's you dear."
While Haley said goodbye to her mother Mace was saying goodbye to his.
"Why would you volunteer?" she cried into his shoulder as he hugged her,
"I wanted to protect Haley," he admitted and she cried.
"What am I supposed to do if you die?" she cried "you're my only child!"
"I'm so sorry mom," he whispered as he hugged her "I promise I'll try my damnedest to get back here."
"You'd better," she sobbed but pulled away "but take this until you do get back."
She pulled the chain on her necklace out of her shirt where it was tucked in at and a ring was there at the dip of it.
"It was your father's wedding ring," she whispered "take it so that you can have a part of him with you."
She slipped the necklace on over his head and it fell again his chest.
"Thank you mom," he whispered and hugged her "I love you."
"I love you too Mace," she whispered as peacekeepers came in to announce that time was up.
His mother left and groups of crying, female admirers filled up the rest of his goodbye time until it was time to get on the train.
He came out of his room as Haley came out of hers.
"Are you okay?" he fell into step next to her.
"I guess," she whispered as they got in a car and drove to the train station.
Again, I wanted to thank you all for reading and I promise I'm going to try to be A LOT more active than I have!
Also if you like this story, and are a PJO fan, then you should check out my PJO story "The Dove and The Owl." It's just like this story, same plot line different main characters, just PJO version! Check it out if you're interested! :)
Until the next author's note...
~They're not just characters...they're my family~
+Justafandomfangirl+