Noctis Faith:
Noctis reached up to play with his hair. Like most days he had decided to spike the front of his strawberry blond hair. When he would get nervous he would often reach up and grab the front part of his gelled hair and run his fingers along it, as if reaffirming it was still there and spiky.
"Noctis!" Amanda came out of nowhere and took his breath away in a backbreaking hug. Man, that was one of the things he loved about her. Leaf and May were following her through the crowd.
"Well, look at the little lovebirds!" Leaf shouted, attracting a lot of attention. Noctis blushed as Amanda just smiled shamelessly. He realized how much he loved her smile as well.
"Anyway, besides embarrassing the two of you we should get to our spots for the reaping!" The teens all agreed and started walking to the 17 year old pen in the square to get ready for the reaping.
It was May that spoke up again. "So what's Vandalia doing to prepare for the reaping this year?" Vandalia was Noctis' twin sister. But unlike Noctis she was not in the training school, she was in the District Two high school getting an education to become an upper-class businesswoman. She sure had a bright future ahead of her, being as smart as she was. Unlike Noctis and his older brother, Jay, who were happy and content to follow in their fathers footsteps of being blacksmiths for the districts.
The teens took their places at the reaping though, talking about who would volunteer, and which ones had the best chance of winning. Never thinking that the four of them would be in danger.
Candace Night:
Today was the day Candace told herself. She was exhilarated. She was prepared. She was a volunteer.
She had been preparing for two years, since 16, to volunteer for the Hunger Games and come home a champion. Of course the rebellion threw that out for a year but now with the new games it was back in action.
Candace already had her outfit picked out for months and after taking a quick shower was pulling on the blue strapless dress.
Looking in the mirror she tried to fix her hair. Her long blond hair with streaks of brown had been cut in a way that her bangs looked awful. She decided to twist the bangs to one side and put some quick dabs of foundation on. She still looked awful, what with the scar from my left temple across my face to my right jaw line and her missing two front teeth. She thought she looked awful but there was no way to fix her scar and getting fake teeth was very expensive and she couldn't afford it.
On the way out of my house she saw her lazy ass brother Marco.
"Hey, Candace, when you win these games were gonna get a huge house and then I'll never have to work again. We will be in the clear. Yeah!" This was all quickly spoken and very slurred. Oh Marco, my lazy, idiot brother who just drank all day and all night Candace thought.
Her family had tried to get him to a clinic but nothing could be done. Well if she did win, she knew that her brother would not be getting a penny and would have to sober up to get into her life again.
"Sober up and get the reaping you lazy ass!" she yelled at him. Candace started off to the reaping square eating a granola bar for breakfast.
"Candace! It's your big day, are you ready?" Her two best friends Ruby and Gaby came up to me.
"Yes I'm so excited! It'll be so much fun!" The three collapsed into a fit of giggles. The girls chattered all the way to the reaping, talking about this person and that gossip.
Finally, about half an hour later the district escort Maximillion, in gold suit, with matching hair and even matching teeth. Dear god the capitol snob looked like a dumbass. "Well, hello District 2! Aren't we all excited for the bloodier, gorier, and more violent hunger games this year! The 76th Annual Hunger Games!" He spoke with that damn shrill accent that all capitol people spoke with.
"We need to get started! So then ladies, hope that you will be picked!"
He walked over to the giant reaping bowl, about twice the size it normally was. He reached down and pulled his hand out with a slip; but no sooner had he turned away from the reaping bowl when Candace yelled, "I volunteer."
Maximillion scanned the crowd. "You." He pointed directly at Candace.
Candace walked up on stage and smiled. She heard the goran of the crowd audibly. Maximillion wrapped his arm around my shoulder, "What's your name dear?"
"Candice Night," she replied moving her mouth as little as possible to conceal her lack of two front teeth. She grinned but kept my lips shut to hide my teeth.
Noctis Faith:
"Now then let's start with the boys!" Maximillion crowed. Noctis though about how much he hated these stupid capitol punks. They thought they owned everything in the districts and that pain and torment is pleasurable to watch.
"Now then our next volunteer will be," Maximillion reached into the bowl, "Henry Seifer." Noctis' head snapped up. That was Amanda's brother, her little brother that has turned 12 the other day. He heard Amanda screaming and immediately he started shoving boys out of the way to get to her.
He moved so quickly that Maximillion thought he was Henry at first, before he dove into the girls section. Peacekeepers dove after him, trying to get him pulled out of the girls section. Once he saw Amanda on the ground sobbing he knew what he had to do.
"I volunteer!" The rest was a blur. Standing up there with one other tribute, knowing at least one them would die. As the square started to empty they let families and friends come on stage.
Amanda ran to him and wrapped him in a hug. "Noctis, I love you so much." The whole time during goodbyes he never let go of her. Not when Leaf and May came, or my family, or her family, not even when Henry gave him a hug with tears in his eyes. Finally they led the 2 of us into a waiting hovercraft to an unknown fate, and an unknown arena.
Candace Night:
Her family was fine with goodbyes. Sure her mom cried and her still hung-over brother was sad but they talked about it and they knew she was going to volunteer. When Maximillion told her she had to leave the Justice Building Gaby and Ruby came up to her and wrapped her in a huge bear hug.
"Good luck Candice!" "We know you can do it and we'll be rooting for you the whole time we promise!" Candace smiled at them this time a full smile and she turned around only to see the girls who had given her scars, Taya.
"Here. As your token. Good luck." Taya turned around and walked away. Candace stared after her, then looked at what she put in her hand. A small blue feather necklace from when her and Taya were 6.
They were so little back then and were best friends. She figured this was Taya's way of apologizing to her for everything. Though Candace forgaver her she still couldn't trust her and going into these games she couldn't trust anyone anymore.