I stood still, motionless, something inside my brain thinking if I did so no one would notice me. Not true. A few girls around me shuffled thankfully backwards, making a path for me. Some of them from my classes I barely knew hugged me. Brilliant, now Kalya knew who I was.
"Sienna Bates? Come on dear, you come up here now and we can ask for volunteers."
No one volunteers in district nine; didn't she know that by now? The square was in complete silence as I walked out oozing fake confidence, holding my head high as I made my way to the stage, casually tucking a stray hair back in place behind my ear. I was grateful for the skirt covering my legs now, as I was sure I could feel my knees knocking beneath the material. I risked a glance over to the other side of the square sectioned off for the boys. My eyes found Milo again. He smiled sympathetically for a second, but other wise seemed side tracked with some thing else, like when he was in deep thought. I couldn't see Tyth, but I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. I kept walking.
The stretch to the stage seemed to go on forever, and having the whole district staring at me, I felt kind of uncomfortable. I was one of the wealthier children in district nine, with my father working in the medicine blocks and my mother the owner of a huge grain plantation passed down from her father when he died, which she hired people to work on. It was usually the poorer children, the ones who regularly took out tesserae who got reaped. Not someone who's name was five slips in thousands.
I stepped up onto the stage.
"What wonderful clothes you are wearing!" Kalya screeched far too high, clapping her hands together. "I dare say your skirt is the exact colours of the grain fields."
Well at least she noticed something that wasn't me knitting my hands together nervously. I forced myself to stop, balling my hands into fists at my sides before stretching them out, flat.
"So, Sienna, how old are you, darling?" Kalya thrust the microphone towards my mouth. "I'm sixteen." Good, I still sounded confident.
"Are there any volunteers for this young lady's place?" she asked.
The square, if it was possible, fell even more silent. That was a no then. I felt my chance of freedom slip. I hadn't trained at all for the hunger games, hoping the fact my name only being in there the mandatory amount of times I would be almost guaranteed not to be reaped; though if we were being split into two groups, surely I could pick up some tips during the arena after training and learning new things at the training centre.
"District nine, your female tribute, Sienna Bates!" I could hear few people clapping round the square, and could definitely hear my family's sobs above the small round of applause. They obviously thought I didn't look much then. I scowled before remembering Tyth's comment on ruining appearance, and my act to appear confident, so I dropped it and the scowl was no more.
"And now for the boys turn." Kalya left me and rummaged around the selection of boys names. She returned with a single piece of paper. I held my breath as she read out the name.
"Rodn-" Kalya began, and I let out my breath slowly. They were safe. But then I heard two simultaneous shouts.
"I volunteer!"
I looked up from the floor sharply, and the words hit me like a gun shot. Two tall figures were working their way through their age pen to the walk way down the middle. There was one from the eighteen, and one from the sixteen, and I felt the stirring in my stomach. I knew those voices. Both Milo and Tyth fought there way through the crowd. My heart sank as I glanced at both of them as they walked down the dirt path way. My best friend and my brother, both volunteering. What are you doing?! I buried my face in my hands in devastation. They were submitting themselves to death, to do what, protect me? The two glared at each other, and Kalya stood nervous on the stage, unsure of what to do. She eventually gestured for both to take to the stage.
"What are your names?" Her voice sounded shaken, not sure what to do with them.
"I'm Tyth Bates," he pounced on the microphone. "She's my sister and I love her more than anything. I want to protect her in the arena." He said with steely confidence.
There would be a definite 'aw' moment in the Capitol right about now.
"I'm Milo Scott. Sienna's my best friend and I want to ensure her she can live without fear of being reaped in the hunger games, after winning them." He spoke softly, as if to me, not to the cameras and Captiol the way Tyth did. He smiled at me, and instantly as he did last year, I could trust him. My heart fluttered. His best friend who he wanted to protect from harm… But he didn't feel it like I felt it, but did he? I'm sure a best friend wouldn't go into the arena with someone if they didn't really care about them… I could hear Kalya talking about something in her breathy voice. What was the point in listening, I didn't have to do anything.
Shut up, you're over thinking things! You said so yourself, he doesn't feel what you feel, your love for him. Get over it already, he's just a friend.
"And so, I think, we should leave it to Sienna to decide who she wants to accompany her into the arena." Kalya smiled widely at me, as if it were some great opportunity she had given me.
"What?!" I felt my eyes widen in fear as the two stared intently at me. I gulped. The one I didn't chose would presumably sulk, and even if we did make it back alive, would they be fine with me choosing the other? I had never had this problem with conflict between my friends and family before. I understood then why so many hate it. One was my brother, one was my best friend; both were willing to jeopardize their chance of freedom from the hunger games to help me. I didn't realize we were in that kind of relationships where we would risk our lives to help another live. I felt comforted by that, loved, but it didn't make the situation easier, did it?
"Who would you, the District 9 female tribute for the 200th Hunger games, wish to be your companion in the arena?" She gestured to Tyth and Milo.
"I have to choose?"
Kalya nodded.
"Between my best friend and my brother?"
"Yes, now come on, Sienna, make your decision before we all roast in this heat!" She giggled nervously. Please, a giggle from a woman probably in her thirties?
I bit my lip, turning to look at the faces of Tyth and Milo. Milo stared straight back at me, his gorgeous, captivating eyes gazing into mine, battling with my soul, willing me to choose him. He really did want to protect me, whether it was as a friend or something more. But when we were in the arena, what would happen to our friendship? If we both survived, surely things couldn't be the same again, if we were made to kill people.
Tyth, my older brother, who next year would be free from the reapings, volunteered because I was chosen. Because he wanted me to live, if it was at his own life's cost. But I couldn't help thinking how wrong it could go; what if we weren't put on the same team, what if we both died and mother and father were left on their own with no extra income and Jake and Kate to look after?
Next I search the crowd of parents for my own. They're right at the front to the side of the stage, broken down in tears at the fact they could loose their first born and their second born children in one game. That seemed to seal my decision.
"I would like," I stuttered, my confidence suddenly drained. "Milo. Please, to be my district partner."
"Seems we've got a little romance going on here!" Kalya joked, nudging Milo towards me and he smiled genuinely, in a way that convinced me he wasn't acting. His mind games –were they even mind games?- confused me, and I couldn't ever tell when he was acting and when he was not. But for now, I didn't mind, as he pulled me in for a hug rather than shaking hands on the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the tributes of district nine; Milo Scott and Sienna Bates!"
"I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you get back home." He whispered in my ear during the embrace.
"And I can assure you I will try to do the same." I replied as we were led through the justice building doors and away from the crowd with two sets of families weeping for their children, one of them who'd just chosen the other one to die, if they did indeed die.
Tyth's devastated face carved itself into my mind, and suddenly the shock of the situation faded away behind the closed justice building doors, and I felt a steady trickle of tears beginning to run down my face.
A/N Thanks to all previous reviews and views! Please please please review so I can know what you think of it! Thanks to InsaneXbexX24 (again!), mar9215 and degrassigirl12 for your reviews! I expect the next part to be up soon, as I'm really getting into the characters now, as I wasn't so sure of them at the start. Thanks to all viewers.
