A/N: Should I do two tributes per chapter? This is getting sort of long and I'm not even done with all the tributes D:
District 3, Kenji Jummers, 18
When the clock strikes six, usually I'm always up and alert, whipping my head around for potential threats. This is true of today, when I'm in a house full of people I distrust and my sister to protect. The Reaping? HAH. I'm not worried of that foolishness. Aside from the negative odds I'd get picked, my tesserae slips are none, very little compared to other people in our district.
My legs are curled up. My arms each hold a saber, ready to lunge at potential threats. Nobody would ever try to get past me. I'm smarter than them all. Fools. One day my parents will be sorry they died in that wretched train accident and left me to an old foster couple. These people I live with have no idea of my brutality. They know I hate most people, but they have never seen me with a weapon.
Once I lashed out at a boy named Rin. He had called me ugly. The next day, the police were on a manhunt for Rin and I was at home, smiling at what I had just done.
Nobody has ever found Rin- but then again, nobody has ever looked in the mugs at the back of our cupboards. Killing him was tricky. He kept yelling. Being noisy. Trying to get people's attention. But one quick stab with a butcher knife and he was gone. I cut him up, threw everything but the bones in a blender. The bones I fed to the District Three dogs. They are smart and they buried them.
Good dogs.
I glance over in the mirror briefly before I scan the room. Staring back at me in a piercing, cold, harsh glare is a handsome guy. Spiky black hair, green eyes, completely tan skin. A six-pack. Nobody would want to mess with me. Rin was stupid to call me fat.
This brings to mind another time I beat somebody. My sister, Lilicon, was best friends with a guy named Shikle. He asked her on a date, and she said yes. When he arrived at the door I was ready. I beat him so much that he still chokes up blood and is currently in the mental hospital. Lilicon was horrified. The next day she cried and asked me why I did it. I remember yelling at her that we could only trust each other and then I ran away from her. I stayed in a shallow grave for a night before I went back home.
I swallow. I heard a noise.
It is my foster mother, Renee.
"Kenji," she whispers softly. "Are you awake?"
I toss the sabers under my bed and close my eyes. She peers in the door- I can tell by a rush of cold streaks into my room. She stays there for a moment before shutting the door and walking down the hallway.
That was close. Good thing I am ahead of most people.
-.-.-.-.-.-
District Three, Lilicon Jummers, 18
I wake up at ten o'clock on Sunday. The house is unusually quiet, so I enjoy this moment of peace. This does not happen often. Normally Father and Kenji are always fighting, yelling, screaming. Whenever that happens Mother takes me to the woods in our backyard, and we practice knife skills with our lone butcher knife. We aim at black and orange circles painted on trees. I have gotten pretty good over the course of three years. I can hit them every time.
I peer out my doorframe. All the bedroom doors are closed. I shuffle out of my room, my furry yellow slippers making whooshing noises against the soft, carpeted floor. I knock once, twice, thrice on Kenji's door.
"Yeah?" he grunts gruffly. I open the door.
"Kenji," I sigh softly. "What the heck are you doing?" Kenji is in a sort of position where his legs are behind his head. He's stuck. It would be funnier if he were grinning, but this is no laughing matter. He's not flexible at all, so to me it is even a mystery how he got into that position.
"Help me," he commands. I tug at the left leg and he nearly topples over. I giggle at him- he's so hilarious.
A minute later, he is unstuck and rubbing his thighs and wincing all at once.
"How did you even get like that?" I ask him. He shrugs.
"I'm practicing yoga."
"But I thought you thought yoga was for idiots, ninnies."
"I may have changed my mind."
I roll my blue eyes. "So… is that why you and Father are not fighting?"
He gives me a push. "Stop saying that. He's not our real father."
"What would you rather I call him?" I question, my voice soft. "Papa? Dada? Patriarch? Paterfamilias?"
"Um, I think now I'm liking Father," he responds gruffly.
I lie down on his rug, staring at the ceiling. "Are you worried for today, Kenji?"
Kenji blinks. "Worried for what?"
I give his foot a pinch. "The Reaping," I pronounce.
Kenji shakes his head. "Should I be worried?"
"Sort of," I say. "You could get picked."
"I'm not worried about that bull crap," he tells me. "That's all fake. Nobody really will get picked. I have a theory, Lily. My theory is that-"
"Breakfast!" My mother's voice rings out.
Kenji rolls his eyes. "Hold that thought, Lily."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Kenji
Clad in a black sweatshirt and black trainers, I stand at the front of the eighteen-year-old's crowd. I stare menacingly at Three's escort as he selects a slip of paper from the huge glass ball. It is girls first.
"For our District Three girl tribute, we have Lilicon Jummers!"
My heart literally stops. I see Lilicon, her blond hair in a high bun and a red dress covering her torso and legs. Her shoes are rags, basically. But she is beautiful. Her beauty is tattered by fear and nervousness. She makes her way to the stage, and I see her small Adam's apple bob up and down quickly as she swallows.
"Lilicon… Such a pretty name."
"Thank you." I can tell that Lily is terrified.
Our escort grins at the crowd. "And now for the boys!"
Lilicon
Oh… my… God. I am seriously going to die. I have been Reaped, and I will die. I don't hear what the escort says when he reads off the boy's name. I am so upset. Black circles swim before my eyes. I'm dizzy. I need a chair. I might faint. I pinch my pale wrist and see-
OH MY GOD.
OH MY GOD.
OH… MY… GOD!
Kenji is the boy tribute.
Kenji is going into the arena with me.
Kenji will die as well.
Kenji does not stand a chance against the Careers.
Kenji has never trained with Mom, and I thought it was stupid of him not to.
Kenji is my brother.
Kenji is the only one I truly love in this world.
Kenji is my best friend.
Kenji will die at my side.
I will watch Kenji die.
A/N: Reviews much appreciated, folks. (Bow.)
