District 8 Tributes:

Audrey Manzel (14)

Teddy Garland (16)


Teddy Garland sat at the table he had set up in his room, in a very happy place right now. He was just putting the finishing touches to his latest creation, a beautiful red dress.

As he held up his creation, he smiled with pride. The dress had come out beautifully, long and flowing. Teddy was lucky, as his sister worked for the best dress maker in town, and so therefore was often able to blag a bit of material for Teddy to use.

His sister Olivia popped her head in at that moment. "Hey Teddy. How's the dress coming along?"

Teddy held up the dress. "I-I just finished it. W-What do you think?"

"It's amazing Teddy." Olivia replied, beaming. "You have a real talent." Olivia, who was twenty-three, adored Teddy, and the feeling was very much mutual.

Teddy had always struggled to make friends and was bullied at school, due to being shy and unconfident about his appearance. He was a very small boy, with an incredibly pale face and spiky dark brown hair. He had attractive big hazel eyes, but these were normally hid behind his chunky classes. His stutter didn't help his self-esteem either. Teddy was just thankful he had Olivia, the only person in the world he could share his deepest feelings with, and that he could trust.

"Hey Teddy, I lost my folder with my notes. Can you tell me the list of the customers' dress sizes today?" Olivia asked.

Teddy smiled. "Sure O-Olivia. Mrs Whitmore w-was 34 Inches bust, 26.75 inches w-waist, 38.75 inches h-hips. Mrs Hawley was…"

Olivia smiled as she wrote everything Teddy said down. She was lucky that Teddy had seen the list before she had lost it. He had an incredible photogenic memory, with the ability to recall images in memory with great precision.

Teddy finished listing the measurements. "Thanks Teddy." Olivia said with a smile. "You'd better get ready now. It's almost time for the reapings."

Teddy's face flushed with panic. He had forgotten that today was the dreaded day of the reapings, what with being lost in his own little world of designing.

Teddy had never had to take out tesserae due to his sister's job, but the thought of being reaped still terrified him. His only other friend apart from Olivia, Werner Henley, had been reaped last year.

Teddy still remembered his horrible death like it was yesterday.


(One year ago)

Teddy watched the big screen put up in the district centre. It was day three of the 34th Hunger Games. Thirteen were dead, but Werner was still alive, moving through the forest in the arena holding a knife. He was with a girl from District 10 that he had formed an alliance with.

Teddy watched as suddenly, the girl from 10 dropped to the ground, an arrow sticking out of the back of her head.

"Oooh! Looks like Werner has got some running to do. Here come the careers!" The commentator was getting very excited about the upcoming battle.

Teddy watched as Werner fled through the forest, with the five tribute strong career alliance not far behind. The leader, a brute from District 2 called Malik, was shouting obsceneties at Werner.

Werner reached the edge of the forest and burst out of it, but he had nowhere left to run. In front of him was a sharp drop off the edge of a cliff. Werner turned around to see the careers bursting through the trees.

He backed off as Malik approached him with a big grin on his face.

"Don't run away from me!" Malik yelled as he kicked Werner to the ground.

"Please don't kill me. I'll do anything. I'll help you, please!" Werner begged.

Malik simply laughed as he raised his sword high.

And Teddy could only watch in horror as Malik brought it straight down through Werner's heart.


(Present day)

Teddy tried to put the thoughts of the games and the careers out of his head, as he got dressed in a grey button-down shirt tucked into his off-white shorts.

And with a sigh, he headed downstairs.


Audrey, Maya, and Simone were sitting in their local cafe, enjoying some breakfast. It was a fairly run-down cafe with rather average food, but the girls loved it here. They had been hanging out here for a couple of years now, and always had a good laugh. Today, Audrey was up to her usual tricks.

Maya and Simone were encouraging her as she balanced a spoon on the tip of her nose, trying to break her record. Many other people looked on in annoyance as Audrey and her friends laughed hysterically, but the girls didn't care. They knew they were immature, but they enjoyed being this way.

Audrey was a tall and thin girl with pale skin. She had thick, medium-length wavy brown hair and hazel eyes. She was often told that she could look really pretty if she made more of an effort, but Audrey let these comments go right over her head. She didn't take kindly to people trying to tell her what to do.

"Look out Audrey, here comes James." Maya whispered

"Shut up!" Audrey hissed menacingly at her as James walked into the cafe.

He walked past their table, as Audrey said "Hi James" with a big smile.

James muttered "Hi" in response, before turning to talk to Simone.

Audrey sighed. She was almost giving up on James, as she had given off so many hints about how much she liked him, but he just never seemed to return the feelings. What Audrey didn't know however, was that James secretly liked her back, but just didn't want to show it for fear of being rejected.

As James walked away, Audrey hung her head, in a sad mood now. Maya and Simone noticed this, and began to comfort her.

But Audrey's day was about to get worse. Mallie Horner, one of the so called popular girls from her school, walked into the cafe accompanied by her usual gang of followers.

As they walked by Audrey's table, Audrey couldn't help but mutter "Skanks" as the group of girls walked by.

Mallie heard her and walked over to Audrey's table. "What was that Audrey?" she said with a hiss.

Audrey looked at her directly in the face. "You heard me" Audrey still bore a long-standing grudge against Mallie for ripping her dress during the reaping last year.

Mallie smirked. "I don't know who you think you're talking to. I mean look at you! What is that skirt?"

Audrey paused for a second, observing Mallie's irritated face. "Well at least I haven't been behind the bike shed with half our class…"

That comment really got to Mallie. "How dare you!" she yelled. Their conversation by this point had attracted onlookers in the cafe.

Audrey smirked, and with that Mallie slapped her, hard, across the face.

Audrey continued smirking, and got up, facing Mallie. "I didn't feel a thing you bitch. Congenital insensitivity to pain."

Mallie looked confused. "I knew you wouldn't know what it meant. Look it up" Audrey said as she punched Mallie in the nose.


Teddy was standing in the crowd of sixteen year olds, waiting for the reaping to begin. The female escort walked up onto the stage, this year dressed in a red corset with her make up heavily done up around the eyes. Many people around Teddy laughed, but he couldn't help but stare with fascination. For a boy like Teddy, the chance to experience the Capitol fashion scene would be a dream come true.

It was then that Teddy noticed Carson standing nearby. Carson was a gorgeous boy, with blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a well toned body.

Perfection. Teddy thought.

Ever since Carson had helped Teddy with his bag when it had split once in school, Teddy had become enamoured with the boy. He was often too shy to talk to him however, and could certainly not confess his feelings to him. No-one knew that Teddy was gay, not even Olivia.

"So let's start with the female tribute!" the escort announced brightly as she dipped her hand into one of the bowls. Teddy snapped back to focusing his attention on the escort.

"The female tribute this year is Audrey Manzel!"

Teddy watched as a girl emerged from the fourteen year old section with little fuss.

"I volunteer!" came a cry from the seventeen year old section.

The girl named Audrey shouted "No Idina!" as she ran up to the stage, beating her older sister up there. Peacekeepers had to hold Idina back as she still tried to get to the stage, screaming.

The escort smiled with enthusiasm. "So great to see volunteers from an non-career district… and now for the boys!"

Please no, please. Teddy begged silently in his head.

"Teddy Garland"