I want to know what waits
Beyond the lies, we hide behind
Where every secret is unturned
And everybody is left undone
Callie Tyson, 16
District 8 Female
Estrella sits down taking her daily break in my room as usual. If Mary were to see her right now, she'd throw the biggest tantrum and yell about how conversing with the help would only lead to them growing comfortable with us. If they were comfortable, they didn't clean as thoroughly, and if they didn't clean as well, then we would have to clean ourselves.
Mary did not like to clean herself.
"Ms. Callie, there's a lot going on tonight in the underground," says Estrella. She's a few years older than me. Her mother worked for us too until she had her baby sister. Now Estrella works twice as hard, but with only half of what she and her mother made together. "There's going to be a rave!"
I've always been fascinated with the Underground ever since I've discovered their existence. Estrella continually tells me story of parties and clubs and all of the rebellious things that these people get away with. I long for the kind of freedom these people have. Mary makes it nearly impossible to breathe, let alone have a good time, but she's all I have. Therefore she's all I will stay with.
"Callie, can you please come make your way to my study?" Mary's voice comes over the intercom in my room. To a normal person it would sound like a sweet request, but knowing Mary, I know that the slight twinge in her voice when she says study means she's upset about something. Mary is very big on presentation and appearance. She doesn't even like the servants to know her business.
"What did you do?" Estrella asks with scared eyes looking at me. She knows as well as I do that this can only end in punishment for me. "She sounds furious this time."
"I probably blinked my eyes too quickly," I say with an eye roll to which she giggles.
I arrange my dress to glide in front of me as Mary taught me as I "glide," yes she says I must glide at all times, down the hallway to the giant wooden door of her study. A knock rings from my hand, and she has her assistant, Emily, open the door. I glide in and take a seat at the chair in front of her desk.
"Would you like some tea, dear?"
"I'd rather just get to why I'm in trouble," I say in as calm a voice as I can manage. A weird smile twists upon her face, and she looks over at me with a big smile.
"Trouble?" she laughs. "Dear, Ladies don't get in trouble unless they start to show without a ring on their finger. We've been over this."
She always throws subtle jabs at my mother, her daughter. Mary was never proud of my mother. She tried to raise her the same way that she is raising me. I wish that I could have met her. She'd have perfect advice on how to deal with the suffocation that comes with having to live with Mary as a guardian.
She died right after I was born in combat. She was fighting for District liberation, and that's how my mother became nothing more than a passive-aggressive jab when Mary was upset about something. All her pictures burned, all her memories destroyed, my grandmother wanted nothing to tie her to the "trash that helped ruin our country single-handedly." Her hatred for my mother is only trumped by her hatred for my father. I don't even know his name. No one will tell me.
"What is this I hear about you are struggling to complete the book study I had prepared for you?" she asks me. "Your teachers tell me that you're getting mouthy as well."
"Maybe if you'd let me go to normal school I wouldn't have to worry about stupid things like balancing a book on my head!" I snap. "I don't want to live like I'm in the Victorian Era! There are people with real flying cars that travel from place to place depending on their status! Why are you so insistent on living in the pas-"
Her hand makes a swift impact on my cheek. My eyes begin to water as I pull away and she places the white glove back onto her hand. She looks at me sternly and holds her index finger up to my face, "You'll do smart to mind your elders, Callie. I will not take this kind of insubordination." she rolls her eyes and leans back in her chair. Emily runs over to her desk with a cup of tea and sets it on her desk, taking the tea in her hands she looks at me. "I guess I shouldn't expect more. Your trash mother was just the same. You can't help genetics I suppose. Take the girl out of the orphanage, but never take the orphanage out of the girl." she pauses to take a sip of tea, and then clears her throat. "Go back to your room, and don't you dare think about coming out for supper."
I get up from my chair and run out of the room. I sprint down the hallway, past Estrella who is looking concerned as I rush past her, and slam the door of my room. I quickly lock the door, even though I know it's useless since Mary has the key, and I slide down the door and sob into my hands.
I'm changing
The things that form me are no more
The youth that I was bestowed no longer protects my mind
I'm changing
Mitt O'Malley, 12
District 8 Male
I feel like crap. I haven't slept well in days, and no matter what I do I can't seem to kick this cold. Working in this dreary cold factory doesn't help the fact that I'm sneezing my lungs out every other five seconds.
"Another day another dollar!" says Kurt bright and cheery as he comes into my bedroom to wake me up. We both knew I didn't sleep last night. I tossed and turned, and at one point accidentally hit my head on the wall waking him up.
"There's nothing cheery about today, Kurt. The sun isn't even out. It's cloudy. Not to mention we don't get paid for another three days, and we have virtually nothing in our pantry."
His happy demeanor seems a bit defeated as he stands in my doorway, and I instantly regret what I said. Just because I feel miserable doesn't mean that Kurt has to as well. He quickly rearranges his smile and then turns the bedroom light on. He winks and then closes the door as I get out of bed and go put my work uniform on.
This wasn't the life I imagined for myself when I was younger. Parents died in an influenza epidemic; uncle was a pain in the ass who was just all around awful no matter which way you spun things. He left three helpless kids to fend for themselves, but my brothers did what they could until I was old enough to work. They took our tesserae, they took extra jobs that they could find, and both of them decided that I would never take it out when I was of reaping age.
Three days from now I'll be in the reapings. My first reapings, and knowing the shithole luck I have I'm not excited about it.
I'm going to interrupt this part of the story. Hey, I know it's been awhile, but I just needed to address something. With every tribute, there is always some sense of sadness for them. I know that the Capitol is looked at like some monster place, but we understand the stakes that the tributes face when they go in. Tributes like Mitt are the hardest to acknowledge because life has already chewed them up and spit them out. Though none of us will say it out loud ever, we all felt for him.
I walk into the kitchen as my brothers stand around the counter waiting for me. Kurt smiles brightly and tosses a banana my way. I catch it with a bewildered look in my eyes. Bananas are crazy expensive in the market, and not only that, but I'm pretty sure they're not in season either.
"How'd you get this?"
"Kurt is wow-ing the Mayor's daughter. Ms. Casey Brams has a thing for the Kurtinator," says Ty with a hearty nudge of the arm to Kurt.
"Did you serious just call him the Kurtinator?" I ask with a chuckle and an eye-roll. "Lock her down before she hears your families lame jokes," I say peeling the banana. I take a bite out of it, and my brothers lead me to the door, and we begin our long walk to the factory.
"It's weird not having to go to the reaping this year," says Kurt. "I never thought the day would come where I'd be 19."
"Yeah, must be so exciting," I say quietly.
Kurt looks apologetically at me, and Ty gives him a reassuring look. He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes. "You're going to be okay, Mitt," he says in his best older brother voice. That's what I've always liked about Ty. He's the oldest brother, but he's never tried to replace dad. "You didn't take out any tesserae, and you're only in that bowl one time. I feel like this is one of those cheesy things that everyone tells a twelve-year-old on their first reaping, but the odds truly aren't in your favor to get reaped."
In my head, I know that. I know that there are literally thousands of slips in that bowl. But something about this day looming closer just sits uneasily with me. It's almost like I expect the worst to happen because it's always happened to me.
"I know," I say. "I'm just scared I suppose. It's a huge thing. I know that the likelihood of getting picked is so small it's ridiculous, but I also can't help but think that people who have already been reaped have thought the same thing, and suddenly there they are sitting in the Hunger Games."
My brothers creep behind me. How do they help a child who's given up hope for the world that they inhabit? That's the truly messed up part about all of this.
"We know it's scary," says Kurt. "I was 12 when they announced them in the first place. I went through all six years waiting for my name to be called and never heard it. The truth is there are so many people in our District."
"Even after the flu epidemic," says Ty, he knows me too well. I was about to talk about that right after Kurt finished his sentence.
"Point being little brother," says Kurt reassuringly. "In 3 days there will be a reaping. You'll stand in a crowd, hear a poor soul get called, and then come home where we will celebrate you making it through your first reaping. You're going to be okay."
"Promise?" I ask
"Promise," they say together as we walk into the factory we all work in for another long day's work.
I know it's been awhile. I'm going to stop apologizing though, and just promise that this will get finished.
Time for a check-in.
What is your tributes biggest regret? Private message me the answer, and I'll respond with got it! I really am excited about this story. So I hope that even if you're all a little frustrated that it's taking awhile, you're still happy when you see an update. I have so many plans for all of these characters, and I just want to thank you guys for sending them.
Let me know what you think of these two!
Keep it classy,
Caleb