Quinoa Farmer- District Nine female
"I can throw a rock farther than you can!"
Silt and Spelt gave each other that look twins get when they're thinking the same thing and want to acknowledge it even though each knows the other so well they don't have to look. There she goes again, they were thinking. Our sister, the most competitive girl in the world.
"Remember what happened when you said you ran faster than anyone else?" Silt asked.
"Yeah, but that wasn't fair! You're way taller than me! You don't have to run as far because your legs are longer!" I said.
Spelt shrugged as he picked up a rock.
"Okay, let's see what you've got," he said, and threw it. It sailed out in a well-aimed arc, landing far out in the dirt and raising a soft cloud.
I let Silt throw first, scanning the ground as I looked for a perfect rock. My brothers were a lot bigger than I was, and if I wanted to keep up with them, I had to fight stronger and smarter. And I did want to keep up with them. I wanted to surpass them, to leave them in the dust, knowing that they blew their advantage and let me beat them.
Silt barely seemed to be putting effort in when he threw. When Spelt threw a moment later, he casually shied the rock like he was just skipping it across a pond on a lazy day. I found a heavy-looking, aerodynamic rock, and when I threw, I almost wrenched my shoulder from my socket. The rock sailed through the air, landing perhaps just an inch past my brothers' rocks.
"See that?" I crowed. "Mine went the farthest!"
"Yessiree, you sure are the best at throwing rocks," Silt said.
"We are in the presence of greatness," Spelt said.
I was aware of their sarcasm, but I chose to ignore it. Despite my brothers' lack of interest, I knew they weren't letting me win. I could always tell when they did that, and I would let them have it before demanding a real rematch. This was just something they couldn't understand. They were big, strapping farm boys. Physical things came easy to them. I was small, and slightly built, and… a girl. I had to work twice as hard to be as strong as they were naturally. Beating me was no big deal to them. Being as strong as them was everything to me.
"Heyyyy!"
Far off in the distance, Milo was calling us from the farmhouse. My brothers and I ran in, me turning red and panting with exertion so that at the end, I was a few feet ahead. I was about to point that out when I saw Milo's face. My big brother's cheeks were pasty, and his eyes were puffy.
"You okay?" Silt asked.
"I have a cold," Milo said, and he coughed into his hand. All three of us saw right through him. He didn't have a cold, not when the sun was out and when he'd just spent all day working in the fields like everyone else. He was thinking about the Reaping.
"I guess the Hunger Games is coming up soon," I said with my bravest and most cavalier smile. "If they pick me, I'll be sure to pick the biggest house in the Victor's Village, so you can all come live with me."
"You shouldn't talk about things like that," Milo said.
"The Hunger Games aren't even anything," I said, and it was all for their benefit. No matter what I told myself, I knew how things were. The Hunger Games weren't a rock-throwing competition with my brothers. If I went into the Arena, all my work and zeal to win wouldn't make a lick of difference, because all those other kids would be trying just as hard to win as I would. Milo might have been showing it more, but I was just as scared as he was. There were some things you couldn't will yourself to the top of. There were games I couldn't win, and I never wanted to play them.
Randy Mill- District Nine male
"There's my baby!"
It sounded so weird coming from my mother. It was what she'd called me since I was, well, a baby, but lately, it sounded so weird.
It was probably because that was what Narcissa called me. Narcissa was from Two, like most Peacekeepers. She missed home, and most of all, she missed how pretty people were back there. She said I was pretty just like people in Two, and she just loved pretty things. She loved how pretty I was so much that she paid me just to be pretty! She liked to buy my fancy clothes and shiny things so she could hang them on me like a decorated tree. I didn't know much about Two, but I sure liked shiny things, especially if I could sell them and buy things I actually liked, like presents for my mom. Sure, I was only with her because I was rich, but she was only with me because I was pretty. That seemed fair to me.
Anyway, there was something weird about hearing your actual momma call you the same thing your sugar momma called you. But I never told her, because how weird would that be? She knew about my job, but she didn't have to know that Narcissa also called me baby. It was different when Mom did it.
"Let's play Brain Freeze!"
Mom loved Brain Freeze. It was the only board game we had, so that was lucky. She probably just liked it because she always won. She always seemed to know the answers to the trivia cards, and I always seemed to get the hard ones.
When it was her turn, she picked up a card and read it.
"Time trial! All players write down as many factors of 160 as possible. Time limit is 30 seconds."
Why would I want to do school when I'm playing a game? I grumbled as I scribbled numbers on a sheet of paper. Let's see. 2, since it's even. 5, since it ends in 0. Uhhh… 4? I don't know…
Mom had three times as many numbers as I did at the end. I didn't even know 160 had that many factors!
It was my turn next. I picked out a card. Easy one easy one easy one… I hoped.
It was about synonyms, and Mom took that one, too. Dang, she always gets the ones I don't know about. Then she took the next one, about geography, and the next, about anagrams.
Wait a minute….
Whatever subject it was, Mom sure seemed to know it a lot better than I did. More like, whatever subject it was, I didn't know much about it. Maybe it wasn't that I was unlucky after all. Maybe… I was just dumb as a post.
Honestly, that made a lot of sense. How I never kept a job other than getting paid to look pretty. How Narcissa was always patting my head and saying "bless your heart". How I took third grade three times and still didn't get B's most of the time. I had to face the music. I was just plain stupid.
It should have hurt, but it didn't really seem that bad. Some people are ugly. Some people are mean. We all have empty spots. Mine was that I was dumb. It wasn't the end of the world. It was nice to know something about myself, because I sure didn't know much about anything else. And maybe I was dumb, but I was still pretty, and nice, and I had a great mother and a lady who was more than happy to take care of me. There were worse lives to live.
Quinoa: short, chestnut brown hair and dark brown eyes. She has freckles. Her skin is tan from working outside a lot. She is short for her age, but very muscular and strong.
Randy: a dark-skinned guy with a beautiful chocolately complexion. He has some freckles and he's pretty well-built, and he has dazzling blue eyes (sugar baby, so he's gotta be cute)
