Here is District 8, two tributes that live in a District that focuses on textiles, or creating clothing for the Capital. So, this is a shorter chapter, but I still hope you enjoy.
I don't own The Hunger Games. It's owned by Suzanne Collins.
District 8
Kelly Hughes, 17
Kelly was sitting around her house, looking down at the table and nothing else. She didn't even take the time to get anything to eat. Her mother had come into the kitchen to see Kelly moping around.
"Kelly, are you thinking about her again?" Her mother asked.
Kelly looked at her mother, with a look of sadness to her.
"Honey, you need to get over it. It's been three years now since you lost her. You need to start talking to people."
Kelly looked down at the table again. She had lost her sister Luna to cancer about three years ago. With Luna, Kelly felt like she had someone that she could count on to talk to, that she could be comfortable talking about things to Luna. Now that she was dead, Kelly felt like a part of her went with Luna when she died. She couldn't feel anything to hard, but she tried to hide it when she was outside, but Kelly knew she was never going to get use to it. What made it even worse was today was the day of reaping, or the 57th Hunger Games. It just made Kelly feel even more depressed.
"Is it even worth it? Going to the reaping." Kelly asked.
"Kelly look, I know you don't like thinking about her. But today is the day to forget about Luna for today, and put on something nice. And of course the Peacekeepers wouldn't like the fact that you're not there. So, there's that as well."
Kelly thought about it for a few minutes. Yes, it was true that the Capital didn't like when people showed up to the reaping, so Kelly knew she was going to have to go. But she just had a inklings thought in her head that something was going to happen when she was their. She didn't know why, but it had something to do with her.
Miles Dermott, 17
Miles looked at his dad, who busy trying to perform surgery to a patient he had. Miles knew what his dad was doing, trying to take out the liver. Miles saw his dad carefully take out that liver of the patient and put it in a plastic container on a tray. Then his dad took out a new liver and carefully used his tools to put the new liver and put it in the body. Miles then looked at the time, and saw that he only had about fifteen minutes to get to the reaping. So, once he saw his dad was finished up, he waved him goodbye and rushed to the reaping.
Miles was running past people who were walking slowly to the reaping. Miles then thought back to his past, with him helping his dad with practicing some surgery techniques. It was a relief to Miles, since he didn't have to work in the harsh environment of the textiles. A couple of times while he was walking with his dad, he saw a couple people come out of the factories with a couple of cuts…or lost hands. Still, his life had been mostly uneventful, except for the times he had to go to the reaping. After running for about five minutes straight, he finally got to the reaping, panting a bit after the long run. But, he smoothed himself over, and walked up to the peacekeeper.
"Name?"
"Miles Dermott."
Miles then let the Peacekeeper take his hand and prick his finger.
"I still can never get-"
"Next."
Miles sighed a bit. He was just trying to make some friendly conversation with someone, but apparently peacekeepers never had fun for some reason. Still, he held the prick in his finger, as hard pressure to the wound would make the process of gaining those cells back would be easier. He got in with the other seventeen year olds in the boys section. As he finished getting in his spot, he saw the two mentors come and take their seats. There was a third victor that had won, but had died because of some complications to his injuries a few years after that person won their games.
The first mentor that Miles recognized immediately was that of Woof. His black hair was beginning to turn grey, and he had on a black suit with black dress shoes. Woof had green eyes that looked really grumpy, and Miles didn't want to mess with that. Then on the other hand, there was a woman who was now in her seventies, who was still going strong, but her age was starting to show. She had short white hair with long blue eyes. She also was wearing a white blouse with white dress shoes. This woman's name was Nem, who was the oldest victor that was still alive. Nem won the second Hunger Games in history, in a dune like arena. Miles didn't really remember how she survived, but it was probably in a sort of epic fight or something like that. That's what the kids in his class tell him.
Miles got distracted to the podium that was now occupied by a middle aged man with grey hair. He seemed to be more on the slim side, with orange colored contacts in his eyes, to go with his orange flaming hair. He seemed to be wearing an orange suit with an orange vest and orange dress shoes. Miles was even more surprised that the guy had on orange socks as well to go with this. Miles hadn't noticed him in the previous five reaping's he was a part of, so he must be new.
"Welcome everyone, my name is Hacorn Albert Smith, and I am your new announcer slash escort slash the guy whose picking who goes to these games. Now, I had a very strange story actually coming here. I was in the train, trying to see who the other tributes were so far and then-"
Miles didn't know what the guy was talking about so he zoned out a bit trying to think about other things. He thought about how he was going to do in school, since he needed to do really well in order to have a chance to get off well in this place. He thought about how he was going to do in college after. And he thought about the chance he would get to work with his dad, helping him with the surgeries and the transfusions that he would have to go through as well. He was sure nothing would go wrong.
"Miles Dermott."
Miles snapped out of it at that moment when he heard his name. Miles was at first confused at what was going on. He then realized that Hacorn had a slip in his hand, and a girl around his age was already on the stage next to him. Miles realized what had just happened, and his world came crashing down around him.
Kelly Hughes, 17
"-and then I said 'well, that will be the day'. Now, why don't we get to the video? I'm sure you're all excited about that."
Kelly finally focused again on the screen, after hearing that long and completely dreadful story. It was just a guy talking about how he tried to hit on one of the escorts, and then him saying that he thought he found his true love. Kelly wondered how much of that was true. But, as Kelly watched the screen, taking in the Presidents words, she began to wonder why the Capital made all the Districts suffer. Anything other than the Games would have been a better. Kelly then focused her attention back to the podium.
"To get us started, why don't we start with the girls?" Hacorn said.
Hacorn then made his way to the bowl to his right. Kelly hoped that nothing to awful happened, that a kid around twelve wouldn't get picked for the games. It would just make her feel terrible. Kelly saw Hacorn move his hand around a bit before he pulled out a slip of paper. He made his way back to the podium before he announced the name.
"Victoria Cross."
Kelly then looked to see who was called. Then a young girl came out with long black hair with green eyes and a white dress that she had on. Kelly almost cried out in agony. This girl had almost the exact same features as her sister Luna, and she was near the exact age range at twelve. Kelly was having trouble deciding what she was going to do. As this Victoria slowly made her way towards the stage, Kelly couldn't take it anymore. She knew it was dumb, but watching a look alike of her dead sister die in these Games was worse then what she was about to do.
"I volunteer!"
Most of the District looked on in shock. Kelly knew that there were few volunteers in this District, with none ever coming out alive. Kelly knew what she was risking, but she didn't want to see that girl die. So, she got out of her row, and made her way up to the stage. She saw everyone looking at her. Well, almost everyone. There was one guy with short black hair that seemed to not be noticing anything that was going on. Kelly didn't pay to much more attention to that as she walked up the stairs and to the stage.
"Well I must say a volunteer, and my first time to no less. Tell me, what is your name dearie?" Hacorn said.
"My name is…Kelly Hughes."
"That is a wonderful name; give it up for Kelly everyone!"
No one clapped, and Hacorn acted like they were clapping while he went to the boys bowl. Kelly then saw Hacorn walk to the podium and announce the boy's name.
"Miles Dermott"
The boy that Kelly had looked at earlier had focused his attention at the mention of his name. The now named Miles looked around in confusion before Kelly saw the realization in his eyes. He looked shocked and broken, and he moved on his own accord without any help. He slowly moved his way to the stage, before finally stopping at the podium. Hacorn had to turn Miles around so that he was facing the audience.
"Here we are folks, the tributes for the 57th Hunger Games, Kelly Hughes and Miles Dermott. I hope you all have a pleasant evening."
A couple of peacekeepers took Kelly and Miles to the building behind the stage, and they locked Kelly into a separate room. She now looked down to the ground, depressed that she had to volunteer just because she saw similarities between the girl and Luna. She thought it was dumb of her to do. But she couldn't bear to watch someone that looked like Luna die in front of her eyes again, and that would be too much for her to handle. Kelly then saw her mother come into the room, and she gave Kelly a big hug.
"Mom I-"
"Kelly, you don't have to say anything. What you did was really irresponsible…but I understand why you made that decision. She did look a lot like Luna. But you do realize what will happen if you die in their? Then I will lose another of my children. I don't want that to happen. So please, I'm begging you, come back to me. I can't lose you."
"I promise, I won't die. I'll be there by your side."
Kelly then saw her mom leave the room, giving one last kiss goodbye before she left the room.
Miles Dermott, 17
Miles couldn't believe this was happening right now. That he was stuck here, in this room, with no way out, waiting for his dad to be in the room with him. But he knew his dad wouldn't make it in time, as the hospital was about a twenty five minute walk to where he was, and it would be even worse if his dad was in the middle of surgery. Miles could only hold his head to his knees, thinking about how everything that he was going to do in the future had now blown up in his face.
Nem, 72
Nem was sitting in the chair next to Woof, who both were both exhausted about today. Nem knew this batch of tributes wouldn't make it that far. She saw the look of the girl while she was going up. She had a depressing look to her, and she seemed to be stuck in her own head. The boy on the other hand was shell shocked when he was picked; not believing that he himself was a possibility to be chosen. Nem of course knew that experience her, having been chosen for the 2nd Hunger Games herself. Most people believed that it was better than the 1st Games. But she knew what it was, and that was further from the truth.
Nem and 23 others had been forced into a desert to try and fight to the death. Of course, it never worked out that way, because after the bloodbath, most of the tributes died within the next twelve hours, since there wasn't a reliable water source around, and almost all of the tributes died of dehydration. The only reason she didn't die was that she grabbed a pack of water bottles, keeping lasting out all of the other tributes. What she remembers most about her games was how about eight of the tributes refused to participate, and they willingly died for their Districts. She had that in her head for so long she couldn't get that out of her head.
"What the hell are you doing?" Woof asked.
Nem looked at Woof, who seemed a little upset.
"Nothing. Just old memories of the past."
"Good, because we have to a least try to train these buggers. Less they die almost instantly."
Nem didn't really like the way that Woof talked, but he was right. They both had to train both of them to the best of their abilities, in order to have them survive these games. Nem and Woof then saw the two tributes; Miles and Kelly come onto the train cart with Hacorn. Kelly looked around a bit, taking in the views of the designs and the food. Miles however, didn't want to glance this at all, just looking at the ground in misery. Nem thought their personalities switched for a moment.
"Kids, we need to have a chat." Woof said.
That snapped Miles out of his funk, as he got focused once again. Kelly seemed to be nervous about this. Both took seats across from Woof and Nem, with Nem looking on with a sort of look of serious, while Woof just had an angry growl.
"To be honest, neither of you have much hope to make it out of the bloodbath."
"Woof, your making it worse." Nem said.
Kelly seemed to be emotional about this, while Miles just seemed to be shocked by Woof's attitude.
"No…there has to be some way to make it out alive." Miles said.
"Now, that's where you're lucky. There are multiple ways of winning, some better, and some worse. But as long as you're breathing, you'll always have a chance of winning." Nem said.
Miles looked happy now, which Nem wanted. She wanted someone who wanted to win these games, and who would come out alive with as little kills as possible.
I tried to flesh out both of these tributes, but it's starting to get a little weary. Trying to get these reaping's done is probably the most taxing thing I'll have to do, before I get to the more interesting aspects. By the way, two recently reserved spots just opened up, so to the one's that haven't submited yet or only submitted one tribute, now is your chance. Just to let you know. Until then, see ya.
