Introductions

Wels Saltear, District Four Citizen, (16)

I roll around in bed, shivering and shaking. Why, why, why? I keep asking myself and yet I know why, I know every reason why I am constantly bullied at the academy and why I have no friends.

"Wels, get ready to go!" I slip out of bed and strip, slowly I change into my training clothes and lazily walk down the steps. Despite the smell of my favourite breakfast drifting into my nose. As soon as I see them all at the table, I quickly clear my eyes from tears and put on a huge, fake, smile.
"Hi guys! Excited to see the volunteer list today Ali?" I ask my twin sister with fake positivity and she laughs.

"Excited to see if I am chosen to volunteer to die? I mean it's basically suicide!"

Ali. She has always been normal to me. Whether I am crying or laughing she is always the exact same: sarcastic and funny. I wouldn't say she tries to cheer me up but sometimes she makes me realise that I will be missed if I die.

I grab a pancake off the table and tell my parents I am going to walk with my 'best friend' Lukas but really, he is my boyfriend. But it just doesn't ever feel right to come out to bisexual to my family as a lot of them are strict conservatives and I don't know what I would do if they suddenly turned on me.

"Hey babe." Lukas says as I stroll towards him.

"Shhhh!" I put my hand to my mouth and usher him forwards, "Remember my parents still don't know." I say as we get a little further from the house and I give him a peck on his tanned cheek. Ever since I met Lukas, I knew I loved him, but we became best friends and it wasn't until about a month ago he became my boyfriend after coming out as gay. Lukas knows everything about me: my depression and of course my sexuality. Which are my 2 main secrets so far in life.

Finally, I see the big domed building – the academy. I have always been good at training at the academy but it's more just rehearsing for real life situations for me and I have never really wanted to be a volunteer and have 'fame and glory' in exchange for my mental wellbeing.

I rush inside and check in to my training area, with the 16-year olds, and Lukas kisses me goodbye as he goes off to find the 17-year olds.

"Oh look! It's Mr. Sensitivity!" A voice says and a bunch of kids from the side giggle and whisper, clearly looking at me. I rush off towards the spear throwing and start to throw spears at the target while asking,
"What do you want Nile." A tanned and dark-haired boy walks over to me. I always smirk when he walks because he thinks he walks cool when he has his hands following his leg's pattern.

"Nothing Sir Cry-baby." He snickers and then says, "Too bad your ugly boyfriend isn't here to save you. You are disgusting, you homosexual bitch."

I clench the spear in my fist and carry on shooting at the targets.

Bullseye, after bullseye. Comment, after comment.

"Shut up Nile." A girl says and she walks to my side, "At least he can walk properly." I snicker as my friend makes the comment and he says,

"At least I don't cry every day and at least I don't love boys." Immediately after Maya, the friend that made the comment, grabs a spear and shoves it into his foot. He wails with pain and I grab the spear off Maya as a trainer comes in and he glares at me.

"What have you done…" He says but not as a question.

Soon I see the male volunteer: Nile Potro. Soon Maya begins to tear up and I support her,
"I will take the blame but thank you for standing up for me, Maya."

It wasn't long before I was called into the head of the academy's office. I stumble in and she sits on a black spinning chair. She tells me to take a seat and so I do but as far from her as possible. "So, Mr Saltear, mind explaining why you injured our Male volunteer? Almost guaranteeing he won't be able to volunteer." She glares at me with a big frown and I reply with,
"He was being homophobic towards me and being offensive to my depression."
"And you think I give a fuck? My only job here is to make District 4 win The Hunger Games, not deal with stupid bullying." She tells me and I ask her,
"What about the back-up volunteer?"

"I have a far better idea. You break the volunteer? You be the volunteer. So, you better volunteer at the reaping Saltear because if not. I will ruin you."

I nod and run out the room.

"Y-you have to volunteer?" Lukas asks after I tell him and his bottom lip trembles when I nod. "No. You can't. Wels, please."

"I have to, or she will… Ruin me." In truth I feel like I can't get more 'ruined' but I am not taking any chances to destroy my loved one's lives as well. Lukas pulls me close and his mouth interlocks with mine as we kiss but this feels more like a goodbye kiss. When he lets go, I smirk. "You know we can kiss a lot more in the next 2 weeks?" He laughs and grabs onto my waist.

"Of course, we can." He says and kisses me goodbye as we reach my house, but an expected person is there. Ali. As I pull away, I see Ali staring through the window open mouthed and eyed.

I run into the house leaving Lukas and shout, "Ali!" She comes out and shrugs.

"You know I don't care and if you don't want me to tell anyone then so be it."

I hug her.

Scon Lavalle, District Nine Citizen (18)

I am in a pit of bones.

Well, not literally, but a hospital might as well be one. It is however, a nice pit of bones. People treat you right here, and it´s not like anyone wants you to die here.

Not even my own mind.

It´s a peaceful state. Here you can relax, read some books, and just stay quiet and calm without anything or anyone disturbing you.

As I read an old book "Rebellion on the Farm" (Which is still in use, mostly because the Capitol thinks it is a way to subdue the minds of the rebels and tell them the use of a state like that isn´t going to work and to tell people that rebels suck.) I see everything around me. The nurses are there, for me and the other patients are there too. I see a guy who can´t stop flirting with one of the nurses, and the ones next to me are someone who I don´t know who he is because he is covered in by some kind of wall (I don´t really know their names, so let´s call it wall), and the other one is fast asleep. Or drugged, I don´t know which one is true, so let´s say both.

I am still in fast read, when I hear it is visitation time.

Shit

What i am going to tell them when they visit me? Like, are you mad that I did what I did? Are you happy that I tried to do what i tried to do? I mean know I am not a saint now like you probably wanted me to do, but still, I am your son and I am the best I tried, and I tried and I failed and now i am freaking here, as you may see now, so-

"Hi" my mom says. She is happy to see me, for some reason, despite of what I did.

I wouldn´t be happy to see me.

"How have you been?", my brother Giovanni says. He is the only ones who I still now will love me despite of what I did. He is just like that, accepting, and kind of cool.

I am neither of those things.

"I have reading" I say smiling at them. Why I am smiling though. Is it fake and I am monster and I am going to do something bad and I am going to die alone and die die die die.

"Yeah, I mean, mentally, you know?" he says again. He, my mother and my father are looking at me with pleading eyes, pleading me to see that for some reason i must live for myself, that i must be strong enough get over this and make of this a onetime occasion.

I don´t know if that will be true. I don´t really know anything of myself right now.

"I have hold up just fine, i think" I say "The guy who was next to me last night died" I tell them while smiling. Why the heck I am smiling while saying that do i have something wrong with me?

My mom a hand to his mouth. "Scon! That is absolutely not true. This is a fine hospital."

"That is not true mom. I heard it right next to me. His machine beeping, beeping, beeping, and then it stopped. His family visited him. They saw his body. You could ask any nurse here. Let´s ask Janet. JAN-"

My dad puts a hand in front of my mouth. "Shhh. No need to do that."

"...Okey, i guess" I say, less excited about the idea of talking about it now."

"Did you like the book?" My brother ask. "The one I bought, I mean"

"Did you buy "Rebellion on the Farm" or "Jack´s Adventures on Peacekeeping"." I shush him before he has any time to speak "I guess the first one, right?"

"Yeah." He says. That continues the sentence for him. "I bought the other one. Did you like that one?

"Yeah, I did like him, but then the only part I didn´t like that was when the suspect of the crime committed in the story because every was pestering him and telling him that he should die he tried to commit su-"

"Well, hello." The doctor says. He must be the doctor analyzing everything that happened to me for the day before and such. I didn´t know hospitals could be so clean, until I saw him and saw the cleanest person I had ever seen. He has no taint of ever having gotten into mud, or ever having just a spit on his face.

"How is he, doctor?" My mom asks him, like I am not here! Hello.

They start talking about everything that happened to me, and about the medical stuff i don´t understand. About the substances I took. Like it doesn´t say in my medical file now.

"Relax" my brother says. How does he know I am upset. Is he a genius or is he just that cool?

"I just..." I tell him while my parents are talking with Mr. Clean, "I don´t know if I will ever be happy, you know?"

"Shhh" He says hugging me. "It´s okay. You will be fine. You gotta be fine. You will be fine."

Will I? I tell him he is not the one who would know, but I tell him it is okay. That I will try to be fine, cause I gotta fine, and I will be fine.

At least he isn´t crying like he was crying when they found me. Like he cried, while my mom told me to vomit, and my father was calling through the phone of the house to the hospital.

I don´t wanna be like that anymore. But I don´t know if I will be strong enough to do so.

Will I?

I really don´t know if I will ever be okay. But I gotta try, right?

Maybe if I just try, everything will turn out okay.

Hey, this is our new collab!. It will be on the style of "Changes" and "Rainbows and Storms". then, you can submit characters to us! They won´t have POVs, but they may be important to the plot, so you never know.

The main characters are mix of real us and fake us, so you might never know what is right and what it is not.

Every spot is open, except for the D4M and the D9M.

Submit all you want!