District 1

Jade Hastings, 18

7 years ago

I slash at the free standing dummy that was carefully set up by my trainer. He probably intended for it to stand longer than it did. With two quick sword slices, the dummy lays decapitated on the ground.

"Great work, Jade." I smirk at my trainer, Chris. Did he expect anything less from me? "Break for lunch. I want to work on your range after." I nod and put my sword back in it's rack before grabbing my bag and pulling out a rag and using it to wipe the sweat off my forehead.

"Hey." I turn to face a girl my age I don't recognize. I look at her as if to say, 'why are you talking to me?' Unfortunately, she ignores it and sticks her hand out.

"My name is Rosaline. I just started here." I stare at her hand for a few seconds, waiting for her to pull away. She doesn't.

"Jade Hastings. I've been here my entire life." I grip her hand tightly, trying to put her in her place. She must be stupid, because her smile never fades.

"I'm sure you really know what you're doing." I nod. That's one of the stupidest things someone has ever said to me.

"I'm sorry, I have to go." I push past her, rolling my eyes, not caring as my shoulder knocks into her.

"I'll see you around!" She yells as I leave the gym Yeah, you'll see me. You'll see me alright.

2 years ago

"Elijah? There's no way he'll be my partner." I lunge at Rosaline, trying to catch her off guard. She's quick, even while distracted with an argument.

"Why? He's dangerous." She narrows her eyes, trying to strike at my unprotected side. It doesn't come close to hitting me.

"You just want to sleep with him." This gets a real laugh out of her. I use this moment to disarm her. Her sword flies across the gym, but she isn't bothered.

"Of course I do. How do you not?" I shrug and sheath my sword back in it's rack.

"Not my type." Is all I say. She knows better not to push.

"Well, you're missing out." She picks up her sword and puts it away with mine.

"I wish we could volunteer together. I can't imagine trusting any idiot with my life." I tell her. She nods, but avoids eye contact.

"Don't worry, I'll be cheering you on from back home." I smile. It's been heavily implied I would be the chosen female volunteer since I was a child, but only recently did Chris confirm the academy was moving forward with me. The male is still to be determined. The door opens and Chris enters.

"Hey girls." He directs it to both of us but I can tell his focus is on me. I sense the urgency in his tone. So does Rosaline.

"Hey, I'll catch up with you later?" She waves goodbye to me before vanishing out of the room.

"What's wrong?" I walk up to Chris, who shifts his weight around.

"I'm afraid...there's been a change."

"Spit it out." I clench my fists. I already know what he's going to say as he finally begins to speak.

"Reese has decided not to confirm you as the female volunteer yet. He says he wants to wait a little longer." I instinctively kick over the sword rack. The wooden sparring swords go flying across the room and Chris jumps in shock!

"He can't do this." I say, not trying to hold in my anger.

"I'm sorry, Jade. But, you're not completely out of the running yet. You have another two years. We'll work hard and we'll prove why you're the only right choice for the spot."

Chris continues to go on about our new training plan, but my mind gets lost in the chaos of my thoughts. I know Reese, I know how he thinks and how he acts. There's a reason he did this, and it's not because of his lack of confidence in my skills.

So, what other force is at play here?

Two weeks ago

As I lay wide awake, staring at the markings on my ceiling I'm pondering over what I'm about to do. I'm not supposed to meet up with Rosaline for another two hours, but I can't stand lying here any longer.

I throw the covers off and quickly slip on comfortable workout clothing. Not my favorite pieces, though. Clothing I wouldn't mind tossing if they get stained.

Making sure I keep quiet as I go downstairs and shut the door carefully behind me. On a normal day, my parents wouldn't care that I was leaving for training. They'd encourage it. However, I don't want them putting the pieces together once what happens gets around.

I almost didn't believe Chris when he told me the real reason Rosaline was chosen as volunteer over me. I didn't think anyone, especially someone I considered my best friend could fabricate such a narrative to make me appear unstable, undesirable as a representative of District One. He couldn't even tell me exactly what she told Reese. I'm sure he didn't care after their nights together.

As I arrive at the training center and go into the gym I notice it's all empty, just as I anticipated.

I walk over towards the locked cabinet where the real weapons are kept, pulling out Chris' key and unlocking the cabinet. I take out a sharp, but smaller sword. After locking the cabinet back up, I walk over to the stand of sparring swords then, I shove the real sword into it. It stands out, but only if you stare at it for too long.

I take a seat on the bench and wait for Rosaline to show up. I know she will, she never misses our training sessions. And besides, she has no reason to expect today to go differently from any other day. As far as she's concerned, I have no idea what she's done.

I hear the door open across the gym. As I look up and watch her jog over to me she smiles at me.

"Hey." I stand up to be face to face with her. I slowly walk over to stand between her and the sword rack.

"Hey." She goes to grab a sword out of the rack, but I put my hand up in front of her. She looks at me, confused.

"I just wanted….to congratulate you. I know how much you wanted to volunteer." I fake a smile. She tilts her head, but doesn't do anything.

"Oh, thanks. I...my parents are really proud of me." She takes a step back.

"I bet they are. I know how hard you've worked for it." I run my fingers along the handle of the secretly stashed real sword.

"They are." Her eyes follow my arm down to watch what I'm doing.

"I'm sure they're super impressed with your work ethic." I pull the sword out of the rack and turn to face Rosaline again. She notices it's real and backs up.

"Jade, what are you doing?" She looks at the exit, but stays put for now.

"I'm sure it took a lot of skill to sleaze your way into Reese's bed. I bet they're super proud of you." I advanced towards her and she holds up her hands in self defense.

"Jade, please-" I swing at her. Her scream fills the gym, her face is in agony. Unfortunately for her, there's no one here but me to hear her.

Henry Haines 15

The day of the reaping

I confidently snap the stop watch into place as I attach the device to my wrist. My eyes shoot up to the much older 18-year-old careers standing in front, glaring down at me. Troy is at the front with his huge bulk and muscly arms laced with tattoos, that along with his shaved head makes most other kids my age squirm by the very sight of him, but I'm not most other kids. I've already taken him multiple times before! Beside him are his accomplices, Meera and Silver. Both amongst the most skilled in District 1 but I like to call them his little sidekicks which gets under their skin.

Our heads are ignited by the heat of the day causing our faces to appear in a kind of tomato colour. The rays of sun always shine down on our outside training area.

"You ready kid?" Troy asks, trying to sound demeaning.

"Are you ready, big guy?" I smile.

That last comment ticks off his already short temper and he lunges at me, slamming his large shoulder into my much smaller frame and sending me to the ground. Luckily the matts cushion my fall but I would be able to take it even if they weren't there. But what he does not know is this is exactly where I want to be right now.

I plant a swift kick from the ground into his knee.

"Argh"

This takes him off guard, granting me enough time to slide between his legs. Then I quickly scramble onto his back and put him into a choke, I make sure to snake my arms around his neck and squeeze my head against his, so there's no hope for him to escape. Eventually the pure pain of it forces him to concede and he taps out. When I release him, he is clawing at his neck and coughing violently.

Next Silver comes at me with his double chain whip. He strikes out with both his chains, the steel whips around my body; however I manage to get a hand on one of the chains, yanking him towards me. As the older career trips before my feet, I crawl onto his back, wrapping the chain around his neck as I do it! It doesn't take him long to join Troy in tapping out. Last is Meera, at seeing how quickly I took out the others her face almost spells defeat already. It doesn't stop me sliding towards her and landing a kick into her gut. A gasp escapes her mouth as I finish her with a write cross to the cheek. With not a second to lose my fingers dart to my stopwatch.

"20 seconds! A new record!" I announce.

My glee is only met with the groans of my defeated opponents. Shrugging, I make my way over to the defeated Troy and offer out my hand to help him up; however I am only met with a grunt as he pushes my hand away and storms off in anger back inside.

"His jealousy has never helped him reach the games," Cooper states, emerging from behind a pillar.

"That was your quickest one yet… no one has come even close to that…ever."

I reach forward and we give each other a big hug.

"Were you there the whole time?" I chuckle.

As we release each other his face switches to a more concerned one.

"Are you sure you're ready for this? You're already rated the top career District 1 has seen in a long time but you could wait a few years until you're better. Hell, I'm not gonna think about volunteering until I'm 18"

"Hey! Remember what I said? I'm gonna be the youngest victor from our district ever and I meant it!" I reply.

His eyes wander downwards.

"I know I guess… I guess I'm just gonna miss hanging out with you and training together… nothings gonna be the same if you volunteer…" He admits.

I have to stay strong and saying goodbye to friends and my life before is just part of it! I begin packing up my stuff and give him a quick pat on the shoulder.

"We can still hang out after it's all over," I say cheerfully. "And you will be one of the few people that can say they're best friends with a victor." I laugh.

"Maybe we'll both be best friends with a victor," he retorts, with a smirk.

I give him a final laugh and a nod and leave him to go see my family before the reaping's.

When I arrive back at my place I quickly take a shower and gobble down any last food I might need before my big moment. It's hard to really eat anything though… it can't be nerves that's causing that can it? No it's just the anticipation… the anticipation for my victory...

At the reapings

There they all are, ready to wish me good luck for the coming times ym family. I know I won't need luck however! My family are stood in front of me. First I hug mum and dad together, my eyes want to just be a waterfall inside and gush out all my emotions. My whole life has led to this moment but I have to keep it together. Their soothing hands give my back a rub.

"We know you're gonna make us proud," mum whispers in my ear.

Then I say goodbye to my older sister Wendy, my interaction with her is a lot shorter simply because I was never as close to her as I was to my brother Kyle. Plus, she never really took an interest in my dreams of being the youngest victor of the Hunger Games! Growing up, I would often have to be the one protecting Kyle from her since she used to pick on him, yeah that was our sibling dynamic I guess.

Then finally I go to my brother, my mind is drifting as I kneel down in front of him, it is going to all the possible outcomes the games will have to offer and all the possible kills I'm gonna have to make. All the pain i'm going to have to cause… will it all be worth it?

I place my hand on his shoulders and take a deep breath.

"Kyle, although you might be small, it has been a pleasure growing up…"

Suddenly I'm interrupted by the sound of Wendy clearing her throat…

"Urm Henry… that's not Kyle," she tells me.

My mind is cast out of my day dream to the person in front of me who is actually just a very short man.

"You asshole…" he scoffs and walks off.

Then I see the real Kyle waving at me from behind dad so I awkwardly shuffle to him.

"Well, what I wanted to say was… I will be back… I promise."

"I know you will," he smiles.

I give him a final hug before it's time to fulfill my destiny!

"And representing our great district…the chosen male volunteer for this annual Hunger Games is Henry Haines!"

The words hit me like a missile, I never thought I'd hear them get uttered but here I am, it's actually happening!

Hey this is Nautics here, hope you enjoyed our first reaping. Team Shadow mostly wrote Jade's POV and I mostly wrote Henry's. Jade was a creation by both of us to be in this story. Anyway I feel a bit out of practice going back into this but its ok! Also we have some slots still available so get submitting!