Chapter TW: Sexual assault and suicide.
Orabella Lenwood, 14
District 3
"Tell us again about our dad."
Adalina never accepted that as a final answer, even though Orabella had stopped trying years ago. To Orabella, their father was simply gone. The girls were almost twelve at this point, and they had still never met their father. No matter how many times their mother told them that he would come back for them, Orabella couldn't believe it. No, she wouldn't believe it.
"Oh, he's just wonderful," their mother said, grabbing the framed photo from the table and gazing longingly at it. The man in the picture was blond, with impossibly white teeth which he showed off in a grin to the camera. He was giving the camera a thumbs up, and though the gesture covered half of his face, Orabella was confident that she could pick him out of a crowd.
Orabella's mother went on to tell her and her sister the story she must have told a thousand times before; how she had met Edwin at a party one day and the two fell in love instantly. They had a wild and passionate love affair that ended with them getting married and having the girls. She said that he went away when they were babies, but that he would be back any day to save them from the squalor of District 3 and take them away to a better life.
"I don't think he's coming back, Mom," Orabella said once. "He's probably dead."
Orabella had never seen her mother as angry as she was that day. She let out a pained, bloody scream before punching a hole straight through the wall to the outside. Orabella took this opportunity to lead her sister out of the house and go for a walk to give their mother time to cool down. Although they were identical twins, Orabella had taken on the more nurturing role of an older sibling ever since the girls were little.
On their walk, the girls wound up in the District Square, where they scrounged up enough loose change to buy a hot drink to share. Winters in District 3 were brutal, and that year was no exception. The girls sat huddled together on a bench in the Square sipping their tea when they heard the rare sound of a Capitol train passing by. Elated, they ran over to see, maybe hoping to get close enough to touch it. Miraculously, the train started to slow down, and the girls realized that it was making a stop right there in District 3!
Orabella marveled at the train, taking note of the smooth wheels and the way the metal shimmered under the sun reflecting off of the dingy snow.
"Isn't it awesome?" she asked Adalina, forgetting about their mother for just a moment. Adalina didn't say anything, but rather pointed a shaking finger a few cars away from where they were standing. There, plastered over a train car was Edwin, teeth as sparkling as ever. But this time, there was a blue-haired Capitol woman on his arm. Orabella wasted no time approaching the nearest grownup.
"'Scuse me?" she said to the man. "Hi. Do you know who that man is?"
She pointed to the picture on the train car, and the man furrowed his brow and told her that it was Thaddeus Chadwick, the Capitol spokesman for a hair care brand called "Shine!"
"But he's from District 3 originally, right?" Orabella asked, taking Adalina's hand. Sure, his name wasn't really Edwin, but they were about to learn more about their father.
"Are you guys idiots?" the man asked, rolling his eyes.
Adalina held Orabella back as she cursed at the man, but he quickly left them alone with their spilled cup of tea in the snow.
The girls went home to their mother where they told her about how they saw the exact photo that sat in a frame on their table plastered across a Capitol train car. Vulca assured them that they were being ridiculous, and that surely it was just a man who looked similar. Adalina reluctantly agreed with their mother, as always, but Orabella wasn't so quick to relent. She knew what she saw.
A few months later, the girls turned twelve, making them eligible to take out tessera, which they did right away. While Orabella was alone in the processing room with a Peacekeeper, it was revealed to her that the name she wrote down on the paper, Orabella Drake, did not match any DNA records in District 3. No, her legal name as far as the District was concerned was Orabella Lenwood.
Lenwood. That must be her father's last name.
Over the course of the next year, Orabella spent each waking moment searching for her father by any means necessary. She started off simple, asking around the District and searching through public records in District 3's small library, but she couldn't figure anything out. Finally, she resorted to hacking into the system at her job at a database software facility, and lo and behold, there was Eli Lenwood, a Peacekeeper who had been stationed in District 3 for nearly 20 years.
Orabella wasted no time going through all of his personal messages, starting nine months before Orabella and Adalina were born. What she found was enough to make her vomit, as she read through the gory details about how the Peacekeeper had raped her mother and left her with just a few scraps of food.
Orabella had never been angrier. She thought that when people said that they "saw red" when they were angry that it was just a figure of speech, but in that moment, she learned that that really did happen. She wanted revenge, and she wanted it right then. She skipped ahead in her "father's" messages and read through an exchange with another Peacekeeper. One of the neighborhoods in District 3 even worse off than Orabella's had just been hit by a powerful storm, and just about everyone who lived there had become homeless or died.
Eli's plan was simple, yet diabolical. He would go to the neighborhood in plain clothes and convince the most destitute of the bunch to place their most prized possessions in a pile. Eli would load the gun one bullet at a time, and the group would then sit in a circle and take turns passing a gun around and shooting at themselves until one by one, they died. The last person standing would bring home everything in the pile.
But the game would be rigged. Eli would use a gun of his own from the Peacekeepers' barracks that had a secret safety switch, so he could ensure that no matter what, the bullet would never enter his head. He was going to watch everyone die and take all of their most valued items for himself.
That night, Orabella waited until her mother and sister had gone to sleep before taking her mother's photo of "Edwin" and walking over to the neighborhood where she knew Eli would be. She joined the circle, tossing the framed picture into the center of the circle, and waited for the hell to begin.
One by one, she watched as people dropped dead by their own hands, Orabella clicking the secret switch each time it was her turn to ensure her own safety. Finally, it was just Orabella and Eli left, and after she took her last turn, she pressed hard into the button until she felt it jam. She handed the gun over and watched as, with all the confidence in the world, the man shot himself in the head, his blood and brains splattered across the walls.
With that, Orabella got up and left. She didn't take any of those poor people's possessions, nor did she take her mother's picture. She simply climbed up onto a train, the very train that just one year prior she had seen her so-called father's face on, and didn't jump off until she reached her home.
Ramsey Newman, 15
District 3
Today was the day. Today was finally the day that Ramsey would gather the courage to ask out the pretty girl in his last period computer programming class.
Mina was, in truth, way out of Ramsey's league, and he had no trouble admitting that. She was stunning, with black hair that fell like a waterfall down her back, and sparkling blue eyes. She was also one of the nicest people in his grade, being one of the only ones who would ever respond to him when he said anything. And finally, probably most importantly, she was crazy smart. Ramsey himself was already in advanced computer programming with the 16-year-olds, and Mina was in that class with him even though she was a full year younger than him. It was very important to Ramsey that whatever girl he ended up with someday was able to keep up with him intelligence-wise.
He had it all planned out. He would approach her, make small talk about the nice weather they had been having, compliment her on something to do with her clothing or appearance, and then ask her if she wanted to go on a date. He had rehearsed it so many times in his head, even practicing on his friend Angelica, and was sure it would work. It was foolproof. And everyone knew that Ramsey Newman was no fool.
The bell rang signalling the end of the school day, and Ramsey followed Mina out of the building from a safe and respectful distance. Once they were outside, he jogged a bit to catch up to her. Once he was relatively close, he called after her.
"Mina!" he called. "Hey, wait up!"
The girl turned around and flashed her signature pretty smile right at him. She was looking at him. She was acknowledging his existence!
"Hi! Ramsey, right?"
Alright, Ramsey, just like how you practiced. "Nice weather for April, right?"
"It's April," he managed.
Good one.
"Your name is April?" the girl gave him a skeptical look, crossing her arms over her chest.
"No, I… The month…" he trailed off.
Move on! Compliment her!
"Your hair looks nicer than usual today!" he said enthusiastically. She did have very pretty hair, so long and dark and shiny.
"Excuse me?" she asked, seeming offended. Ramsey realized immediately how she had interpreted his compliment.
"Oh, no!" he said, quickly trying to backpedal. "I just meant that it looks especially nice. Like, it always looks nice, but today especially."
This is your last chance. Invite her to the library for a simple study date.
"I was just wondering if maybe after school on Friday, you wanted to hang out at the library?" Excellent! "I could help you with your homework?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, defensively. "Why would you think I need help with my homework?"
Ramsey froze. That wasn't how he intended to come across at all. Why couldn't she understand that? Before he could defend himself any more, Mina rolled her eyes and walked away, moving her backpack further up on her shoulders. Defeated, Ramsey returned home where he dropped his school bag off before heading to Angelica's house next door. He knocked on the front door and she flung it open, grinning from ear to ear.
"How'd it go, Mr. Man?" she exclaimed. "Do you have a date? Does she love you? I need details!"
Ramsey looked at his friend before quickly looking down at his feet. He could feel his face turning red as he slowly shook his head. She invited him into the house where they sat together at Angelica's small wooden kitchen table. There wasn't much in the way of food at Angelica's house, but they still sat together sipping on some dandelion tea.
"It was bad, Ange," Ramsey said, stirring his tea. "I mean, I basically called her ugly, called her stupid, and left."
"I'm sure it's not that bad," Angelica said, though she didn't seem too sure about it. "She'll probably realize what you meant later.
"I hope so."
Angelica was always someone Ramsey was comfortable confiding in. He usually found girls confusing, but Angelica was so straightforward, she was practically a guy. She was the one he always went to when he was having a bad day, or when he wanted to talk about something serious. In short, Angelica just understood him in a way that no one else did. Being at the top of his class combined with having a hard time expressing his feelings led to a lot of people thinking Ramsey was pretty stuck up and self-centered, but Angelica saw through that to who Ramsey liked to believe he really was at the core: a smart yet misunderstood kid who just wanted to fit in.
A lot of people liked to make jokes about Ramsey and Angelica being in some kind of relationship, which is to be expected since the two of them are outcasts of the opposite sex. Still, they were totally out of left field, since neither of them had ever even begun to consider the other as anything more than a friend. In fact, Angelica had been on a few dates with other boys in the past.
Ramsey had been relying on Angelica much more recently. His parents worked constantly to support themselves, as well as to send money to his brother in prison, so they were hardly ever around. Personally, Ramsey always thought that if one of his future children ever murdered the other, he would cut contact with the child completely, but the Newman parents didn't seem to want to do that. But as far as Ramsey was concerned, he no longer had a brother.
In a way, Ramsey supposed Angelica took the place of the little sister he was robbed of ever having.
Pierre Reese, 17
Victor of the 99th Hunger Games: District 3
Pierre Reese needed a Victor, and he needed one quickly.
He thought that he would have more time with Beetee after his victory in last year's Hunger Games, but he was wrong. Beetee was 75 years old, but it still came as a surprise to just about everyone in Panem that he had passed away. He was old, sure, but Beetee was not the kind of person to be taken out by any natural cause. No, there was only one thing strong enough and smart enough to kill Beetee Latier.
As Pierre was about to leave his home in Victor's Village, he pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket; the last words he ever got from his mentor.
Pierre,
If you're reading this, that means that I'm gone. I've felt my mind deteriorating for years now, and every day since then, I've not been living my life as one should. I've wanted to go from the moment I realized that I am no longer who I have always been. Still, I felt that I had a duty to my District to bring home one last Victor. Then you came along. You saved me.
I trust that you will guide the next generation of tributes with intelligence and grace. Remember what I've taught you. Never give up fighting.
-Beetee
Pierre creased the paper before putting it neatly back in the pocket of his black dress pants and headed over to the Square for the Reaping. Beetee really had taught him a lot. Pierre wasn't the best student in school, but through Beetee's tireless guidance, he was able to learn enough about electrical shock to build a trap successful in leading him to Victory.
The tributes for the Quarter Quell seemed to be an odd pair, and Pierre didn't think that he would be able to get them to ally with each other if their lives depended on it, which they very well might. The girl, Orabella, mounted the stage with a sort of calm confidence, her shoulders back and her mouth set in a barely-there smirk. Her worn, too-small gray dress let Pierre know that she was definitely on the poor side, and was probably doing her best to look nice. The boy, Ramsey, was underwhelming to say the least. He walked forward in shock when his name was called, barely holding back tears. He dragged his feet, and took painfully long to get up to the stage.
After the tributes half-heartedly shook hands and went into the Justice Building for their goodbyes, Pierre and Wiress had a brief conversation that ended with them deciding that Pierre would mentor Orabella, and Wiress would take Ramsey. Pierre was pleased. He was sure Wiress was a good mentor back in the day, but lately, she could barely form a coherent sentence. Since Orabella was clearly the one from District 3 with better odds, he figured it worked out better for everyone if she was the one with the mentor with more recent knowledge of the Games.
District 3 really needed a Victor so that Wiress could finally retire. He just hoped that Orabella Lenwood had what it took.
Thanks to Mags2000 for Orabella and tempurpedicsofa for Ramsey!
I also just realized that I never specifically said that the tributes' intro chapters will not necessarily take place on the day of the Reaping, and I think these two are good examples of that.
1. Who do you like better
2. What did you like about them?
3. What didn't you like about them?
4. Thoughts on Pierre?
5. Any predictions?
