District Nine

Gamemakers Session & Scores

Sam Terohn (17)

well, i wish that i was comfortable in my own skin
but the whole thing feels like an exercise of
trying to be someone i would rather not be
i tried to second-guess if you would be approving

no hope — the vaccines

Sam held Julia's hands in theirs for as long as they could, closing their eyes as the girl from Eight tapped on their shoulder.

"You're up next," she informed them, a kind smile on the girl's face. Sam hadn't found much sympathy in their fellow tributes so far, and they almost couldn't believe they were feeling grateful for being treated like an actual human being for once. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Sam exchanged a concerned glance with Julia, who squeezed their hand encouragingly. Julia, who had been their girlfriend long before Sam came out as non-binary, and who had supported their exploration of their gender from the very beginning. She didn't care what they labeled themselves as as long as it made Sam happy, and they, in return, felt as though they could never love her enough for that.

The girl pressed a kiss to Sam's cheek and hugged them tightly. "Good luck."

"Thanks." They smiled at her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as they stood up. They then offered Nala an amiable nod. "Thank you, too."

"No problem." The girl from Eight offered him a kind smile, then tilted her head towards the elevator. "I'd better head back to my apartment now, I think. Good luck!"

Sam nodded, bidding the girl goodbye with a kind squeeze to her shoulder. The fact that most of the tributes had acted at least somewhat decently around them, respecting their pronouns and even offering them kind smiles every now and then. Granted, they would probably still kill them as soon as they got to the Arena, but at least Sam would die with the comfort of knowing that their killing stemmed from sheer necessity and not the pure hatred that some of their peers in District Nine felt towards them.

"Sam Terohn, the male tribute from District Nine."

Sam would usually cringe whenever people referred to them as a male. They didn't exactly know when they first began to question their sexual identity, but they had always known, deep down, that they had never really fallen into the male-female dichotomy. The boys at school would usually laugh at them for being a little too effeminate for their taste, and the girls would just giggle and assume that they were gay whenever Sam was seen wearing one of their sister's skirts. Only Julia seemed to understand them, and in the end she was the only person who stuck by their side when they came out as non-binary; she would always lend them makeup and nail polish and heartily encouraged them to explore their identity and, above anything else, to live by their own standards. They owed her everything, and that was precisely why they had resolved to get her home safely — even if it meant that they would never get to do the same thing. The Capitol might have been more open-minded about their sexual identity, and they might even find the idea of having a non-binary tribute attractive, but at the end of the day District Nine would never allow them to come home as their victor. And it wasn't like they wanted to go home to begin with, at least not without Julia by their side. After all, she was Sam's home, not some dumpster in District Nine where their parents would bully them into submission like they always had.

They racked their brain as they tried to remember what their mentor had told them to do throughout his private session. Sam had never been the sporty type, largely because the boys at school would always exclude them from their little soccer or basketball games, but they were somewhat muscular and surprisingly strong from helping their father at the butcher shop, and their mentor had actively encouraged them to try and enhance their strength and stamina throughout the previous training week. Sam felt ready to show the Gamemakers what they had learned over the past few days, and they cracked their fingers like they always did before walking up to one of the several speed bags and delivering a surprisingly decent punch routine; after that, they placed themselves in front of a weight-lifting barbell and motioned for the Avoxes to fill them up to their maximum; the two servants exchanged a surprised glance before obliging to their request. Sam looked up at the Gamemakers and grinned discreetly when they realized that they had their undivided attention, and closed their eyes before grasping the handle tightly.

They counted up to three, then lifted the two-hundred pounds of extra weight that the Avoxes had added almost as easily as if he were lifting Julia in his arms after a long day.

One of the Gamemakers even hooted at his little feat. Like, they actually hooted at Sam. When had anyone hooted at them in an admiring way? They did a faint smile as they bowed in the polite gesture that the mentors had told them to finish their private session with, feeling somewhat confident about their chances at scratching a decent score for the first time since they were reaped.

They would go all the way, Sam decided right there and then. Not for them, but for Julia, who deserved a long and happy life

Julia Montgomery (16)

if you get up in the mountains
if you go climbing on trees
oh, through every emotion
when you know that they don't care
darling that's when i'm with you
oh, i'll go with you anywhere

anywhere — passenger

It wasn't like Julia didn't know what Sam was up to. She knew them like the back of her hand, and above anything else she knew that Sam felt as though their life would be virtually meaningless without her. But she was just as strong-headed as they were, and she wasn't going to let them win the Games for her. She loved them more than anything in the world, but she also wanted them to see that she didn't need to be saved, and that her life meant nothing to her if Sam wasn't by her side. Her parents had died when she was just a little girl, and she had been brought up by a neglectful aunt who would beat her to submission instead of acknowledging a normal girl's needs and worries. She didn't want to live in a world without Sam, and the sole idea of having them take a bullet for her made Julia feel absolutely gutted.

She leaned against Sam's shoulder as they sat with their mentors in their private living room, looking up at the screen in front of them. A grey-haired Caesar Flickerman was sitting next to an even older Claudius Templesmith, a freshly-acquired set of Hunger Games prompter cards neatly stacked in front of them. The scores were about to be announced, and Julia was almost biting her nails in sheer anxiousness. She worried that her more aggressive side might come out if she didn't get the score she thought she deserved, and Sam was perhaps the only person that knew how to calm her down during one of her episodes; that was precisely why they had placed a hand on her waist, caressing it quietly as Caesar Flickerman coughed and announced the first two scores.

"From District One . . . Zeal Arcas, with a score of ten, and Cassiopia Aindris, with a nine. As for District Two — Marius Agari with a nine, and Alina Marza with a seven."

"And they call them Careers?" chuckled Sam, poking Julia's side lightly. The girl just winced and shook her head quietly, telling them not to act too boastful about it yet — the Careers may have gotten relatively low scores, but that might just mean that theirs might be even lower.

"From District Three . . . Turing Derringer, with a four, and Violetta Dupin with a six."

"Ouch," mumbled Julia to herself. She wasn't expecting a great score, really, but the sole idea of getting a four made her feel even more anxious. Although the boy from Three was just about one of the clumsiest people she had met in her life, she reasoned quietly.

A couple more Districts rolled by; the boy from Four got an eleven — an eleven, Julia repeated to herself in disbelief — and the girl got a ten. She had seen them both with their new allies — the two kids from Six and the girl from Five. They were that year's biggest threat, and she didn't really understand why the two tributes from Four hadn't joined the Careers to begin with. Probably because they had realized that they weren't worth their time, Julia reasoned as Caesar Flickerman announced that the boy from Five had earned himself a five — the irony made Julia snort — and the girl a seven, which was a fairly decent score considering that she wasn't exactly one of that year's favorites. The girl from Six scratched a surprising eight, and the boy earned himself a very decent seven, which made Julia frown. She didn't trust those two, not at all; but she trusted the girl from Seven even less, and Caesar Flickerman had just announced that she had gotten an eight. Shit. The boy, on the other hand, got a mere five, which was to be expected with him being the youngest out of that year's batch.

"From District Eight . . . Cairo Hemmings, with a six, and Nala Henderson, also with a six."

"Ha!" Sam chuckled. A six wasn't a bad score, not really, but Julia knew that Sam expected a much better score. She was fairly optimistic about their score, but she didn't want to jinx it, so she just snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes, knowing what was about to come.

"From District Nine . . . Sam Terohn, with a nine."

Their mentors hooted in delight, wrapping Sam in a sincere hug. They had even blushed a little, grinning from ear to ear; Julia beamed at them and pressed a proud kiss to their cheek, still too anxious to fully celebrate her significant other's score. What if she got a much lower one and therefore messed their chances up entirely?

" . . . and Julia Montgomery, with a ten."

Julia sucked in a breath, her eyes widening at first. A ten? Why? Her private session had gone all right, she supposed, but she didn't understand why the Gamemakers might have chosen to give her such a high score. She felt Sam's arms around her, with her mentor squeezing her shoulder and babbling about how the sponsors would go nuts for them as soon as the Games began, but she could only gulp and smile incredulously. Were they going to go nuts for them? Would they really support them, just like they had supported Katniss and Peeta during their Games? Julia had never liked the idea of playing star-crossed lovers for an audience, but she realized there and then that she would ultimately do whatever it took to get Sam home safely. She hugged them tightly — with Caesar Flickerman announcing in the background that the girl from Ten had gotten a six, and the boy a five; the boy from Eleven, on the other hand, got an eight, whereas the girl got a six, which wasn't too bad for a thirteen-year-old — and pressed a warm kiss to their lips, relief rushing through her like the fiercest of drugs.

"We're going to win this," she declared. "We're going to

She hardly paid attention to the screen when the presenters announced that both tributes from Twelve had gotten a four. She was too caught up in celebrating their excellent scores by hugging Sam tight against her chest.

So there's that! I love these two omg they made me so soft. Also, I'd never written an enby character before, so I hope that came off correctly! I personally found it really intriguing and overall amazing, and I can't wait to explore their personality & gender identity more as the story progresses. But please do let me know if you feel like there's anything off about them! Also I hope everyone's okay with their tribute's scores — I tried to stick to the ones you lot suggested in your forms, but I had to tone them down a little for a couple of them.

Also, I really want to apologize for having gone AWOL for the past . . . well, four months or so. Life and lockdown really got in the way of my writing, but I fully intend to get this story back on track. I don't want to rush things but I think it's safe to say that I expect to publish a chapter every other week from now on; I want to get the pre-Games done ASAP and focus on the actual thing before December rolls around, and hopefully I'll manage to get it all right this time. I hope you lot are still interested in reading this, because I for one am way too attached to these characters to let go of them without giving them a proper ending. Sorry for the massive A/N but I just wanted to vent it all out a little! Hope you're all safe and relatively happy under such complex circumstances; my DM's are always open for you lot in case you need to chat or for someone to check in on you every now and then.

Up next — District Ten + interviews!