The 17th Hunger Games

Chapter One: To the Capitol

My name is Sestra Apathy, I'm 17 years old, and I'm going into a battle in which only one can survive. The weird thing is I'm not scared. I trained my entire life to kill and fight, so why should I be scared?

I wasn't supposed to go into this battle to the death; my friend was supposed to go, but I took her place. She's always been so fragile and weak; even though she was trained the same way I was. She wouldn't have made it passed day one. She had a small build. She was only about 5 feet tall and weighed maybe 105 pounds. I was at least half of a foot taller than her and I had a good twenty pounds on her. I figured that I would have a better shot at winning than she did. Besides, she's too nice, if she meet one person in there she would've died trying to save them; I on the other hand wouldn't do that. I have people to make it back to. It's sort of strange but a lot of people know me and look up to me. I guess a word that's usually associated with those traits would be "popularity". I enjoy the attention and I enjoy always having friends around, but it's a weird thought to have people who you don't know looking up to you.

"Alice Walker!" Our district escort, Elise Plythe, called out.
The name rang throughout the crowd. It belonged to only one person, and that person was standing next to me. She clutched my wrist with all of her might and dared not to look anywhere but forward.
"Alice Walker, please come to the stage!"
People started turning their heads to search for her familiar face. She didn't move and inch. She was frozen with fear. Luckily her nails were trimmed, if they weren't she surely would have drawn blood from me.
"Alice, we're waiting!" Her voice sung.
"Sestra," Alice whispered without looking at me, "I can't do it. What do I do?"
I hushed her and then removed her hand from my wrist as slowly as I could.
"Don't worry." I said in a soothing tone. "It'll be okay. You don't have to move. You're going to be fine."
She finally look away from the stage and directed her gaze at me.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"I'm going to take your place. I'll volunteer."
"No, Sestra, don't! What if you die, it'll be my fault!"
"Alice," I whispered, "I'm the top of our class in training. I'm the most prepared for this out of anyone here, and if I do die it won't be meaningless. I would've died saving a friend."
"Sestra, no . . ." She started.
She tried grabbing my wrist again, but I pulled away quickly. I began to make my way out of the group of 17 year old girls and into the open alley where the soon-to-be tributes would march down.

"I volunteer!" I called out. "I will take Alice Walker's place as tribute."
A sudden silence creeped over the crowd. Everyone knew who I was. They knew I was born to fight in the games, but no one had even thought about me volunteering. My feet carried me to the stage as Elise read about the rules of volunteering. Everyone knew them by heart, we had heard them every year. At least one tribute a year had volunteered in District Two. I'd be carrying the tradition this year.

I reached the stage and all eyes were on me. They had been on me ever since the word volunteer left my lips. Unsure of what to do I adjusted my hair so that it would rest on both of my shoulders rather than one.

"James Carman," Elise sung in a high tone. "You're the lucky one!"
A moment passed before James made his way to the stage. My eyes locked on his as he climbed the stairs. He was a tall boy. He was at least 6'3". I felt like an ant compared to him. He was strong, you could tell by the way he was built, but I've seen him while training, I don't need to be scared of him. He had decent aim with a bow, but if I were to fight him in close range I could take him down easily. . . as long as he didn't get a grip on me.

"Alright, shake hands you two!" Elise smiled.
As we shook hands Elise called to the crowd to have them join her in glee. The crowd cheered as they did every year. It boosted the confidence of the tributes and gave them hope. A few people cheered for James and told him how he had it "in the bag". I assumed those were his close friends who just wanted him to feel good about himself and thought nothing much of it. Most of the crowd screamed my name and a few of them whistled at me. I just smirked and nodded towards the crowd. I locked eyes with Alice who looked defeated, but she still applauded. I knew she would be cheering for me during the games.

My goodbyes were short and sweet. Many of my friends showed and told me how they'd see me shortly. When my parents came in with my younger siblings we huddled together in group hug. I told them I loved them dearly and no matter what happened I'd always be there with them. Although I had a good chance of winning there was still the 1% chance that I wouldn't. I couldn't waste my possible last time of saying goodbye to my family. After three minutes a peacekeeper came in a dragged them out. I blew kisses to them as they were pulled from my arms. A few more friends stopped by, but the one who I assumed would come didn't show. Alice never came. Even though I had volunteered for her and saved her life. She didn't come.

After the hour was done James and I boarded the train along with our many mentors and Elise. We all piled into the train cart that held the main television to watch the "lucky" tributes be reaped for this year. James and I sat in the center of a large sectional, so that we had the best look at who we'd be facing in the games. I wasn't impressed by many of the tributes. There were only a hand full of tributes that truly caught my eye. There was the girl, Karol Sai, from District One; the boy, Digit Sirock, from District Three; the boy, Carter Jackson, from District Five; the boy, Julius DeRoth, from District Seven, and the girl, Verity Davis, from District Ten. These were all the tributes that volunteered. I would either make them my ally or my enemy.