I walked hand in hand with Maya. Her blond hair blowing in my direction made it almost impossible for me to let go. I could smell the sweet scent of flowers that followed her around. I rubbed my thumb against the side of her hand and she tightened her grip to let me know she liked it. Ever since Fade's death, Maya has been mine. Everyone knows that we will get married. Her parents and my parents were best friends. My dad and her mom actually went to the Academy together. I hear stories about them all the time. How they used to get into trouble and for a short period of time they were actually a couple.
When we got to the district square it was packed. Our district square was about the size of one of the smaller districts. It had to be to fit all of the people in town. The town was covered in peace keepers. There was one every four feet. They were directing people on where to stand, registering in the district members, guarding the victors from previous years. They were all over the place.
Maya and our families walked over to the registration tables where they took a needle and poked us. They took blood to identify us. Maya and I both took our places on opposite sides of the square. I allowed a peacekeeper to escort me to my age group. I squeezed in next to a friend of mine from the academy. I didn't know his first name, in the academy we are called by our last names.
"Hey Ford." I nodded to him, just as the announcements began.
Mayor Rydes and Mayor Foy took their places on the stage. They both cleared their voices and began to recite the story of the rebellion and the destruction of District 13. After about a fifteen minute speech, the names of previous victors were read. I was surprised at how long it was.
Bo Walker took his place on the stage shortly afterwords. He was wearing all green, as always. His blue skin tone separated him from most of the people in the district. His accent stood out as well. He had The Capitol accent.
"Lady's first." I watched as he walked over to the crystal ball that held about a million of names of girls between the ages of twelve and eighteen. He reached his hand down to the bottom and pulled out one. He opened it slowly, and hesitated before reading the name.
"Ahler Dreeds" My eyes instantly looked over towards the side of the stage. My heart beat faster as I watched as the young girl walk onto the stage with her blond hair in a ponytail. She was young, I looked back at the eighteen year olds hoping one of them would get the courage to volunteer.
The rules were that no one was allowed to volunteer until the reaped made it to the center of the stage. I looked around and saw a few of the graduates impatiently wait. The moment the Ahler made it to the center of the stage, I heard her voice echo in my ears.
"I volunteer as tribute." My eyes instantly found her walking up towards the stage.
I felt like screaming and running but I was frozen in place. I couldn't move or breath. I just watched as she climbed the steps and walked calmly to the center of the stage.
"What's your name?" I just stared as she shook Bo's hand.
"Maya Sayd" I felt my feet move without my permission and when someone tried to stop me from running up there, my hands began moving too. Before I knew it I was tackled by three peace keepers. I looked behind me and another peace keeper was helping up Mr. Struss up, while a fifth peace keeper was picking himself off the ground. Two of the ones that tackled me held my arms while the other hit me in the stomach. The pain in my stomach brought me to my knees.
"And now for the boys." I just watched as the older looking boy who was reaped walked up the stairs, I knew what I was going to do.
"I volunteer as tribute!" I could feel the crowd staring at my back. The punishment for attacking a peace keeper was death. The punishment for taking away Maya was me attacking you. I wasn't sure if they would let me do this.
Bo Walker looked over his shoulder at the mayors. I felt one of the peace keepers let go of my hand. I shook myself away from the other and took a step forward as if I was daring them to tell me I couldn't.
"Is he allowed to do that?" The mayor looked hard at me and began to laugh.
"I'm not going to stop him, if he would rather be put through the Hunger Games then die by gun fire then let him. For all we know he might be the next victor." He nodded towards me as I looked behind me and saw the anger in a few of the graduates. I robbed them of their moment, the one thing they could do other then work in the mountain. I caught the glances of a few of the people I knew from the academy, but they just looked down as if looking at me could get them reaped or forced into the Games.
I took a step towards the staircase and I could feel the crowd shutter. Each step turned into two more and ended with me running up the steps. I looked out into the sea of people and found Kay. He was staring at the ground, I looked for any sign that he was sad but he showed none. I looked again for Aries and Mom and they were there staring at the ground as well. I felt my anger well up inside of me. I was going to do what they couldn't and they were going to just stand there and stare at the ground? Watch them not even wave goodbye.
"What's your name son?" I looked over at Bo and felt my anger double in size.
"Koda Ford" He smiled and I shook his hand as hard as I could.
"Well, you have some fight in you, District Two may have a big chance this year. Congratulations."
I walked over and pulled Maya into a hug. I already broke tradition once, why not break it again. I felt one of her tears fall down my shoulder. I heard Bo's voice just as we were escorted by two peace keepers off the stage and into our justice building.
"I present to you District Two's tributes for the Seventy Third Hunger Games." I threw a quick glance behind me and saw the cheering and clapping that always followed the reaping. Even the victors were cheering for us.