I stand frozen, before Martin says something to me. I don't hear a thing he says, because all I really want to do is go run away. Far, far away from Panem, and The Hunger Games. I turn to him and just stare at him.
"This can't be happening..." I whisper to him. I finally manage to calm myself down and turn and walk out into the center aisle. Everyone is starring at me, and when I catch a glimse of myself in the big television. I look like a zombie, but a zombie who's about to cry. I somehow manage to calm myself down as two peacekeepers come and attend to my sides. Each step I take towards the stage feels heavy, almost like I'm walking in quicksand.
Finally, after what seems like hours, I reach the stage. When i'm up the stairs Eddy is waving me over.
"Come on ! I don't bite !" He says with a smile. He gets a laugh from the crowd. I walk over to Eddy on stage, and he takes one of his hands and puts it around my shoulder. My instinct tells me to take his creepy hand off me. But my job until I get in the arena is to make the crowd love me, and that starts with Eddy.
"Now do we have any volunteers for Mister Robert Power ?" He says. I don't want people calling me Robert, I hate it !
"Excuse me, sir" I say to Eddy. His face turns toward me.
"Yes" He replies back with a smile. He pulls my face in to his chest and hugs me. Why ?... His hug seems to get an "ahhhh" out of the audience. After getting out of his embrace I just look at his face for a second, before asking him a question.
"Could you call me Bobby ? It's kinda my nickname around here"
"Why of course, so know is there anyone here who would like to Volunter for Bobby Power ?" He says with a smile. Please. Please. Please. Please. I hope someone volunteers. I scan the crowd two or three times and no one comes forth.
"Well I guess that's it. District 7, your tributes for the 17th Annual Hunger Games are Cassandra Pike and Bobby Power ! He takes one of our hands each and raises them into the air like we've won some great prize. We both look at each other, and I can tell immediately that she's fighting tears.
"Now, you two must shake hands. It's a tradition !" He says. I out-stretch my right hand, as she does the same. When they meet we shake hands for a few seconds. Then our hands are put back down.
"Happy Hunger Games Everyone ! And May the Odd's be ever in your favour ! Eddy turns around quickly and puts his hand on me again. He half directs/half pushes us in the justice building. As soon as I step in the building, he takes his hands off my back and closes the door to the building. He walks down the hall, while I simply stay standing there. I look over to Cassandra, and find her eyes filled with tears. I take a step in her direction, but a peackeeper stops me.
"Robert. You are in this room" he says to me. He points at the room to my left. I look at Cassandra one more time before he closes the door on me. I look around the room, which has piles on piles on books in it. There's 2 wooden chairs and a paiting of President Snow, the newly elected President of Panem. He's the youngest the country has every seen, only 25. I walk over to one of the chairs and sit down.
I must be there only 2 or 3 minutes before I see the door open. Martin is my first visitor. I get up from my chair, and walk towards him. He just stands there and begins to cry. Martin has gone through this before, his brother was in my place, only 3 years ago. When I get over to him I just hug him.
"I got this." I say to him. At this point he's just sobbing uncontrollably. I feel like crying too, but that will only make things worse. He escapes my embrace and just looks at me.
"Make sure Adex is nice to you." he says to me. He turns around and just leaves. The door closes behind him, I hear him wail out and then the door opens again. This time it's mom, beatrice, and dad. Beatrice runs into me, and this time I think i'm going to cry. I take no time at all to run into mom's arm. We stand there for a minute, frozen, just hugging each other.
I let go quickly and look at her face, tears streaming down it. Dad hugs her and she walks out. He gives me a hug and whisper's something in my ear.
"You got this champ" he says to me. He turns around and starts to slowly walk out of the room with my mom. She starts to cry out things.
Beatrice just stares and turns to me. We look at each other for a bit, before she says something.
"Get to an axe. That's all you need" I'm quite startled. How does she know im good with an axe. I just look at her for a bit.
"How do you know ?" I say quietly to her. She's never seen me with my axe.
"I've seen you more then once climbing out your window with it" she says. She just looks at me and smiles.
"Oh."
"Are you any good?" she asks me.
"I guess so"
"Well, let's hope so. Your life depends on it now" she says to me. She just looks me in the eyes, almost like she's thinking hard about something.
"Why aren't you sad?" I ask her. She looks towards me and gives me her reply.
"I have faith in you. You're a fighter. After all, look at all the fighting we do !" She says to me. I smile at the last part she says, and she smiles back.
"You do realise there is going to be other kids in there with experience fighting with real weapons, right ?" I tell her. She just looks at me.
"I know. But I also know you're going to win this thing" I look at her, then to my shoes, then back at her.
"All I can is try, right ?" I say to her.
"Exact-" Suddenly the door opens and there is two peacekeepers standing in the doorway.
"Time to leave. Say your last goodbye. We must depart for the train station". Both walk in and the door closes. This is it, probably the last time i'll ever see Beatrice. Almost like she knew I was thinking that.
"Booby, take this" She says into my ear. Beatrice pulls a watch out of her pocket. It's black, with velcro and a blue outter edge. It belongs to dad.
"But, this is-" I say to her, however a peacekeeper grabs her arms and begins to walk her towards the door. The other one holds me back and I try to escape his grasp.
"Remember Bobby, remember-" The door closes behind her. The peacekeeper holding me back lossens his grip. I stand in silence for a few seconds before he looks at me.
"It's time to go." He walks towards the door and opens it. I take the watch in hand and place it in my pocket. I walk towards the door, one step after another until I reach it. I walk into the hallway and see Cassandra coming out of her room. Her eyes are puffy and red, implying she was crying.
Walking down this hallway where so many young men and woman of District 7 have spend their last moments in District 7 really makes me think about if I'm ever going to get out of the arena. When I reach Cassandra in the hallway, I look at her for a few seconds, then the words "It's all gonna be okay" slips out of my mouth.
Cassandra turns her head the opposite direction of me and walks infront of me.
Have I just made an enemy ? I think so.