~Talise Gold~
There is only one name in my mind this morning.
Anila.
She died last year. She made it to the end, and died. Ambrosia killed her.
Ambrosia.
That girl will pay. I'll kill her tributes, and I'll wreck her. I want her to suffer for what she did to my little half sister. No one really knows about me. My father, a capitol gamemaker met my mother when he was getting information from our District years ago and they had me. He didn't want anyone to know he had a child with a District woman so he left with a promise from my mother that she'll never tell a soul.
I didn't promise him anything. I'll find him when I'm in the Capitol. Hopefully I get there. I'm going to volunteer this year, mother doesn't want me to, but I will.
"Talise!" My half brother Jake yells at me. "Come on we have to get going!" I pound down the stairs to stare into his violet eyes, they match mine. We're not so different. If that Ronan kid wasn't volunteering this year Jake would have. I'm glad he isn't, I don't want to have to fight my brother.
"Calm down Jake, the reaping starts in ten minutes. We have time." I say to him as I step out the front door.
"Well we don't want a repeat of last year do we?" He asks me. Last year Jake and I were late to Anila's reaping and we got scolded by the peacekeepers. They only let us have a minute each with her, I miss her more and more everyday.
We sign in just as the mayor steps onto the stage and begins reading the treaty of treason. I step into the crowd of sixteen year olds to get odd looks from most of them, they don't know who I am. I'm cooped up in my house most of the time doing nothing. My violet eyes are a rare thing in our district. One out of one hundred gets them, it's odd that Jake has them too. I pull my black hair up into a bun so I don't have it hanging down my back in this heat. The escort comes onto the stage smiling but before she has time to reach into the girls bowl I'm bellowing out "I volunteer!" I stride onto the stage holding my fear in, is this a good choice?
"And your name is dear?" The escort asks me. I look her straight into her eyes and glare at her, she picked out my little sisters name. I raise my fist and smash her in the face. There are gasps from the crowd and Devina, my older sister, screams at me to stop.
"My name is Talise Gold" I say.
"Well aren't you the little losers sister? Oh wow how excit-" She doesn't have time to say anything else before my fist and smashes her in the face. There are gasps from the crowd and Devina, my older sister, screams at me to stop. I pull my arm back to hit her in the face again only to have it caught by a strong hand. I look him in the eyes and glare.
"Ronan let me go!"
"Talise this is not right, get them back in the arena." He whispers before yelling. "I'm Ronan Maeve and I volunteer as the male tribute for this year's games." Security walks onto the stage and takes our beaten up escort off and have Ronan and I brought to the justice building for our goodbyes.
~Ronan Maeve~
What a stupid girl, smacking the Escort like that. We could both have bounties on our heads because of that. Why do I get stuck with the girl who lost her sister in the games the year before?
I was going to volunteer last year but in District One we believe in fate during the quarter quells. We don't volunteer, the escort chooses, just like she chose Anila last year.
My family came to me during the goodbyes, I promised them I would try to win. I wouldn't give up. Talise and I are out to kill District Five this year, I wouldn't put it past Talise to try and kill one during training.
Talise and I enter the train to be met by the two mentors, Devina, Talise's older sister, and this thirty something year old man Wolf.
"Talise, hitting our escort was utterly irresponsible!" Devina yells at her. I chuckle at the thought of Talise nailing our escort right in the face. "And Ronan? You're laughing? How do you think the other Districts will think of you now that you helped the escort not get beaten up by a tribute." I cringe. Damn I never thought of that. Wolf laughs.
"But you have to say it was a good punch." Devina glares at her colleague who laughs even harder. "She didn't see it coming! It makes Talise look strong, like nothing will stop her from winning. Ronan, you might have messed up this morning, you stopped Talise from attacking her, you shouldn't have done that, the others might think you are too controlling. You have to be careful." I grab my head and groan.
"Why do I have to be so stupid! I know I should have let her attack our escort but, I dunno. I just didn't want Talise to get attacked by the peacekeepers." I say to them.
"Well the good news is both of you can win" Devina says and smiles at us. Talise and I look at each other with giddy looks on our faces. "Don't get excited yet, you still have to kill all the others." This is great we can both win, but why? I find its best not to ask questions.
"Why are they letting two people win?" Talise asks, I guess she doesn't mind asking them.
Wolf clears his throat and begins to speak.
"You both know about the 'supposed' rebellion in the Capitol during the last games right?" He asks us, and we both say yes. "Well since the Capitol is having four of their children in the games they wanted them to have a chance of getting home, so they are letting two tributes win." Talise growls.
"Why couldn't they have let two win last year?" She asks. "My little sister died last year!"
"We didn't choose for this to happen, the new head gamemaker did!" Devina yells at her.
I'm startled by the sisters fighting, this never happens in my house. I'm just here to save my little sister from her sickness; I'll win to save her.
"Come on, lets watch the recap." Wolf says as he pushes us into the next room. He turns the television on and the new District Zero comes onto the screen. It shows a girl volunteer and a boy is reaped, they turn out to be siblings and are originally from District Four. Next is us, Talise volunteers and she punches our Escort in the face, I run up and grab her arm before she can hit her again. The commentator says that the careers this year may be crazy. I hope they think this because of Talise and not me.