I stood in line quietly, rolling idea after idea through my mind of what might happen to us. A line of boys that looked roughly around my age were next to me. I scanned face after face to see who I could name from school, trying to keep myself from stressing over the Capital's plans. That's when I saw him. The boy from earlier. Jeremy stood one person up and to my left. He was obviously trying to do the same thing because he found me looking at him and smiled.
"Nervous?" he asked me curiously. I nodded my head. "Me too. I know that the Capital is up to no good. I just haven't figured out what they want with us yet."
"Dido," I agreed. Truth is, I'm not nervous about what the Capital is going to do to us. I'm nervous about what the peacekeepers might do to me when I tell them my name. My father was too well known throughout the rebellion for the Capitol to not know his name, or mine for that matter. After all, my father did join the rebellion because my oldest brother died from the tracker jackers. After that event, my whole family has never cared for the Capital. I'm sure whatever they're planning now will make matters worse.
"Next!" a peacekeeper barked at me. I quickly moved to the table. A book was open, obviously holding records of the kids in line before me. My eyes quickly noticed the needle another peacekeeper was holding. "Name?"
"What's the needle for?" I asked, completely ignoring the question.
"Name!" I was obviously making him mad by asking questions.
"Valiant Rolin." I was bracing myself to get swarmed by peacekeepers. Nothing happened. A quick sigh of relief escaped before a surge of pain shot up my left arm. I look at it to see the other peacekeeper had shoved the needle into my arm and was now stealing blood from my body. I gritted my teeth, trying to refrain from yelling curses. After a few seconds, I felt the needle get pulled out. The peacekeeper pulled the needle off of the vile and poured my blood into some machine. My name popped up on the screen of the machine. A man with a camera stood before me. I looked up long enough to get blinded by the camera.
The wait was a few minutes before I got my citizenship card. It had my district, name, occupation, and birth date on it. The peacekeeper had handed me the card and a white envelope before I was allowed to leave. I turned the envelope over and over in my hand, constantly tempted to rip it open right there. I decided to wait until I got home to open it and see it's contents.
When I made it home, I found my brother waiting for me on the front porch. He stood out of an old chair that my father had made when I was little and acted like I had been gone for a century.
"What took you so long?" Dimitri questioned me. I stepped onto the porch.
"Well, I'm not the only kid in District 9, Dimitri. There was going to be a little wait time," I said matter-of-factually. My brother scowled when I did this. He always did when I acted smart. I walked past him into the house. I sat down on the ratty old sofa we had and carefully opened the envelope to find a letter. I could feel my brother watching me as my eyes started taking in the words. The letter read:
"Congratulations new citizen of Panem! You are now entered into a drawing to become a tribute for your home district to be a part of The Hunger Games. If chosen, you will be taken to the Capital to train for the games. Once the training is complete, you will be taken to the arena where there is only one rule: stay alive. You will be fighting to the death. The last tribute standing wins. The drawing will take place on June 17th for one male and one female tribute. May the odds be ever in your favor!" I knew my face was showing a mixture of outrage, shock, and sadness. I quickly crumbled up the paper and threw it into the fireplace. I rushed to find the matches. Once I found them, I ran to the fireplace and started the fire, watching the letter burn. My brother looked at me as if I were crazy.
"What did it say?" Dimitri spoke up. "Did it say anything about why you had to get a citizen card?" I nodded my head, afraid to tell him what I just found out. "Tell me what it said." I shook my head as tears rolled down my cheeks. My mind raced about all of the pain both my father and brother had been through after the death of my oldest brother. I imagined myself being drawn to be tribute, on my birthday of all things. My father weeping. My brother clawing at the peacekeepers that are bound to be there, trying to get me away from their clutches, ending up getting himself killed. I felt my brother grip my shoulders, shaking me out of my trance. "Valiant, if it's bad, just tell me!"
"It's a death match!" I screamed at him. "They made us kids sign up for a card because they're going to kill us!"
"That doesn't make sense."
"They're going to choose a boy and a girl to go to the Capital, get trained to fight each other, then send them off to an arena to kill each other until one person is left!" It was then that Dimitri let me go. He plopped down on the sofa, gripping his head. "You can't be serious. They can't do this."
"Obviously, they can." I watched Dimitri chew on the words I had just screamed at him. I couldn't take it. It was bad enough that my oldest brother had to die, now I was practically sentenced to death as well. I couldn't take it. I ran out of the house, not sure of which way to run. All I knew was that I had to run. Somewhere. Anywhere.
I ran off into the distance, running as fast as I could. From what, I'm not sure. All I knew was that I had to run as far as I could. I ran past the fields and district houses. All I could think about was the letter and what this will put my family through.
I soon felt my legs collapse from under me. My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest. Tears streaked my face. I must have ran out into a middle of a field because I see nothing but grain. The words of the letter swirled around in my head. The most taunting ones were "May the odds be ever in your favor." "Ya, sure they will be," I thought. "They have never been in my favor before." I heard footsteps coming rapidly towards me, but I didn't care.
"You read the letter, too?" a voice asked me. I looked through my puffy eyes to see a blotchy faced Jeremy stand over me. I nodded as he sat down on the ground next to me. He looked as if he had gone through the same amount of emotional distress as I did.
"Why are they doing this to us?" I asked quietly. I couldn't get my voice out of a whisper if I tried. It just wasn't willing to come out. Jeremy shrugged.
"They're trying to punish the adults that were a part of the rebellion. They take us kids and there will be nothing they can do about it." He ran his hand through his curly hair. Tears still ran down my face. I have never felt more vulnerable in my life. Here I was, crying in front of a boy I had just met. I hung my head in shame. The words he said hit home.
"It's not only punishment for the adults, but those our age that were involved in it too," I managed to say. Jeremy looked at me with raised eyebrows.
"What are you talking about?"
"Not only were adults involved, but kids as well. I should know, I was one of them." I didn't even bother to think that a peacekeeper could have heard that, but at this point, I couldn't care.
"That's impossible."
"It's true. After my oldest brother died from those hideous tracker jackers, my dad joined the rebellion. Dimitri joined and it wasn't long before I started helping him help the rebellion." I sat in the fields with Jeremy for what felt like an eternity, trying to explain my childhood. Trying to explain how my mother died when I was born. About how when my family was just about put itself back together, my brother got stung by the tracker jackers while helping my father in the fields. My father was a wreck after my brother died. After my father realized exactly what had happened, he joined the rebellion. Dimitri soon followed after him, getting used as a scouter. I started helping him by hiding in trees as the Capital troops walked by, hearing their conversations, then reporting to Dimitri of my finds. He would find the information that was important and take it to his commander.
After dumping my whole life story on him, Jeremy sat silent. He stared at the ground, not even looking at me. After a few moments, he looked up. He looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"And no one should. After the Capital announced that the war was over, my father decided to hide anything that linked us to the rebellion."
"I promise, I won't tell." We sat for a few moments, just staring at the sky.
"What would you do in my position? Would you tell your dad?"
"I wouldn't tell him till I knew that I was going." I nodded my head. Probably what I should do, too. The last thing that my father needs is to worry about me going to my death.
The two of us stood and walked back into town. I walked back to the house, knowing now what I was going to do. I walked into the house and told my distressed brother about what I have decided. He agreed to not tell him. He agreed to let me be the one to say it if the time came. If the odds were in my favor, I won't have to go.