With half an hour to spare I fitted in this story today! WOO!
So hey guys, just thought I'd let you know that... THIS IS THE LAST REAPING YAAAAAAAAY!
So yeh thats made me quite happy. Ah now I can move onto the even more fun part!
Okay remember sponsor things! Look back at the last three chapters to find out more, buuuuut that will be stopping NEXT CHAPTER SO GET THOSE OUTFITS IN FOLKS! :)
Meet the last but not least District 9's Avis and Xavier!
Avis Clayton POV
"Come on guys, the bakery shuts in seven minutes!" I shout to everyone. Their attention is practically snagged by the word bakery. Rocky looks at me in confusion and I just smile and pull out a bag of coins from the pockets of my ragged trouser.
"Got it for that necklace we found yesterday." I wink and everyone laughs.
People must think it's odd, seeing a group of six, seven to twelve year olds, running down the street, cheering and laughing over a small bag of coins. But that's become mine, and the rest of my family's life. We run into the bakery and drool over all the delicious cakes laid out in front of us, I pick out a loaf of bread, and a rather delicious looking iced Victoria sponge.
Tonight's feast has to be the best one we've had for a while. We all share the bread and dip it in the soup we get from a young lady who thinks it's awful we live out on the street, sometimes she gives us hot chocolate and cookies. Usually soup though. After the biggest dinner we've had in months we split the cake into six pieces, which leaves us all with quite a large portion of the stuff, and I nibble it slowly, savouring the taste. It's so much better than I ever remember it being.
You may be wondering why and how a bunch of young kids manage to survive out on the streets. Well, when I was four, I ran away from the orphanage because I got abused awfully, for four long years I lived it rough, growing up quicker then I should have, learning at such a young age to live off the street, begging for food or money or whatever I could get.
After the four years I returned to the orphanage for a visit, where I may have borrowed- permanently…- some clothes, food, and also five of the orphans there at the time, who over the next four years, became my family. I'm the oldest, therefore I kind of "run" the whole thing, and my second in command, Azayla, is eight. We spent our years scrounging up enough money and food to get by, learning to stick up for ourselves and even fight if it came down to it.
I hear a whistle coming from the 'watch tower' –we live in a specific alleyway, and the watchtower is a pile of crates we piled on top of each other in a way so that we can see them but they can't see us. I look at the others and notice Myrtle, the youngest, seven, must be on watch. I beckon for Azayla to follow and the rest to stay back and I run forwards.I pull my small pocket knife that I had taken from the orphanage when I visited out from my coat pocket. And ball my hand into a fist so it's fairly hidden.
"Stay back," I whisper to Azayla and she nods, stepping behind the crates. I walk past the watchtower and at the end of the alleyway I see Myrtle with her dagger out at a figure.
"What's going on here?" I ask myrtle who doesn't seem fazed what so ever,
"This guy wanted to talk to you, don't quite know what about, but I don't like the look of him." She says, not taking her eyes of the boy in front of her. Looking at the very overwhelmed person I would say he was around seventeen, maybe, but even though he was five years older than me he seemed unarmed and not exactly threatening.
"You don't like anyone, Myrtle, you can go, we've left cake for you!" I tempt. She grins wickedly.
"Whatever, don't let your guard down." She says running back down the alley.
"Never do!" I shout after her. I turn to the boy and look him up and down. He's wearing a long coat but he's scrawny, unfed, by the looks of it.
"What would you like?" I say in my menacing voice. He shuffles a bit and smiles weakly.
"We'd, well, we'd like to offer you a home." He waits for a response, but I don't react, so he carries on. "Well, my mother has seen you around, she knew your parents-"
"I'm not interested." I spat and took out my knife, pointing at him, he takes a step back and puts his hand in the air.
"What? I didn't mean to cause you trouble." He splutters, his eyes focused on the small knife pointed at his neck.
"I'm not interested in anyone that knows my parents, they abandoned me, I don't want anything to do with them." I say in one big rush.
"Bu-"
"Anything!" I shout, the anger bubbling inside of me. "Get lost, and don't come back."
He looks like he's about to say something, but then he turns and leaves, shouting behind his shoulder.
"Good luck in the reaping tomorrow."
Xavier Venture POV
I sigh as I look at myself in the mirror, all my clothes are crinkled and I have no time to iron them. My light brown wavy hair is still messy even after brushing it three times. After the late night I had last night I have huge bags underlining my brown eyes, if you look closer you can see my iris are lined with blue. I still have my tanned skin, and muscly figure but I do look quite dead this morning.
It doesn't really surprise me, I got into a fight last night. I don't fight for the sake of things, I fight to show who I really am, I don't back down and I never show my pain, showing my anger instead. I prefer to be alone, if I ever got close to someone yeah I'm sure I will be nice but most people dislike me, mainly due to a mistake that I am not responsible for. My district won't give me a chance to prove it, either, it's what's caused my anger, being judged, and the hate people have towards me.
I walk slowly down the stairs, hoping against hope that Kane, my grandfather, wasn't at the bottom of them. But unfortunately my luck was shot down.
"Morning, Xavier." He grumbles, before returning to washing up. I don't bother replying, he's not worth my replies. Naveen and Vera, my brother and sister, are sat at the kitchen table, looking miserably at their poor excuse for a breakfast.
I hate my grandfather, I live with him only out of force. Kane was a Capitol citizen, and was kicked out just before I was born because of adultery with someone related to the President. He dresses and acts like a Capitol citizen even now, seventeen years on. The reason he acts like it causes people to hate him, and because we're his family people hate us too.
As for the reason I have to live with him? Well… When I was fourteen my awful father murdered my mother, he'd always been influenced by Kane, and I'm almost certain he had something to do with it. Father was taken away to prison so now we're stuck with Kane, and he doesn't do much for us, including earning money, or buying food, so generally I'm taking care of my brother and sister, even him, nowadays.
"Come on guys, we better get going, the reaping won't wait!" I say to my siblings.
I gather my things and Vera and Naveen do the same, they're both twelve this year, that means it's their first reaping, they seem surprisingly calm about the affair and are dressed in their best clothes, well, our parents clothes, as we don't have the money to afford new clothes and we haven't had parents for three years, so we just have to wear theirs. We all walk through the door without a word to Kane.
The walk to the centre where the reaping takes place is always long, but this year it seemed even longer, I laugh with my siblings, reassuring them that they won't be picked, both of them have entered their name twice, I wouldn't let them enter it any more than that. Myself, well I've entered it over thirty times, but partially for the money, as little as I'd like to leave my siblings behind with Kane, we could use the money, and if I got reaped maybe it wouldn't be the most awful thing ever.
When we reach the centre people turn, realise it's us and quickly avert their eyes, trying there hardest not to have to generate a conversation with us, some even give us dirty looks. I feel sorry for my brother and sister, but somehow, despite that they get as much hate as me, they are not hateful people like I am. They are optimists, to say the least.
On the stage was what might be mistaken as a twig, but was actually our capitol representative with the ironic name of Twiggy. She's one of those capitol who deprive themselves of eating, or does eat, then uses that awful concoction of liquid to get it all to come back up again. She's dressed in a lime green dress with so many layers the bottom seems to poof out to about ninety degrees from her hips. Her rainbow hair is all knotted into a bow on the top of her head. It looks truly dreadful.
But then again, all of the Capitol looks truly dreadful.
Avis Clayton POV
I come to the reaping only with Moby, the oldest of us excluding me, ten. He's the next to be in the reaping, so he was the one who decided to accompany me, while the others man the fort. We stand in the huge crowd, I've never been to a reaping before. I see many people shaking and crying and I try not to laugh. This is nothing, you have the slimmest chance of being picked anyway.
I worry that I might not even have my name down, I never bothered to go check in, but I didn't know whether that was for tesserae or not. Do they even have my name and age on record? Well, if they don't that doesn't exactly bother me.
Me and Moby laugh our heads off, causing many people to glare at us, when the representative walks on stage, dressed in some kind of patch work suit. He looks like something out of a nightmare, it's hilarious, he has a bright blue hair that goes out in all kind of directions, like a pompom. We're still trying to hold back the laughter when he goes up onto the stage.
"Good day ladies and gentleman, and what a beautiful day it is. Well I'm not going to save you the long speeches, but of course, these are the thirty seventh Hunger Games, a time when each district offers up one girl and one boy to be tributes in a battle to the death. Of course, the victor will be crowned in riches when they return, and that is to show our generosity to you, but show that sometimes sacrifices need to be made." He says this all really slowly, dragging out every word. He smiles to flash off his shiny white teeth, the whitest I've ever seen. He walks grandly over to the first glass goldfish bowl, oh wait… It has names in it, some kind of ball with an opening at the top.
"Lets pick the lucky lady!" He shouts out to the crowd, flashing his blinding teeth to the crowd again.
"Avis Clayton!" He cries happily a moment later.
So by hearing my name, I presuming my name was in there. Well, I'm always up for an adventure!
"I'll be back shortly, don't miss me too much." I wink at Moby he looks a mixture between shock and horrified. I stomp up to the stage and glare at the man, who seems to shrink back. Whispering a few things under my breath I stand in my place and stand there looking at the crowd. I try to pull my best menacing face as I can, figuring it may help a little.
Xavier Venture POV
So many people are now whispering about the surly twelve year old, I recognise her as one of the runaway orphans, but I've never spoken to her, just seen her snooping around the butchers looking for scraps of meat. She once spat on my shoe… It kind of shows just how much this District knows my family, and just how little they like me.
"Now onto the young man who will be joining her." The representative cries in some kind of crazed glee, prancing over to the next glass ball type thing and withdrawing a name.
"Xavier Venture!"
I am somewhat shocked, and also a tiny bit relieved. I hug my siblings and walk up to the stage, pulling the best poker face I could and ignoring the whispers that seemed to be coming from every direction. When I climb onto the stage the representative looks me up and down.
"A Venture eh? Well this should be interesting…" He says, causing many laughs from the crowd, mixed in with quite a few boo's.
Even the Capitol know my family. Sometimes I wish there was another Venture family in this district. But no, that would be too kind of life!
Onto the next chapter! Goodbyes/train journeys- I won't be covering every characters perspective on everything from now on, I mean, your character will get perspective views at certain points, but don't expect it every chapter haha! Happy Hunger Games!