District Twelve
Daria "Dare" Nettle's POV
This was amazing! The best feeling in the world! Ever!
I was free from this district and out in a civilization in the wild, and it was awesome! I was with tribes of people that did new and exciting things that I couldn't even think of, and not only that, but I was free to climb trees and swing from the branches that connected each of the giant earth plants together.
I could go swimming in the rivers or lakes, go hunting, learn the strange ways of the groups outside the district fences, I could do just about anything I wanted and never get bored with it. The way life should be in my opinion.
But that world was fading into darkness as the everything started to shake violently. Unknown voices were shouting a single word that I couldn't understand.
The world that I wanted to live in, the place that I had escaped District Twelve for, was being pulled into a black void as darkness overtook it, until there was nothing left.
"Dare." A familiar female voice said as I started to feel things around me. I started to feel warmth, the air around me, and the feeling of being awoken.
Darn, it was just a dream. A very good dream, but a dream neither the less.
I felt myself being shaken awake by my friend, Livi. I opened my eyes, only to see her blond hair and blue eyes looking slightly away from me, and nothing else, she was that close to me.
"Your mom wants you." She told me, continuing not to look at me.
I got up to a sitting position before I asked.
"What about my dad?" I really wanted to see my dad. It wasn't everyday that he got a day off from the mines, and I missed not seeing him, he'd usually get back home after everyone was asleep. I did try to stay awake so that I could see him, but mom kept on telling me to get to sleep. I didn't listen to her, but I somehow always managed to fall asleep before he got home, and by the time I woke up, he was asleep, and if he wasn't, he was out working the mines again. So when he did have days off, I tried to spend as much time with him as possible.
"He's asleep." Livi told me.
Figures, I muttered to myself. I wanted to spend some time with dad before I headed out for the reapings. Ah well, I'll let him sleep, he deserves it, the reapings don't begin for another couple hours or so from the looks of the sun.
It was past dawn and the clouds weren't bright orange, just their normal light grey. Of course, everything was a little bit black and grey because of the coal that was burned, or otherwise used, heavily across the district. It was reaping day, and the Capital folks didn't appreciate having black powder raining on them, so all production was stopped for today.
I stood up, stretched my arms, and looked around my environment and planned the quickest route off this roof. I found a quick route within seconds. Right in front of me was another house with an open window that was a little more then a food lower then the roof I was on, all I'd need to run, either get through the open window, or grab the ledge, followed by climbing down the drainpipe before dropping down to the ground. Easy.
"I'll see you inside." I told my friend before I started running for the window, hearing the click clank of the roofing tiles under my feet as I neared my objective.
"Wait!" Livi shouted at me, concern was heavy in her voice. "Dare, that's dangerous!"
Danger smanger, it wasn't that dangerous, I'd done things way more dangerous then this, and besides, what's so exciting about climbing down a ladder? I wanted to feel the thrill of doing things differently, I loved the rush that coursed through my body when I did something radical, I wanted the excitement, not the same old boring thing that everyone did.
I neared the edge of the roof before jumping off the ledge and sailed towards the open window, only to find that the window was further away then it appeared. I felt a rush alright, but it wasn't the good rush that I enjoyed, it was fear that was running through my body at the moment.
"Oh shit!" I shouted before hit the part of the wall below the window, sending a wave of pain across my face, before I felt myself falling again.
An instant later, I felt my back painfully slam onto the hard ground. "OOOWWWWW!"
Zeal Skoda's POV
"Ruthie!" I shouted wanting her to get over here as fast as possible. "Ruthie!" There was something wrong with this pinata, all it did was drip out red stuff and swing around slightly. "Ruthie!" I had basically broken it in half, but all it did was pour out red liquid and some other kind of squishy stuff that looked like huge soggy worms. "Ruthie!"
I then heard the metal door to my right open loudly. I think it hit the wall beside it because it rang loudly.
"I heard you the first time!" Ruthie's voice shouted over the crash of the door. "What's the problem?" Why was she so mad? Did she want to try and break it open as well?
"I broke the pinata open." I told her, not feeling the satisfaction of what breaking it open should of given me, still looking at the red liquid dripping on the metal floor, creating a pool of red syrup. I didn't feel good about it because there was something missing, something that every one of those things should hold, not this, red...stuff.
"Oh," Ruthie said, her voice kinder now. She must of thought that I was having a problem with it, or maybe I was taking too long. "Good job Zeal," She told me happily. "That thing was giving us a lot of problems before you took care of it."
I felt like smiling. Ruthie, Russell, Darwin, Keith, and Lucy had been having trouble breaking the pinata before I arrived, but I was stronger then they were, taller and stronger, so they asked me to help them get it open. It was hard, but I eventually got it open. It cracked and snapped and made strange noises, but I managed to get it split it open. But if they had known that all they were getting was red juice that tasted like copper, they wouldn't of tried so hard to open it.
"Thanks Ruthie." I said with pride. But then I remembered why I called her here, because of what was inside it. I felt myself get sad thinking about it. "But, all there was inside of it was this red funny tasting juice that goes drip drip drip and these red...squishy things that went splat and taste funny and nothing else. There's no candy in it or anything."
"I'm sorry Zeal," Ruthie told me. "I thought that because it was a tough thing to open, there'd be something good inside of it, sorry to disappoint you."
"It's all right." I sighed, dropping the red stained iron bar that I used to beat the hanging, half broken pinata open, to the ground, making a loud clanging sound to occur. "Not your fault that the thing didn't have anything inside of it."
"If it's any consolation," Ruthie said. "I heard that Darwin has some of that powdered bread that you wanted to try out."
I turned around to face Ruthie and smiled.
"Really?" I asked excitedly.
"Really." Ruthie told me, nodding her head up and down a couple of times.
"Oh boy." I excitedly said as I ran towards the door Ruthie was at.
Ruthie and I then went through a hallway that had several paths leading towards different things, mostly dead ends though. It would be easy to get lost in here if you didn't know the way, but we knew the way, so we didn't get lost.
We made our way to the main room. We didn't have many rooms, just six if you counted the main room we heavily used for just about everything inside our club house. Our base. Our stronghold. Or whatever else my friends liked to call it.
It was in the back ends of the seam, one of the places that people don't normally go to, so it was perfect to have secret meetings here and play around with stuff without anybody coming around telling us to stop. I didn't like it when people told me to stop having fun.
Ruthie opened a door to reveal the main room of our club house, a room with metal walls, an overhead light that didn't cast very much light, some dirty old couches, some chairs, a couple of tables, and junk that laid around everywhere.
"Zeal our man," Russell shouted out, laying on one of the couches with a bottle of dark orange liquid that he liked to call whiskey in his left hand. I don't know how my friends could stand drinking that stuff, or any kind of alcoholic stuff for that matter, that stuff tasted nasty. "How'd the pinata go? Did you get any candy?"
"No," I told them sadly. "All I got was some red sticky liquid from it."
"Sorry man," Russell told me, sliding his free hand through his hair. "I though there'd be some sweet stuff in there." You and everyone else, I thought.
"I know." I groaned. I was really looking forward to some candy.
"On the bright side," I heard Lucy say to my left. "We managed to snag these loafs of powdered bread from that baker when he was taking out the trash. I believe that Darwin still has some-" She stopped talking. Why?
I looked to where she was looking at with her wide eyes, to see that Darwin was eating a loaf of bread covered in white powder. Was he eating the bread that Ruthie had told me that he was going to give me? "Darwin!" Lucy her annoying, high pitch shout in surprise. I hated when she was surprised, or scared, or excited, because her voice always went to that high pitched sound that I didn't like.
"What?" Darwin asked as he ate the bread.
"Those were for Zeal you asshole." Ruthie roughly told me, walking up to him before she gave an open handed hit to the head. "He's the one that got rid of that annoying little fly while the rest of you fuck heads get stoned and drank spirits instead of doing your job."
I got rid of a fly? I don't remember getting rid of any flies. They got stoned, I wouldn't want to get stoned, getting rocks thrown at you hurt. Why'd they get stoned? Why'd they drink spirits while getting stoned? And wasn't the normal punishment for breaking the rules a whipping or death? Why'd they stone them? They were supposed to be doing a job? I then remembered that Russell, Darwin, and Lucy were the ones that were supposed to break open the pinata but couldn't, so they got me to do it.
"They couldn't get it open," I proudly told Ruthie. "But I got it open for them."
"I know." Ruthie told me. "And because of that, Darwin was supposed to a loaf of the powdered bread, but it seems that Darwin has ate half your loaf," Ruthie then turned towards Darwin. "Right, Darwin." She growled. She was mad at him, he stole share.
"I'll, uh," Darwin said, looking around, his eyes moving quickly left to right, like he was scared of something. Though I don't know why he'd be scared, it was only us around. "I'll uh."
"You'll what Darwin?" Ruthie asked angrily as she grabbed the half eaten loaf of powdered bread from his hands.
"I'll make it up to him," Darwin quickly said, moving away from Ruthie. "I'll get him something he likes."
"Like?" Ruthie asked, edging closer to him, glaring at him with angry eyes. It was kind of fun to watch Darwin try to get away from Ruthie. He was a guy and she was a girl, and Darwin was taller then her, but only by a little, but it was still funny to see him act so scared around Ruthie.
"I'll get him a, uh, a, uh-"
"Better answer quickly Darwin," Russell suggested. "Before you get another cuff to the head, but this time harder."
"I'll get him some of those hard candies," Darwin shouted out. "right after the reapings, I'll get him some hard candies."
"I like hard candies." I said. Especially the red ones, I hope Darwin gets me the red ones. Though the yellow ones were okay.
"Good." Ruthie said as she got off the couch Darwin was sitting on before throwing me the half eaten loaf of bread Darwin had been eating, which I caught and stared eating. "Reapings start in a little over an hour, get your shit together before we head out."
This powdered bread was soooo gooooddd!
Daria "Dare" Nettle's POV
"What took you so long?" My friend, Skene, asked me jokingly as we left my house. He had been waiting outside for me with Livi.
"I had to get into this stupid dress," I told them, rubbing my hands down the loosely fitting cream coloured blouse and frilly black skirt that my mother just insisted that I wear for this year's reaping. She had made me change out of the clothes that I had been wearing and insisted that I wear these clothes since I had out grown the clothes that I wore for last year's reapings. Though truthfully, I didn't mind changing into the clothes, it was just the part when my mom wanted me to stand still so that she could look at me in those clothes and see how good I looked in them. I didn't like to stand still for too long, so it was tough for me to stand and one spot and only turn around slightly so that she could get a better look at me. "Plus, I had to see my dad before I left." I added.
Dad may of been awake, but I only got to talk to him for only a few minutes before we had to head to the reapings, and since he had to get ready for it and my friends were waiting for me, I, regrettably, went outside to meet with them. Though there was nothing wrong with my friends, it's just that I wanted to spend some time with dad on his day off.
Maybe after the reapings if he wasn't too tired.
"Daddy's girl." Skene chuckled, earning him a light slap to the back from me. I wasn't a daddy's girl. Sure I spent a lot of time with him when he was off work, but that didn't make me a daddy's girl. "Ow." Skene playfully said. "That really hurt Dare, you know that I can't handle getting hit."
Livi and I gave a little laugh at that. Unlike Livi and myself, Skene was tall and strong, unlike us girls who were short and thin. I wasn't even up to his shoulders on the tips of my toes at five foot five. Livi wasn't much taller then I was. Not only that, but my male friend also looked more like an adult then the rest of us. How Skene got so strong was that he shoveled coal from the carts onto the Capital trains. It also got the perk of being able to sneak a handful of coal into his uniform pockets when people weren't looking, though almost everyone on the job did that.
"Shut up." I laughed as we headed for the square.
"So what's with the bandage?" Skene asked seriously.
"Oh this?" I asked as I pointed to the bandages wrapped around my nose. "I got it doing an amazing stunt gone wrong."
"She tried to jump from one house to another to get to the ground in a more flashy way." Livi told him. "She always chooses the more dramatic look then the safe way, those, her head got slammed into a wall when she couldn't make it to the open window she was planning on jumping to."
"And this is why my parents try so hard to make me stop hanging around you two," Skene told us, chuckling to himself. "They're afraid I'll end up like you to, especially you Dare."
I groaned as I thought of Skene's parents. They were pushy and strict, always wanting to push him in the direction they wanted him to go and not wanting him to hang out with us, his friends, simply because we wanted to do things that normal people found strange and a little dangerous. We did things for thrills and fun, like everyone does, except ours were more on the radical side then the safe side.
"You should tell your parents that you do what you do and they can't stop you from doing that." I told him.
"I try," He told me. "But they're always like, 'we just want the best for you.'" Just like my mom. She worries too much and should be less protective of me. Like earlier today, she made a big deal about my bloody nose when all it was was a jump gone wrong. It wasn't much, just a mistake on my part, I should of seen that the window was too far, but I didn't, and I paid the price.
"They're just worried that you'll kill yourself if you start acting like us," Livi told him as we approached the line up for signing in. "I mean, just look at what's happened to Dare, and what would happen to me if I wasn't more on the cautious side."
Unlike me, Livi often examined the situation and thought things through, instead of me. Also, I wasn't that smart to begin with, so I guess that's why I was the daring type rather then the safe type.
"Either way, I wouldn't give my two best friends up just because of some words my parents say to me." Skene told us, which made me feel glad to have him as a friend. Despite his intimidating appearance, he was a good hearted person who offered good company whenever he was around. "Anyway, I'll see you both after the reapings, hopefully, who knows what the quarter quell will have for us."
"I know," Livi told him with more then a little worry in her voice. "I wonder what those cages are for."
"Cages?" I asked before looking in the direction that Livi was looking in, to see that there were black steel cages were in the square where us, the teenagers, usually stood in our age groups before getting picked for slaughter.
"You don't think this has anything to do with the mysterious quarter quell do you?" Livi asked.
"Maybe the Capital is just sick of kids trying to run away after they're picked." Skene suggested. Maybe, there have been a rise of kids trying to run away when their names got picked, so maybe the Capital was sick of having the peacekeepers chase the kids before dragging them to the stage.
I couldn't think of anything better, so I guessed that that was the reason.
Livi and I said 'see you soon' to Skene as we lined up to sign in.
When Livi's turn was up, it was my turn to sign in.
"Name?" The Capital guy asked me, not even looking at me.
"Daria Nettle." I told her. Though I preferred to use Dare instead of Daria, I had to use it because I was born Daria and not Dare. Not that my real name was bad or anything, hell, it almost sounded like Dare.
"Age?"
"Seventeen."
""Tesserae?"
"My mom, Miriana Nettle. My dad, Vernece Nettle. And myself, Daria Nettle."
"Three tesseraes then." He mumbled before scratching the pen on his piece of paper. "You supplies will be delivered in approximately three days. Next!"
After he shooed me away, I made my way to the cage labeled: 17. The cages were marked twelve to eighteen, so I knew that it was supposed to be our age groups they were showing.
I went into the seventeen year old cage before meeting back up with Livi.
"I hope this ends soon," I told my friend as we were trapped between every other seventeen year old. "I don't like standing this still." Plus, I was scared. I didn't like closed spaces, and this was a closed space with no escape, and it made me nervous. Very nervous. It was worse then normal reapings due to this cage.
"Hold it in." Livi told me, like she did every year. Which I always managed to, but just barely, I always wanted to run out of here, just so that I didn't have to stand still. But I also knew that it meant death, and I wasn't that stupid. So I sucked it in and stood still, but I constantly moved my hands and feet, and that helped a little.
"Welcome District Twelve to the two hundredth annual Hunger Games and the tenth quarter quell." Our new escort, a young Capital girl that was probably only nineteen years old, but she was already surgically changed beyond any body of any age in this district. She had orange fox ears, an orange and white tipped tail, nails that looked more like short claws, and was that white hair? Yes, that was white hair. "As your new escort, I think an introduction is in place." She then cleared her throat before continuing. "My name is Aureliana, I'm nineteen years old, and believe it or not, but District Twelve is my favorite district out of the thirteen of you."
Huh, usually the Capital hated District Twelve because we hardly had any victors. In fact, in our two hundred and fifty years of Hunger Games, we've only had fourteen victors, or something like that. "And I'm really sorry about what's going to happen to some of you this year, I really am. I wish that I didn't have to make my appearance this way, but because of the reading of the card and Panem's rising population, we've got to make some," She gave a little cough. "Unfortunately changes to the reapings. I'm sorry District Twelve, I wish we could of meet on better circumstances."
She said that, but I bet she didn't give half a care about us. She was Capital, they only cared about our victors and our production to fuel their needs. They didn't care about the people in general, only what we had to offer them.
Aureliana walked over to the female reaping bowl, which was surprisingly empty with only a few slips of paper in there.
"What does she mean changes?" Livi asked.
"I don't know." I truthfully told her. I had no idea what was going on.
Aureliana picked out a piece of paper and read out.
"Thirteen."
Suddenly, the sound of falling rocks occurred a fair distance away from me. I turned around, to see that huge chunks of coal were falling down from the roof of the thirteen year old cage, and were hitting the young teenagers in the head before they collapsed onto the ground. I didn't know if I was seeing things or not, but I thought I saw blood flow down the thirteen year olds heads.
I began to feel myself panic. The dead bodies. Me being trapped in a cage, with falling chunks of coal that could drop on me. Livi.
"Any volunteers? I heard Aureliana ask though my panic. "Volunteer to go into the games, and that many less kids have to die."
"I volunteer!" I shout. Get me out of here, I think. Get me out of here, then I can be safe. Livi can be safe. Then everyone else can be safe from being killed. "I volunteer!"
A peacekeeper grabbed my arm before pulling me out of the cage and escorting me to the stage, right next to the new escort.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Dare Nettle." I told her, feeling relief of being out of that dangerous, closed off, inescapable cage.
"Thank you for volunteering, Dare." Aureliana said with relief in her voice. She must of been relived for there not to be anymore death. I'd like to think that, but she might be relived of something else.
But the thought of her being relived was shattered by my panic. My worry had came back as fast as it had left. I now realized, I had volunteered to go into the arena.
Fuck.
Zeal Skoda's POV
What were those thirteen year olds doing? Why did the fall asleep when they received a bunch of coal? They must of been so happy to receive that coal that they fell asleep! Though how you could do that I didn't know.
"Fifteen." I heard our foxy escort with the funny name say to us. She must be telling us who was getting some coal.
I turned around, to see that the fifteen year old boys were getting coal from the top of their cage. Again, they were all so happy that they feel over asleep. I wish we could get some coal, it was cold in our club house without the coal that Ruthie, Russell, and Darwin brought.
"Zeal," I heard Russell say to me. "Volunteer."
"Volunteer?" I asked.
"Yes, volunteer." Russell told me. "When the escort asks for volunteers, shout, I volunteer."
"Why?" I asked, wondering why I'd want to shout out I volunteer. Normally during a reaping, you kept your mouth shut and only went up when they called your name. Though some tried to run away, they were then dragged up to the stage by the peacekeepers.
"You'll get to go to the Capital," I heard Darwin tell me excitedly. "In the Capital, they'll have food fit for kings. And candy, more candy then this entire district has to offer."
"Really?' I asked, getting excited myself just thinking about the stuff in the Capital.
"Really." My friend told me. "I'd go, but I owe you for eating that powdered bread."
I was going to do as he said, but then I thought of what everyone said about volunteering. It was dangerous.
"Isn't it dangerous?" I asked, thinking of the other kids the went to the Capital, only to never come back.
"Only if you make it," Darwin assured me. "Are you going to make it dangerous Zeal?"
"No." I told him. "I'll make it safe."
"Then it'll be safe."
"Right," Russell agreed. "It'll be safe for you."
"Okay." I said, believing my friends. I just wished that I could talk to Ruthie and Lucy, but Russell and Darwin were with me, and they said it was going to be okay.
"Any volunteers?" The foxy girl asked.
"I volunteer!" I shouted.
A couple moments later, a peacekeeper in white grabbed my arm before leading me to the stage, right next to the foxy lady.
Ha! She looked even funnier this close to me.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"My name's Zeal." I told her proudly. "Zeal Skoda."
"Thank you, Zeal."
Why was she thanking me.
"Your welcome?" I told her, confused.
"Now shake your partner's hand." She told me.
I looked around to see the other girl that wanted to go to the Capital as well. She was short with dark brown hair that reminded me of chocolate and pale skin. She was thin, like almost everyone here. I reached over to her with my hand, and she did as well, but she looked at me with her bright blue eyes like she was scared.
Why was she scared of me? Why were a lot of people scared of me anyway?
Speaking of which, why were all the adults crying? Didn't they like what their kids had gotten them? Oh, they were crying with joy. Yeah, that's it.
A/N: Well, that's District Twelve done. Dur.
So what do you all think of the newest competitors?
Still need a D2 female along with D9, D10, and D11 male.
Also, to anyone that read this far, I just want to say that I want to face keyboard so hard for now noticing that the Capital is really spelt the CAPITOL Capitol.