PART 5: Jack Hourner, District 8

I'm just your normal District 8 boy. Tall, skinny, with short ginger hair… Well, Ok, not all District 8-ians are gingers, but I am.

I'm not Jackson or Jacob or anything like that; I'm Jack. It's my birthname, it's the only thing you're allowed to call me, unless you're some kind of nicknaming wizard that…

No, it's just Jack.

I'm Jack Hourner, and both of my parents are lowly factory workers. We are lucky to live in a house, though it's small and doesn't have any air condition/heat. I say, at least we have one little claustrophobic bathroom and a fireplace in the living room.

I wish I could say it's easy to use the fireplace; but obviously, since our District is a bunch of factories all clumped together in one monstrous smog cloud, there are absolutely no trees. Therefore, no wood, no paper, there's not a lot we have to burn except for cloth, if we ever have extra.

I can't really complain at all, because I know a good share of people that have it worse than me.

Well, I'm leaving something out.

I grew up in an orphanage. It wasn't just any orphanage; it was a miserable little orphanage. And everybody in that orphanage liked to make a pastime of teasing my sister and I.

And I have one birthsister, my twin Emma.

I remember it like it was just yesterday. We were only 8, and my sister got a new royal blue dress and a matching ribbon. She liked to skip around the house a lot all the way back then, so, when we were called downstairs, she went in a KLUNK! PER-DUNK! PER-DUNK! pattern.

The royal blue dress swirled behind her in a cascade that matched her eyes, the giant blue ribbon drooping down as it holds the hair from her eyes.

"Emma, Jack, come on now!" Our orphan Mom Elizabeth was a worn out, cranky woman who was always so stressed out, you couldn't get in two words without her shushing you.

Down the stairs we flew and ran, giggling, into the lobby.

"Meet your new foster parents!" Elizabeth says, and doesn't let us even say a word before the four of us are whisked out the door.

We finally got a look at them; two young men who hold hands and smile down at us. We exchange a look.

"Hi kids," the taller one whispers.

"Hi dads," I smile slightly.

The two men each take one twin by the hand and walk us back out to a little house on the street corner.

Of course the two of us are teeming with excitement.

They take us back to the house and that's when I felt a hand sliding down my back.

They don't turn on any lights when we get to the house. I hear a crash and scream, looking around.

Emma screams, too, and I find myself quick to find her. "EMMA!"

A hand grabs me by the back of the shirt, "Jack they say? You're Jack?"

They dim the lights and I search for my sister. She lies in the corner, and I'm not sure if she's awake or not.

I lower my voice to stay calm, "Y-yes. Jack Hourner."

"Hourner? More like-"

"Tyler! Language in front of the children."

"E-Emma? Are you awake?" I'm grabbed by the back of the shirt.

"You're really cute, you know that?" Just the tone creeps me out.

"Emma!"

"Your sister is… Um… Asleep…"

I want out of here now. "Um…."

The shirt is ripped off my back and I flinch. "T-That was new!"

"Lie still and we'll do the rest for you." I'm swept off my feet and put on a table. Their cold hands slide the pants off my waist and I shout for help.

I got out of there with a black eye, cut down my arm and a loss of privacy. Emma was scarred for life.

Back at the orphanage, we were teased more than ever. They put hands on my shoulder and say, "Was I violating you, Jackie?"

But none of them would ever understand. Not even I would understand, until we were re-adopted by our current parents. A man and a woman, who Em and I called Mom and Dad.

They were a couple of the nicest people I knew.

On my eighteenth birthday, after walking back from my job at the factories, I feel someone grab me by the back of my shirt and freeze.

"You're legal now, Jack."

I'm too scared to do anything.

"So what do you say now, hm?"

"I say to go away!"

"You people caused the death of my boyfriend, you know?"

"I don't care! Go away!"

"Wrong answer-" He coughs, goes stiff, and I hear him thump to the ground.

And my sister stands behind us with a pistol in her hand, quivering.

"JACK!" she shouts, and I run to her. Emma falls on her knees and her red ribbon flops, "I'm so sorry," she cries out, and I don't see why until I look up. Men in white, chasing us.

"Go!" I drag her up and we take off.

"THEY'RE COMING!" she shouts hysterically.

I pull my twin along and squeeze my eyes shut to focus. "GO!"

"Jack!"

"Under the fence! Now!"

Her wails echo in the wind as she makes her way under the fence. I scramble in after her and a bullet digs into my forearm, but I keep moving.

"Come on, Emma!" She runs after me, tearing through the woods.

We both collapse in the bushes and she sobs. "I killed him! I meant to injure him! He's dead!" she shouts.

"Emma! Not so loud!"

She buries her head in my lap and cries. I look around at the stars and realize what my parents must be thinking back home. It's too late now. We made it, and if we ever show our faces back there again, we'll be killed for sure.

The next night, we walk until we find another fence. We stay close to it until I find an opening.

"Go."

"What?"

"You go, Emma. You go there and I'll keep on adventuring."

"I wanna be with you, Jack! I can't be by myself!"

"You have to be! It'll be too obvious if they see us together!"

"Jack!" she wails, "Please!"

I hug her as tightly as I can, "Listen to me because I'm gonna make this fast. I love you more than anything else in my life but it's not safe if we stay together. Listen, I don't know what the future will hold for either of us but you have to go now and I'm sure we'll see each other again soon, Ok?"

She sniffles, untying the bright red ribbon and putting it in my hand. I look up at her. "Don't forget your other half, you hear me?" I nod, looking for something I can give her. I rip the cuffs off the cheap fabric of my shirt and give it to her. "I love you!" I hug her tightly and she buries her head in my shoulder.

"Now go!" Emma nods, whimpering, and climbs under the hole in the fence.

I keep walking, resisting tears, when I hear the whirs of a huge hovercraft.

I almost freeze in fear, but dive into the bushes and hide for my life. I curl up into a ball as the hovercraft passes.

Then, when it's gone, I sit up. The first thing I see is another guy.

"Please don't kill me!" he says.

"I won't, as long as you don't kill me!"

"You've got yourself a deal. Who are you?"

"Jack. Jack Hourner, District 8. You?"

"Rizzo Theramin, District 9."

I grin, "You made it out, too?"

He laughs, "Got shot in the heel. You?"

"Forearm." We both laugh, which is strange considering we're both on the verge of death.

"We can make it together," he says, "Deal?"

I nod quickly, "But… Where?"

He shrugs, "I guess we'll find out!"

FATE:

Jack and Rizzo get to District 13 together, and Jack ends up changing his name to "Jax." Because he's not particularly strong, Jack worked hard to find his place in the system: until he met a girl who he took a liking to. He became her personal cameraman and filmed the revolution as it happened. Jax never gets to tell his new best friend his true feelings. His sister Emma ended up in District 7, where she was taken into the orphanage and eventually became Miss Emma, the Orphanage Mother. Her and Jack's past causes her to be particularly snarky to the kids, and especially any gay parents that come to adopt. The Hourner twins know that they're both alive, but don't reunite until a long while after they were separated.