Chapter Ten

The year flew by too quickly, and before Effie knew it, it was once again the lead up to The Hunger Games. All of the Capitol programming was in full Games mode- making speculation about the arena, doing profiles on the Gamemakers, placing bets on which District would see the victor this year.

Effie was required every so often to attend sponsor lunches, or some social event, but other than that she became a recluse. She was hyper fixated on her plan.

For months she had been sending information back to the Intelligence about what she had witnessed in the Games, the current state of affairs in Panem, any talk of uprising. She had no clue what they were even doing with her information. They had had spies in Panem for years and years, and she saw no evidence of them doing anything other than just observing.

She knew they had the tools to make a difference, and it wasn't a secret to them what had been happening here. The Hunger Games were the centrepiece of this new Panem. What was stopping them?

Effie had decided on that night months ago that she's not just going to sit there, report back to the Intelligence and do nothing about it. She had been writing letters back home, urging them to do something. When these had fallen on deaf ears, she set her plan into motion.

She and Spurius had been doing what they could to gain more intel on the citizens of District 12. There were about 8000 total, and about one-tenth of them were of Reaping age. That was a lot of potential tributes to screen through.

They made it a bit easier by getting rid of any tributes who were too young, and any from the remaining tributes who looked too weak or scrawny. Unfortunately, that was commonplace in District 12, so they were left with a handful of boys and girls who could actually be strong enough to stand a fighting chance.

Of those who were left, most were raised in town, and while they hadn't had as grand a life as those in the Capitol, they weren't used to hunger in the same way that some of the less fortunate kids were. Would they know how to hunt and scavenge for food? Would they be able to persevere through their hunger?

Effie thought back to Katniss Everdeen, the young girl who clearly could fend for herself enough to have a shot at surviving in the Games. She had done more research on her, and knew that Katniss was taking the Tesserae, meaning her name was in more often than some of her peers.

Another name cropped up during Effie and Spurius' research, another boy from the Seam- Gale Hawthorne. He was in a similar situation, lots of mouths to feed, no father figure- therefore more names in the bowl to feed his family.

Both could have made worthy competitors in the Hunger Games, at least by District 12 standards. Effie's plan would need someone strong from her district.

Between Gale and Katniss, their names were in the bowl over 50 times. Almost all the tributes from District 12 had their names in multiple times. Even those who were 12 years old, and should only be in once, usually had to take tesserae to get by. There were thousands of slips in the bowl- would it be likely that Katniss and Gale would even be drawn?

In the weeks leading up to the Games, Effie more often than not found herself picturing calling out Gale's name, or Katniss' name. Watching them walk up to the podium, sometimes together, sometimes only one of them. Pictured them on the chariots at the Opening Ceremony, pictured them giving interviews to Caesar Flickerman. Surviving the initial bloodbath, killing their competitors- taking out the crown.

Effie boarded the train to District 12, ready to start setting her plan into motion. Her day long journey flew by, and before she knew it she was getting ready to go up on stage and call out the two names of the kids who she would take back to the Capitol with her.

On the day of the Reaping, she got up on stage, waiting for her turn in the festivities. The mayor was giving his usual speech, Haymitch was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't spoken to him since the last Games ended, and that suited Effie just fine. While she had somewhat softened to him last year, he was still far from a desirable partner in these Games.

Effie found herself looking out into the crowd. She found Gale easily- he was standing a few rows from the front, much taller than his peers. His lips were pulled into a tight line. Katniss was harder to spot, but eventually Effie spotted her standing next to the mayor's daughter. She was a little bit taller than she had been the previous year, and was filling out. She was still skinny by Capitol standards but was much more formidable than some of the girls near her.

Finally, it was Effie's turn to pull the names out of the bowl. She coughed to clear her throat before speaking into the microphone.

"Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!" She was met with no sort of reaction from the crowd whatsoever. This was fine by her, but she had to make it look like she was annoyed, so she furrowed her brow. "Ladies first!"

She walked over to the bowl to her left. All of the little slips of paper were folded in half and sealed, so Effie had no clue as to which of these had Katniss' name on it. She swivelled her hand around for a while, until she finally settled on one about three-quarters of the way down. Feeling good about her choice, she walked back over to the microphone, holding it up and she opened it.

She had to hide the disappointment in her voice when she read out the name. "Tansy Oversmith," she read.

A girl from the front, with dark hair in loose ringlets, let out a choking noise, before finding her composure and walking towards the stairs onto the stage. She stood next to Effie, who forced the cheer back into her voice.

"Excellent! And now for the boys!"

She could see Gale out of the corner of her eye as she walked to where the bowl with the boys' names was. She closed her eyes, and unlike with the other bowl, she stuck her hand in and grabbed the first name that she grabbed onto.

She walked back over to the microphone and read out the name "Ash Wellflake."

A boy towards the back, with the same dark hair, olive skin and blue eyes as his female counterpart, walked towards the front. He was wearing a blue shirt that looked much too big for him.

When he got to the stage, Effie was struggling to hide the discontent in her voice.

"Marvellous! And here we have it: the tributes from District 12 for the 73rd Annual Hunger Games- Tansy Oversmith and Ash Wellflake!"

There was scattered, unenthusiastic applause, before the two tributes were herded into the Justice Building and the crowd dispersed. Effie saw Gale and Katniss walk over to each other, give each other a hug, before walking to the back where the rest of the crowd was, and hugging their younger siblings.

Effie hadn't realised that her two ideal tributes knew each other. They were two years apart in age, so while it was possible they knew each other from school, it was unlikely. They did have that similar look about them, with the dark hair and blue eyes, so maybe they were neighbours. Someone could have told Effie they were related and she would have believed it- but it wasn't in any of the information that she was sent about them, and the records seemed pretty thorough.

While Effie waited in the Justice Building for her two tributes to be done with their goodbyes, she found herself thinking about her next step in her plan. She had hoped- well, counted on- one of those two being chosen. The odds really had been in their favour, considering neither had been selected. Of the two kids who had been selected, one of them had been on her list of potentially strong candidates.

Tansy, like her predecessor, grew up in the Seam; the eldest daughter of a coal miner and a goat keeper. Tansy had two younger sisters, and together with their mother they kept goats, using their milk to make cheese and butter. They sold their products to others in town, adding to the meagre income their dad earned in the mines. This venture did little to prevent Tansy from needing the Tesserae, but did mean she was more well fed than others, and had strong arms from churning.

The boy, Ash, Effie knew little about, as he was almost immediately taken off her list for being too young. From memory, he was 13, and his parents were both coal miners. That was all Effie could recall.

Effie felt herself comparing these two to what she had seen of Katniss and Gale. The boy obviously did not have much of a comparison- years younger, a foot shorter, and much scrawnier. The girl, however, was taller than Katniss, and seemed to have been relatively well-fed her whole life. She had strength, and a reason to want to get home: her two younger sisters.

After a couple of hours, the two tributes emerged from their individual rooms, their faces puffy and red from tears. Effie felt her heart lurch.

These two were facing the worst moments of their lives, which very well could end in a matter of days, and she was thinking about how she wished they were someone else. Effie immediately pushed all her thoughts of her 'ideal' tribute out of her mind, and focused on the two kids in front of her.

She had to still be determined to try to help them survive.