District 11 female – May Vickford, 15

"And he just said he wanted some rest? Why would he go to the area where the crops were?"

"Beats me," I said, yawning.

"Are you bored of me?" my best friend, Jamal, asked me, his brown eyes widening with concern. I'd gone straight to his house after Liz told me he'd been looking for me.

"No, Jamal, I'm not bored of you," I said. "I'm just tired. I was up all night, you know."

"Maybe you're overworking yourself," he said. "You are only fifteen, maybe you shouldn't be up all night working when you still have to go to school all day almost every day."

"I'm fine, Jamal," I said, finding myself yawning again. "This job is my passion. It's who I am, and I'm working hard. That will pay off when I'm rich."

"Rich?" Jamal snorted. "We live in District 11, May."

"I work harder than any rich person ever has," I said.

"You're such a dreamer, May," said Jamal. "It's an incredible trait to have."

He had that look in his eyes that he always did when he was talking to me, especially when he was giving me a compliment. It was that look that told me that this boy was completely and utterly in love with me. The thing was, I did not see him that way. In fact, I'd never seen anyone in that regard. The idea of a relationship seemed foreign to me. I'd never found any person attractive in my whole life, and the girls at school would talk about their secret crushes on one boy or another, they'd pass notes to them and giggle, but I'd always felt left out of it all.

"What did you think about the Quarter Quell thing, then?" Jamal asked me.

"Oh, I don't know," I said, shrugging. "It's just a twist... I don't know who I'd vote for, though."

"Yeah, neither," said Jamal. "I'll probably just put random names of people who no one else would vote for."

"Yeah, alright, I'll do that too," I said. "When does voting open again? I wasn't really paying attention."

"Tomorrow morning."

"Oh, OK, how long do we have to place our votes?" I asked.

"It's open for a few days I think," said Jamal. "But I reckon I'm just going to get it over and done with tomorrow."

"Yeah, alright, I'll meet you in the town centre tomorrow afternoon? I am not getting up early, I'm sorry."

"Of course, May," said Jamal, flashing me a grin.

My siblings and I made our way to the town centre the next afternoon after I woke up. I was exhausted after working all night again. We got to the voting area and Jamal was already there waiting for me.

"Did you sleep well, May?" Jamal asked me, smiling widely as we approached.

"I did, thanks," I said. "We ready to vote?"

"Of course!" said Jamal, stepping aside to let me pass. "After you, May."

I walked past him and approached the table where I was to write down the names. I wrote down the name Autumn Pritchard first, who was a girl who worked in protecting crops. I had nothing against her, but she was always lazy, and it wouldn't make a difference if she was gone. The guy I picked was for the exact same reason. Practically random. Neither of them would be voted, anyway, so it didn't matter.

Jamal and almost all of my siblings voted randomly as well. However, one of my older sisters, Liz, was going on about several people she had beef with in her class at school and how she couldn't decide which one to vote for.

"Surely I vote for my ex-boyfriend!" she gasped. "Teach him a lesson!"

"Liz, you broke up with him because you lost feelings, he did nothing wrong," said my sister, Jen, who was twenty years old and the oldest out of all of us.

"He had the audacity to think that I would continue to date him!" Liz cried, writing her ex-boyfriend's name down aggressively.

"Are you done?" my younger sister Alice asked. "Jude and I are bored."

"Yes, yes, hurry up, let's go," said Liz, acting like she wasn't the one who was holding us all up.

"Hey, May..." said Jamal, "I just wanted to say... you look... you look really pretty."

"Oh, um... thank you," I said, and I noticed that his eyes were widening as he stared at me. I just gave him a small smile and then looked straight down at the grassy path we were walking on.

My reaping dress was too small for me. Apparently, I was taller than I was a year ago, so the dress, which was supposed to be knee length, only went a quarter of the way down my thigh, which my mother deemed as extremely inappropriate.

"May, there's going to be cameras there!" she tutted, tugging at the bottom of the dress.

"They're not going to show me, though! I'll just be standing in the line doing nothing, between heaps of other kids. It'll be fine," I said.

"Oh, alright..." she said, yet she tugged at my dress a second time. "Come on, we're running late... the peacekeepers will be here in a minute if we don't go now. Liz! Come on!"

"Hang on!" Liz cried, who was using up the last of our shared water that was in a bucket to wet her hair.

"Liz, why are you wetting your hair?" Anne asked.

"Ugh, it's none of your business!" Liz snapped, pulling her hair from the bucket. She had extremely long, dark frizzy hair which flicked water everywhere as she got up, but she didn't seem to care.

As soon as she was ready, the whole family walked out of the house and made our way towards the town square for the reaping. Jude was talking nervously about how nervous he was about the reaping. It was the first time that he was eligible to go into the games, but I helped him to find comfort in the fact that no one would vote a twelve-year-old boy who did nothing wrong into the Hunger Games.

As I was making my way into the line of girls my age, I saw a few girls staring at me. I raised an eyebrow at one of them, and they quickly turned away once they realised that I knew they were watching me. Weird...

There was a new escort this year, a man with bubble gum pink hair that curled around his head like a halo. Like all other people from the Capitol, he was extremely flamboyant and very self-centred.

As for my thoughts on the Capitol in general... I didn't dislike them, exactly, but I wasn't a Capitol supporter. However everyone seemed to think that I was because of my job, and I knew a lot of people didn't like me as a result.

"Alright, District 11, I'm sure you're all dying to know who will be representing you all in the first Quarter Quell!?" the escort cried out after he was done giving us the history of Panem. "Well, as I'm sure you're all used to... ladies first! The female tribute is.. May Vickford!"

What. The. Hell.

Me!?

I knew people thought I was a Capitol loyalist, but wouldn't they rather vote... bullies? Criminals? People they had problems with?

I pushed past the other girls in line with me and let out an angry scream before marching onto the stage, struggling to breathe through the red-hot anger that was pulsating through me. It felt like hot, sharp nails were scraping down my entire body and urging me to take a step forward and strangle every single person that was now looking up at me.

The male tribute was then announced, and he just laughed about it, clearly, he had been expecting it. Some orphan kid, I was pretty sure. We shook hands and then were taken into our goodbye rooms.

I was still feeling an uncontrollable amount of anger when my family came into the room, and before I could hit anything, they embraced me in a massive group hug, with my standing in the middle of all of them.

"Just remember this, May," said my father. "People will come after you in the middle of the night, trying to attack you in your sleep. But you are a night owl. They won't be able to get to you. You're incredibly strong."

My family had to leave only a minute later, and then Jamal came in. There were tears welling in those normally bright, happy eyes.

"May... May I want to tell you something," he said, his voice croaky. "I love you... I've loved you for years and I've never told you and I know there's nothing we can do about it now but I... I wanted you to know."

"Jamal, I will come back," I said to him, as gently as I could. "And we'll be best friends forever. I'm... I've never really felt that way... not just for you, but not for anyone. And even after I come back from the games and grow older... I don't think I ever will."

"Goodbye, May."

"Goodbye, Jamal..."

District 11 male – Buster Melrose, 13

How could Sergeant Price possibly rig the votes, placed by an entire overpopulated District, to get them all to vote for some thirteen-year-old orphan? He couldn't, which was why I wasn't at all nervous for the reaping day which would take place in a week's time. I would simply go there, stand in line, watch two criminals get reaped, and then go back to life. Maybe Price would even leave me alone after the reaping, being too embarrassed that he was unable to rig the votes.

"The voting is starting tomorrow," he said to me that afternoon, the same day that the twist had been announced. "You can have the day off, I will be rigging the votes. Or you could use today as your last chance to admit to me what you did?"

"Just tell me what I supposedly did," I said. "This is exhausting."

"Fine, then," he said. "Can't wait to see you die in the bloodbath like every other kid from District 11."

He untied my hands, and then I was allowed to go back to the orphanage. I clenched my fists as I walked along the grassy path. Even if I was to be voted into the games, I refused to be another statistic of dead District 11 tributes. Not one single person from District 11 had ever won. Even District 12 had had a victor, a few years before I was born. District 11 never won. But I would end that long line of losers if Price somehow managed to rig the voting.

But he wouldn't, so I had nothing to worry about.

Right?

True to his words, Sergeant Price didn't show up at the orphanage to get me the next morning. Duncan and Pearson were glad that they could spend a day with me for the first time in a week, but we had to use the day to go to the town centre to place our own votes for the Quarter Quell. I went to the table first, and my friends were to go after me.

Once I'd voted for a bully and a gang member, I turned around to hand the pen to Duncan, but I saw someone else behind him that caught my eye. It was Price, talking to a group of people who were homeless, and I saw him holding up coins for them.

So.

He was bribing the poor. That's how Price was rigging the votes. I looked away from him and back to my friends, handing them the pen so they could place their votes, then stepped aside and looked directly at Price. I don't think he noticed me, but I continued staring him down.

Surely, he wouldn't be able to bribe everyone. Surely there'd be many other people who would receive more votes than me. I'd be fine. I was sure I'd be fine...

I turned back to my friends who were finishing up with their voting then the three of us made our way out of the town centre. Part of me thought that maybe I should try to stop him from getting people to vote for me, but I knew there was no way he would be able to get me into the games. He wasn't that powerful.

Duncan, Pearson, and I snuck out of the dorm room in the dormitory that night and lay down on the grass to admire the night sky together. The stars twinkled above us, forming a vast tapestry of light against the dark expanse of the night. It was a rare moment of tranquillity in the midst of the chaos that loomed over District 11.

The cool breeze rustled through the leaves, carrying with it a sense of uncertainty. As we lay there, gazing upward, I could not shake the nagging feeling that something was amiss."Duncan," I said softly, breaking the silence, "do you ever wonder if we are just pawns in a game we cannot control?"

Duncan turned his head to look at me, his eyes reflecting the moon's pale glow.

"Sometimes," he replied, his voice laced with a mix of resignation and defiance."But we cannot let them define who we are, can we? We have to fight, even if the odds are stacked against us".

He believed in our ability to rise above the circumstances we were born into, to challenge the injustices that plagued our district. The bond we shared, forged through years of struggle and friendship, was unbreakable. And now, facing the impending reaping, our unity was more important than ever.

"Absolutely," I said, determination filling my voice."We are a team, and no matter what comes our way, we will face it together".

As we continued to gaze at the stars, a newfound resolve settled within me. I was willing to fight for the truth, for justice, and for the chance to change the fate of District 11. I would not be a death statistic in the Hunger Games. As we made our way back to the orphanage, a fire burned within me.

My one pair of clothes had my own dried blood on them from several weeks' worth of beating, but I still had to wear them on reaping day because they were the only clothes I owned. I hadn't told Duncan and Pearson about Price's threats and attempts to get everyone to vote for me. I didn't want them to worry about me.

The three of us walked to the line of other boys our age together, then looked up at the stage where the escort made his way onto the stage. He gave us the usual history of Panem that we got from an escort every year, before lifting up the tablet that would tell him who had received the most votes in the district.

The female was a girl called May Vickford. I had never met her, but I'd heard of her. She worked for the peacekeepers, and everyone knew that she was a capitol loyalist. And then the male was announced. Buster Melrose. Me.

I chuckled and muttered, "You've got to be kidding me..."

I pat Duncan and Pearson on the back, and they both looked at me in shock. Maybe I should have told them, after all. I made my way towards the stage, keeping a calm exterior, but on the inside, I was crying. I saw Price out of the corner of my eye, and he was grinning widely. I would prove him wrong. I would win this thing for myself. Give District 11 its first-ever win.

I shook hands with May, then was taken into a goodbye room, where Duncan and Pearson came in straight away, both with looks of shock etched all over their faces.

"Price bribed people to vote for me," I told them. "Because I wouldn't admit to whatever he thinks I did..."

"What did you do, Buster!?" Pearson hissed.

"Nothing!" I cried. "I literally haven't done anything other than go to school, work, stay at the orphanage, and hang out with you two! I don't know what he wanted me to admit to, he wouldn't tell me anything!"

"Kick the asses of all those other tributes, Buster," said Duncan. "We all know you can."

"I will," I promised. "I'll see you both in a few weeks."