Trayne Treadwell-Lang, 17
District 6 Male
"Come on!" I begged, clasping my hands together and shaking them. Sarai laughed.
"You look ridiculous," she said. "And no, absolutely not. It's the middle of summer."
"So? We can play in the empty lot behind the grocery store!"
"And run? Rollerblade with blades we don't have?"
I narrowed my eyes and frowned, trying to seem more upset than I was. But Sarai saw right through me.
"Trayne…" she said with a sigh. "It's a bad idea."
"But it'll be fun!"
"Until Max sees you and mocks you."
"Fine," I said dramatically, flopping down on the bench on Sarai's front porch. "You never support me."
"I'm literally the best player on your team. I carry you to victory. I'd call that pretty supportive."
"You are the best? Ma'am, I am offended. I am the greatest goalie District 6 has ever seen."
"Yeah. Goalie. You just stand there and block the occasional shot. I'm the one who scores."
Sarai smirked at me and I slumped down further. We'd always been competitive, so the banter shouldn't have stung, but it did. I didn't cope well when I wasn't in school or playing hockey. Having nothing to do wore on me, so summers were always rough.
"Trayne?" Sarai looked worried now. "Was I too harsh?"
"A little," I admitted. "It's just that my parents are so focused on the twins. I'm the meat-iocraty in a sandwich of greatness."
"You are not mediocre," Sarai said. "That pun alone was legendary."
I snorted in response and she giggled.
"But seriously, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You're my best friend, and I'm not friends with lame people."
"Thanks," I sighed. "I think I'm going to take off though. My mom wants to have a family dinner before Reaping Day tomorrow."
Sarai nodded solemnly at the mention of Reaping Day.
"Alright," she said. "I'll see you later." I got up and waved half-heartedly.
"Bye."
I kicked a rock along the road as I walked home. Sarai's words helped, but being the ultimate middle child sucked. My older brothers were twins and my younger brothers were twins. I was the only single baby.
My parents tried hard to give us all attention, but with five kids and busy, low-paying jobs, there just wasn't enough time in the day. If I ever had kids, I would only have one or two. And I would give them all the attention they wanted.
Alley Parker, 17
District 6 Female
Having a cellmate with a stomach bug was one of the worst things I'd experienced while in jail. Anne spent most of the night hunched over our little metal toilet vomiting her guts out. I covered my head with my pillow, but it barely made a difference.
Finally, the jail staff decided it was best to take her to the medical bay and I got a good night's sleep… as good as one could get in a cell.
Prison taught me a few things, one of which was to sleep lightly. When the guard came down the hall to wake us up in the mornings, I was already dressed and ready to go. I learned to hide my emotions. I learned that not everyone was going to like me. And I learned to be tough.
I'd never forget my first night in my cell. My cellmate wasn't Anne then; it was an older woman named Lisette. She was released a few months after I was incarcerated. I was crying to myself that night, wishing everything would go back to how it was. And Lisette came over, kicked the bed frame, and said to me: "Stop crying. You're a tough girl now."
Those words stayed with me. When I got into my first fight, Lisette was in my mind. I'm a tough girl now, I told myself when I got back up, the taste of blood in my mouth. When the older women kicked me around and mocked me, I'd just glare, not giving them the satisfaction of a reaction. At first I pretended to be tough. Now I was.
"How's Anne," Janine asked as she sat down beside me. I poked the oatmeal-esque sludge on my tray.
"They took her to the infirmary last night, so I actually slept."
"Good," Janine replied. "It's about time she was someone else's problem."
Before jail, I would have defended her. Now, I just nodded in agreement. I wasn't a dangerous criminal like some of these women, but my morals were quickly receding to match theirs. I wouldn't serve a life sentence though - only six years. And I was almost through my first one.
"Let's hit the gym," Janine said. She shoved her plate away and stood up. "This stuff isn't edible anyways."
We had a small gym room next to the laundry, which meant the room was almost always steaming hot. But strength was valued in prison, so we pushed through. Several other inmates were already there when Janine and I walked in, but they didn't even bother glancing our way. Until Sammy came in.
Sammy was the biggest bully out of all the inmates, and beating me up was her favorite pastime. As soon as she entered the room, Janine backed away from me. I rolled my eyes. Faithful until the violence started.
"Good morning," I said evenly as I started my reps.
"Nervous for tomorrow?" Sammy sneered. The comment threw me off and I glanced at her in confusion.
"What?"
"It's Reaping Day," she said.
The weights nearly slipped from my hand. Reaping Day was so distant for so long that its sudden appearance shocked me more than I expected. I was immediately worried for my sister Acura. She had to take out tesserae after I went to prison because our family could barely make ends meet.
Anger at the man who landed me here flashed through me. Before this, I was a taxi driver. I had an affluent passenger in the car with me, and the disgusting pig tried to grab me. I swerved, startled by the touch, and we crashed. He died, and I was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
"I'm not nervous," I told Sammy, realizing she'd been smirking down at me.
"Oh, right," Sammy said. "I forgot. Your sister has a higher chance of being reaped. Well, I hope she's better at fighting than you are."
I knew she was baiting me, but I saw red. I swung one of the weights at her head, hitting her firmly in the side of the face. She went down hard and her lackeys were on me in seconds. I fought back as best I could, but I knew I was going to lose. I always did.
Hi! I know I just updated, but I finished this chapter and I got really excited to officially be done with the intros! So, a huge thank you to AmericanPi's friend Alicia for Trayne and SilverflowerXRavenpaw for Alley, our final tributes! Alley had a more detailed backstory, so her POV ended up being longer. Sorry about that. Hopefully it was still fun to read.
I've already finished the Reaping Recap chapter, which I'm planning to post on Monday. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of these two, and of all the tributes! And again, thanks for reading. This is going to be a super fun story - I have a chaotic arena planned.
QUESTIONS
1) Did you like Trayne or Alley better? Why?
2) Which tribute, out of everybody, would you choose as the victor? Why?
3) Any wild arena guesses? (hint: the story cover is a clue, but not an easy one)
Have a nice day, be kind to each other, and never stop reading!
- Fiona