In life, we always fall for the person who will never fall for us, always want the the things we can't have, and say always things we shouldn't.
And I would like to say that I am sorry for the extremely late update... I'm out of town for Thanksgiving, with limited electronic access, and my parents just confiscated my iPod touch, so I'm trying to be a perfect child and do everything right so I can get it back.
Aurora Austriallis, Capitolite
After watching the District 6 Reapings, I ate a delicious lunch that consisted of lemon chicken with cashews, Caesar salad, a delightful fruit soup, and a glass of hot Chai. I had sufficiently relaxed after watching the Districts 12 and 6 Reapings, and had fallen asleep soon afterwards. It was the weekend, so I slept in and didn't get up in time for breakfast, so I decided to have lunch. That's what I'm doing right now.
I had actually started the recording on time, but the Escort, Rainbow Eeveressence, was the same person as last year and the Mayor hadn't changed either, so I skipped ahead to the Reapings themselves. The Reaping bowl was a car this time, but it wasn't a normal car. This car was long and had many windows, like a bus. The girl's car was red, and the boy's car was blue. They both had long, skinny bars that jutted up towards the sky and were attached to a wire that suspended them above the stage. You could see the white slips shoved against the windows in the sides of the busses.
Rainbow was completely in character for her District. She was dressed up in a patchwork pencil skirt and suit jacket. The colors mainly consisted of bright shades like lime green, lemon yellow, citrus orange, and electric blue. What is up with so many people hurting my eyes this year? Just yesterday I passed a woman while I was walking home and I literally had to look away! Her clothes were all made out of the same NEON pink shimmery cloth, and her skin was dyed a slightly different shade of neon pink. The worst part of her clothing was the lights that were flickering even in the daylight!
Anyway, the Escort let her hand creep into the girl's car to pull out a slip. Unlike some of her previous years, she appeared to simply pluck the slip off of the top of the car instead of digging. Walking over to the microphone was also done quickly, and Rainbow read off the name in a short, choppy monotone.
"Mazella Bancroft!"
A short, small girl in the front row stepped slowly out of the ropes surrounding the square and headed to the stage. Tears were streaming from her hazel eyes, but I couldn't hear anything. Her red plaid pioneer-style dress snapped around her ankles in response to her quick, snappy steps, and her pale blond hair bounced in its ponytail.
When she reached the stage, the first thing I noticed about her thin face was how dark it was. For a blond that pale, you would expect an equally pale skin, but no! Not on this girl! Her hair was almost perfectly tanned, and if she was older, she would have probably needed to beat boys off with a very thick stick. Not that she had a figure yet, but with her almost perfect face, I'm pretty sure that if she hadn't been Reaped, she would have been an astonishing beauty around seventeen.
"How old are you?"
"Twelve," Mazella responded quickly, her voice trembling the whole time.
"And there's no reason to ask you your name, so do you want to draw the boy now?" Rainbow asked cheerfully.
Mazella stared at her in horror, and Rainbow stared back at her with embarrassment as she slowly understood that her offer would go unheeded.
"Alright then," Rainbow muttered. "Now for the boys!" She waltzed over to the blue car and again plucked a slip right off the top of the pile. Stepping back to the microphone, she read the name again.
"Tanner Craven!"
A tall boy staggered slightly as he stepped into the path. Recovering, he smiled and waved at the cameras as he fairly skipped to the stage. He was quite charismatic as he waltzed up the steps and stood next to the Escort, shaking her hand energetically as she asked him "How old are you?"
"Tanner Craven, ma'am," he responded, his dark blue eyes twinkling brightly. Rainbow turned back to face the front of the square, and Tanner copied her, the sun sparkling off of his short black hair. I noticed that his dark blue suit had been tailored quite well, and was cut in a style that was currently the big thing in the Capitol. Maybe he was wealthy? He didn't look underfed, his suit was immaculate, and his manners appeared to be impeccable.
"These are our Tributes for the 99th Hunger Games!"
Rainbow nodded to the Tributes and they shook hands, Tanner smiling down at Mazella with something that looked like a brotherly sense of protection, and they walked off the stage into the Justice Building with Rainbow close behind them.
And that is the end of District 8. I would like to thank everyone who sent in tributes, because without them I wouldn't have been able to even start this story.
Speaking of tributes, I do have a slight problem... Idiot that I can be, I accidentally deleted all of Lya200's tributes when trying to get rid of unnecessary files on my computer. So, Lya200 dear, if you could humor me just one more time and submit EVERY SINGLE ONE of your tributes, just once more, I'll put them into the Word Document that is already named "Tributes-LYA200-" that WON'T get deleted.
Otherwise, I won't be able to do District 10. It's the last District, and then we get to the Capitol... the Bloodbath... and the ARENA!
