there's one thing about games,
once you're a player, there's no
way out. you're trapped.
-
in which the youngest victor in history comes back to compete in the quarter quell, coming out of a decades worth of hiding.
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I COULD FEEL EYES ON ME as I walked through the crowd of everyone in District 6. The entire district was gathered to watch the reaping for the 3rd Quarter Quell. I was second in the line of the 5 District 6 victors, right behind Riff. I felt disgusted at how many people had made an appearance... As if it were some show everyone could watch on movie night with some popcorn. I wanted to yell at everyone for showing up... For giving the capitol what they want. Everyone here had always come to these reapings fearing for their lives or their loved one's lives, but now that they knew they had no risk of being called, they suddenly cared.
I look over slightly to my right, watching people make faces of disgust as they saw me. I heard the occasional 'killer' as I walked through the crowd. It made me want to laugh that these people were so gullible. They believed anything the capitol said, including that a 13 year old girl would kill her own brother to win a stupid game. It also infuriated me that I was called a killer... As if I was the only one in those games who killed to survive.
I saw Bee standing on the stage behind the microphone, smiling kindly at me. Her blonde hair was shorter than ever, and I was sure it was a wig. Gold glitter streamed under her eyes like under eye bags. Her lips were colored a dark red as well. But the one thing that was hard to ignore was her beautiful, skin tight gold and black dress that had puffy sleeve. This was probably the most casual outfit she'd worn since I met her.
Bee was my escort years back, and also the only person besides Riffian to believe me about Alexie. I hadn't seen in her since I was 13... She looked the exact same. Bee always was like a mother to me... She was the only person from the capitol I could stand. She cared for me like no one else ever did.
I smiled at her back, feeling a rush of happiness for a moment. Seeing Bee's face gave me comfort. It brought me back to when her, Alexie, Riffian, and I were a team... The simpler times.
I awkwardly walked up the stairs of the stage and stood on the side with the only other female victor. I looked over on the other side of the stage to see Riffian and the other 2 male victors. He was giving me an assuring stare, which just made me more nervous.
Bee looked over at me with a smile, almost as if she were in disbelief. I felt stupid showing up in a pair of nice, black dress pants and a skin tight long sleeve white shirt... It felt as if I was arriving nicely clothed after 9 years of no appearance and telling everyone I didn't care. But I did. I saw people and what they did to Riffian and I's front porch. I heard what they said. The lies they believed. And it hurt.
Bee cleared her throat and went back to her microphone. She put on her usual, beautiful plastic smile, "Welcome, as we are here to celebrate the 75th Hunger Games and the 3rd Quarter Quell!"
The crowd stayed silent, but a few claps came from the crowd. Bee cleared her throat and looked over at me and the weird, scary morphling girl who stood next to me. She was really strange, and I honestly didn't even know her name. But she won her games by hiding the whole time, which is cowardly, but decently clever. She would look over at me in disgust in fear occasionally... Which made me hate myself even more.
