Sunset City

: - T W O - :

I stand in the Square, not moving out of shock until Goldie says "I think someone's a little shy, folks! Let's give him a hand. Come on up, dear!" I go to walk towards the stage, but my legs turn to jelly and I fall over after the first step. A staff member I didn't notice before helps me up and walks me to the stage, where he promptly grabs me a chair from the final fourteen row of seats to let me sit down in case I fall again. "Thank you." I choke out to him. I don't get a response, but he smiles at me briefly.

"Well that's it for the Overgrowth Area! Moving onto the River Valley Area." Goldie says, moving to the cyan basket of names next to ours.

The Opening Raffles go by in a blur, and by the time the final name is called from the seventh Area, the Crystalline Area, I feel near the point of passing out.

"Time for the final Raffle! Now, fourteen of these thirty-five lovely ladies and gentlemen will be picked to enter the competition!" Goldie says, almost giddy sounding from excitement. "I will pick Competitors in a random order, so don't wait for your Area, okay?"

She walked to the second yellow basket, with only five names in it, and plucks out the first name. "Brontes Lyn."

The tall, muscular boy in electrifyingly bright clothes, who I assume to be Brontes, starts cheering and celebrating with his Area friends. He walks to the front of the stage and sits down on the first of the thirteen chairs there, the fourteenth being the chair I was sitting on due to my light-headedness. Goldie calls the other Elektro Area name and it's a little girl who looks around eight but must be at least fourteen, or Goldie wouldn't have let her in. She sits next to Brontes and cuddles up to him, like he was her brother or something. Brontes puts his hand around her shoulder reassuringly and says something unintelligible in her ear.

Goldie moves to the purple basket of the Crystalline Area, plucking out two names that I couldn't even tell you how to start learning how to pronounce them, probably some more difficult old names like Brontes, who's name is from a place that was called "Greece". The names belong to a pair of twins who both have dark skin and eyes, but one is blonde and the other is brunette. They take their seats beside the little girl from Elektro.

Goldie starts towards the red Jewelled basket, then stops and turns to the green Overgrowth one. "The order was planned beforehand, but lets switch it up, shall we?" She says, dipping her hand into the basket. Overgrowth is always last. It's just how the Raffle works. First Area, Last Area, Second Area, Second Last Area, on and on. The order is changed slightly most years but this is the format they teach us, by "us" I mean Overgrowths, in schools. Goldie pulls out two holographic name slips out of the basket and turns to the audience of unlucky volunteers and then to the camera recording this whole event. "Poppy Ainsley." She says with a confident smile, looking over at Poppy, who seems like she might have a mental breakdown any second. Goldie notices this and helps Poppy to her seat. She then pulls up the second slip, pressing her lips tightly as she finally says the name.

"Lotus Mayfield. Oh what a lovely surprise! Last Competitor chosen for your Area twice in a row! You should be called Lucky, darling!" She helps me out of the seat I was in and moves me beside Poppy, pulling my old chair to the end of the line afterwards. I won't pretend that I paid much attention after that, but I will be honest and say I spent the rest of the opening event of the Competition talking to Poppy.

"So.. uhm, Poppy. Why were you so upset to get picked?" I ask her, setting my hand on her shoulder in a sort of gesture like Brontes's reassurance to that girl. Poppy mutters something that I can't hear. "Sorry, what was that?" I ask as gently as I can. "I didn't really want to do the Competition.. I wanted to just be unlucky and go back to my normal life. But my parents insisted, said we needed the money and they were too old." She says, tears surfacing in her eyes. I do something no Overgrowth Competitor has ever been known to do.

I hug her.