I Swear I Won't Forget You - 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙤

chapter two

       THE REAPING WISTLE pulls our attention from the distance. Cato gives me a glance before we both simultaneously begin darting towards the town square. The whistle signifies when the Capitol aids start drawing blood, we have time, the lines are always excruciatingly long anyways. After minutes of sprinting, we finally catch sight of all of District 2 in orderly lines, separated by sexes. I wave Cato a farewell before we disperse, getting lost in the sea of the crowd.

        When I reach the attendance station, I extend my finger, ready for the Capitol nurse to prick it. I'll never get over the pain of finger pricking, how could something so small hurt so badly? I dread it more than the Reaping itself.

"Spit." The woman tells me, holding out a glass disk.

"Spit?" I ask. Did I hear her correctly?

"New regulations. Spit into the cup, Miss." The aid says impatiently. I take the disk from her and spit in it, relieved I don't need a finger pricking. I set it back onto the table and send her a weird look, this will have to take some getting used to. I find my way to the crowd of sixteen year old girls and stand in place.

        After everyone gets settled in, our usual Capitol escort quickly walks in little steps to the microphone on center stage. Her frilly little dress is an obnoxious neon pink color this year, her hair a bright yellow. Gosh, I'll never understand.

"Hello, hello, District 2!" She claps her hands together, a collection of cheers among the crowd burst out in pride of their home. I do believe District 2 is one to take pride in, it's much more luxurious than the outer districts, every house has running water and electricity, more than I can say about the rest. There's opportunity here, good paying jobs, and a food system sponsored by the Capitol. The crowd takes a minute to silence down before the woman speaks out.

"The annual introduction video has been . . . outdated, much too brutal for our children, and now rated PG-13!" I try to contain my smile, the ignorance of that woman is humorous.

"Now with that out of the way, girls, shall we begin?" She walks over to the giant fishbowl -as I like to call it- and sticks her powdery, dainty little fingers into the sea of names written on slivers of paper. She quickly flicks her wrist upwards, carrying the chosen slip to the microphone. She unfolds it and raises her lips to the microphone. Before she has the chance to speak, a choir of 'I volunteer!'s breaks out amongst the girls. The chances of the reaped actually going into the games are about as common as pigs flying, it doesn't happen. It's normal for the outer districts to dread their name being pulled out of that fishbowl, you might think we wouldn't dread it because there are always ready volunteers to take their place, but it's quite the opposite. If your name gets picked, you're pretty much eliminated from the games, you can't volunteer for yourself after someone else has already.

"I volunteer!" My voice becomes drowned out by others. I've never discussed my wanting to volunteer with Cato, I know he would shut the idea down. I don't think he has faith in me.

       The girls become so rowdy, a handful of Peacekeepers begin to tame the group, blowing their deafening whistles. I cover my ears until I know they have finished.

"My, oh my, I love the enthusiasm, ladies! But as you know, there can only be one, now, who shall that be?" The woman's eyes scan over the crowd, my short stature being hidden by the girls in front of me. I need to be noticed. I take a second contemplating my thoughts when I arrive to the answer. I reach my hand to the knife holster on my thigh, it's a common thing for District 2 to have self defense weapons, completely legal too. Being tight with the Capitol definitely has its benefits. I slip the knife out of its pocket and raise it in the air, before even taking a second to aim, I send the knife hurdling toward the stage. Before anyone could even blink, the knife had lodged itself in the Capitol woman's wig, pinning it against the front of the justice building.