I step forward and yell at the top of my lungs.
"I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"
Everyone is astonished by what I had just done because in 74 years, not once has anybody ever volunteered for anyone in District 23. Caroline guestures me up onto the stage and asks me for my name.
"Harry Styles." I mumble.
"What was that, dear?" She asks.
"Harry Styles." I say a little louder this time.
"Again?" She's becoming a little bit agitated with me now.
"HARRY. FUCKING. STYLES." I practically yell.
"Okay then. Erm- I guess it's time to pick our female tribute for this year." She walks over to the ball of names and quickly pulls out a name, walks over to the microphone, and reads out the name.
"Eleanor Calder."
But the next thing that I hear is very shocking to me. I hear a voice shout out "I volunteer" again. First, District 23 doesn't have any volunteers for 74 years, then we get two in the same day. Odd. But what's even more confusing is the fact that the owner of the voice is male. Is that even allowed? A man volunteering for a woman? I'm not sure, but they don't seem to be objecting.
"Very well then. What is your name erm- Mr. Volunteer?" Caroline asks in a very disheveled tone.
"Louis Tomlinson." He says, a lot more proudly than me.
"I bet my ass that that was your girlfriend." She says with a wink.
"Why yes it was." He says with a wild smirk on his face. At this point, seeing how Louis offered to take his girlfriend's place in the Games, everyone stood up and started the three finger salute. Thanks for the recognition, assholes.
"Let me say that this has been the first time in 74 years that District 23 has ever sent in two male tributes!" Caroline says. Apart from District 22 who sends in two same-sex tributes every year, nobody ever does. If you're wondering why District 22 sends in two same-sex tributes every year, It's because they're the theatre district. Yeah, you catch my drift now dont you.
Caroline takes us to the room where our families come to say their good byes. First in is Niall and my mother. Niall pulls me into an incredibly tight hug and lets out an almost inaudible "Thank you." My mother can't even do anything because she is hysterically crying. As they leave, Liam walks in.
"You can win this Haz. I know you can." He says in the tight hug he pulls me into. what's with all the hugs lately? But it's almost as if he doesn't want to let me go. But he has to because one of the peacekeepers comes in to tell him that visiting time is up.
After that, we load up onto the train to get to the training center. It takes about three hours to get there even though it's on the other side of the country. It doesn't take that long when you have a train that goes 250 miles per hour. Ahh, Capitol technology. While on the train, I make my way to the lounge car where mine and Louis's mentor, Simon Cowell was sitting. Simon won the 50th Hunger Games which was a Quarter Quell where there was double the tributes. A Quarter Quell is a special version of the Hunger Games that is held every 25 years with special challenges. Simon now serves as a mentor to the children from District 23, seeing as he's the only live victor from there. We've only had 4. Talk about lucky. I also see Caroline and Louis sitting with him. The three of them are sitting in an odd triangle shape, talking about the games.
"My main words of advice are, find water and stay alive." Simon says.
"No Shit." I say, causing all three of them to look up at me in shock. "Any better advice?"
"No Mr. Styles, now what crawled up your pants and died?" Simon asks me.
"Nothing major, just my whole life now that I've been chosen to fight to the death in these stupid Games." I say shooting a glare towards Caroline.
"Hey! Don't blame this on me, you volunteered!" She says in a very matter-of-fact tone. "You know, in some districts, it's an honor to be chosen for this." It's true. In Districts one through four, the tributes ate called the "Hardcore" tributes. They all take these Games very seriously and almost always come on top. People end up volunteering all the time in these districts because they can't resist the urge to kill. One year, one of the tributes went batshit crazy and after he killed a tribute, he started to eat them. But they eventually had to kill that one off because the gamemakers didn't want a cannibal winning. What a shame. The Gamemakers are the people that conduct the games and everything games related. For the rest of the ride, we watch the reapings for the other districts. We just finish the last reaping when the train makes a sudden stop.
We've arrived.
