THE MISSING LINK ✧ GLOSS HUNGER GAMES

26 | AUGUSTUS BRAUN

The selection process for this year's tributes of the Hunger Games began in May, as it does every year.

Around mid-May, any student who wants to be considered for the 'position' is allowed to put their name on a list at the Justice Building. Then, when final grades come out for the year, a few weeks later, the top ten boys and girls on that list are announced and labeled as The Chosen 20.

It's a jarring process, in my opinion — watching 20 kids compete for the chance to be put in the Hunger Games. Especially since, as a victor, I have a permanent position on the selection committee.

Yay me.

June is a total shitshow.

It takes weeks to decide who the next tributes are going to be. Weeks of watching talent shows where 19 teens show off their skills with weapons and one shows us their dance skills(?). Weeks of being cornered by nearly every single member of The Chosen 20 and listening to them try to get my vote. Weeks of sitting through boring question-and-answer sessions with teenagers.

If you became the victor of the 67th Hunger Games, what would you do?

I would bring honor to my district and be given the resources to provide a nice home to my mother and brothers.

I would... be alive?

And my personal favorite:

I would get drunk at Capitol parties.

By reaping day, I'm exhausted. Neither of my picks (the wannabe drunk guy and the girl who bought me chocolate every day) was chosen. Instead, this year's picks were people who genuinely stood a chance at the games.

Tiffany Hancox, a 16-year-old with a sword-wielding talent and a shit attitude, and Augustus Braun.

Diamond's Augustus.

I don't even realize until after the reaping ends, and I see her in the hall of the Justice Building. It only clicks when I see her pacing — I don't think I've ever seen her pace before — and she's nibbling her bottom lip and spinning the rings on her fingers.

"Dia?" I ask, walking toward her. She freezes like a deer in headlights, and I look between her and the door beside her. I assume Augustus is inside, sitting alone and waiting for loved ones to come say their final goodbyes. "Are you going to go in?"

"I... uhh..." Diamond stares at the door for a long moment before turning back to me. "I haven't decided on that yet."

"Dia." My brows draw together, and I take a step closer. "What's wrong?"

She opens her mouth but promptly shuts it when other voices appear in the hall. An older man and woman turn around the corner seconds later, guarded by Peacekeepers. They walk straight past us and into Augustus's room.

"Well, it's too late now," Diamond says, an ounce of relief in her tone.

She turns around and starts to walk away, but I grab her elbow.

"You do know that he can have more than one visitor, right?" I ask. "The train doesn't even leave for thirty more minutes."

Diamond takes a deep breath before turning back around. She doesn't meet my eyes at first and, instead, focuses on the door.

"What if..." she starts. She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and looks at me. "What if he doesn't even know who I am? Like, I walk in there, and he just tells me to leave."

"Diamond, he knows who you are," I roll my eyes, "and he's not going to tell you to leave."

He's too kind for that. He was the only one of The Chosen 20 who was consistently nice — and not in the fake way that some of the students did to get our votes.