User blog:EpicnezzEmily/Me in the Hunger Games

This is a little story I wrote back in August about me as a tribute in the Games.

I was 13 when I wrote this.

My last name was originally in the story, so I edited it out and changed it to Lunamoon based off of my tribute that's based off of me, Emily Lunamoon.

Brian, Ivan, Liz, and Desiree are people in my class. AJ and Allie ARE my siblings. They are 12, but this was written when they were still 11. They are twins. Liza is made up xD

This takes place the year of the 72nd Hunger Games, 2 years before Katniss and Peeta win.

The Reaping
I woke up on the side of my bed. Looking outside, it looked like an average day here in District 4. But of course, this was no average day. This was the day of the reaping.My little sister, Allie, was sleeping with my parents in their bed. I don’t see why she’s so scared of the reaping. She’s too young to compete in the Hunger Games anyway. On the bed across from mine, is my little brother and Allie’s twin, A.J. Of course he isn’t afraid of the reaping. He’s too young too. I sigh and leave the house for a little swim by myself. I’m Emily. I live in District 4 with my parents and a younger brother and sister. I’m 13 years old, and A.J. and Allie are only 11. They’re lucky. They don’t have to worry about being reaped....yet. My parents have been trying to train me to be a Career in the Games, but honestly, I’m a little scared of the Games myself. The only weapon I’m competent with is a spear, anyway. I don’t think I’d have a chance of actually winning, but I could make it pretty far. I’m pretty strategic. Besides, as if the Careers would enlist a 13-year-old in their pack... Too soon, it’s time for me to get ready for the reaping. I just thank God that I didn’t get reaped last year, my first year. But that doesn’t mean I won’t get picked this year. For all I know, I might. I have how many entries? Two? I think so. Considering I never have to apply for tessarae either. My mom goes to work on me, giving me one of her old reaping outfits. I pretend I like it, but my mom knows me well enough to know that I think it’s the most hideous thing I’ve ever seen. I sigh and we head to the square. I go into the roped area with all the other 13-year-old District 4 girls. Some look like me. Dirty blonde hair, green eyes, long eyelashes. Others look different with their blue eyes and bronze hair. Our escort from the Capitol, Shyamala, bounces onto the stage. Honestly, people like her sicken me. Her dyed green hair, blue tattoos, piles of makeup, her body so surgically altered that it’s  just gross. “Welcome, welcome.” Shyamala begins. “The time has come to pick one young man and woman to compete in the 72nd annual Hunger Games.”. I’m not really paying attention until they announce that it’s time to pick the female tribute. I immediately snap back to reality and listen. As she’s picking up a slip, I’m just hoping that it isn’t me. Not me, not me, not me.But I don’t end up being so lucky. “Emily Lunamoon.” Shyamala says. Crap. I walk up to the stage stiff and tense, but I manage to make it all the way up. I look for my family. My parents look happy that I’m actually in the Games, while Allie is crying and A.J’s giving me no expression at all. I stand there, looking at all of District 4, not sure I’d ever see it again. Shyamala goes over to the boy’s reaping ball and picks up a slip. She reads the name on the slip. It’s a boy named Jeff that I only kind of know. He’s maybe a year older than me, and we’re in the same year at school, but we never really talked or anything. Another thing is that he’s not a Career, so he won’t have much of a chance anyway. I’m only kind of a Career, so I might last a while. Our mayor reads the Treaty of Treason, but I’m not paying attention. After the Treaty of Treason, we are taken into our Justice Building for an hour with family and friends. My family comes in first, and my sister is crying. Maybe she really does want me to make it back alive. My parents tell me how proud they are of me. I just reply with “Don’t be proud of me until I win this thing......IF I win it.....” A.J. is still expressionless. My parents and Allie leave,but A.J. stays behind and tells me something. “Listen.” he says. “You have to join the Careers. It’s the only way you’ll survive.” “I know.” I reply. “But what about the part where they all turn on each other? I’ll be dead for sure!” “I don’t know. But you’re clever. You’ll think of something.” A.J. says. He turns around and leaves, and my next guests are friends from school. I talk with them until my hour is up. Jeff and I are whisked over to the train station where a beautiful, modern Capitol train is waiting for us. Jeff and I get in and we find our mentors waiting for us. Jeff is lucky because his mentor is Finnick Odair. I always found him really kinda...hot. I’m not so lucky. My mentor is Annie Cresta. Two years ago, she won the Games by being the best swimmer when a flood broke out. Then she seemed to have gone rabid after the Games ended. I’d switch mentors with Jeff in a heartbeat. We are given our own rooms to go to, and I’m shocked at how beautiful they look. I stay in my room and devise a plan. I decide that I will stay with the Careers during the bloodbath, then that night, I kill them all and take all the supplies. I’d take all the supplies I didn’t need back to the Cornucopia, hide inside it while another bloodbath ensues, and kill the remaining survivors. I’m happy with this plan until Shyamala calls us for dinner. Finnick and Annie are at the table, and I make sure to sit next to Finnick. We get served this amazing meal. After it’s over, we go and watch the other reapings so I can find out who my temporary allies are.From District 1, a somewhat cute guy named Brian and a girl named Liz. From District 2, a guy named Ivan and a girl named Desiree. The rest of the tributes called don’t look like hard competition, and being with the Careers ensures me a long enough survival. After we watched, we went to our rooms on the train. I rethought my plan, and thought that maybe it’d be too obvious if I killed them all at the same time. So instead, I would kill one of them each night, starting with the strongest and working my way down. Then when there’s only me and someone else in the Career pack, I’ll stay hidden until there’s only me and one person left. Then I will go out and kill that person. I decide that this plan will work for sure. But I won’t make the list until the training. That way, I can assess the strongest Careers from the weakest. I jump into my bed and fall asleep. ==The Games==

Day 1
As I’m in the Launch Room, waiting for when we have to get into the tubes, I tell my stylist about my plan. She finds it brilliant. We talk about it until it’s time to go into the launch tubes. I get into my tube and it closes around me. My stylist mouths “Good luck” to me as the tube rises up. I’m hit by blinding light, then I see the arena. My plate is right in front of the mouth of the Cornucopia. The Cornucopia is on a field of grass, with all forest around it. I look a little deeper into the forest and I see a small lake to the northeast of the part of the Cornucopia I’m at. Perfect. Once I kill all the other Careers except the weakest one, I’ll retreat there. The countdown continues, until I hear Claudius Templesmith’s voice booming. “Ladies and gentlemen, let the 72nd annual Hunger Games begin!”. GONG! I sprint off my platform and find the other Careers. I grab two spears, but I make sure it looks like I only grabbed one. This is part of my plan. I’ll leave one spear in the dead Career’s body, but I’ll sleep with the other. That way, they’d never know it was me. Brian, Ivan, Liz, and Desiree have their arms full of weapons and they begin killing. I decide to join them. Brian just killed the District 6 boy. Liz is shoving a machete through the heart of the District 12 girl. Desiree has a sword, but is fighting the District 3 girl, who seemed pretty tough in training. I made a list in training and I’ve assessed the strongest Career from the weakest. Brian is the strongest, followed by Ivan, then Liz, and Desiree is the weakest. I’ll kill Brian tonight, Ivan tomorrow night, Liz the night after, and then I’ll just ditch Desiree. Desiree seems like she can’t fight any longer, and her district partner Ivan goes over to assist her. Ivan takes Desiree’s sword and plunges it through the District 3 girl’s heart. I see the District 9 boy trying to sneak over, and I send one of my spears through his heart. I try to pick up as much supplies as I need. I have the two spears already, so I gather a backpack, some food, some water, instant relief, and burn cream. That should be all I’ll need. I keep one spear visible in my hand, but I take the head off of the other spear and put it in my backpack. I’ll tell them it’s a walking stick. I see Brian handling Jeff, slitting his throat with a sword. I kill some tributes, and we hear eleven cannons. Not bad. We each settle down for the night and we hear the anthem playing. We look into the sky and the first to pop up is the District 3 girl. After her is the District 3 boy, followed by Jeff, the District 5 boy, the District 6 boy, the District 8 girl, the District 9 boy, both from 10, and both from 12. I wait until everyone is asleep before putting my plan into action.The other tributes saw me fall asleep with my spear in hand, and they didn’t see me pick up the second one, so I’m in the clear. I take my “walking stick”, put the spearhead on it, and I plunge it through Brian’s heart. I scramble to pretend I was asleep the entire time. I hear the boom of the cannon, and it wakes all the other Careers. I act as shocked as they are. Inside I’m laughing because they don’t know I was the one behind it. Liz gets up and whisper-shouts “Who did it then?”. I lie by replying, “I was awake for a few seconds and I saw the District 7 girl come by and kill him in his sleep.” Luckily, they buy it. Liza, the District 7 girl, was just as good with spears as I was. I was actually jealous of her. It feels good to blame something on her and have the others want to target her. “Okay, look. Let’s just have someone keep watch from now on.” Desiree replies. That’s actually fine with me. Tomorrow night I’ll recommend that Ivan should keep watch, and kill him as he watches. My plan is working beautifully. Just as the others have fallen asleep again, I take the spear out of his body. I remove the spearhead and stick in my backpack and go to sleep.===Day 2=== We wake up the next morning and Liz seems to have appointed herself as leader of the Careers. She tells us to go into the woods and try to find Liza. So we protect our supplies with netting and head to the woods. We walk around for a while, but nothing very interesting happens. We see a shadow in the distance. We run after it, thinking it’s Liza. Liz throws her machete at her, and she crumples to the ground. We look at her. Dang it! It wasn’t Liza! It was the District 11 girl. The others shrug it off. We continue looking through the woods. I look up a tree, and I see a bit of blonde. Liza’s blonde. She’s VERY blonde. I look a bit closer and realize it’s her. “Guys, I found her, I found her!.” I shout. The others come over, excited. They begin to taunt her. She jumps from tree to tree, and I start wishing some of us had ranged weapons. Of course. She’s from District 7. The tree district. She knows trees as well as I know water. There’s no way we’ll be able to catch up to her. We follow her on the ground, and she finally stops. None of us can climb a tree except me, but I’m pretending I can’t. We camp under the tree she’s in for the night. I put the first step of my plan into action when Liz asks who should keep watch. “I think Ivan should.” I say. “If Liza comes down and tries to attack us, he can fight her off.”. “I agree.” replies Liz. “Ivan, you’re keeping watch.”. Ivan just gives an accepting nod. The anthem plays, but only Brian and the District 11 girl we killed by accident appear. 13 down, 11 to go. I make sure Ivan is facing away from me, then I get my “walking stick” out, take the spearhead from my backpack, put it on, and plunge it through Ivan’s heart. I leave it in his body and pretend to fall asleep with my spear in hand. The boom wakes Liz and Desiree. Liz is getting noticeably agitated. “Ugh.” I say. “She must have gotten him from behind.” We try to fall asleep again, and I smile as Liz is clearly dreaming she could kill Liza. She’ll never know it was me. Why is being devious so much fun?===Day 3=== We wake up and the Career pack is only girls now. We decide to go back to the Cornucopia and wait until later in the Games to continue searching for Liza. Today is pretty uneventful. I tell them I’m going out to collect water. I go to the little lake at the edge of the Cornucopia field and the forest. I swim around a little. Swimming always seems to clear my head. I’m starting to wonder if instead of just ditching Desiree, I should just kill her too. But I’ll kill her during the day. Perfect. Tonight, I’ll kill Liz, and tomorrow I’ll just turn on Desiree and kill her during the day. Then I’ll be the strongest tribute left. This was my plan all along. Kill the threats early on, make sure they don’t know it was me, and then become the strongest tribute left. I come back from my swim at dusk. I basically swam all day. Tonight we only see Ivan in the sky. Liz immediately says she’s taking watch. Fine by me. Desiree falls asleep, and I pretend to. I make sure Desiree is asleep for real, put the spearhead on my spear, make sure Liz can’t see me, then sneak up behind her and put it through her heart. I take my other spear, the one that the Careers know I have, and pretend I was asleep with it. When the cannon booms, Desiree wakes up, and I pretend to wake up. Desiree stares at me with true anger in her eyes and says “Tomorrow. We kill Liza, no matter what.” I nod and we both go to sleep. Now I just have to kill Desiree.===Day 4=== Desiree woke me up early, insisting we find Liza as soon as possible. To be honest, I want to kill Desiree first because in the end, I can take Liza. I probably can’t take Desiree though. She could easily overpower me. We’re searching the entire arena for her. Desiree killed an alliance with the District 5 girl and District 7 boy. So now we’re at the final 7, where they’re interviewing our families back home. My parents are probably really proud of me, that I made it this far by playing it clever and backstabbing all my allies early, then covering up the evidence. At around 11 AM, we’ve searched most of the arena. I decide this is the perfect time. I’m holding my spear in my hand, and I tackle Desiree to the ground. “Emily!” she shouts. “What are you doing?!” I hold my spear above her. “Desiree, I’m going to be completely honest with you.” I begin. “It wasn’t Liza that killed Brian, Ivan, and Liz. It was me. I just framed her for it.” “But why?” Desiree asks. “Because you’re all big threats and I need to survive.” I reply. And with that, I shove my spear through her heart, hear the cannon, and I’m on my own. I take the spear from her body, run out of the woods, go back to the Cornucopia, gather everything I might need, and retreat to the lake. Well, I did it. My plan worked. My plan from here on out is to ally with any person or alliance nearby, then backstab them all at night. The Careers had to be killed one by one, to make it less obvious, but since no one but the alliance knows who I’m allied with, I can kill them all at once. I conceal all my supplies in the plants right next to the lake, including all my food and water, the two spears, and my instant relief and burn cream. While I wait for an alliance or tribute to come by, I think about how at this point, I really might be able to make it home. Back to District 4, back to my family and friends. Also, if I win, I’ll be one of the youngest victors in Hunger Games history. A 13 year old victor. Wow. And only 5 more tributes have to die before that becomes a reality. I swim around for a few hours, until an alliance with the District 11 boy and the District 9 girl camps out near the lake. “Guys!” I whisper. “Hey, guys!” They look over and see me. “Can I ally with you? All my allies are dead thanks to that District 7 girl, Liza. She never caught me, though.” They talk about it for a few minutes, until the District 11 boy says “I don’t see why not.” It’s starting to get dark, and I lie by saying I have no supplies with me. They don’t either, but they’re okay with it. The anthem begins to play and I see Liz, Desiree, the District 5 girl, and the District 7 boy. My “allies” fall asleep, and I quietly sneak over to the plants where I concealed my supplies. I grab both of my spears, and shove them through their hearts simultaneously. Two cannons go off, and it’s down to me, the District 6 girl, the District 8 boy, and Liza. I go to sleep concealed in the plants with my supplies. ===Day 5=== I wake up to see that the District 6 girl and District 8 boy made camp by my lake last night. I knew concealing myself would attract people because they wouldn’t be able to see me. They’re both still asleep. Now’s my only chance. I grab both my spears again and shove them through their hearts at the same time. I hear two cannons, and now me and Liza are the only tributes left. I decide I’m not gonna go to her. I’m gonna let her come to me. She seemed to have no supplies when we were chasing her a few days ago. She’s got to come here for fresh water eventually. I’m staying right where I am. I swim around for a while. Even if she were to come right now, I’d probably be safe because she has no weapons. And being from District 7, she never learned how to swim. I can easily overpower her by drowning her. She doesn’t come though, and I go back to the plants. About half an hour after I go back to the plants, she finally comes. She steps into the water, enough so that she can still stand, drink, and breathe. Every part of her body except her head is completely underwater. I wait until she looks away, grab one of my spears, and quietly swim over to her underwater. I come up as quietly as I can. I pull her hair, and she begins screaming. I ignore it as I pull her deeper into the water. I push her head underwater, and no matter how much she screams and tries to gasp for air, I don’t let go. After 2 minutes, I decide it’s taking too long. I send my spear through her heart, hear the cannon, and hear the trumpets blow to announce my victory. Am I dreaming? Or did I really just win the Hunger Games? The hovercraft picks me up and I know that I’m not dreaming. Oh my gosh. I did it. I really, really did it. I didn’t think I could do it. But I did.==Epilogue== I step off the train and all of District 4 is cheering for me. Especially my family and friends. I step off the train, and my family and I are taken to our new house in the Victor’s Village. Right next door to Finnick Odair. After the Victory Tour, I was asked what my talent was. I told them I was a singer. I was signed to Capitol Records and offered the opportunity to live in the Capitol. I rejected the offer, because I love District 4 too much. But I still go to the Capitol for a week once a month to record songs and perform concerts. I’m currently the most famous artist in the Capitol. Heck, in all of Panem. I have to mentor the District 4 tributes every year. None of them have won. They all tried my backstabbing technique, and it doesn’t seem to work with anyone but me, since the other Careers now know to expect something like that. It only worked when I did it, because it had never been done before and the Careers didn’t know to expect it. After the 75th Hunger Games, I joined the rebellion. I survived the Victor’s Purge and became good friends with Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. They are fans of mine, and ever since I saw them together in the 74th Games, I’ve been a fan of them. Life is good.