This is an English assignment where I was tasked to create a version of the Hunger Games book Chapter 2 scene where Primrose Everdeen is chosen, from the point of view of Primrose Everdeen.
2
Katniss locks eyes with me, and I stay quiet, tears beginning to form, but I hold them back. Everyone around me steps back, letting Effie Trinket look me up and down. I gulp, and hold my hands tightly to my sides, biting my lip and letting myself freeze up on the inside, the colour falling away from my cheeks, the lack of wind or cold still making me shiver. Stiffly, slowly, I take small steps towards the stage. I don’t even notice the fact my blouse has untucked itself.
It was one in thousands. Katniss had told me that, before we left. That it was going to be alright. That there was nothing going to go wrong. The crows, they murmur and seem distracted, solemn for me. I hold my breath, tightening up even further, and the path seems to stretch onwards and onwards, as if it doesn’t end. My steps get smaller and smaller, then-
“Prim!” I hear someone cry out behind me. I startle, but continue walking. I know it’s Katniss, but she can’t do anything. My fate is left at the hands of the Hunger Games, at the hands of Effie Trinket. “Prim!” It echoes, but I don’t hear anything happening. Just the trudging of my feet on the ground, the sad stumble every now and again. I put my feet on one of the steps, but Katniss is suddenly there, and I gasp, letting the air out. She pushes herself in front of me, and in a harsh, strangled voice, she calls, “I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!”
Something happens. It just clicks in my mind and I realise that now Katniss is going. The tears begin to fall, I know she’s just protecting me. She’s trying to not let me die. But now she needs saving, and I can’t do anything. The stage springs into confusion, because District 12 hasn’t had a volunteer, I realise. I fling my arms around her, just as Effie Trinket begins to speak. The words are blurry, something about Katniss not volunteering right, but I can’t hear her. A voice like thunder pounds in my ears, and I scream for her not to go. It must sound like I’m a seven-year-old who lost a teddy, or some teenager who’s just heard her love has been in an accident.
Or a child who knows her sister is going to die.
“No, Katniss! NO! You can’t go!” I scream, droplets of water flying as I cling to her, as if I am a wolf catching its prey. Hoping she’ll stay. “Prim, let go.” She tells me. I blink, as if she’s asked me to sit down. My mind says no, over and over again. I hold tighter. Why isn’t she crying too? She’s going to lose me anyway, because she’s going to die. I close my eyes, holding tighter. “Let go!” She calls, desperate. I can’t believe this is happening. Katniss won’t leave me. She can’t!
Then Gale grabs me, and I’m being whisked into the air. I scream and thrash and fight, but it’s no use. Katniss is gone. “Up you go, Catnip.” He says. My heart pounds and everything’s blurry again. He seems to fight to keep steady as he takes me back to my mum. I hold my breath as she climbs up. No one would sacrifice themselves for her. No one can. I won’t see Katniss again. Effie Trinket begins to speak to her, but it seems so foggy in my head. Like the words are echoing through a long tunnel, and they’re faint by the time they reach me. “Katniss Everdeen.” My sister replies to her, in a cracking voice. My eyes stream again, I can’t take it. I want to step back, and I do, trying to get away. My mum holds me tightly, so I can’t leave. I gulp and stay silent, I know I’ll only make it worse. “I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don’t want her to steal all the glory, do we?” What is Effie Trinket DOING?! She’s making it look like I was going to win it. Everyone knows the truth. It settles in my stomach. No matter how it looks, it’ll always be one thing to us and another to them. To them it’ll be stealing the spotlight from a little sister. But to me and to mum and to Gale and Katniss and the people we care for, it’s saying goodbye. My heart pounds in my throat, I stand, trying not to break.
But when Effie Trinket asks for people to clap, no one does. I steel myself, something makes me the slightest bit happier. They have the nerve to stay there. They can’t deal with the fact this is real, that someone they know or who’s related to someone they know is gone. But they stand and embrace it anyway. They sit there silently, watching, saying goodbye. Even the betters don’t clap, the ones with little slips in their grip. I feel defiant, if anyone will win it’s Katniss. Maybe this isn’t one thing to us and another to them. It’s waving them off, knowing they probably won’t come back, yet hoping they will. All of us at once, saying we’ll see each other someday. Saying this isn’t the end. A silent sorry from everyone. I watch Katniss stand there, unmoving, like the rest. She speaks with her expression, and the silence. She says this is wrong.
She says we don’t agree with them.
She stands and she seems determined.
Image courtesy of Lionsgate