Heart of Darkness: the Forty-Fourth Hunger Games

Chapter 13

I got restless. Here's the Seven girl. The boy is coming soon.

Marjorie "Jodie" Jackson- 17

"Breath hitched in her bosom and she panted, panted as his lips found her searching mouth. Stars and shimmers danced before her eyes, until all she could see was him..."

"I'm dying a virgin," Lexi said. She put a hand over the page of the book I was reading aloud.

"You just wish you kissed a guy so hard you saw things even though your eyes didn't work," Alecia said. "It must be terribly romantic."

"Come on, what happened next?" Mason called from above the tank. The whole thing was something I'd heard about from an old story. The story goes people used to raise money for things by having people sit in "dump tanks". Other people would pay to throw balls at a trigger than dumped someone into a tank of water. We didn't have a fancy tank, so we used an old container for logs. Mason was perched over it on a plank balanced by a basket of rocks. Our customers could pay for a chance to toss a giant rock at the basket. Any successful shots would overbalance the plank and Mason would fall in. Our slogan? "Take a dump on poverty".

That slogan was my idea, but the NPP was from all of us. The No Poverty Program was started after I was no longer in poverty. Sad as it was, it was a lot easier to raise money when I had some. I knew what it was like to be poor, and I didn't want anyone to go through it. Not everyone got a fairy-tale ending like my mother. She kissed a lot of frogs before she found a prince. I wondered for a long time about my stepfather. He was a nice guy, but I always wondered what he was doing in a bar where "princesses" "kissed" frogs.

"The next part is censored," Lexi said.

I pretended to look ahead in the book. "Next they kiss. Really hard. So hard their bodies tingle all over. So hard they end up falling over. Lucky thing they were right above a bed."

"What? That's it?" Alecia said. She tried to peek over my shoulder.

"No, doofus. They had s*x," Vanie said.

"Ugh," Lexi said. She didn't mind other people doing such things, but she found them undesirable.

"Ewwwww, cooties," Mason said. Vanie ran over to the tank and yanked the rope, dunking him in the water.

"Hey!" he yelled.

"That will be five coins," Lexi said.

Marcus Henry Wilberforce- 13

Most grownups are all worn down and tired. They never want to try anything anymore. They just work all day and go home all tired. It's easier for kids to stay happy, since we have so much more energy, but it still made me sad that grownups were so gloomy. That was why I planned the prank.

It was easy to set up. I was always the first one at work in the morning. Once I was awake, there was no staying in bed. I always got my own breakfast and ran out of the house right away so my parents could have some peace and quiet. I ran all the way to the patch of forest we were working on. It was empty, since the sun was barely peeking up over the horizon. It was just me, the equipment, and the trees.

Among the equipment was a plain wooden chair. We were generally a good District, so we only had one Peacekeeper keeping an eye on us as we worked. He was there to make sure nobody stole the saws or axes or anything we could use as a weapon. He was also super lazy, which was why he had the chair. Every day he came in, looked over us all pompously like a slave driver, and sat down enthroned on his chair, lik it was just so exhausting to look at us.

The axes and saws were all locked up, but I didn't need those. I had a pocketknife- just a little pocketknife, not big enough to hurt anyone. I crouched down by the chair and flipped it over. I got out my knife and started scraping at the wood where the legs met the seat. It was slow going, but I worked as fast as I could and scraped the wood away until the legs were only attached to the seat by a tiny spindle of wood. The legs were discolored from my work, so I filled the gouges with dirt so they were invisible. I flipped the chair back up and started pretending to set up for work just minutes before more people started trickling in.

"Hey, Marcus! Did you leave any work for the rest of us?" Leif asked as he waved at me.

"Only the easy stuff," I said. I was too little to do the really heavy lifting, but I always did the hardest stuff I could. It was training for when I would grow up to be firefighter. And pilot and doctor and superhero.

"What are you smiling about?" Leif asked with amusement. I was often smiling, but I had that wide eager smile kids got when they were making mischief, the kind that was impossible to hide.

"Nothing," I said, but I laughed in the middle and ruined the lie. I ran off to start working before Leif could ask any more. He kept peeking at me as we set up our supplies. I kept peeking at the tree line to see the peacekeeper.

When he finally came, I bent close to the tree I was by so he couldn't see me snickering. I watched as he unlocked the pole shed full of sharp things. He turned around and put his hands behind his back as he looked around at all of us under his shiny helmet. He nodded to himself, then walked to the chair. Leif looked at me with curiosity and a little alarm as I watched eagerly.

The peacekeeper leaned back with his bottom over the chair and sat down. There was a snap, then a crunch as the legs gave away and he tumbled backwards head over heels. He faceplanted in a tangle of limbs and got up with dirt all over his helmet. He looked around to see if anyone had seen. Thanks to my expression, everyone had been looking.

My prank was a complete success. I gloried in the moment as I watched the peacekeeper try to look dignified as he got up and scraped the dirt off himself. In my own small way, I had defeated the villain. Just like a real superhero.

Jodie is skinny and tall. She has white skin and baby blue eyes. She has a thick nose and long limbs. She has dimples. She has long nails and fingers. She also has brown curled hair that reaches up to her mid-stomach. She ties it into a fishtail braid. She has normal sized lips, eyelashes and eyebrows. She looks overall attractive and cute looking. She is interested in 2-4 allies.

Marcus is short and slim with dark curly hair, brown eyes and skin between white and black.