Chapter Six- Astronaut

'Cause tonight I'm feeling like an astronaut

Sending S.O.S. from this tiny box

And I lost all signal when I lifted off

Now I'm stuck out here and the world forgot

Astronaut, Simple Plan

Kamden Vercetti, 18, District Six Citizen

Kamden woke up the day of the reaping to her little brother's plaintive request. "Kamden? Kam? I need your help please."

Kamden blinked the tiredness from her eyes and focused on him. "Jace? What's wrong?"

"I need help with the tie," he said, holding out the frayed piece of fabric to her. With a groan, she sat up and started to tie the tie for him. "Thanks, Kamden."

It only took a moment, and after a few seconds, she had his tie properly fixed to his shirt. "You're set," she said, stifling a yawn. "Is Nora up?"

Jace nodded. "She left us breakfast and said she had to run and pay some bills. She'll be back to see us off to the reaping.

Kamden stood and started to get herself ready. "Go ahead and eat, okay? I'll be in there in a few minutes."

He agreed, heading off to the kitchen and leaving Kamden alone in her bedroom. She stared around anxiously, worried it would be her last time being here. It was her final year of eligibility, so her chances were high. She had the required seven entries, plus three every year for tesserae, which added to twenty-eight entries. It wasn't high compared to some districts, but Six had mostly small families with only two or three kids. Twenty-eight was pretty high in six.

She knew that if she were reaped, she would be an extremely unlikely Victor. She was quiet, rarely putting herself out into the world. She preferred to keep to herself, avoiding the company of most people whenever she could. The exceptions were her siblings, and her best friend NiNi, but even they only got together two or three times a week. Kamden didn't mind, however.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Kamden got herself ready, putting on the skirt and top that Nora had carefully repaired last night. Staring into the mirror, she felt satisfied that she looked halfway decent, and joined her brother in the kitchen. He was already halfway done with his oatmeal, and as she sat down beside him, he put his spoon down and swallowed nervously.

Finally, Kamden said, "Jace, what's wrong. You quit eating, and I can tell you need to say something."

Jace let out a small smile. "How can you read my mind like that?"

Kamden smirked as she said, "I helped raise you, remember? What is it?"

For a moment, he remained quiet, but finally said, "Kamden, I'm scared about today."

She smiled at him to calm him. She and Nora had tried to save enough so that he wouldn't need to take tessera for at least a few years, but he had ended up needing to. "Jace, you have four entries. That's minuscule compared to most of six. You're not-"

"Not for me," he whispered. "What if you're reaped? What will Nora and I do?"

Kamden realized that her brother's compassionate nature was what had made him upset. He didn't want to lose his older sister. "Jace, there are so many people in Six it's unlikely either of us will be reaped. Nora made it through okay, and so will you and I. You got me?" Many times over the years she'd wondered what would happen to her and Jace if Nora had been reaped. Thankfully, it hadn't happened. She now realized that Jace was experiencing the same thing.

With a calming breath, he nodded. "I know it's super unlikely, I just got worried, Kamden. Thanks for reassuring me."

A moment later, he was back to his cheerful self. "Guess what Kayden and Jeremy and me found yesterday?" He proceeded to tell her about the trip into District Six's woods he and his friends had taken, where they'd come upon a group of raccoons. Kamden liked raccoons. A few years ago, one had stuck around the house for several weeks. Kamden had befriended it and given it food and some water. Eventually, however, it had moved on to another home.

After a few minutes, Kamden heard the front door open, and Nora came into the kitchen. "Hey," Kamden greeted.

"Did you even eat before you left?" Jace asked his sister.

Nora smiled at him. "I did, kiddo. Thanks for thinking of me."

"Um, Nora," Kamden said. "Can we talk for a minute? Please?" She needed to reassure herself that things would be okay if she were reaped.

They went into Kamden's bedroom, where Kamden spilled it all. "Nora, I'm so scared that you guys won't be okay if I have to go. My bakery salary-"

"Whoa, calm down," Nora interrupted. She was only about six years older than Kamden, but sometimes seemed decades older instead. "Your bakery salary certainly helps, but I make enough that we'll get by. Jace is resilient, you know him."

Kamden barely whispered, "But what about you? I mean, Jace and I barely remember Mom and Dad, but you-"

"It'll be hard, yes," Nora agreed. "But, Kam, I can deal. I've done it before. So have you. You remember enough of Dom and Dad to know that anything can be muddled through. Right?"

Kamden nodded as she said, "You're right, I guess. I just got worried. Jace reminded me that I have so many entries, and I guess I got worried."

With a bitter laugh, Nora said, "I'm worried about you, too, you know? But worrying doesn't help anything. Now, I'm going to help Jace clean up the kitchen. Come and help once you've gotten yourself together, and we'll head to the reaping."

Nora left, leaving Kamden once again alone. She liked being alone. She tried to convince herself that alone was best because then no one would be bothered very much if something happened to her.

For once, however, she found herself not wanting to be alone.

Jace Vercetti, 12, District 6 Citizen

Jace found himself in the square about an hour later, searching the crowds of twelve-year-olds for his friends Kayden and Jeremy. He was still worried a lot about Kamden, but she had successfully managed to calm him down.

"Jace!" He turned to face Kayden as she approached. "Have you seen Jeremy? He didn't say whether he would be coming alone or with his mom, did he?"

Jace shrugged. "I have no idea, Kay," he responded. "Haven't seen him yet. He'll show up, though." If he didn't Jace would not want to be in his shoes. He'd seen several times what happened to those who decided to skip the reaping, and it wasn't pleasant. They weren't killed, but he didn't doubt that many of them would rather have been.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, they caught sight of their friend making his way through the crowd. "Where were you?" Kayden demanded.

"Calm down, Kay," he said with a grin. "Anney was taking forever to get ready, that's why I'm late."

Jace laughed. Anney was Jeremy's sister, and she always seemed to think she'd end up the mayor's wife or something. As if that would happen to anyone unfortunate in Six. "Well, you're here now. Not long before Hiera comes onstage to tell us our fates."

The three of them chatted for a few minutes, but all the while Jace searched the crowds for Kamden. She would be near the front with the oldest kids, and it was hard for him to see over the heads of so many teenagers. Finally, he caught sight of her friend NiNi's red hair. Sure enough, beside her was Kamden, her hair in its normal brown ponytail.

He willed her to turn around. He wanted to give her one last smile before the reaping began, to let her know he was around somehow at least. Finally, she turned and caught sight of him. She gave a half-smile as she did so, before turning back to NiNi. It was all Jace had wanted.

Finally, Hiera Holt, District Six's escort arrived on the stage. Kayden said, "She looks so different this year." She was right. Every year previously, Hiera had always had silvery hair and pink and purple stencils all over her body, paired with a rather drab looking business outfit. This year, her hair had been dyed a shocking crimson red, and her stencils had been changed from their previous coloring to a glimmering white. The effect was quite terrifying.

"Welcome, District Six!" She said. "I won't beat around the bush, we all know you're just aching to know who is representing your District this year! Let's not keep you in suspense any longer. May the odds be ever in your favor!"

She almost skipped over to the girls' bowl, picking out a handful and choosing one from that. Returning to her stand, she opened it. She seemed to savor the moment of suspense as she said, "Your female tribute this year, District Six, is… Kamden Vercetti! Where are you, sweetheart?"

Kayden and Jeremy looked at Jace, sorrow in their eyes.

"I'm sorry, Jace," Kayden said, putting an arm around him. Jace himself didn't know what to feel yet. He wasn't stupid. He knew how dangerous the Games were. He knew that, as much as he might believe his sister could do anything, she would be no match for the Careers who had trained since the age of five or six to win glory for their District. He knew that he would lose her. Seeing her standing on the stage, calmly accepting it all, he couldn't stand it.

"Kamden!" he yelled. Breaking free of Kayden's shoulder, Jace pushed through the other kids in his path, breaking through to the center of the crowd and hurrying towards the stage. Before he could reach them, a pair of Peacekeepers grabbed him and stopped him from continuing. "Kamden!" he yelled again. He couldn't let her go, he just couldn't.

"Get back in the crowd," one of the Peacekeepers growled at him. "Now."

This was enough to jolt Jace back into his senses. He knew that he couldn't make a scene. It would only make things worse for him and Nora, and possibly Kamden once she was in the arena. He sagged and started to return to his section.

"Well…" Hiera tried to reclaim the crowd's attention. "Let's see who our boy tribute is going to be this year, shall we?" She went through the same process for the boys, returning to the stand with another name, this time the boys. Jace made his way through the crowd but stopped momentarily to hear the name. "Come on up...well, well, this is unfortunate. Our male tribute this year is Jace Vercetti. It seems we have siblings this year."

Jace didn't move for a moment. He figured everyone realized that he was the tribute since he'd gone running after Kamden, but he couldn't force his feet to move. Nora will be crushed.

Slowly, he made his way to the stage. He wasn't normally a crier, but he wanted to at the moment. However, he forced himself to appear calm, like Kamden. Reaching the stage he'd been denied access to earlier, he made his way over to Kamden. She didn't break her calm facade, but he saw a couple of tears falling down her cheek. She reached her hand out to him, and together they stood, hands clasped, united against the future tributes who would mark them as easy targets.

We stand no chance. But we have to try

Hi everyone… I honestly have nothing to say for myself that you can't already guess. I'm definitely not giving up on this, especially now that I will have basically unlimited free time to write because everyone's stuck inside. All I can say is to hopefully expect more frequent updates now that my uni has closed campus early. Thank you everyone for being patient with me. I'll just say that I had another cold a while back, and then uni had lots of stuff I had to do, and then the world essentially went mad overnight. In essence, I'm sorry.

Now, on to the story. Kamden and Jace were sent to me by theflowercrowns! I enjoy both of these characters. Jace is fun and upbeat except when he worries about his sisters, where Kamden has more of an inner strength. I'm totally rooting for them, but who'm I kidding? Every tribute I've gotten is awesome.

Just so y'all know, the tributes I need have ben filled! Coming up are some questions for you guys to answer.

Who do you like more, Kamden or Jace?

Which other characters do you think they'll ally with?

Can Kamden get past her people problem? Allies are important, after all.

Jace seems to know that their chances are slim, but can he turn that around and help get one of them home?

NOTE: Now that we're halfway through, I'm going to switch up and do some goodbyes/ train ride scenes. Hopefully I'll make it entertaining enough to last until we get to the Capitol, and then the characters can start to show their skills and weaknesses. See you soon!