Status: Active As Long As You Want It To Be...
All Time Hunger Games
"It's Fiction, My God!"
“Rian! Will you put that stupid book down and come and watch Home Alone with me and Zack?” Jack whined because he didn’t believe in reading. Why read when the best movie ever was on? Rian didn’t respond in hopes that Jack would stifle himself on his own. “Riiiiiaaaaannnn! Come on!” Jack continued to complain, snatching the book from Rian’s hand. “Just go see the movie already! And give me back my book!” He took the book back, glaring at Jack. Rian was reading The Hunger Games. One of the fans sent the band the whole series, hoping they would all read them. Sadly, only Rian would. “Jack, shut up! I’m just getting to the good part.” “You said that last night!” Jack protested. “Well, it’s a good book! They’re all good parts.” Rian said wishing Jack would get off his back so he could refocus on the book. Katniss had just found Peeta! He needed to know what happened. “But it’s a book… there can’t be any good parts.” The argument continued between Jack and Rian until the movie was over. “Thanks a lot Rian! You made me miss the entire movie! You’re such a distraction.” Jack pouted. “It’s not like you haven’t seen it 100 times already.” Rian pointed out, rolling his eyes before settling back into his book.
Twenty minutes of silence later, the bus came to a jerky stop. Alex, who had been sleeping this whole time, literally rolled out of bed, banging his head on the floor. Jack, Zack, and Rian couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Alex falling onto the floor. “What the hell Allan!” Alex yelled, still groggy from waking up abruptly.
Allan was the tour bus driver. He was always so focused and always got them to where they needed to go, even if that meant weird hours and sleepless nights. They guys loved him since he never was annoyed with their shenanigans and would never think to fire him, but Alex was beginning to think differently right now.
Allan came out of the driver’s seat and into the main part of the bus to talk to the band. “Guys, I have some uh, bad news...we may be a little lost right now. Um, does anyone have like a map or something?” Allan asked them, looking away guiltily. It was kind of irresponsible of him.“Wait, what do you mean were lost!? We can’t be lost! We were supposed to be in Rochester, New York like an hour ago!” Alex pointed out, looking at the clock, and glaring at Allan. He was a little hung-over from the night before, so that and lack of sleep always put Alex in a bad mood. “Yes, but I needed to fill the bus with gas and I seemed to have lost the road while looking for the gas station...” Allan responded softly to the annoying rock star. Alex’s voice continued to get louder and Allan’s patience grew thin and before they knew it they were in a full fledged screaming match, yelling stupid mindless things at each other. Meanwhile, Jack and Zack watched realizing that this was much more interesting than watching a movie. Even one as amazing as Home Alone.
Rian remained M.I.A. throughout the whole argument, hiding in his bunk in an attempt to fit in a few pages read before Jack turned into a broken record again, annoying him till no end to put the damn book down. Though with all this yelling, Rian couldn’t focus and decided he was going to save the day and find out where they were. Rian took his IPhone out of his pocket, then used the map app to search their general location. The reception in the area they were in was really weak, so it was taking way too long to load. While he was waiting, Rian decided he would go back and just start from the beginning of the book again, to reread his favorite parts. He flipped through all the boring pages quickly; they had no value to him now that Rian’s past those parts. The one page that he really enjoyed was the page with that map. It gave him a good visual of where the tributes were.
Rian looked up, noticing his phone was finished loading. They appeared to be somewhere called “The Steam.” Rian looked back down at his book to continue flipping pages when something caught his eye and made him turn back at his phone. He looked back and forth between the two pictures, the connection coming together slowly. “Um, guys?” Rian asked quietly, his eyes widening. ”Guys? Guys!” he exclaimed, repeating himself and getting louder to the point where he was practically jumping up and down. He needed everyone’s attention, now. Eventually he screamed at the top of his lungs “GUYS!!!! SHUT UP!!!! I KNOW WHERE WE ARE!” Rian calmed himself down, taking a deep, relaxing breath and showed everyone his maps.
“Rian, you do know this is a made up book, right? It’s fiction my God. There is no actual district 12.” Zack said, thinking Rian has finally lost it. “No really guys, I’m not crazy!” Rian tried to reassure everyone, with no avail. Truthfully, even Allan thought Rian was nuts and lets face it, Allan doesn’t have a lot upstairs if you know what I mean. If you really think about it, he probably shouldn’t have been driving the bus in the first place.
Alex had have enough of this ridiculousness. “Whatever guys, have fun convincing Rian we aren’t in some magic fairy land. I’m going back to bed.” Alex stalked off to his bunk and the second he hopped back in, something slammed into the bus causing it to rock violently. Alex, once again, flew out of his bunk onto the floor. This time Alex hit his head, hard on the edge Jack’s bunk. While the guys were holding on for their lives, they still couldn’t help but laugh at Alex’s pain. This wasn’t going to help his hangover. “Shit! What the hell is going on out there” he yelled, rubbing his newly formed bump on his head. No one responded. They were too busy running off the bus to see what the commotion was.
A hovercraft like object had landed on top of the bus. “What’s that?” Jack asked. “Wait! Let me check the book” Rian yelled. “Will you quit it with the stupid book already!!” Irritated Alex yelled. Some freakish looking lady with colored, well everything, walked off the hovercraft looking thing. “Excuse me…. gentlemen” the woman said with disgust, while looking at the boys up and down dissatisfied with the way they looked. As soon as the boys got out of her way, she started to walk towards the stage. “Wait, miss?” Allan yelled after her. “What?” she responded. They were hesitant in conversation due to the boys not knowing what to say due to all the questions they had. She started to tap her foot impatiently. “Gentlemen, make it fast. It’s reaping day! Chop- chop.” She started to walk away.
“No wait! Can you please tell us where we are?” Rian asked. “Why you’re in District 12” the woman said. “What a special day it is for you boys to be visiting, it being reaping day and what not. Hope you guys are chosen this year!” The woman walked away saying “Happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favor!”
Rian had this really stupid smirk on his face and began rapidly flipping through his book. Jack leaned over to Alex and asked, “Did she say it was raping day?” “I’m not sure, but it sounds like my kind of holiday!” Jack and Alex both laughed trying not to fall on the ground. “Found it!” Rian said and began to read out of the book. “The Hunger Games are where one boy and one girl are chosen from each district to compete in a fight to the death at the capital, Pandem. Reaping day is the day where the competitors are chosen.” Jack’s face fell. “That doesn’t seem as much fun as raping day.”
“Guys, I think we should get out of here before something bad happens” Allan suggested. “Ok, everyone on the bus.” Alex yelled.
The boys got on the bus and waited for them to start moving. Allan came back to talk to the boys once again. “UHG! WHAT NOW ALLAN!” no one wanted to get out of District 12 faster than Alex. “Um guys, the bus won’t start.” Allan was just the bearer of bad news today. “Looks like we're stuck here.” “Great.” Alex said sarcastically.
All of a sudden, Jack’s stomach started to growl. “If we're stuck here, can we at least get something to eat.” He asked. Zack through him some pizza rolls that he found in the fridge. “Zack! There’s only like four in here.” Jack said. “Sorry I got hungry.” Zach said. “See I knew you would get sick of the health food.” Alex said, laughing. “BUT I’M STARVING!!!!!” Jack whined. “You’re always starving, fat ass.” Rian pointed out. Zack grabbed the book out of Rian’s hands and ran out the bus door. “I’m going to go find some real food.” “Ok, just don’t anger any peacekeepers.” Rian yelled after him, laughing to himself since he only got the joke.
Rian, Alex and Zack hung out in the bus for hours playing mindless video games before Jack returned. “Hey guys look! I got some grain!” he said holding up a large sack. “Jack…. Where did you get that grain?” Rian asked, afraid to find out. “Well, in the middle of this really dirty, run down market place that I found, there was this place where you can get grain for free if you just write your name on a little piece of paper. There were lots of people lined up, so I thought it must be pretty good grain… AND IT IS!” he said while putting a fist full of grain in his mouth. Rian face palmed himself. “Jack you idiot! You just entered yourself in the reaping!” Rian yelled. “Wait, what? Jack might have to go to the hunger games?” Alex asked, afraid of losing his best friend. “He could!” Rian exclaimed. “Jack! I don’t want you to die!” Alex said, pulling Jack into a hug and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. He was always nicer when he wasn’t hung-over, tired, and falling out of his bunk. “Guys, get real. You should have seen how many names were in that fish bowl looking thing. There’s no chance I’ll get picked.” Jack reassured all of them. “Well, we should probably go to the reaping anyway” Zack said. “It’s not like there is anything to do on this bus.” Alex and Jack agreed. Rian was practically jumping out of his pants. “YES!!! YES!!!! YES!!!!!!! Ok everyone needs to look nice! Jack, Fix your hair! It’s sticking up everywhere! Zack, put on a shirt! Alex take off that stupid hat! We have no time to lose! Let’s go!” Rian was so excited to see his book come to life. Maybe the bus breaking down was a good thing.
The reaping was a very grim place to be. Everyone was dressed in their best clothes with a frown on their face. It seemed like Rian, Zack, Alex, and Jack were there only ones somewhat happy to be there. The crowd was separated by boys and girls. “Why can’t we watch from the girl’s side” Jack complained. Just then, a woman walked out on stage, the same woman whose hover craft landed on their bus. Rian was cheering very loud. The rest of the crowd was silent. “Hello, I’m Effie Trinket. Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be in your favor! Ladies first!” The woman swirled her hand around in the fish bowl full of names till she found the one she desired. The tense crowd waited in suspense to see if them or their loved ones will be chosen to basically go and die. “Audrey Evans!” The crowd roared with screams to save the girl. The girl, who was in tears, was ripped away from her family and friends. She was walked to the stage by peacekeepers, which weren’t very peaceful at all.
Watching the girl’s life end as she knew it made Jack’s heart fall. Now he really hoped his paper wouldn’t be picked. He never told the guys the whole story. “Next, the gentlemen!” Effie said to the crowd. She carried her hand over to the fish bowl again to pick another name. She snatched a name and pulled out her hand. “Well now this is certainly a surprise. Looks like District 12 will have three extra tributes this year. Your male tributes are Alex Gaskarth, Jack Barakat, Zachary Merrick, and Rian Dawson.” The Crowd was dead silent. “JACK YOU IDIOT!!! WHAT DID YOU DO!!!!!” Rian yelled at Jack and pushed him to the ground. Zack held Rian back while Alex covered Jack. Immediately, Peacekeepers grabbed the fighting band and through them onto the stage. “Hello again boys. You all must be so honored! Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor!”
Twenty minutes of silence later, the bus came to a jerky stop. Alex, who had been sleeping this whole time, literally rolled out of bed, banging his head on the floor. Jack, Zack, and Rian couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Alex falling onto the floor. “What the hell Allan!” Alex yelled, still groggy from waking up abruptly.
Allan was the tour bus driver. He was always so focused and always got them to where they needed to go, even if that meant weird hours and sleepless nights. They guys loved him since he never was annoyed with their shenanigans and would never think to fire him, but Alex was beginning to think differently right now.
Allan came out of the driver’s seat and into the main part of the bus to talk to the band. “Guys, I have some uh, bad news...we may be a little lost right now. Um, does anyone have like a map or something?” Allan asked them, looking away guiltily. It was kind of irresponsible of him.“Wait, what do you mean were lost!? We can’t be lost! We were supposed to be in Rochester, New York like an hour ago!” Alex pointed out, looking at the clock, and glaring at Allan. He was a little hung-over from the night before, so that and lack of sleep always put Alex in a bad mood. “Yes, but I needed to fill the bus with gas and I seemed to have lost the road while looking for the gas station...” Allan responded softly to the annoying rock star. Alex’s voice continued to get louder and Allan’s patience grew thin and before they knew it they were in a full fledged screaming match, yelling stupid mindless things at each other. Meanwhile, Jack and Zack watched realizing that this was much more interesting than watching a movie. Even one as amazing as Home Alone.
Rian remained M.I.A. throughout the whole argument, hiding in his bunk in an attempt to fit in a few pages read before Jack turned into a broken record again, annoying him till no end to put the damn book down. Though with all this yelling, Rian couldn’t focus and decided he was going to save the day and find out where they were. Rian took his IPhone out of his pocket, then used the map app to search their general location. The reception in the area they were in was really weak, so it was taking way too long to load. While he was waiting, Rian decided he would go back and just start from the beginning of the book again, to reread his favorite parts. He flipped through all the boring pages quickly; they had no value to him now that Rian’s past those parts. The one page that he really enjoyed was the page with that map. It gave him a good visual of where the tributes were.
Rian looked up, noticing his phone was finished loading. They appeared to be somewhere called “The Steam.” Rian looked back down at his book to continue flipping pages when something caught his eye and made him turn back at his phone. He looked back and forth between the two pictures, the connection coming together slowly. “Um, guys?” Rian asked quietly, his eyes widening. ”Guys? Guys!” he exclaimed, repeating himself and getting louder to the point where he was practically jumping up and down. He needed everyone’s attention, now. Eventually he screamed at the top of his lungs “GUYS!!!! SHUT UP!!!! I KNOW WHERE WE ARE!” Rian calmed himself down, taking a deep, relaxing breath and showed everyone his maps.
“Rian, you do know this is a made up book, right? It’s fiction my God. There is no actual district 12.” Zack said, thinking Rian has finally lost it. “No really guys, I’m not crazy!” Rian tried to reassure everyone, with no avail. Truthfully, even Allan thought Rian was nuts and lets face it, Allan doesn’t have a lot upstairs if you know what I mean. If you really think about it, he probably shouldn’t have been driving the bus in the first place.
Alex had have enough of this ridiculousness. “Whatever guys, have fun convincing Rian we aren’t in some magic fairy land. I’m going back to bed.” Alex stalked off to his bunk and the second he hopped back in, something slammed into the bus causing it to rock violently. Alex, once again, flew out of his bunk onto the floor. This time Alex hit his head, hard on the edge Jack’s bunk. While the guys were holding on for their lives, they still couldn’t help but laugh at Alex’s pain. This wasn’t going to help his hangover. “Shit! What the hell is going on out there” he yelled, rubbing his newly formed bump on his head. No one responded. They were too busy running off the bus to see what the commotion was.
A hovercraft like object had landed on top of the bus. “What’s that?” Jack asked. “Wait! Let me check the book” Rian yelled. “Will you quit it with the stupid book already!!” Irritated Alex yelled. Some freakish looking lady with colored, well everything, walked off the hovercraft looking thing. “Excuse me…. gentlemen” the woman said with disgust, while looking at the boys up and down dissatisfied with the way they looked. As soon as the boys got out of her way, she started to walk towards the stage. “Wait, miss?” Allan yelled after her. “What?” she responded. They were hesitant in conversation due to the boys not knowing what to say due to all the questions they had. She started to tap her foot impatiently. “Gentlemen, make it fast. It’s reaping day! Chop- chop.” She started to walk away.
“No wait! Can you please tell us where we are?” Rian asked. “Why you’re in District 12” the woman said. “What a special day it is for you boys to be visiting, it being reaping day and what not. Hope you guys are chosen this year!” The woman walked away saying “Happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favor!”
Rian had this really stupid smirk on his face and began rapidly flipping through his book. Jack leaned over to Alex and asked, “Did she say it was raping day?” “I’m not sure, but it sounds like my kind of holiday!” Jack and Alex both laughed trying not to fall on the ground. “Found it!” Rian said and began to read out of the book. “The Hunger Games are where one boy and one girl are chosen from each district to compete in a fight to the death at the capital, Pandem. Reaping day is the day where the competitors are chosen.” Jack’s face fell. “That doesn’t seem as much fun as raping day.”
“Guys, I think we should get out of here before something bad happens” Allan suggested. “Ok, everyone on the bus.” Alex yelled.
The boys got on the bus and waited for them to start moving. Allan came back to talk to the boys once again. “UHG! WHAT NOW ALLAN!” no one wanted to get out of District 12 faster than Alex. “Um guys, the bus won’t start.” Allan was just the bearer of bad news today. “Looks like we're stuck here.” “Great.” Alex said sarcastically.
All of a sudden, Jack’s stomach started to growl. “If we're stuck here, can we at least get something to eat.” He asked. Zack through him some pizza rolls that he found in the fridge. “Zack! There’s only like four in here.” Jack said. “Sorry I got hungry.” Zach said. “See I knew you would get sick of the health food.” Alex said, laughing. “BUT I’M STARVING!!!!!” Jack whined. “You’re always starving, fat ass.” Rian pointed out. Zack grabbed the book out of Rian’s hands and ran out the bus door. “I’m going to go find some real food.” “Ok, just don’t anger any peacekeepers.” Rian yelled after him, laughing to himself since he only got the joke.
Rian, Alex and Zack hung out in the bus for hours playing mindless video games before Jack returned. “Hey guys look! I got some grain!” he said holding up a large sack. “Jack…. Where did you get that grain?” Rian asked, afraid to find out. “Well, in the middle of this really dirty, run down market place that I found, there was this place where you can get grain for free if you just write your name on a little piece of paper. There were lots of people lined up, so I thought it must be pretty good grain… AND IT IS!” he said while putting a fist full of grain in his mouth. Rian face palmed himself. “Jack you idiot! You just entered yourself in the reaping!” Rian yelled. “Wait, what? Jack might have to go to the hunger games?” Alex asked, afraid of losing his best friend. “He could!” Rian exclaimed. “Jack! I don’t want you to die!” Alex said, pulling Jack into a hug and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. He was always nicer when he wasn’t hung-over, tired, and falling out of his bunk. “Guys, get real. You should have seen how many names were in that fish bowl looking thing. There’s no chance I’ll get picked.” Jack reassured all of them. “Well, we should probably go to the reaping anyway” Zack said. “It’s not like there is anything to do on this bus.” Alex and Jack agreed. Rian was practically jumping out of his pants. “YES!!! YES!!!! YES!!!!!!! Ok everyone needs to look nice! Jack, Fix your hair! It’s sticking up everywhere! Zack, put on a shirt! Alex take off that stupid hat! We have no time to lose! Let’s go!” Rian was so excited to see his book come to life. Maybe the bus breaking down was a good thing.
The reaping was a very grim place to be. Everyone was dressed in their best clothes with a frown on their face. It seemed like Rian, Zack, Alex, and Jack were there only ones somewhat happy to be there. The crowd was separated by boys and girls. “Why can’t we watch from the girl’s side” Jack complained. Just then, a woman walked out on stage, the same woman whose hover craft landed on their bus. Rian was cheering very loud. The rest of the crowd was silent. “Hello, I’m Effie Trinket. Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be in your favor! Ladies first!” The woman swirled her hand around in the fish bowl full of names till she found the one she desired. The tense crowd waited in suspense to see if them or their loved ones will be chosen to basically go and die. “Audrey Evans!” The crowd roared with screams to save the girl. The girl, who was in tears, was ripped away from her family and friends. She was walked to the stage by peacekeepers, which weren’t very peaceful at all.
Watching the girl’s life end as she knew it made Jack’s heart fall. Now he really hoped his paper wouldn’t be picked. He never told the guys the whole story. “Next, the gentlemen!” Effie said to the crowd. She carried her hand over to the fish bowl again to pick another name. She snatched a name and pulled out her hand. “Well now this is certainly a surprise. Looks like District 12 will have three extra tributes this year. Your male tributes are Alex Gaskarth, Jack Barakat, Zachary Merrick, and Rian Dawson.” The Crowd was dead silent. “JACK YOU IDIOT!!! WHAT DID YOU DO!!!!!” Rian yelled at Jack and pushed him to the ground. Zack held Rian back while Alex covered Jack. Immediately, Peacekeepers grabbed the fighting band and through them onto the stage. “Hello again boys. You all must be so honored! Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor!”