Oh please god, no. "Jennifer hensford!" the lady onstage screeched again. The

girl behind me shoved me forward and I tripped and stumbled up the stairs in my

nearly tear old favorite yellow wedges. The women on stage grabbed my shoulder

tightly and avoided my eyes as she glanced back at her tablet screen. "christina

snow!" she yelled even louder, and that sick bitch was smirking at that. A girl

no older than fourteen with silver blonde hair and pale blue eyes stalked

forward with her head high. I knew her by name, she was the old presidents

granddaughter. No surprise she was selected for the first annual new hunger

games. There was supposed to be thirteen of us, one child sacrifice for each

hundred rebels our 'parents' killed. One for each district we had failed to keep

down. And one for each stroke of bad luck. At least thats what they said, my dad

was a second year game maker and my mom had been on district 6's prep time.

Didn't take a genius to know they were dead. Christina and I joined another

eleven more kids, a 'random' mixture of boys and girls, who really weren't

random, because I recognized their last names by game makers and military

officials. Every single child up here, was the kid of someone the rebels hated,

they had a brother and sister pair brought up from one of snows personal cabinet

friends. A school friend of mine, Mitchell kielbasa, was the oldest of his

family, at age sixteen he was in charge of caring for his little eight year old

sister and eleven year old brother, and now neither of them would have anyone to

care for them. I had been an only child, but my best friend Mindy who had lost

her family as well, was openly crying in front of everyone. No one was allowed

to volunteer, that was supposed to be symbolic for watching your family die

while you could do nothing, but it seemed the cruelest thing a person could do

as they tore apart a nineteen year old boy from his fourteen year old sister and

knock him out with the butt of their gun, dragging her kicking and screaming up

to the front with the rest of us. Every child had two armed 'police men' which

was the new word for peacekeeper, on either side, making sure a terrified

teenager didn't go ballistic or anything. The thirteen of us were forced to

stand in a line and exit one by one backstage where we were allowed three

minutes of goodbye from family and friends. I had no family of course, but Mindy

came in sobbing, which pushed away the shock and I followed. What felt like

seconds later Mindy was pulled off by a police man and slammed behind metal

doors. Strong arms pulled me up from behind and dragged/carried me onto a

waiting hovercraft, strapping me in a seat between a scared silent mitchell and

a wild eyes hysterical girl with half her bubblegum pink curls yanked out and

bloodied fingernails. Mikey looked over at me with tears in his eyes and I

grabbed his hand through the seatbelt. The harnesses locked and we took off,

death grips on each others hands as I wondered how the new hunger games would

go. Normally each district had two tributes, who lived and trained together

until the hunger games started. But now there was an odd number, and the five to

eight boy girl ratio which would confuse thing even more. The usual hunger games

consisted of interviews, photos, stylists and a whole bunch of people eagerly

betting on kids who would come out alive. Sitting here now I wish I could take

back the hours I spent laughing with my friends over which little weakling would

die first, I had never been in their shoes. And now I was, though I felt it was

worse because this time the hunger games wasn't meant to be a show, it was meant

to be an example. Using children of the leaders as a sign even the most powerful

people can fall. Killing us was apparently suppose to start healing the world,

though I still didn't get their logic. The hovercraft landed and the pink hair

girl started screaming in earsplitting pitches, causing everyone to cringe and

me to rip my hand out of Mikey's to cover my ears. One of the police men walk

over calmly and stick her with something. There's a buzzing and the girl goes

still. The harnesses unlock and medics come and drag her out as the other twelve

nervously sit in a shocked silence. One police men comes in and grabs a chubby

blonde boy off the first row and walk him outside. Nearly an hour passes before

another is lead out. And another and another before it's finally my turn.