Prologue

Hey there dollfaces; so I posted this before but I kind of left it too long so I've reposted it. The form is on my profile. I'll post which the current tribute list in a while. Enjoy the Chapter and May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favour!

I sit up and ruffle my hair. I look in my cracked mirror. Yeah that'll do. I walk downstairs and step onto the wet floor without thinking. Oh shit has it been raining again? I suppose the leaky roof is just one of the perks of living in the poor part of district 2. I see Emmy, the dippy, should have been born in district 1, girl, selling granola bars.

"You alright Joanie?" she says "You want one?"

I cautiously take a granola bar off of her stall and unwrap it. I take a bite. It's good; it should be for what I had to do to get them for her. But I made I pretty fair profit.

"That'll be $2" Emmy grins.

"Oh sorry Em, first rule of business- show your price. By your level of advertising, I don't owe you anything" I say.

"B-but that's stealing!"

"Tough luck princess."

I can't help but smirk to myself as I walk away. I'm not an unfair person. You could call me a petty thief but at least I don't steal from loser. I'd never take anything from someone down on their luck. I just take from people whose family own the biggest grocery store in district 2 and yet still think they can get away with charging me $2 for a miniscule pile of oats. The poor part of district 2 is only about a street long; you only end up poor if your parents reject the Career lifestyle, have a break down and become stoners. I've got no idea where my parents are and I don't care. I've come to realise that if you don't care you can just take any risk you want without many consequences.

"Where do you think you're going?" says a reedy voice.

Unfortunately, it can get you your enemies including, but not limited to, one peacekeeper ex-boyfriend. What can I say- I like to spice things up a bit.

"What's it to you?" I say.

"People don't like to see street kids around here" he says.

"You didn't seem to mind seeing me. In fact, if memory serves you wanted to see more of me than most people. Now if you excuse me I've got a contest to win."

I've been preparing for the tribute contest for a while; it's not because I'm a psychopathic killing machine who wants to "honour my district". I just love seeing the faces of those Career chumps when I beat the crap out of them without being enrolled in that stupid training centre.

"I'll get you for this Joanie. You can't hide forever" he calls as I walk off.

God, I should have never dated him. He acts like I broke his heart. He dumped me and was pissed when I didn't care. I get to the training centre and sign in. In the previous years, the district 2 tributes have been idiots so now they test us. Only the top 16, 8 male, 8 female, get into round 2; luckily I work well under pressure. It wasn't hard to change my results. Actually I didn't do too badly; not exactly top 20, but top 50 easily. This round is the one I'm looking forward. It's simple enough, beat your opponent until they cry uncle. I look on the chart that shows who we're fighting. Melanie Applebee- she's pretty scrawny but quick, not a bad warm up. Bring the bitch on.

I manage Melanie pretty easily, and then Tiana and then I'm just left with Rosa. She's a head taller than me with fiery red hair; not much scares me, but she does. She doesn't behave like your ordinary girl, at least not when she's fighting. Put it this way, she just bit a chunk of skin off her last opponent. I mean it was only off of her cheek and I'm sure the bleeding will die down in a couple of days but it's the principal. When we get in the chalk circle we use as a ring, she starts growling at me. I roll my eyes as the referee enters.

"Ok, straight fight; last one in the ring wins. No killing each other" he smirks "Save your blood thirst for the arena."

Oh Jesus, she's foaming at the mouth.

"In 3."

I really haven't thought this through.

"2."

Rosa's only focus is to get me out of the ring. Her upper and lower body strength means she doesn't have to worry about me fighting back, just how I try to dodge her attacks.

"1."

That's it- I have to take the dive.

"Begin!"

Rosa charges towards me, her arms outstretched. I don't have time to think properly. I dive to the floor, leaving her to run out of the ring. In fact, she doesn't stop at running out the ring. She runs into the wall and falls to the floor. Her nose is twisted, broken and bloody but nobody seems to notice. They're surrounding me. But I keep my eyes on Rosa. I block out their cheers for my brutality.