Prologue

Another year, another reaping. Another batch of kids sent off to die. Another chance that you might be one of them. Another chance of never seeing your family again. Another chance of you dying some horrific tragic death for the enjoyment of capital socialites and the craven elite. In the Capitol they don't have to sacrifice their children. They don't have their loved ones ripped away from them for some pointless display of power.

No, because in the Capitol they have parties every night and summer wine by the gallon, toasted in gold champagne flutes and served with a side of bacon wrapped pork and blueberry tarts. Meanwhile over in Districts 5 - 12 we are barely scraping by. Some faring worse than others. Most of us don't have enough food to eat. Meanwhile I heard of a pill that they give in the Capitol that makes you throw up just so you can cram more food in your face without getting fat.

And here in District 11, the worst district next to 12, we are under constant scrutiny by armed guards call Peacekeepers. Not that they are at all interested in actual "keeping" "peace". No, they are just here to make sure that we do our jobs and keep sending all the good food and grain to the rich districts. That none of us take even a minute to relax and contemplate the injustice of our treatment.

According to the Capitol, we deserve this. The Capitol has survived three rebellions so far. And they are only stronger. The second rebellion came the closest. Everyone rallied behind this girl named Katniss Everdeen. She had gone into the Hunger Games as a Tribute from District 12. No one had expected her to win, but she did. But not only did she win, she practically spat in the Capitol's face by ensuring that she and her boyfriend, who had gone into the games with her, would both come out alive. They both threatened suicide. And if there is one thing that the Capitol hates more than having two Victors, it's having none.

You see cause, 24 go in, and only one is supposed to come out alive. Twelve boys, twelve girls, no chance in hell. Unless you are a Career. Career's train their whole lives to go into the Hunger Games. Even though, as stated in the rules, that isn't allowed. But the Careers all come from Districts 1, 2, and 4. They are the richest districts after the Capitol. So they have special favour.

In any case, Katniss managed to get herself and her boyfriend… whom I can't remember the name of… out of the Hunger Games and back to their District where they were supposed to just be able to live out the rest of their lives trying to forget all the nightmare inducing stuff that went down in the games. But then came the Quarter Quell.

Quarter Quell's are special games that happen once every 25 years. Or every quarter century. Each one has a new twist added to the games. Like the first Quarter Quell, in which the Districts got to pick their own tributes. Or the second Quarter Quell, that one doubled the tributes making 48 kids between the ages of 12 and 18 go into an arena and kill each other for sport. I've never seen it but that was apparently the bloodiest and most horrifying game in history.

Katniss's Quarter Quell involved the Tributes being picked from the Victors in each district. So the people who were all lucky to survive the first time around, and I say "lucky" in the loosest of terms, then had to go back in and fight each other. Katniss being the only female Victor in her district was automatically sent in. And her boyfriend then tagged along or something.

But, apparently, the entire Game had been rigged to make sure that Katniss survived and the unknown resistance formed out the the thought-to-be-lost District 13 had planned it all out. It worked. And Katniss became the face of the resistance, she had a symbol and everything. It was a gold Mockingjay pin that she had worn during the games.

So Katniss is leading the resistance against the President at the time, President Snow. They storm the capitol and seem to have pulled it off. But before everyone could start singing "Panem is Free!" and bust out the bubbly, everything turned sour. Starting with Katniss being killed. Capitol reinforcement arrived and proved too much for the already haggard resistance. The leaders of the resistance were then killed. The soldiers forced to stand down and subsequently executed later on.

So, bright start, ugly finish. Suffice it to say, the Hunger Games is still number one on the Most Watched list throughout Panem. And the 99th annual Hunger Games is just about to start! Notice the exclamation point? It's sarcastic. Because no one but the dimwitted asshats known as the "Capitolites" find the massacre of children fun.

Which brings me to the point of my monologue/rant. Hi. My name is Rosalie Carstair, but I prefer Rose. And my story starts here, the day of the Reaping. And considering that it takes the Reaping for my life to get exciting I can only assume that you know what happens today. If you don't, heres a hint…

Hi! So that is the prologue to my new story. I can honestly say I have no idea how well i'll be able to update this story. I have a lot of personal crap going on right now, and even though writing does tend to help me de-stress, I don't have as much time as I would like to do it. So, if you happen to like this story, thank you! I will try as much as I can to update as often as possible. And I love reviews, I don't particularly care if they are good or bad. As long as, if you want to crush my soul and make me cry, you do it in a constructive way so that I can do better in future. So please, Review, Follow, Favorite. Whatever you like!

And P.S. I did not mean to bash Peeta in any way in this prologue. I just think it's funny how Katniss got all the praise and Peeta was shoved off to the side. They were BOTH on fire guys... come on.

~AMS