Okay, so uhm, guys, hi.

Foxface talking here. No, not the original one, of course. Just the girl who shamelessly stole her name to use it as a pseudonym so no one will track her down and kill her. In case you don't know, this is a role-play, one chapter written by a single, different person unless stated otherwise. I'll start, using the character Gretel Deleav as a puppet.

If you have a problem with shameless cursing, jokes about sex and dark stuff, and hormonal teenagers thinking about sex (though we behave relatively well, there won't be graphic sexual scenes here), you are probably reading the story of the wrong authors. We're teenagers, we can't help it.

I won't even warn you about violence here, because if you had a problem with that, you wouldn't be searching for Hunger Games fiction in the first place.

English is not our mother tongue, and in order to work on them, please point out our grammar mistakes. Preferably not insulting us in the process.

Reviews make us happy.

Have fun.

Also, making up weird-ass Panem-ish names is a pain-in-the-ass. It's hard to avoid just naming everyone Haymitch or Effie. Suggestions and help are appreciated.

WE DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES WORLD. WE DO OWN SOME OF THE PLOT AND THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: RUBY AMBLISS, GRETEL DELEAV, VIKTOR, ALEX TURNER, LILY TURNER, ANNA ODAIR, ETHAN MASON, LYVENNIE, BEN DELEAV, SAM DELEAV, CYRUS DELEAV.

IF YOU STEAL ANYTHING, I'LL KILL YOU SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY. WHILE LAUGHING.

Yours, except no, not really, because I'm not dumb enough to let a complete stranger own me without a good reason, and I'm just being polite here and not serious at all, Foxface.

Chapter 1: Self-righteous, ahead of schedule suicide

(Eight years before)

The sun shone bright up there, on the blue sky. The possible tributes for District 5 were all lined up, shifting their weight from one foot to another, all nervous faces and that whiteness of skin typical of the inhabitants of that area of Panem.

Whiteness of skin, of which Ruby lacked. She was tanned, probably because of the stupid amount of time she spent with Gretel and Viktor on the sea, swimming or fishing. Gretel, unlike her, merely had freckles blossoming out of every corner, despite the heavy layer of sunscreen she had to apply constantly, as she had a book opened on her lap but engaged in conversations with her friends nonetheless. Viktor had his sketchpad, were he fed his giant crush for clueless Gretel with amazing drawings of her, doing the most mundane things – smiling, laughing, reading, hugging her little brother.

Ruby tried to make herself small, as if she wasn't a couple of inches above average height, curling behind Gretel and hiding her face in the mass of red curls that was Gretel's short hair – who was the shortest girl of their age in a radium of twenty feet.

"Shhh", Gretel whispered, reaching behind her to squeeze at Ruby's hand, which were both clutching the back of Gretel's shirt.

Everyone in 13 knows what happened. Everyone knows that Gretel was supposed to volunteer when she was 15, when it would be safer for her.

But the sudden, even if of natural causes, death of the agent supposed to volunteer this time, required someone else to fill in his place. This year, they had no one but Haymitch mentoring the tributes, and they couldn't leave it like that. Not that Haymitch was incompetent (even though many people thought so) but they couldn't just throw all their cards on one old, alcoholic man. They needed someone young, someone who could occupy a seat and make an impression on the Capitol.

Everyone across Panem knows that the name Reaped that year was of Ruby Ambliss.

Everyone across Panem knows that Gretel Deleav volunteered on her place.

Gretel Deleav, the girl who barely talked, stepped forward, leaving Ruby's fingers grasping empty air where her best friend had been a second before, and declared in a clear voice:

"I volunteer as tribute."

Ruby was stunned to silence for a heartbeat, before she threw herself at her friend, clutching her shirt even tighter than before.

"No – Grets, you can't-", she panted, pupils blown.

"Ruby", said Gretel quietly. She glanced nervously over her shoulder to the Peacekeepers making their way toward her. Her fingers tugged gently at Ruby's. "Ruby, let go."

The Peacekeepers kept coming closer.

"Ruby", Gretel whispered in a warning tone, and yeah, even though she was a dwarf and thin, the kid could take down someone three times her size in a second and had an edge to her voice enough to make anyone piss in their pants. Ruby included. So she let go, at the same moment hands closed around Gretel's arms and dragged her, stumbling over the gravel, walking past the mass of teens from either side of her – girls to the left, boys to the right.

Her green eyes swept over the boys, looking for Viktor's familiar dark blonde locks, or for Sammy's skinny frame, but the Peacekeeper at her side blocked part of her vision and the speed they were dragging her didn't really help.

What the hell did you do?, Gretel thought. Oh, shit, what did I do?

She looked over her shoulder to Ruby, who was biting at her knuckles with tears in her eyes. Couldn't let her best friend go to the Games. Especially not when Gretel had the training and the responsibility to do exactly that.

Her heart curled to the size of a walnut, and her lungs followed suit. Her whole body seemed to reduce before the eyes of her District, of the whole Panem she knew was watching her. Her limbs became thin sticks, fragile. Her vision blurred at the edges, legs turned into water, her lungs couldn't get enough air...

Next thing Gretel knew for sure, was that she was standing there, beside District 5's escort, with the sun blinding her. She frowned at the gravelly path separating females from males humans, wondering if she had passed out or if her brain had shut down entirely. It did that sometimes, when she was too panicked.

"What's your name, sweetie?" the escort asked. Her hair was pink and shaped like a giant starfish at the back of her head, and she had glitter all over her body, with a tiny jewel here and there. Gretel couldn't help but wonder how long the Capitol people spent dressing up. Gretel herself just grabbed the first pair of clean jeans or shorts she put her eyes on, a t-shirt and tucked her hair into a ponytail if it was too messy or if the day was hot. She usually didn't even tie her shoelaces until she was in danger of tripping on them and breaking her nose.

She had to open and close her mouth mutely like a retarded fish twice before she found her voice. "Gretel. Gretel Casleen Deleav", she said, and almost flinched when her voice sounded louder than she'd expected. Apparently, the escort had shoved a microphone under her nose at some point.

"And how old are you?", the escort asked. What was her name? Lyven, Lieven...

"I'm-" Gretel's throat dried up. She wasn't like that, usually. She didn't get scared. She didn't scared when she was assaulted by that guy on the beach, or when the boys in her classroom picked on her. She wasn't scared of attacking them, or throwing herself in front of a car or a Peacekeeper to protect someone. She was afraid of talking, though. "I'm 13", she forced out.

"And that sweet girl you just volunteered for", Lyvennie, that was it. "Is she your friend?"

Gretel saw Pa picking a crying Sammy up his arms and holding him there, tightly. But she hadn't spotted Viktor out of the crowd yet, or Ruby.

"Yes", she said. "She and Viktor..." Gretel stopped. Only friends wouldn't do, because she liked to consider herself Alex's and Lily's friend, even though they didn't see each other outside their training sessions. Best friends couldn't cover it, because Viktor and Ruby meant so much more than that. "They're family", she concluded. Yeah, that sounded good. They were family, as were Sammy and Pa and Ma, when she was alive.

"Own", Lyvennie put a hand to her chest. "That's so cute. Congratulations, Gretel Deleav, you are a tribute!"

Then she started to applaud, as so did the people before her.

Gretel wondered if Lyvennie was stupid, or just too alienated like everyone else in the Capitol to notice the dread and the disgust coming off of the population of District 5 in waves.

Gretel also wondered she was just as stupid at Lyvennie for volunteering to die two years ahead schedule.

Yep. She was definitely stupid.

I hope Lyvennie is a convincing Panem-ish name.