My name is Rebecca Jacobs. I am fifteen years old and I am from District 4. I have long straight dark brown hair with ocean blue eyes. And this is how I went into the Hunger Games as one of the youngest Careers in The Hunger Games history.

"Rebecca!" Daniel calls from the bottom of the stairs. I run from my room to the top of the stairs. "Yeah Dan. What do you need?" I asked. But I think that I already know. "Can you come to the living room? I have some good news."

Daniel is one of the many victors from District 4. I've been living with him since I was five years old after my older brother died in the 34th Hunger Games. Then after he died my parents got killed for a reason that no one will tell me. After I moved in with Daniel he started training my at the District 4 training academy. And the first thing that I ever did there was I went to the throwing knives and I picked one up and I said to Daniel "I want to use this" after that Daniel started training me with them.

I slowly walk down the stairs, and I walk into the living room and sit on the couch across from Daniel. "So what's the good news?" I asked. A big smile formed on Daniels faced before he says, "Well you were picked to volunteer for this year's Hunger games Rebecca." He still has the big smile on his face.

'What did he just say?' I thought to myself 'Did he just say that I am going into the Games this year?'

"Becca did you hear me?" Daniel asked. I regained all my thoughts back together. "Yeah I um…I did. But Daniel I'm not ready to go into the arena yet. I'm only fifteen and I haven't finished my training yet." I said. "I know that, but Rebecca you are the one of the best girls in your training group and better than most of the girls that are in the seventeen and eighteen training groups."

I knew that one day I would be volunteering for the games, but I didn't know that it would be this year. I still have training to do; I have yet master throwing knives yet. Daniel is always telling me that I'm ready and I throw knives like no other girl that he has seen in all of his mentoring years. But just because I can throw knives doesn't mean the I'm ready for the games yet.

"Rebecca I know you can do this, I have been training you since you were seven and so have a lot of other mentors. You are strong and you know how to use a number of weapons and with throwing knives being your strongest you are a shoe in to win." Daniel said. I know that Daniel is right but I'm scared that I will die like my brother did and I'm only fifteen and I don't want to die yet. If he told me that I would be volunteering when I was eighteen, then I would be fine with that. But at fifteen I'm not.

"Can I still go to training till reaping day?" I asked hoping that the answer is a yes because then I can work on everything I know and get better at it than I already am. "Yes you can. You get extra training time on your own and with other trainers and me." Daniel explained to me. "Okay."

I get up off the couch and when I start walking away, Daniel stands up. "Where are you going?" he asks. I start walking away and look behind me as I walk up the stairs and say "I'm going to get dressed. If I'm going to be in the games then I need to be as ready as I can be." I keep walking up the stairs and when I get to my door I hear Daniel say something about him making breakfast for us.

When I get in my room I close my door and close my eyes and think how I'm going to do this. I keep asking myself questions like how am I going to win. I already know that I will ally with the Career districts, so I have that part figured out. But what about when it's just the Careers left, then I would have to think of another strategy

I open my eyes to see my room. My room has a big bed that has a pink comforter with white and grey pillows. My walls are an ocean blue. I look over my room and I walk to my closet to get my training outfit that I wear most of the time for training. It's a pair of tight fitting jogging pants with a dark green fitting top. I straighten my hair and leave it down but I bring a hair tie with me. Then I put on my black running shoes and I head down stairs and into the kitchen.

When I get into the kitchen there is a plate on the table with eggs, toast, and some ham with a glass of orange juice. I sit down and Daniel sits down next to me with the same food and we start eating. "So Daniel, who is the guy that is volunteering with me this year?" I asked. Dan finishes the food in his mouth and says "You know Ethan Miller right?" I shake my head yes and he continues " Well he's volunteering as well and he is eighteen as you know and has trained longer than you but you are just as strong as he is. His weapon of choice is spear and he is very good at it." I kept eating as Daniel kept telling me about Ethan. He was telling me that I was going to be training with him a few times this week before the reapings.

When I got to the training academy I went to the group training room with all the other girls to work on our strength and skills. First we start off by running five laps, by the end of the five laps most of the girls are out of breath and are just about ready to die. 'If they ever go into the Games they will die right away.' I thought to myself. Then we started doing some weight lifting, and I'm not one of the strongest girls so I can't do a lot, but its okay because most of the trainers all love me cause of my skills in throwing knives.

After ten minutes of weight lifting, we started some fighting skills when Daniel and some other trainers came walking in. they walked up to the group trainers and one of them called me over. I stepped out of line and jogged over to the big group of trainers. "Rebecca it's time to go to your personal training." Daniel said. 'If that's all he had to say to me then why did all the other trainers have to come?' I asked myself.

We were all walking down the hallway to the private training rooms and I saw my room right ahead of us. I went up to my door and just as I was about to open it one of the trainers said "No Rebecca, you not going to be training in this room anymore." I went back over to them. "So then were am I going to train for the week?" I asked. Daniel led me to the end of the hall and opened the door. When I stepped into the room I saw Ethan already in the training room throwing spears at dummies, hitting the heart target each time. Everyone else came into the very big training room and Ethan's trainer told him to stop and to come over to me and all the other trainers.

Ethan came jogging over to us. "Ethan, this is Rebecca Jacobs. The female tribute that will also be volunteering with you this year." Daniel said. Ethan Miller has short blond hair, and ocean blue eyes. He is tall and in very good shape. I looked up at Ethan and gave him a small smile. He just looked down at me and smirked. "How old is she Dan? She looks like she's ten." Ethan said. Daniel was just about to say something before I said "I'm really fifteen and one of the best girls in the whole academy for your information."

"Oh really? Prove it." Ethan said. I rolled my eyes at him and I walked over to where the throwing knives were and I picked up three of them and walked over the dummy targets. I hit the button to start the moving dummies. The first dummy started to move and I threw the knife and hit in right in the heart, then the second one started to move faster than the first and I again picked up a new knife and threw it hitting the second dummy right in the heart. The third and final dummy started to move really fast. I picked up the last knife and I threw it hitting this dummy straight in the heart.

Once I hit all of the dummies stopped moving and I walked over to everyone, standing right in front of Ethan. "Is that good enough for you?" I asked with anger in my voice. "For a fifteen year old, yeah it is. You might make it as being a Career." I looked at him with the evil eye. 'I hate him so much' I thought to myself. 'But he's older and knows how to win, so I'll have to learn to like him.'

"Alright you two. You both are starting your training with each other today. I'll be working with you for the rest of the week and I will be going to Capitol with you." Daniel explained to us. Ethan grabbed his spear and I grabbed my throwing knives and we each took our own dummy and threw are weapons at it for the rest of our training time.

After two hours of killing our dummies, Daniel told us that we could go home. I went to the weapon table and I put my knives away in there bag. Then I started my walk back home.

As I was walking home I could hear someone running behind me and just before I turned around someone put their hand on my soldier, and after being trained in fighting skills for eight year, I grab their hand and twist it. "Owwwww! Rebecca let go, it's me Ethan." Ethan yelled. "Oh sorry." I said and I let go of his hand. "What did you do that for?" Ethan asked.

"Well after eight years of training I just learned to fight who comes up behind me. Sorry." I apologies. "So what do you need?" I asked. Ethan was caring to his hand, and then he said "I wanted to say sorry for how I acted at the training academy. I'm not really that mean; I just wanted to scare you because you are really young to be going into the games."

"Well thank you but I really need to get home now." I said. "Ummm…ok. I'll see you tomorrow then." Ethan said. I turned around and started to walk away, "Yeah I guess." And with that I started to walk away, towards my house.

It's been two weeks since Ethan and I started our training together and Ethan and I became really close to each other. I found out that he has wanted to be in the Hunger Games all his life because his older brother had won the Hunger Games and now he wants to win so he can be like his brother and make his family proud of him. And now it's the day before the reaping and Ethan and I were in our training when Daniel came in. "Rebecca, Ethan it's time for you two to head home, and pick out what you are going to wear tomorrow for the reapings." Daniel said.

Ethan and I both started putting our stuff away when he asked "So, what are you going to be wearing to the reapings tomorrow?" I finished putting my knives away I turned to Ethan to answer his question. "A light blue knee length skirt and a white blouse. What are you wearing?" I asked. "A pair of dress pants and a white dress shirt." When Ethan was done putting he spears away we started walking home.

When I got home, I went into the kitchen to grab some food. Once I finished eating I went up to my room to take a nap.

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I heard my door open. "Rebecca its time to get up and get ready for the reapings." Daniel said. 'What! I slept through the whole night?' I thought to myself. "Ok Daniel." I said. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom and took a shower then went back into my room and I got out my outfit that I am going to be wearing today. I put my skirt on and then my blouse. Then I straightened my hair and but my black flats on and went down stairs to meet Daniel.

"I made some breakfast for you Becca." Daniel said. I was too nervous to eat anything. "Daniel I'm not in the mood to eat anything right now." I said. "Okay, but be in to town square in fifteen minutes," Daniel said as he got up. "Oh and remember if you don't volunteer, there will be consequences that you will have to face." Daniel left the house to go to the Justice Building because he is the mentor this year. I know that if I don't volunteer then I will be killed, and I rather go into the Games and chose how I'm going to die, then get killed in front of the whole town.

After five minutes for staring at my food and not touching it I get up and walk out of my house for what might be the last time and I start walking to the town square. The walk there is not fun, every year you see the younger kids all scared because they think that if they get reaped then maybe one of the seventeen or eighteen year olds might not volunteer for them. But no one has to worry this year because Ethan wants to volunteer and I have no choice.

When I reach the town square I go and sign in. they prick my finger and take some of my blood, then they scan is and tell me to go. I walk over to where all the other fifteen year old girls are and I stand there wait for our mayor, mentor, and escort to come out. As I was waiting I spotted Ethan with a big smile on his face. 'This means so much to him.' I thought to myself.

Just then the doors to the Justice Building opened and the mayor, Daniel and Lala Greene came walking out. Just as ten o'clock came, the mayor walked up to the podium and began to read the story of the Dark Days. The Dark Days are the reason that we have the Hunger Games; it's when the districts started the uprising against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated by the Capitol and the thirteenth was destroyed by the Capitol. The Treaty of Treason was made and, as our reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated we have the Hunger Games every year.

After the mayor finished telling us about the Dark Days and the Hunger Games, he went and sat down and Lala Greene came up to the podium. Lala Greene is the District 4 escort, he has dark pink hair that sticks up at the top of his head, he is tall with yellow eyes and blue lips, and he is wearing an all green suit. He is always really happy to come to District 4, and every year he always looks the same but just has a different hair colour.

"Welcome welcome, to the 44th Hunger Games. Now, it is time to pick the male and female tribute that will represent District 4 in the Hunger Games this year." Lala said. "Ladies first." Lala said, and then crossed the stage to the glass ball that holds all of the girls' names. He sticks his hand into the ball and pulls out the first paper that touches his hand. He holds the paper out to everyone as he opens it and reads the name.

He reads the name but I don't really hear it, but I do see a scared little fourteen year old walking onto the stage. Then Lala asked for any volunteer's and I see Daniel look me straight in the eyes. I step out of the crowd, "I volunteer as tribute!" I yell. The look on the little girls face just got really happy and she walked off the stage and ran into her mother's arms as I walked onto the stage. "And what is your name dear?" Lala asked. He put the microphone in front of me. "Rebecca Jacobs." I said with a smile on my face. "Well it was very nice of you to volunteer for that little girl." Lala said. 'He is so dumb' I thought to myself. "Now for the boys."

Lala walked over to a lookalike glass ball but had all the boys' names in it. He took name slip out of the ball and walked back over to the microphone and read the name. "Chase Reed" before the twelve year old boy could even start walking towards the stage; Ethan ran out of the crowd and yelled, "I volunteer as tribute!" then he walked to the stage and stood two feet away from me and Lala asked for his name. "Ethan Miller." He said. "Our tributes for District 4; Ethan Miller and Rebecca Jacobs. Go on you two shake hands."Lala said. Ethan and I turn to each other and we shake hands. Then Lala said "Happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor." And the Capitol anthem started to play

When the anthem ended, Lala turned Ethan and myself around towards the Justice Building and lightly pushed us through the door and the Peacekeeps lead us to our own private rooms so that our loved ones can come and say goodbye to us for one hour. I only have one friend and that's Ethan and my only loved one is Daniel, but I will see him on the train so he won't come to say goodbye. Just then a woman came in followed by a Peacekeeper. "You five minutes." The Peacekeeper said. The woman came up to me and hugged me. "I know you don't know me but you know my son Ethan. I just wanted to say good luck in the arena and I hope that you or my son win's." she hugged me one more time before the same Peacekeeper came in and took her out.

'That was really weird. A woman I never even met came and wished me luck'. The door opened again and this time a girl a year older than me came in. She had red puffy eyes like she had just been crying. I'm guessing that she is Ethan's sister. She took something out of her pocket, it was a piece of ocean blue ribbon with a little round medaling that has a quart moon and three wave carved into it. She went behind me and tied it around my neck, with the medaling falling right in the middle of my neck. "There, I hope you wear this in the arena as your district token." She said. I looked at her and shook my head yes. Then she hugs me. She is still hugging me when the Peacekeeper came in and took her away.

After she left I had to wait another fifty minutes before I could go onto the train. As I waited I just sat there thinking about going into the arena. I asked myself question like; Are Ethan and I going to team up or are we going to team up with the other Career district? But I really don't want to be a Career, in fact I hate them more than anything because it was a Career pack that killed my brother in his sleep, and I hate them for it.

Fifty minutes went by really fast and the Peacekeeper came in and took me out of my room and to the car that was waiting outside for me, Ethan and Lala. Ethan was already out there waving to the people of District 4 and the people of the Capitol with a big smile on his face, and I stood next to him with a fake smile on my face waving like Ethan. Then we got into the car to get to the train station.