So this is my first story, an AU version of the Games, from Glimmer's POV, if she had won.

Hope you like it!

When I wake up on the day of the Reaping, the sun is shining in through gaps in my white curtains. I get out of bed, walk over and pull them open. From my room, I can see most of the main city of District 1. Beyond it are the rolling green hills that lay beyond the fence.

When I was little, I had once asked my father, a strict and imposing man, if I could go over the fence and roll down the hills.

His reaction had been immediate and terrifying. "Go beyond the fence?" he roared, drawing himself to his full height. "Never! I will not allow you to bring shame to this family by engaging in childish play, and beyond the fence? You shall never go there, do you understand? You are better than that. Leave this room. Now."

Shaking, I had left the room, going straight to my mother before collapsing into tears. My mother had soothed me, but had stood firm to my dad's decision. When I had asked why, she had looked at me sadly. "There are reasons, dear. Someday you will understand."

I never forgot those words. They had been the last words my mother spoke to me in full health. Soon after, she had gone to bed, feeling ill. The next day, when I awoke, she was in the hospital. I went straight to see her.

My mother's final words were spoken to me, her only child. In between gasping breaths, she had spoken. "Glimmer… never… forget-… you… are my… victor. Win… the… Games… for me."

I had nodded, tears streaming down her face. As the light in my mother's eyes died, and her chest stopped moving, I had sworn I would do it. I would win the games for my mother. That was what I intended to do, starting today. Today was the day, the day that at eighteen, I would volunteer in the reaping.

As I pull on the shoes that went with my Capitol-made clothes, there was a knock on my door. "Come in." I call, knowing full well who it would be. The door opens, and the only person in the household who cared about me stepped in. I smile at the little girl standing there.

Sparkle, my half sister, is five. Her mother is my father's second wife Aurora, who he married less than two years after his first wife, my mother, died. She had two sons from a previous marriage- Colton, who is a year younger than me, and Marcus, who was a year older. Despite being close in age, they were both taller than me, and bullied me mercilessly. I took out my rage on the straw dummies in the District's Hunger Games training centre, because I couldn't fight back in my own home. I would get in to much trouble, because Aurora loved her true children but hated me, and would punish me for absolutely anything.

Then, when Sparkle was born when I was thirteen, I had been overjoyed. Finally I had a sister, to take care of when Aurora was to busy primping in her gold lined mirror, to love like my own mother had loved me.

Now Sparkle is five, and despite looking so much like her mother, I love her more than anybody. Now, standing dressed in her best dress, she gazes adoringly at me.

"You look pretty, Glimmer." she says sweetly, smiling a gap-tooth smile. "But I'm scared." Her smile fades. "I don't want you to volunteer."

I blink in surprise. Not volunteer? I have trained almost my entire life for this. Wasting thirteen long years of becoming a skilled warrior? Of training when my friends were having tea parties and playing dress-up, of staying up until three in the morning to perfect a move, of falling into bed crying because of the aching of my bones and muscles? All of that, for nothing?

I laugh, after the initial shock fades. "Not volunteer? I've been training my whole life for this. Why waste it?"

" But what if you lose?"

"I won't! The others have nothing on me. I'm in this to win."

With that, I open my already ajar bedroom door, and go downstairs, leaving Sparkle alone and afraid.

I feel an excitement in the pit of my stomach as I walk to the reaping with my family. My father, Aurora, and Colton chat as they walk, I am quiet but smiling, and Marcus and Sparkle are sullen and silent, for very different reasons.

Last year, at eighteen, Marcus, having trained nearly as intensely as I, had planned to volunteer. But in the mad dash to the stage, he had twisted his ankle, therefore stopping him from reaching the stage. He had been furious after, cursing and throwing things. I had been upset, too. If he had volunteered, his arrogance and stupidity would have killed him. Then he would have been out of my life, him and his suggestive jokes, which he had moved on to after he decided that the bruises he used to cover me with every day made me "less pretty". At least he had been less talkative ever since he lost the reaping.

And then there's Sparkle. Her usual chatty self is gone, replaced by a sullen little girl who wanted her way. I could only laugh. I will win the Games- I know it. My beauty would bring in sponsors, but my wit and intelligence would keep me alive. I will show them that beauty could be deadly.

After signing in, I am clumped in with the other eighteen-year-olds. I stand close to the stage, on the side, near the stairs. My whole body is tense, prepared to leap onstage and claim my rightful place as District 1 girl tribute. I'm excited. I can't wait to crush the competition.

I am so caught up in thought that I don't notice that the District 1 escort, Lilia Diamond, had come onstage, until she begins talking in her awful Capitol accent.

"Welcome, and Happy Hunger Games!" she says. "Let us begin. I want to let all of you know what an honor it is to be here, and to escort the tributes of District 1 to the Capitol."

Next, Mayor Cornish walks onstage and reads the history of Panem, the disasters, the storms and the fires, the floods that swallowed so much of the land and, of course, the brutal, bloody war that destroyed almost all civilization on the planet. Panem rose out of the ashes, the shining Capitol and the thirteen Districts. Then came the Dark Days, when the Districts rebelled against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, and the thirteenth destroyed. Then the Treaty of Treason was created, with new laws guaranteeing peace- but they decided to create the Hunger Games, to remind us that the Dark Days must never be repeated.

The words are so familiar, I felt as though they are drilled into my brain. 'Just get on with it' I think, annoyed.

Then came the long list of District 1 victors. We have had about twenty-five or thirty. We are second only to District 2 in terms of victors. 4 is third in line. 12 is last, with only two.

Soon, the speech is over, and Lilia takes centre stage again. "Now it is time to select two courageous children to represent District 1 in the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor!"

With that, she strides to one of the big glass balls, and, with a "Ladies First!" she reaches inside and pulls out a piece of paper.

I don't even hear the first syllable of the name she reads out because I'm so concentrated on getting to the stage. My training kicks in, as I push the one girl ahead of me to the ground with one shove. She cries out in pain, and despite the fact that I keep on running, I internally wish I could help her up. But thinking like that won't help in the Arena.

I, as expected, am the first to reach the stage. When Lilia asks my name, I smile and respond with "Glimmer Rose." I look sweetly at the camera and wink. That'll get the attention of the Capitol.

I hear whines of disappointment, but I don't pay attention. I am glowing. I am on my way to being a victor.