Prologue

Looking back on the events leading up to where I am now, of course I with that things had gone differently, but everything is okay now. The little flashbacks have stopped, and so have the nightmares. I've gone through a bit of mental therapy, and I'm richer beyond my wildest dreams. Of course, five years ago, I wasn't as content as I am now. I was a miserable wreck. Six years ago was when it happened.

* If you think about it, I'm not really giving anything away, since you have no idea who I'm talking about. In most of my stories, the prologues are narrated by someone who isn't narrating the actual story. Then again, they could be. This person could be anyone from a background character to Gracie.

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The reapings scare me to death, and so do the games. My friends call be a badass, except for when it comes to the Hunger Games. I hate History, since a great deal of ours is the Hunger Games. It's been around for exactly 362 years. I've hated watching every sixteen of which I've been alive to see. I could never imagine being reaped. With my sister, however, it's a different story.

Corinne has always loved the Hunger Games, death and all. I don't really think she enjoys the death, she just sees it as a bad part of her favorite reality show. You see, I've always been lesser than Cori, not as old (she's eighteen), not as tall, not as pretty, not as smart, not as funny, not as seductive, not as clever, not as popular, not as curvy, not as blonde. I'm average height, my grades are usually b's, I'm average looking with the average spread of pimples and freckles, I have a good sense of humor but I'm not actively funny, and I'm not popular, but I'm not unpopular. I have average brown hair that's far thinner than most brunettes. I'm more around the social middle. Of course, Cori being my sister got me some serious popularity points. I'm as skinny as a stick and just as straight as one. She's rather busty, but I'm still an A cup. When I try to sound seductive, I sound evil. My friends laugh at me when I try. The only thing I have going for me is my swift adjustment to change, while Cori hates change and doesn't accept it.

My friends only say I'm a badass because they're a bunch of wimps, and I'm not as wimpy as they are. Yeah. So I'm not really that badass.

The thing is, I've been through a bit more than Cori. When I was twelve, my best friend was reaped, and when I was fourteen, my boyfriend was reaped. Of course, he was only my boyfriend because everyone was doing it, but I still think I really quite liked him, and whatever attachment I had to him was enough to make him cry. Neither of them won.

Each of us have 'parents', as in we prefer one or the other. I prefer my mom, and my sister prefers my dad. Of course, that also presents another problem. My dad was quite like my sister in high school, except… boy version. My mom was almost the same as me, except she's quite beautiful. My mom was almost killed once, though. When she was younger, she was reaped, but her boyfriend volunteered for her. He was seriously dedicated to her. Mom says they would have been married, if she hadn't been reaped. He'd died. It worked out okay in the end, says mom, since she wouldn't have had her four beautiful children.

My mom's ex's season was a huge season in Hunger Games history. It was the year boys could volunteer for girls, and vice versa. It was the year it was made an official rule that two could be the winners of the Hunger Games, same or different districts, if they wished. Of course, if the two hated each other, they generally went in for the kill, but only heartless people on brutal seasons have ever done that. Why kill when you don't have to?

We live in District 11, the worst district of them all. We're punished more heartlessly than any of the other districts, and we manufacture the most boring things. Everything is gray. Neons are forbidden in school. See, if we hadn't lived in District 11, things might have been different. People in their last year of school always go on a field trip to another district for one week, because our district is horrible, and nobody wants to spend their last week of school here. This year it fell on the reaping, and Cori went on the trip, to District 8.

We are four child family, three girls and a boy. Well, not really a boy. Donovan's twenty, but acts forty. Well, really, he acts like he has all of the knowledge and wisdom of the world. He has a long-time girlfriend, and always has some stubble on hand.

My younger sister, Estella, or Stella, is the epitome of perfection. She developed all of the good traits our family possessed. She's also an overachiever, the best example being that she wants to be the mayor's daughter when she grows up. That's not going to happen for many reasons.

Our family was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, so to speak.

*This was just the introductory chapter, the rest will be longer! Hope you like!