After the failure of "The Mockingjay Rebellion," life goes on Panem as usual. The nation recovers from the mess their civil war brought. District 12 has been nuked, as has District 13, leaving a mere 11 Districts left. The Capitol soon regained control over all of the Districts after publicly executing the main rebels, the most influential being the execution of Katniss Everdeen. The star of the rebellion was brought to the Capitol, right in front of President Snow's home. The last thing she ever did was sing The Hanging Tree before being shot at point blank, which has become the whispered anthem of all rebels who continue to hide inside the districts. 25 years later, The Hunger Games goes on.

District 4: Rachelle

"Race you to the docks?"

"No thanks Rachelle, I'm really not in the mood."

I sighed, looking over at my brown-haired best friend, Carolyn. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the Quarter Quell announcement is tonight, would it?"

Carolyn crossed her arms and said sarcastically "No, definitley not. It's not like this is the big 100th Hunger Games and we're both prime candidates or anything!"

Well, she had a point. We were both 15, and both had to take out 3 tesserae, so we could very easily be picked. But it was weird, I was usually the one freaking out and she tried to calm me down. "You have a point, but why choose to drop the I-couldn't-care-less attitude now?" I teased her

She didn't smile like I thought she would. "Rachelle. It's not funny. I have a really bad feeling about this one."

I stopped trying to act like I wasn't afraid now. "I know. I just don't want to think about it more than we need to. Making ourselves sick with worry won't help us much."

Carolyn half-smiled "Who knows. Maybe then they'd let us stay home during the cermemony" she joked wryly

Before I could say anything else, we heard an announcement ring all around the district.

Attention. All of the District must gather to their nearest viewing screen. The Quarter Quell Announcement will be aired in 5 minutes.

We sighed and began running to the square where we would be in just a week, hearing who was unlucky enough to enter the arena. I caught sight of the shaggy mousy brown head of my boyfriend, Matt. I tapped him on the shoulder, and he grabbed my hand. Carolyn stood behind us, slightly next to our friend Aleks. We watched the screen burst to life as President Corilanus Snow Jr, our new president, gave us a charming smile.

"Hello, people of Panem!" He said with a voice like honey. "It's my pleasure to announce our special plot twist for the 4th Quarter Quell! Unfortunately, the original twist was burned in the rebellion, so this one comes from our new Head Gamemaker, Wiona Aryre." he opened a crisp white envelope and read "We may no longer have one boy and one girl from each district! All names are going into one large bowl, so you never know who you could get! Isn't that fun? Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"

The screen faded to black.

District 4: Carolyn

My first instinct was to think, that's all? But then again, even if it is 25 years later, all of Panem is much poorer after The Mockingjay Rebellion, or so they said in school. Maybe they can't afford something as gruesome as they could in the good old days. Better for us, I guess. Wait...

I looked at Rachelle, and she was staring back at me with dread. This meant we could end up in the games together.

And after the incident in the 74th Hunger Games you can be damn sure they're not letting 2 people win again.

Well, this should be fun.

A/N: Thanks for reading the first chapter of my first Hunger Games fanfiction! Definitley more to come. :)