Happy New Years! What better way to celebrate the last day of 2012 with a new story? Please read and leave a review!

Chapter 1

They say looks aren't everything. Everyone has an equal shot in the games. At the same time, no one has ever heard of an ugly victor. All eighteen victors have been beautiful. If I was reaped, I wouldn't stand a chance.

I saw someone ugly go into the arena once. It was four years ago, I was thirteen, and the tribute was from District 6. He didn't make it past the first half hour.

"Thimble, get ready for the reaping!" I don't know why my mother bothers telling me to get ready. I'm hideous. I wasn't born hideous, I had an accident when I was ten.

Cotton, my twin sister, is lovely. She comes out of our little room wearing a pale blue dress. She twirls and spins, making her curly black hair fall in line behind her. She doesn't ask how she looks. She hasn't since the accident. "You look lovely today."

She makes a face, squinting her big blue eyes and wrinkling her nose. "Thimble, I don't want to be called lovely. I want to be called your sister."

"Well you're that too." She sighs and goes to our pile of clothes. She pulls out a white button down and some khaki pants for me to put on. Once they are on, she sits me down in front of the mirror.

I hate mirrors. I hate looking at my face. My hair, once as black as Cotton's is patchy gray and stringy, my skin is bleached, making me look abnormally pale and I am missing my lower right lip, so one canine sticks out between blood colored skin. My face is scarred, my hands are too. Their painted multiple colors because of dyes.

Cotton tries to make me look presentable, brushing parts of my hair into certain forms, but it's brittle and thin. It never stays. I suddenly stand up. "Let's go. It's almost 10 o'clock."

She sighs and runs to grab something quickly. She comes back with a red woven scarf. "A dash of color never hurt anyone."

We leave the house. Cotton stays close to me while everyone else makes a beeline to avoid me. I shake my head. "Don't worry, Thimble. One day they'll know you are just as good, if not better, than them"

I look her dead in the bright blue eyes. "Then why was it me? Why did I have to get stuck in that stupid machine?"

Rippp. Rippp. First sign something is wrong. We're suppose to call for help. "My machine is making noises!"

"Someone will be there in a moment." I didn't know who yelled that but I didn't question it. No one came until they heard me screaming. It was too late.

"Thimble! Thimble, are you okay?" Cotton stared at me with big blue eyes.

"I- I'm fine." Cotton shook her head and sighed. She then pulled him in for a long hug. "Hey, what's that for?"

"In case one of us gets reaped." Her blue eyes were swimming in tears.

I sighed. "Cotton, there are thousands of names in those bowls. We've never added our name in so the odds are in our favor." She nodded, gave me one last hug, and walked off to the girls section for our age group.

District Eight's escort was Rosen Vix. Our escort mocked me. He walked to the stage head held high. His hair was gray, but not unhealthy and brittle like mine. His was cut into choppy lengths. He had colors tattooed onto his hands and patters bleached all over his body He wasn't missing part of his lip either; he just had vampire fangs sticking out. And he did all of this in the name of fashion. "Welcome to the reaping of the nineteenth annual Hunger Games!" He looked back and saw no chairs where victors from other games sat. We haven't had one yet. Last year District 12 had one. They were the only district who didn't have one, besides us.

"Let's see who the lucky girl going in for District eight is, shall we?" He reached into a giant glass bowl and pulled out a name. "Indianna Neer!" I didn't recognize that name. No one around me did. We didn't recognize the name because she is five years younger than us. Out of the twelve year old section came a tiny girl. She had bright red hair halfway down her back. Her skin was pale and spotted with freckles. She was very tiny and thin. Her eyes were as bright as her hair, a beautiful shade of blue. They were filled with tears and she started to sniffle. A twelve year old has been reaped before, not here, in District Two. Four years ago. A little boy was reaped and his older cousin volunteered to take his place. He ended up winning. "Any volunteers?"

I looked at the girls section, certain someone would take the young girls spot. No one came. She would be the first twelve year old to compete in the games. "No? No one? Well then, time for the boys." His hand reached into a giant glass bowl containing all the boy's names in the district. "Thimble Harris!"

"No!" I heard Cotton scream. I took a deep breath and started to walk up. Cotton ran out too, her black curly hair bouncing behind her. She shoved out to meet me. "Thimble! Thimble you can't go!"

"Cotton, let go of me."

"Thimble they can't take you! They can't take you! Please!" A peacekeeper came and grabbed her, picked her up like she was no lighter than a feather and pushed me forward. I cooperated as best I could, fighting the urge to run to Cotton's screams and cries, until I got to the stage.

"Well, Thimble, who was that-" He took a look at me and looked like he was at a loss for words. "Who was that… lovely girl?"

"That was my sister." He looked like he didn't believe me. That is his loss.

"Well District Eight, I present your two tributes, Indianna Neer and Thimble Harris!"

So what do y'all think of Cotton, Indianna and Thimble? Well we've seen our District 8 tributes and next chapter we will get an introduction to our other tributes. Please, once again, leave a review. Reviews help me update faster and I'm sure y'all want to see who is next. By the way, I own all characters except the District 4 female, who is owned by XxNoGoodDeedxX and Indianna is based loosely off of my real life mini me, FallenPetals712.