A ridiculous looking man with bright yellow hair mounted the stage. "Welcome!" he announced as if welcoming someone to his home. "Welcome to the reaping of the seventy first Hunger Games!" he paused dramatically as if waiting for applause. He did not get it. "Well, we all know how this goes." He chirped."

A girl with short, spiky brown hair rolled her wide brown eyes at the sky. Yes, yes, they all knew how this went. The mayor would read the treaty of treason; they would see a brief history of Panem, and then Demetrius Clot would pick one boy and one girl to be tossed into a bloody fight to the death.

"Ladies first!" Clot said happily. "May the odds be ever in your favor." He reached into a glass bowl in the front of the square. "And the female tribute from district seven is…. Johanna Mason."

Shock. Blinding shock. This was the first thing the brown eyed seventeen year old felt upon hearing her name. She had always thought of the games as a sort of superficial thing. They were terrifying, no doubt, but she never imagined it would be her fighting for her life in an unknown place. Quickly, she put together a plan. If anything, Johanna was a witty girl. She began to shake as she slowly climbed the steps.

She wasn't even listening as Clot called the male tribute. She let her eyes wander until they met that of her father. He was holding back tears in his eyes, but it wasn't enough. She tried to think of sad things, anything that would make her sob. Her mind wandered to her mother. Dead. Killed by a falling tree. Still, Johanna was a strong girl. She had gotten over her mother's death years ago. Her father was never around anyway and she had no siblings. She groaned mentally. She had to cry! Suddenly, she found herself starring into a pair of tranquil blue orbs. David Maplewood, her boyfriend. The one person she knew she truly loved. His eyes looked so sad, there were tears streaming down his face. Now, she didn't even have to try. Tears began to fall down her face at an alarming rate. Perfect. She was almost there. She let out a loud sniff and all the cameras were on her crying face. She hated to have to look so weak In front of the world, but it was necessary.

The goodbyes were the hardest part. Especially saying bye to David.

"So, you're actually going to use that plan we came up with?" he asked wrapping her in a hug.

"Why not?" Johanna asked. A few years before, they had jokingly came up with a plan. Johanna hadn't really thought of it until her name had been called.

"There is no reason not to." David said. "I just hope it works."

"It has to!" Johanna exclaimed. "I am coming back to you."

"I know you are." He smiled slightly.

"Time's up!" the Peacekeeper said.

David gave Johanna one last kiss on the lips before exiting the room an leaving Johanna feeling more alone than she ever had.

Soon, she found herself on a fancy train being pulled to the Capitol with her tribute partner, Clot, and her mentor, Blight. The other teen's name was Tim Burr. He was tall, thin, and handsome. "He's sure to get sponsors!" Johanna thought. "He looks so strong!" Suddenly, her plan didn't seem like too good of an idea.

"So." Blight said looking at the teens. "I'm new at this thing. I won just last year so… do you want to be coached together or apart?"

"Apart." Johanna said immediately. She didn't like working with people. Except for David of course.

"Ok then." Blight said to no one in particular. "I'll coach Tim here and Ash can coach Johanna."

"Works for me." Tim said getting up and following Blight from the room.

A blonde haired man it around his thirties sat on the chair across from Johana.

"So. What exactly is your plan?" he asked right away. "I mean, I've seen you cutting lumber and you seem like a stubborn, strong, axe wielder to me, but we can't exactly pull that off thanks to your water works at the reaping."

Johanna glared at him. "I cried on purpose." She snapped.

"Oh really." He said sarcastically. "Do tell me why?"

"My boyfriend and I came up with it. I am going to act like a sniveling coward. That way, everyone will ignore me. When there are only a few tributes left, I'll attack." She explained.

"I see." Ashton said still sarcastic. "Are you sure you aren't a sniveling coward?"

Ten seconds later, Ashton was on the ground with Johanna on top of him, painfully holding his hand against his back.

"Okay! Okay!" Ashton gasped. "You aren't a sniveling coward."

Johanna released him and got back up. "You better remember that." She snapped.

"Okay." Ashton sighed rubbing his shoulder. "So, I think your plan will work. You do seem pretty vicious."

"My main worry is that I won't be able to stop myself from axing people to death." Johanna said. "It's in my nature to defend myself and I tend to show off."

Ashton thought for a moment. "The games are a scary place." He said carefully. "Your most basic instincts of survival come into play. You do things you would never dream of doing before them. And instincts you never knew you had come into existence. I used to always run from a fight. When I was thrown into the arena with nothing but an axe to defend myself, I fought. I never ran away and eventually, everyone was dead. Perhaps, you should follow the basic human instinct of hiding. Hide. Disappear. Make it so that no one knows where you are or who you are but the game makers. Get such a low training score that everyone will just assume you died even if they didn't see your name up in the sky. Don't go to the cornucopia just grab a backpack from somewhere near the edge and find high ground. I'll try to see if I can get someone to help me send you an axe. Understand?"

Johanna nodded. "What about the interview?"

Ashton thought again. "Cry your heart out."

"Will do."

"Oh. And mention that boyfriend of yours." He said. "You'll want some sympathy from the Capitol. I mean, you are pretty but, you'll need more than that to get yourself an axe."

So, Johanna Mason and Tim Burr were introduced as District Seven's tributes in the seventy first Hunger Games. As they stood on the chariot, dressed as trees, Johanna made herself cry again as she clutched the side of the chariot. She looked utterly forgettable next to Tim who stood tall and strong. She spent the training session learning to tie knots and snares, tree climbing, or camouflage. For her individual training, she took an axe, lifted it and drove it into the ground. She got a 3.

Finally, the day of the interview came. Thankfully, seven was in the middle which made it all the easier to be forgotten.

"Please welcome, Johanna Mason!" Caesar Flickerman trilled.

Johanna shakily walked to the stage and sat down next to the silver haired man.

"So, Ms. Mason, it seems you're a little nervous about these games."

She sniffed and nodded. "I-it's j-just s-s-so hard being s-so far fr-from my home."

"It is hard." He said bracingly. "Do you feel that you're ready to enter the arena?"

"N-no!' she wailed tears streaming down her face."I just want to go home!"

"Oh. I see." Caesar sighed. "Well, you're a pretty girl aren't you? Is there someone special you miss back home?"

"Y-yes. He's my boyfriend." She answered as more tears streamed down her face.

"Oh! I see! And what may his name be?"

"David." She answered her voice shaking. "David Maplewood. He's my life. All I want is to be with him."

"Awwwwww!" the crowd and Caesar cooed.

"I'm sure he misses you to. It is a shame that you might forever be separated."

Johanna almost lost it. She wanted to rage that of course it was a fucking shame! And it was all because of those idiots in front of her. She wanted to scream and curse and attack them all. As if she needed to be reminded that she might lose the one person she loves with all her heart. Well, actually, that he might lose her. She wanted to be herself, but she held back. Instead of attacking she let out a little whimper and cried some more.

Tim's interview was the exact opposite. He appeared strong and confident. "I grew up tossing an axe at a tree, Caesar." He said. "I think now that I'm eighteen, I can toss an axe at a human."

"You did perfect." Ashton said. "Perfect."

Johanna sighed. "Thanks. It was actually not that hard, I do want to be home and David is my life."

Ashton hugged her which is something he had never done before. "I know what you mean. I have a girl waiting for me back home and I couldn't love anything more than her. You can't let this bring you down though. Fight to get back to him like I fought to get back to her."

All to soon it was the day of the games. Johanna stood nervously on her plate surveying the arena. It was an open meadow and the cornucopia was situated in the center and a tall mountain rose up somewhere far behind it. She spotted a backpack nearby and immediately planned to go for it. Close to the backpack was a river. She decided to cross the river and disappear into the tall grass on the other side. Then, she would hike towards the mountain. The summit, she decided, was where she would camp.

Then she remembered Ashton's words, "I'll try to see if I can get someone to help me send you an axe." What if no one wanted to sponsor her? Who would? She had to have an axe to win these games. She took a deep breath as the clock continued to count down. She looked over a Tim who looked slightly green, but determined. He caught her eye and nodded towards two axes lying near the horn of the cornucopia. Perfect. Johanna and Tim hadn't talked at all to each other. The meals were eaten in silence and coaching was done separately. "It was nice of him to point those out to me." She thought. "I would have thought he would claim them for himself. After all, two axes are better than one."

Finally, the sixty seconds were up. Johanna ran straight towards the red backpack. She scooped it up and ran towards the horn of the cornucopia. She smirked a bit as she grabbed an axe. She could almost hear Ashton cursing at her for running after the axes. Leaving one axe for Tim, she turned to run towards the river only to find herself face to face with Tim himself.

Her eyes widened as he raised a wickedly sharp knife. Had he pointed her to the axes so that he knew where to come kill her? She readied herself to fight him. In a quick second he plunged the knife but not into her heart, into his own. He had chosen to claim his own life rather than let someone take it from him.

Johanna screamed as Tim fell to the floor dead. "No time to freak out." She told herself. Grabbing his knife and the other axe, she ran towards the river diving into it just in time to avoid being hit by an arrow shot by the district two girl. She stumbled onto land and ran towards the mountain. She didn't know for how long she had been running, but by the time she reached the base of the mountain, it was getting dark.

Johanna climbed onto a large flat rock and carefully emptied the contents of her backpack, two packs of biscuits, some dry chicken, a canister filled half way with water, a flashlight, a sleeping bag, and some chlorine to purify water. She ate a biscuit and a little bit of chicken before taking a small sip of water and lying down in her sleeping bag. Protected by the enormous mountain, she fell asleep. She awoke when the sky lit up to watch the sky. Earlier, ten cannons had gone off. Ten of twenty four tributes were already dead. That left fourteen to fight.

Mentally, Johanna listed who had died.

No one from district one, the boy from district two (this was odd), both from three, none from four, the girl from five, both from six, Tim, the boy from nine, and the both from twelve. She had a one out of fourteen chance of survival. Sighing, Johanna went back to sleep.

Johanna's eyes flew open when she heard a crunching of leaves. She sat up alarmed and came face to face with both of the district eight tributes and the boy from five. Oh shit.

"You know." Five said conversationally. "You should be a little more careful. Honestly, sleeping with no guard on a flat exposed rock? That's just idiotic."

The girl raised a spear, but Johanna grabbed her knife and wildly threw it at her. It lodged in her leg and she screamed as she collapsed to the ground. The boy from eight came at her with a sword and she dodged him. Yet, she wasn't fast enough. His sword pierced her arm leaving a gaping hole in place of skin. She gave a cry of pain as she rolled over and grabbed her axe and swung upwards cleaving a giant hole in his stomach. The boy fell to the ground, dead. Johanna was too busy to feel remorse for what she'd done. The boy from five had grabbed eight's sword and tossed it at her. She ducked again and chopped at his legs. He screamed as one of them was separated from his body.

Johanna's eyes widened at what she had done. While the girl struggled to get to her feet, Johanna seized her backpack, sleeping bag, and extra axe before fleeing up the mountain and away from the tributes. After properly re-packing her bag, Johanna sat down on a rock to rest. She had been climbing as much as she could all day. Now that she was away from danger, what had happened hit Johanna. She had killed someone! She had known what she was doing and had actually killed someone! Not just that, but she had severely incapacitated two other people! They would surely die now of blood loss. That was assuming the Careers didn't kill them first. She felt like such a terrible person. For the first time since her name had been called, Johanna sat down and cried for real. It wasn't an act at all. After a few minutes, she wiped her eyes and chastised herself. She had to keep her guard up. She couldn't let anyone sneak up on her gain. She didn't want to draw too much attention to herself.

That night, the girl from district five, both from eight, and the boy from nine were shown in the sky. Johanna gazed at the sky knowing that three of those four were there because of her. She couldn't believe how cruel this game was. Maybe, just maybe, Tim was wise to kill himself. It had been a quick and painless death. Nothing compared to some of the deaths in the arena. Perhaps, she should follow Tim. After all, what was her chance of survival? One out of ten. And her plan obviously wasn't working, she had still been attacked. She was still slowly losing blood. Speaking of blood, Johanna grimaced as she looked at the amount of red stuff flowing from her wound. She ripped a piece of her shirt off and wet it a little bit. She couldn't use up all her precious water so early in the game. The brown haired teen pressed the cloth to her hand and sighed in pain.

"I wish Ashton had something to send me." Johanna said to herself after two days in the arena. There were only seven other tributes left in the arena now. It was one of the quickest Hunger Games in the history of Panem. They had already interviewed the final eight tribute's family and friends. They must have interviewed David.

All that stood between Johanna and going home was the tributes from one, the girl from two, both from four, and surprisingly, both from eleven. Well, them and the fact that her punctured arm was still bleeding. Not gushing blood, but there were definitely still trickles of blood running down her arm even though she had a piece of her shirt tied as tightly as she could around her wound.

She had made it to the summit of the mountain and set up camp. No one else came to her. They had all forgotten about her. Just like Ashton said they would.

There was a nice little mountain spring nearby that she used to get water and her food came from a few snares. Admittedly, her snares weren't that good and she had gone hungry a few nights but, for the most part she was fine. If only Ashton could help her heal her blasted arm.

"Fucking sword." She muttered to herself.

A cannon went off in the distance and she sighed. Six tributes left to die. Ashton had told her when there were just a few, three or four, left, to grab her axe, hunt them down, and kill them. She would gladly have gone after six, but she couldn't. Not until her arm was healed.

"Please Ashton!" she begged.

Nothing happened. She let out a groan of despair and collapsed on to her sleeping bag. Tears streamed down her face and her arm throbbed painfully. She missed her home, and her father, and her mother, and of course she missed David. She missed him most of all. Johanna felt that she would give so much to be with him at the time. Hell, she would even give a lot to be with Ashton.

A soft beeping noise penetrated the air. Johanna whirled around to see a silver parachute soaring towards her. "Oh Thank you Ashton!" she exclaimed running to it. Inside, she found a small jar of some kind of balm and some bandages. She quickly applied the balm and wrapped her arm with the bandages before double checking the container that the supplies came in. She smiled as she found a note. It had one word written in big letters. CRY.

At first, Johanna was confused. Cry? Then, it hit her. Her strategy was to appear defenseless and weak. What had she been doing? She had been sitting up in a mountain cursing at the top of her lungs. That's why Ashton hadn't sent her anything! As soon as she had cried and begged like a coward who couldn't defend herself, he had sent her what she needed. Johanna Mason wasn't looking for sympathizers or people in awe of her. No, Johanna Mason was looking for pity. And if pity was what she wanted, pity was what she would strive to get.

"Thank you so much Ashton!" she said teary eyed. "You-you s-saved me!" she let tears cascade down her cheeks and she hugged the jar close as if it was a prized possession or a life line.

Two more days of crying and hiding past and now it was just Johanna and the remaining Careers. The girl from one, Flutter, had come looking for Johana. Johana had simulated a land slide by dropping a few heavy rocks down the mountain. Now, there were only three tributes left. It was time for Johanna to act. She packed her backpack and slipped her knife into her belt. Grabbing her axe, the district seven tribute began her hike down the mountain. Soon, she reached a piece of rock that jutted out of the mountain. She liked to use this as a lookout point.

"Oh shit." Johanna swore as she gazed down at the scene below her. The girl from two and the tributes from one were marching towards the mountain. They had figured out that she was hiding up there and they were here to kill her. At that moment, Johanna knew, the seventy first Hunger Games were going to end today. Today, one way or another, Johanna Mason was leaving the arena.

Suddenly, the girl from two whirled around and stabbed the boy from one in the neck. The boy coughed out a glob of blood before collapsing to the ground. Johanna sighed in relief as the two girls began to fight. Perhaps, they would kill each other. Just as Johanna believed she was safe, a loud rumbling came from above her. The two girls below stopped fighting and screamed.

Johanna turned around and gasped as large pieces of rock began to fall down the mountain. Quickly, she began to run as fast as she could down the mountain. She tripped and fell to the ground with a cry of pain. She scrambled to get up and got to her feet just as a boulder smashed into where she had been moments ago. Johanna continued to run until she reached the bottom of the mountain and was face to face with the girls from one and two. Abruptly, the landslide stopped. It had been a ploy by the Capitol to get Johanna and the girls together. This was going to be the last fight of the seventy first Hunger Games.

The three girls stood and stared at each other for a few seconds. Johanna closed her eyes hating what she was about to do but knowing it was the only thing she could. "I am going to do this." she thought. "I'm going to do this for David." She dived at the district one girl with her axe and sliced at her neck. The girl dodged and swung at Johanna with her dagger. The dagger grazed Johanna's side and she gave a cry of pain before grabbing her knife and plunging it into two, who had been about to attack her from behind's, arm. In a frenzy of kicks and swishes of her axe, Johanna fought with the two tributes until the both lay on the ground. All three had suffered injuries. Two had been stabbed in the gut by Flutter and then hit by the butt of Johanna's axe. She lay dead upon the ground. Johanna's side was a bloody and cut up mess and she had a gash running from her hairline to her chin in the left side of her face. Flutter, lay upon the grown with Johanna's knife in her side. She was dying slowly and painfully.

"P-p-please." she begged looking up at Johanna. "P-please!"

Johanna knew exactly what she wanted. Nodding, Johanna raised her axe and in one clean swish chopped of Flutter's head. It was a quick death. Johanna had put the other girl out of her misery.

She stood there on the floor of the meadow and sighed in relief. It was over. Johanna Mason had won the Hunger Games. She was going home. Back to David.

"There's my winner!" Ashton said wrapping her in a hug. The final interview was over. It was almost time for Johanna's return to her home. She had a big fancy house in Victor's Village and soon, she would be with David again.

"I'm am so ready to go home." Johanna sighed.

"I know kiddo." Ashton said. "Just one last dinner. President Snow wants to talk with you and has requested a private dinner with you."

"Um... Okay." Johanna said unsurely. "I'll just get ready and go then."

"Ah. Ms. Mason." Snow said gesturing for her to sit.

"Hello President." she said taking her seat. "How are you?"

"I'm well. Thank you." he answered. "How about you."

She shrugged. "I've been better and I've been worse."

"Well, I have something that will make you feel better." he smiled creepily. "Several young men have requested your company for the night. I do believe you could be quite popular here in the Capitol."

Johanna raised her eyebrows. "Requested my company? Like, they want to sleep with me?"

"Well..."

"No!" Johanna yelled. "I'm not doing it! I'm not letting you make me into some sex toy!"

"Ms. Mason!" he smiled coldly and adjusted the rose in his lapel. "I respect your wishes. Why don't you eat your dinner on the train. I'm sure you are anxious to get home."

"Okay..." Johanna said suspiciously. Had she gone too far?

All her worries about President Snow were driven from her mind as the train approached the station. Soon, she would be in David's arms. Johanna was anxious to see her boyfriend and father again. However, when she arrived at the platform, they weren't there. Neither was her best friend, Ashley.

"What happened?" Johanna asked a shopkeeper after the camera's finally left.

"To your friends and family? They had a party to celebrate you winning the games. The house caught on fire and no one made it out alive. The only thing that didn't burn were some white roses."

Johanna let out a scream of despair and began to run back to her house.

"Johanna!" Blight shouted as she entered Victor's Village.

"What?"

"It's Ashton! He seemed to have drowned in his bath tub!"

"No!" she screamed again and ran to her mentor's home. A sickly smell of roses penetrated the house as soon as she walked in.

That night, as she cried over the loss of her loved ones, Johanna Mason swore that one day, she would get revenge.

Author's Note:

Hi! This was just something that popped into my head while I was researching for Science. I don't know why, but it did. Anyway, did you like it?
If you did REVIEW if you didn't still REVIEW but please don't be mean. Just tell me why you didn't like it nicely.

Thanks!

~foureverbookworm