I wake up to the smell of a delicacy. Bacon! I hop out of my dirty bed in which feels like grain and rush into the kitchen, which is literally one door away.

"Hi, little bro." I mumble, seeing the back of his blonde ponytail. "Scared?"

"N-No!" The younger child retorts. "And I'm only younger than you by ninety seconds!"

"You're still younger." I jeer, suddenly wide awake.

"Rin, Len; that is enough!" Says our eldest sibling Meiko, who is basically our mother. She flips her brunette pixie cut out of her face before continuing. "Rin, say you're sorry."

"No." I turn my pale body around, flipping my shoulder length blonde hair with me. "You're not my mother."

That was the wrong thing to say, obviously. Meiko hated talking about Mom, or Dad, for that matter.

"Well I'm the best you're going to get!" Shrieked that 21 year old.

I lowered my cerulean eyes to the floor. "Whatever." I mumble, sitting down at my plate.

I look at my little brother, that little boy, so defenseless.

"Ow!" Len yelped as I pinched his skinny arm.

"RIN!" Meiko screamed.

Time to run. I shove the bacon in my mouth. "Fanks for the breffast!" I yell and run out of the house.

Meiko doesn't even try to run after me. She knows she'll never catch me. I'm the fastest kid in my school. I can run four hundred meters in thirty-two seconds.

I find my friends Gumi and Kaiko. They're playing hopscotch.

"Thirty!" Gumi declares proudly, as she hops ten squares ahead of Kaiko. Her green hair floating behind her like a bubble.

"What?" The blue-hair behind her mopes, "only five more squares and you win!" Kaiko's deep blue and indigo eyes go from shock to determination. She picks up her rock and slams it hard on the 'thirty-five' box. "Ha!" She winks at Gumi. "I win again."

"Not for long." I yell and run up to them.

Gumi embraces me. "Rin!" She cries, her bright green eyes sparkling. "Beat Kaiko in hopscotch for once. She's impossible to beat!"

Kaiko smirks. "Winner gets bragging rights for a week."

"If we're here in a week." Gumi says grimly.

"Will you stop?" Kaiko moans. "Can we not think about this? Let's just play a nice ordinary round of hopscotch."

I wince. "Go easy on her, Kaiko. Remember what happened to Gumo, okay?"

The mention of Gumo makes Gumi burst out into tears. Gumo was her brother two years in her senior. He been killed, victim to the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games are what happened hundreds of years ago. Our country, VocalUtau (VU), rose up out of the ashes of a place once called Japan. There were disasters, droughts, storms, fires, tsunamis, wars, you name it.

The result was VocalUtau, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprisings of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth destroyed. The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, gave us the Hunger Games, a 'game' televised on live TV.

The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must present one boy and one girl of ages twelve through eighteen, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will then be imprisoned in an arena that can hold anything from a scorching hot desert to an arctic wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the 'tributes' need to fight to the death. The last person standing wins.

We are in District Twelve. We don't have much food, or water to keep us going. We get about 500 calories a day… if that.

Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 get the most food because they provide the best luxuries to the Capitol. District 1 provides clothing, District 2 provides jewels and other precious rarities, District 3 provides electronics, and District 4 provides hand-polished wood and metal.

Our district provides paper.

"Shut up!" Screams our neighbor; nicknamed Sweet Anne. "You're not the only one who's scared."

I glare at "Sweet" Anne, as I rub Gumi's back, trying to get her to calm down.

I whisper to Gumi, "Our names are only in there three times and there are thousands more. They're not going to pick you, or me, or Kaiko."

To pick the tributes, they have a public "reaping" in the city circle. Basically, your name is in a gigantic bowl with all of the other children your gender. Your name goes in as many times as the second digit of your age. Twelve year olds go in twice; thirteen year olds go in three times, and so on.

A woman from VocalUtau, the Capitol, comes up and reads the names out loud.

Then, the two tributes that have been chosen are whisked away to the Capitol to be pampered and made "dolls" so they get sponsors, rich people from the Capitol that pay to send the tributes whatever they need.

After that, the tributes start their training (which is not televised), based on their score in the game-maker's private viewing, (1 being "Oh she'll die in the first day" and 12 being "This boy has a 99.9% chance of winning)", they'll get sponsors.

I keep rubbing Gumi's back, humming her favorite tune to try and calm her down.

"Shh, Gumi, none of us will end up like your brother."

"Gumo!" Gumi sobs, her shoulders racking with each breath intake.

Okay, I remember last year's Hunger Games were the worst.

I remember squeezing Kaiko and Gumi's hands, praying, not me, not me; please keep my friends and family with me, not me

The lady from the Capitol, Hachune, reached into the clear crystal bowl that read all the names, she was a midget so her teal hair reached down to her feet as she stepped onto the stepstool, blushing like an idiot while her filed canines glinted in the early September morning. She was wearing a pink Northface and jeans with brown cowboy boots.

My blood turned to ice as she pulled out the name. There was a dramatic pause and you could hear the paper factories mulling in the background miles away.

Hachune smiled and said, "Our young lady tribute shall be…"

Not me, not me, not me! I thought desperately.

Hachune's eyes glinted as she said the name.

"Zatsune, Miki."

My heart leaped at the thought of Miki being sent to her death. I've always hated her. She used to tease Len when she was ten and he was seven. I had seen Len with the all of the boy thirteen-year-olds clench his fist as if to say, "Finally!"

But then I had a good look at her. That usual smug look she had was replaced by a sniveling, red-nosed, puffy-eyed look. Miki had the same hairstyle as Hachune, pigtails, only she had black hair that reached to her mid-calf. Her black eyes were big, and she was mumbling, "Why me?"

She had walked slowly up to the stage in silence, while Hachune clapped her hands off, only to realize that nobody else was, but that didn't stop her.

Miki had stood next to her, hands stiffly towards her side, head down.

Hachune stood on an even taller stepstool and put her arm around Miki.

"So," She had said, shaking the younger girl by the shoulders. "How do you feel about receiving the honor of representing District Twelve in the 100th annual Hunger Games?"

Miki had said with a strained and choked voice, "Uh, um…" She paused to wipe her nose on her sleeve. "I'm scared." She wiped the right corner of her left eye with her shoulder.

Hachune planted an obviously phony smile on her tan colored lip balmed lips. "Did you hear that?" She said to the audience. "The child is scared straight, anyone want to volunteer as tribute?"

Of course, nobody stepped forward, and Miki began to sob.

Hachune didn't notice, of course, because she was already at the boys' crystal bowl.

I had felt a sudden worry that Len would be picked.

I glanced over to see that he was biting his nails.

I clasped my hands together, shut my eyes, and prayed.

Hachune had put her hand in the bowl, and grabbed the first name she could.

"Megpoid, Gumo!"

It was silent, and then we had heard a loud cry. Everyone turned and stared at the girl next to me. It was Gumi.

"Guuuumo!" She shrieked.

Gumo had looked our way, and put his hands up in her direction, stretching all of his fingers into a half-point.

Gumi, hunched over and sobbing, put a shaking right hand out and clenched in his direction.

Gumo had said, "I love you" with his hand motion.

Gumi had motioned that she had caught it.

That was when she fell.

I had lain on the couch in the living room, watching the Hunger Games with Gumi. She squeezed my hand hard enough that it hurt.

A few weeks into the Games, it came down to the final two. Miki had been killed in the first day, fighting for supplies. I had screamed to the TV, forgetting that she couldn't hear me, "RUN MIKI!" But then I heard the thunk of a knife in her back. As she coughed up blood, the girl that had stabbed her; kicked Miki in the ribs, making her fall. Miki wasn't totally dead yet, because the cannon didn't sound, marking her death, but then I saw it… that horrible knife hit her neck, completely dismembering her head from her shoulders.

Boom!

Miki was the first to go.

Gumo had enough sense to ditch the supplies and head straight for the woods, and that was what had gotten him into the final two.

He and a girl from District Eight had been fighting it out for two days, not pausing to sleep.

Gumi was really excited, "Gumo could be coming home!" She screamed. "He coul—"

Fatigue had overcome Gumo, and he had shut his eyes, leaned against a tree, and mumbled, "Kill me, kill me now."

The girl raised her knife, "Any last words?" She looked sorry to have to kill him.

"Yeah," Gumo said. "I'm sorry to do… this!" He pulled out his spear from behind his back, and sunk a hole in the girl's chest.

She was dead before she landed on top of him, her knife still clenched in both hands. If the knife hadn't been there, he would've lived, but the knife was there, and it sunk right into his chest.

There was no winner for the 100th annual Hunger Games.

And Gumi had been beside herself.

I shake my head, forgetting that memory, and focus my attention back on Gumi.

Kaiko shakes her head. "It's time." She says.

I lead a still sobbing Gumi behind a school house while everyone slowly makes their way to the reaping.

I let Gumi regain her composure before walking slowly to the fourteen-year-old girls' line.

I swallow deeply.

Let the reaping start.

I clasp Kaiko's hand in mine and give it a squeeze.

I clasp onto Gumi's shoulder and give it a shake.

They smile weakly.

I look ahead and see Hachune. She's dressed in blue a printed T-shirt with silver sparkles outlining the words "I WANT MORE" with a treble cleft on the bottom. She has blue All-Star jeans with a star on the back in silver rhinestones and the actual jean cutoff is at the ankle. Her teal pigtails are held up in pink scrunchies and she's wearing red rectangular glasses.

She smiles with her filed-down-to-a-point canines flashing in the camera.

"Welcome, welcome to the 101st Annual Hunger Games," Hachune gushes, "Let's switch it up. Gentlemen first!"

She steps on the stepstool and dips her hand in the crystal bowl.

My stomach gives a disgusting lurch.

"And the young man, representing District Twelve will be…" Hachune pauses to unfold the golden piece of parchment.

"Shion, Kaito."