thanks for the reviews, and I know that lots of people have done victorious hunger game stories, but none have Cat have as the main character, or at least any that I've found

JADE POV

Her screams ring in my ears, even though it's been several hours since Katie's screaming startled me awake. I rocked her for some time, telling her that it would all be okay, that she wouldn't be picked. After all, she only has one slip in the bowl, but it's her first time being entered into the reaping, so her fears were understandable. When it was my first day I had almost broken Cat's hand when we were waiting for the names to be called. My luck hadn't been has good as my sister's at my first reaping, I had more than one slip from the tesserae I had taken out that year. My dad hadn't wanted me to, but I had done it anyways. He understood that it was something that I had to do, even though he disliked it.

I brush my still damp hair wavy black hair and look down at my reaping outfit laying out on my bed. It's a simple light blue dress. It had been my mother's, since I no longer fit into my last year's reaping outfit. Cat had suggested I wear this one, saying it would bring out my eyes. "So I'll look pretty when I'm picked?" I has sniped at her. Cat was silent after that, and I had felt bad, much to my annoyance.

I tug it over my head and stare at myself in the mirror. The dress did bring out my eyes.

"Jade?" a little voice comes from the bedroom door. I turn to see my sister's head peaking through. "Can I come in?"

"Of course," I smile. She walks in, closing the door quietly behind her. She sits on her bed on the other side of the room, her towel wrapped around her still wet body. Her hair is dark and straight and she had my father's dark brown eyes, where I had my mother's green-blue ones.

I walk over to her and start to brush her hair softly. She look up at me with her big brown eyes, and I grin down at her. I finish brushing her hair and grab her reaping dress where I had left it hanging on the window to dry.

"Put it on," I command, tossing it to her.

She obeys quickly, grabbing the dress and dropping her towel. I turn away to give her privacy. I hear the dress go over her body and I turn around. She's staring at herself in the mirror, and I smile at her reflection. The pale pink dress looks nice against her seam-olive toned skin.

"You look much better in that dress than I ever did," I tell her, a big smile on my face.

Her reflection flickers its eyes towards me, frowning. "That's not true."

"Yes it is," I insist. "I would give anything for your skin, mine's so pale."

"Just like mama's," she whispers, tears building up in her eyes.

A tight feeling forms in my chest, I can't stand seeing her cry. Ever since my mom and my older sister died from pneumonia six years ago, I've raised Katie. My dad couldn't do it because he was busy working at the mine, so since I was ten years old, I've tucked Katie in at night, sang to her, made her meals, and protected her from everything.

I pull her into my arms, tears forming in my eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to make them sink back into my eyes.

Her arms wrap around me, and she only cries harder. "I miss her," she whispers. "Anna too."

The tightening in my chest only grew. I protected her from everything, but missing our mother and our sister wasn't something I could protect her from. It was beyond my control.

So was the reaping.

BECK POV

"Cindy, will you please get out of the bathroom!" I holler. "I still have to bathe! And I let you go first!" Using your sibling's dirty bathroom wasn't the most pleasant idea, but I was too lazy to boil more water, and I didn't want Cindy burning herself again like the other time she tried boiling water for my reaping last year.

I try the knob, and it turns open much to my surprise. I knock quietly, "Cindy? Are you decent?"

"Yeah," she mumbles.

I open the door fully and see Cindy already dressed in her pale yellow reaping dress and her hair in two braids.

I smile, "You look pretty." She was starting to look more and more like mom everyday.

She rolls her eyes. "Shut up Beck."

"I'm serious!" I insist. "You look like mom."

"And you look just like dad," she whispers, not meeting my eyes.

I pull her into a hug. "It's going to be okay Cinds, you're not gonna get picked, it's only your first year."

"But what if you get picked, we can't handle losing you." She wraps her arms around me tighter.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I might get picked," I tell her, and I feel her body shake with sobs. "But I might not. Just hope for the best, okay?"

She unwraps her arms from my waist and pulls away, wiping her tears. "I'll try."

I grin, and lean over to ruffle her hair.

"Beck!" she screeches. "You ruined my hair!" She walks right over to the mirror and starts upbraiding it.

"I like it better when it's down," I tease her before leaving the bathroom.

I walk into the living room/kitchen. My mom's sitting at our kitchen table while May Belle plays on the floor with a couple blocks.

I wet a cloth in the sink with some soap and began running it over my face and arms. Reaching my hand into the arm hole of my shirt, I rub down my armpits.

"Aren't you going to take a real bath?" my mom questions.

"Nah, Cindy's fussing with her hair, I'm fine with just a quick cloth bath," I tell her.

"And your hair?"

"I'll stick my head into a bucket."

She chuckles quietly, but I can sense her unease. It's only natural, she's a mother, and two of her children are eligible to be chosen for the hunger games. One of them has over twenty slips, and they're picking four tributes this time. She managed to escape her reapings, she managed to not be chosen, but the price is that she can't protect her children. A mother cannot volunteer for her child, this is only a rule because even the capital knows how strong a mother's love is.

"It's going to be okay mom," I whisper. I take fast steps to the front door, and open the door. I pause at the door frame. "Cindy only has one slip." Before I close the door behind me I hear her response "it's not Cindy I'm worried about."

CAT POV

I dunk my head under the dirty, quickly chilling water. It had been warm this morning when I had boiled it, but after Tommy and Annie had taken their baths, it was only just tolerable. It's also dirty, but I'm used to that. I'm usually always the last one to take a bath, not that I mind. I wipe the soup all over my body and scratch some into my hair. I lean my head back, tipping my hair into the water and rinse the soup out.

I reach for my towel and climb out, shaking my hair around. I quickly dry myself, and dress myself in my lavender reaping dress. I brush through my dark brown hair, and debate on braiding it down my back, like I how I usually wear it. I decide to just leave it down, might as well.

I walk out the bathroom, and into the living room where Tommy and Annie wait, all dressed and ready. Tommy's in a plain blue button down and beige pants, thanks to Beck, and Annie in a light grey one, my old reaping dress. Annie chews at her fingernails, and Tommy just stares off into space. He has a greater chance of being picked than Annie because of the one year age difference, but not by much. He only has two slips, compared to her one slip.

My mother chooses this moment to tumble out of her bedroom. Her room is full of alcohol bottles and her breath is permanently drenched in the scent. She doesn't even look at me and Annie, her eyes only fall on my brother.

"Oh Tommy, don't you look handsome," she whispers, her hand resting on her heart. "Just like your father." She walks over and gives him a big kiss on the cheek. She then proceeds to the kitchen, reaching into the bottom cupboard for her stash, which I already know is empty. She hadn't beat the money out of me this week, and I had used it to buy myself a new reaping dress.

Her gaze finally falls on me. "Why am I out of alcohol?"

I force myself to look at her. "Because you didn't buy anymore." A plate nearly hits my head. Annie starts to cry, and Tommy looks like he's going to puke. She only directs her abuse on me, knowing Annie can't handle it, and that I would fight back if she touched Annie. She never abuses Tommy, he's the only reminder of my father she has.

"Don't talk to me like that!" she screeches, grabbing a cup to throw at me. I duck it, and she runs over to me, grabbing me by the shoulders and slamming me into the wall.

"Why didn't you give me the money to buy more?" she demands, slamming me into the wall again.

"I had to get a new reaping dress," I tell her. She raises her hand to hit me, and I close my eyes preparing for the worst.

"No!" Annie screams. My mom releases me, and I open my eyes to see her approaching Annie with a crazed look in her eyes.

"What did you say to me?" my mom growls.

"I-I-" Annie stumbles.

"You can't hit us today, today's the reaping, and the place will be crawling with peacekeepers," he points out. "We can't go in the town's square with bruises."

He's right, we'll be taken out of our mother's care and placed into the group home. Annie and Tommy won't be able to last.

This seems to catch her attention. "It's...it's the day of the reaping?"

I nod. "Yes, I left you a dress in your room to put on. Just wash your face off and brush your hair, and you'll be fine."

She stumbles into her room, in total shock. I guess she had forgotten that today is the day of the reaping, the day that her children can be chosen for the Hunger Games, a place for others to beat upon them and yell bitter words.

Her actions and words have made me tough, they've made Tommy guilty, and they've made Annie weak. I close my eyes and lean against the wall, and pray that I won't be chosen. Not because I'm even scared of the Hunger Games, but because I'm scared of what she'll do to weak Annie, and how she'll shake Tommy's conscience. I hold back tears, and I pray that the odds are in my favor today.