There will be more characters beside Kai and Marina, but it will take time for them to be introduced, I have a list of the characters ready to be introduced when the time is ready. It also takes awhile for the story to pick up, if you have an imagination, you can pick up the tiny bit of foreshadowing in here and guess what will happen eventually. I really don't know what I'm doing. This is my first 1,000 word chapter ever!

I don't own The Hunger Games

Kai

III

Our luck fell, and it fell hard. Finnick went into the games and we thought it would mean we weren't ever going in, and in one day the rest of us were going in. The luck Marina had for the past four years fell hard, on my first reaping. I knew I couldn't blame myself, but it felt like a sign. My first reaping and everything fell apart.

As the reaping finished, Marina and I were escorted into separate rooms by peacekeepers and told to wait to see if anyone would show up to say goodbye. I knew Finnick would not show up, he would be able to talk to us on the train to the Capitol, he wasn't just our brother now; he was our mentor.

The room that I was placed in way empty, no furniture in sight. The walls were a beige color with streaks of dirt visible across the surface. The floor had specks of sand trekked in from the beach on it, making me think of the things I would miss in District 4. I would miss the beaches, Marina, Finnick, swimming in the ocean searching for starfish, and helping out on fishing boats to make small amounts of extra money.

The door of the bland room slowly opened to reveal my mother. Her eyes were tear-stained and I knew that I had to be strong for her. Her blonde hair was coming out of her ponytail in chunks and her green eyes were close to flooding again. I patted the spot next to me on the floor as a gesture to sit down. She accepted the invitation and sat down silently.

"I have already spoken told Marina," she said, "She told me she wants you to be the one to return-"

"No!" I told her forcefully. "I don't care if the rules won't allow us both to come home; we will find a way to!"

"I know that this is hard to accept Kai, but we need a plan-"

"No, we don't! We will both come home!"

She didn't attempt to speak to me for the rest of the time, opting to hug me instead. I hated the Capitol; they were forcing my family into this position, making us to chose who deserved more to come home, who deserved to live more. When the peacekeeper comes to take her out when our time is up, she kisses my head and says, "Keep safe, at the minimum, you will be the one to come home."

I watched her leave and knew I had to try to uphold that promise. No one came to see me for the rest of the time, I had no friends; no one wanted to become friends with Finnick Odair's brother. I spent the rest of the time with only my thoughts, nearly driving me insane; my thoughts were mostly worry, wondering if I could come home, hoping to have Marina come home also.

I knew it was time to brace the world of the Hunger Games when the peacekeeper arrived in my room to escort me to the train tasked with taking tributes to the Capitol.

"Not a popular person, are you?" he sneered at me as we left. I resisted the urge to punch him. "Not many people showed up to see you, what are you, an orphan?"

Orphans weren't unheard of in District 4, unlike the Capitol and District 1, but not common, like District 12. There were about forty orphans in the entire district, all living in the orphanage near town square.

I chose to ignore the peacekeeper knowing it would do me no good to retaliate, except get me in trouble. As we reached the train we were bombarded with Capitol reporters trying to get 'exclusive' interviews with the tribute. The peacekeeper easily shoved them aside, and I was glad for once that he was there.

He roughly shoved me onto the train to get me away from the reporters. As I made my way into the carriage, I spotted Finnick and ran over to him and grappled him into a bear hug, my red curls pressed against his chest and my green eyes buried deep into his shirt. Tears started to flow down my face for the second time today; I mentally screamed at myself, this was going to make me an easy target to the tributes.

"Shh," Finnick whispered in my ear, "Everything is going to be alright. You are going to make it out of this just fine."

I pulled back, "How can you promise that? I'm going to die! I'm mostly likely going to be up against Careers who have been training since birth, I'm just a terrified twelve-year-old."

"I promise you Kai, even if both Marina and you both die, you will be alright; you understand me?"

I looked up into my brother's eyes and saw absolute certainly in his eyes. "How we will be alright if we die?"

"Because you will Kai," he said, "I know you will be."

We sat in silence for a few moments till Marina appeared around the corner, her sea green eyes were blank and her silk black hair was a mess. She sat down next to us with her shoulders slumped in defeat, "We aren't going to make it out of this."

Finnick didn't bother arguing with her and just sat me in his lap and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and let us cry. We stayed like this until the train started to take off into the great unknown world of the Capitol and the Hunger Games.