Xena Skrane:

I run my fingers over my smooth head. I began shaving it a couple of years ago, and then got it tattooed with red swirls that start at the top of my head and twist down my neck and onto my shoulders. Wherever I go, people look at me funny, trying to figure out whether I am male or female.

I am told I look more like a boy. I have broad, muscular shoulders and thick legs, and my lips are thin. I am fierce, and I have an extremely short temper. I show no weakness.

When I was fourteen, I lost my left eye and ear in an explosion. No one knows what caused it, no one wants to try to figure it out. But after that, everyone felt sorry for me. That's why I shaved my head. I'm sick of being thought of as weak.

I am sitting at home now. Waiting. In just a little while, I will have to go to the square in front of the Justice Building for the Reaping. I'm not afraid. If I get chosen, I'll do my best. I'll kill everyone in my path, and win. I have very few doubts that I'll be able to. I have gotten used to using only one eye and one ear, and I don't think it will be enough of a weakness to get me killed. If I don't get chosen, I'll volunteer anyways. Because if I can win, no one will ever think of me as weak again.

A voice breaks into my thoughts. "Here are your pancakes, Xena," says my mother. I look at them.

"They have blueberries in them! I specifically said that I wanted plain pancakes today! Make a new batch," I say. She'll eat the ones with blueberries if I don't. We don't have enough food to waste any. But still, she will make a new batch for me. She's weak, and I have always bossed her around.

I also have a thirteen-year-old brother. He is exactly like my mother. Weak. Even I am more masculine than he is. He is a coward, and I despise him for it. We have never gotten along. Right now, he is upstairs, still only waking up. He might even be late for the reaping.

My father is the only person in this family that I love. I am just like him in both the way I look and act, and he is very proud of me. He is confident that I can win the Games, so he is glad I am going to volunteer.

It's finally time. I walk over to the square to be lined up with the other seventeen-year-old girls. As I walk, a small group of people comes to flock around me. They think I am the greatest thing ever, and they are always following me. But when we get to the square we are split up by Peacekeepers and sent to our own age groups. And I wait. It doesn't take as long as I thought it would before the female tribute is picked, and then I volunteer.

This is going to be fun.


Vicious Kvitova:

If I hadn't been reaped, I would have been a Peacekeeper.

That is the only thing I can think about. Maybe there is still a chance, but it is slim. I mean, I'm up against twenty-four other tributes! Not to mention the other girl from my district, Xena Skrane. She intimidates me.

But I need to be the intimidating one if I am to survive a minute in the Games. I need to be quick, cunning, smart. I need to be strong. I must come out alive. I must come home and become a Peacekeeper. I can't let this stop me.

All I've been training for, all my life, is to be a Peacekeeper. It's everything I've ever worked for. I have no life outside of Peacekeeper training. I've avoided friendships, avoided love, distanced myself from my family, all because I've been preparing to be torn away from my home when I turned eighteen.

It's been two days since my eighteenth birthday. At eighteen, I am officially allowed to join the Peacekeepers, but they haven't allowed me to sign up yet, because of the Reaping. They didn't want me to sign up, then get reaped and not be able to join anyways. And they were right. I was reaped, and not a single person cared enough to take my place.

When I am taken to a room to say my last goodbyes, only my parents come.

"Vicious, you know we love you, right?" my mother says. I grunt. "We love you more than you'll ever know. No matter how much you push us away, we will never stop loving you." I say nothing.

The room is very silent, and extremely awkward. No one says anything. And time passes by slowly. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Although there is no clock in the room, I can hear the seconds ticking by in my head. Tick, tock.

Finally, a Peacekeeper comes in. I know him. I've known him for a long time, but he doesn't acknowledge me. He escorts my parents out, but my dad has time to say, "I hope you come back. Please try to come back, Vicious."

Just because he says that, I'm beginning to think maybe I won't.


Xena:

My father is my only visitor. My mother and brother are too afraid to be put in a small room with me, and the adoration of my small flock of admirers only goes so far. But the visit with my father is nice. He understands me like no one else can.

"Be brave," he says, "show no weakness. No mercy. I know you can outsmart them all. You'll be home in no time." He smiles, and I grin back. Then he hugs me, a form of affection that no one has shown me for a long time. I stiffen, but then relax and hug him back.

I decide to give him a surprise, too. "I love you," I say. I never say anything like that. But he simply says, "I love you, too," and grins again.

I really am sad when he is escorted out. I know that no matter what I say, there's a chance I won't be coming back. I would never admit that aloud, but there's a small part of me that admits it's true.

But there is one thing I know for sure.

I am not afraid.