Hi! Sorry for not updating in awhile, I've been working on another story that I won't post on here for awhile. A special thanks to Allythecole for the review!

On with the story!

Lizzy

As everyone else begins to exit the car, I begin to attempt to stand up. Unfortunately, from sitting awkwardly on my half-leg for a while, it feels numb, and I can't even move.

"Um… a little help?" I ask, feeling embarrassed about the situation I got myself into.

In the end, Rose and Amor have to pull me up, while Isabella stands snickering in the background.

"Yes," I say, falsely laughing, "Very funny. Now could we please hurry up? We only have thirty minutes until the announcement, and we won't have much time after we figure out what we need to do."

Rose, too, has been trying to laugh, but unlike Isabella she has enough self-control to contain it.

"And what do you two keep laughing at, anyways?" Amor asks, clearly frustrated.

"Nothing!" they chorus quickly.

Amor is about to retaliate, but I cut him off, "Let's just forget the subject, okay? We can ask them some other time."

Amor sighs, "Fine, but as soon as possible we need to find out what they keep laughing about. It's starting to annoy me."

Isabella whispers something to Rose, quickly followed by a stream of laughter.

"There they go again. But little sisters will be little sisters, I guess," I say, making a futile attempt to cheer my friend up.

He merely nods, before we realize that the rest of the group is far ahead of us. I growl, letting the reality sink in that at this rate, we'll never catch up. I explain this thought to Amor, who looks ahead at our two little sisters, before looking back to me.

"Well, we had better start walking, then."

When we finally catch up, we are both out of breath, and the rest of the group is already in a line of people.

"What are you guys waiting on?" I ask, squinting to see the beginning of the line, which is a pretty long way into the distance.

"I don't know, but it looks like some people are getting out of line," Rose replies. I look, and sure enough, Peacekeepers are moving a few people at a time out of the line, and into a crowd gathered a few yards from the Square. I quickly notice a pattern, though. All the people who are being led out are adults, as well as everyone who isn't between the ages of twelve and eighteen.

When a Peacekeeper gets to us, she looks at me and pulls mom out of line before saying, "Please state your ages."

"12," Rose begins, her voice shaking.

"12," Isabella adds, not quite sure about what to think of all this.

"12," Analex continues, more confident than the other two, but still a little unsure.

"13," Linda deadpans without a trace of fear.

"I'm 15," I say, my voice coming out much more uncertain than I intended it to.

"16," Amor finishes in the same tone as Linda, and the Peacekeeper nods.

"You will be reunited with this lady after the Re- the announcement," she finally replies.

It's the first time I've heard a Peacekeeper slip up in a while, but at least now I'm more certain on why we are here. There will be a Capitol Hunger Games, and we are here for the Reapings. The thought doesn't calm me, but it makes me feel like I have a bit less to think about. Unfortunately, now that I know what is about to happen, I feel so worried that I'm afraid I'm going to be sick.

I don't know where mom is anymore, as she isn't where she and the Peacekeeper were last standing, and I realize that the Peacekeeper has moved farther down the line, probably to take another kid's mom away from them. I look around for a bit, before finding mom in the group of adults and younger children who aren't old enough for the Reapings.

Once I snap out of my thinking trance, I realize that the line has moved quite a bit forward, and I make my best guess that it will be a matter of minutes before it's our turn to go through the gate and into the Square, where I can only guess that the Reapings will take place.

"Are you doing okay?" Amor asks out of concern. "You look a little sick."

"I'm fine," I say, smiling a little. The more I smile, the more I feel like I'm going to puke, but I have to convince him that I'm okay.

Sure enough, we are soon standing in front of yet another Peacekeeper, who has a sheet of paper in front of him.

"Finger," he orders, his voice not directed at any single one of us.

Linda, her face showing that she couldn't care less, sticks out her finger and waits impatiently as the Peacekeeper draws her blood. The Peacekeeper then sticks the freshly-drawn blood sample onto the paper, which I now see has other blood samples on it. He sticks it on a new line, and fills the rest of the line with Linda's personal information.

"Finger," he repeats just as he did before.

"Does it hurt?" Rose asks, her voice dripping with curiosity.

"Not at all…" Linda says, trailing off at the end as if about to continue. Rose, however, doesn't let her finish speaking and sticks out her hand. The Peacekeeper roughly grabs my sister's hand and sticks the needle into her finger, earning a yelp of pain from Rose, followed by a short fit of crying.

"You said it didn't hurt!" she wails, holding her finger with her other hand.

"Yes, but I'm stronger than you, and you know it," Linda replies, letting her big ego get the best of her for a second.

Meanwhile, Isabella and Analex gasp, looking between the Peacekeeper and Rose in horror. The Peacekeeper shrugs before putting the blood on the paper and filling out Rose's information.

"Finger," the Peacekeeper demands as if nothing has happened.

The two girls look between each other, before looking at me and Amor. I sigh, realizing that I have to be the one to go next. I stick out my hand, dreading the pain that will soon follow. I brace myself, closing my eyes. After a few seconds, I open my eyes, only to find the Peacekeeper putting my blood on the paper and writing down my information.

"Rose, you over-exaggerated," I say, turning to look at my sister.

"Didn't it hurt?" Rose asks.

"No, I didn't even feel anything."

"Wow… My sister is so strong!" Rose beams. I sigh, shaking my head sadly at my sister's naivety.

"Yeah, she is!" Isabella exclaims, and I look at Amor, who is repeating the same procedure I just went through.

"Finger," the Peacekeeper says, clearly frustrated with all of our talking.

We remain silent through the rest of the procedure, not wanting to hold the line up anymore. Isabella cries for a while, Analex merely whimpers, and Amor remains monotone.

Finally, we are able to proceed to the Town Square, but we are stopped by another Peacekeeper.

"Please state your names," he orders roughly.

"Lizzy Snow," I begin.

"Rose Snow."

"Linda Summers."

"Analex Crane."

"Isabella Heavensbee."

"Amor Heavensbee."

"Very well, it looks like the five of you are coming with me," he says, motioning to me, Rose, Analex, Isabella, and Amor. "Linda Summers, I will direct you to where you need to go. The rest of you, wait here until I return."

"Um, okay…" I say, while Rose turns to Linda.

"We'll meet back up after the announcement, won't we?" my sister asks innocently.

Oh, if only you knew what is about to happen!

"Yeah, of course," Linda replies dismissively.

The Peacekeeper leads her to a section marked 'Female; 13' before returning to us. So this really is happening, I think dreadfully. These are the Reapings.

"Follow me," he orders, and we all obey. Soon, we are standing on a different platform, raised a bit above the rest of the crowd. We pass the first section, which is labeled as 'Flickerman', without stopping.

He leads Amor and Isabella to the second section, titled 'Heavensbee,' and leaves them there. I see a girl that looks about 14 standing there as well, and I recognize her to be Amor's sister, Arista. I see his mom and dad sitting in another section behind their kids' section, along with Amor's twin sisters, Tiara and Kiara, who are seven.

We then pass a section with 'Crane' written on it, where we say goodbye to Analex. I turn to look at Felicia, Analex's sixteen-year-old sister, and smile.

"Hi, Felicia," I say, hoping to start a conversation with my used-to-be-friend and failing miserably.

She merely glares at me, giving me the universal look for 'shut up, I don't care' and looks back at her fifteen-year-old brother, Maximus, who smiles apologetically at me. We quickly move on to the last section, with the appropriate label of 'Snow.' He leaves us here, and we look back, seeing mom sitting in the chair behind us.

"Mom!" Rose exclaims, running up to her and giving her a hug, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," I lie, catching up to her, "but we're about to find out."

I look at the clock on top of the Justice Building that serves as the center of the Town Square, seeing that it is almost time for the announcement to start.

I turn around, suddenly realizing that the Peacekeeper hasn't left yet.

"You have approximately fifteen minutes to talk to the other citizens on this platform, and then the special announcement will begin."

He turns away, walking towards the entrance to the Justice Building. Rose runs over to Analex and Isabella, and the three of them begin chattering away about some insignificant topic. I swing my crutches forward, preparing myself for the long walk towards Amor, before mom momentarily stops me.

"Lizzy, please be careful."

"I'll be fine," I reassure her, before resuming my journey towards the 'Heavensbee' section, only to see that Amor is already walking towards me. To my disappointment, we met up in between the 'Snow' and the 'Crane' section.

"How you always beat me everywhere is no mystery…" I say, trailing off at the end.

"Well, it's not my fault, it's that driver's."

"Oh, don't remind me."

"So what are you two friends talking about?" A voice sneers, sending shivers down my spine.

"What do you want, Felicia?" Amor asks with the same amount of hostility in his voice.

"Oh, nothing. Can't someone check and see if their old friends are doing alright?"

"Why would you care anyways?"

"Well, someone has a poor attitude."

"You're one to talk!"

"Ouch, that hurt," Felicia says sarcastically.

"Will you guys stop fighting already?" I scream, not able to take any more fighting.

Amor and Felicia can't even pass each other in the hallways at school without giving each other a cold stare at best. On most occasions, however, they exchange at least a few harsh words. Every so often, unfortunately, it breaks into a straight-forward fight, and at least one of them gets sent to the principal's office.

"But really, what are you two up to?" Felicia asks boredly.

"Well, isn't this all a bit weird?" I begin, "I mean, think about it. A special announcement, all the Capitol citizens having to be gathered at the Justice Building, on the day of the Reapings-"

"Oh, of course you would know," Felicia mumbles, interrupting my speech.

"Well, think about it! What if it is another Hunger Games?"

The Peacekeeper returns, holding a glass bowl and setting it on a podium in front of the first section. He then leaves again, and another Peacekeeper- or maybe the same one, I can never tell- brings out another bowl, setting it in front of the 'Heavensbee' section. Another bowl is set in front of the 'Crane' section, and finally a fourth bowl is set on the podium in front of 'Snow.' I stare at the bowl for a second, before suddenly being whisked back into the strange, frightening dream I had last night.

I stand on the same podium, watching the same glass bowl from the same viewpoint. A person's hand is placed into the bowl, now filled with small pieces of paper, and quickly pulls out one of them. A name is spoken, but no sounds come out of the person's mouth. An arrow whisks past, changing the scene before me.

I am now inside a cave, feeling the rumbling of the ground below me as an earthquake shakes the interior of the cave. Suddenly, a stalactite drops down onto me, but I don't feel any pain.

"Are you okay?" A voice asks, deeply concerned. I recognize the voice, but at the moment my head feels so foggy that I can't figure out who is speaking. I feel my mouth move, but just as a person runs over to stand above me, the scene becomes so misty that I can't see- or somehow hear- anything.

A wave of water washes over me. I try to swim above it, but no matter how hard I try, I can't find enough strength. Someone pulls me up, and I open my mouth, getting ready to attempt talking. The scene abruptly changes, and I know this can't be the end of this part of the dream. It just changes, for seemingly no reason.

Instead, I find myself in a small clearing in the middle of a forest, standing upright again. I turn my head to look at the edge of the trees. Right after doing so, however, a pack of huge, wild dogs jump out at me, before beginning to rip my leg off. I don't know how this is possible, however, because I'm not supposed to have this leg. Anyways, once the muttations- since that is what I have concluded them to be- are done with mauling me, they retreat back into the forest.

A voice asks what happened, but once again, I recognize the voice, but at the moment I couldn't match the voice with a name. I hear someone else cry out in surprise, before feeling my mouth move once more. This time I can make out a few words.

"You…out. Tell…sister…her," the voice that I'm speaking from doesn't sound like mine at all, but I realize that it is the same voice that asked me if I was okay when I was in the cave.

"Okay," a much weaker voice whispers, on the verge of crying. "I will."

The view fades for a second, before I find myself at a cornucopia, somehow completely revitalized.

"Hm, it looks like it's about to rain," the same weak voice mumbles, "I guess he was right…"

Suddenly, a loud crack of thunder makes both of us jump. As I look up, a bolt of lightning is shot down from the sky, and I suddenly find myself face-to-face with the panicked young girl.

"Run!" I shout, pointing to the cornucopia. We make a run for shelter, not knowing whether or not it would help, while smaller bolts of lightning quickly follow us. She makes it into the shelter before I do, but when I am a few feet away from the opening, a tremendous bolt of lightning shoots down from the sky, hitting me so hard that I fall to the ground.

"No!" she screams, running over to help me into the shelter, "You can't die, too!"

"It's okay," I mutter, "you can go home now."

"But you're my best friend! You can't leave!" she cries, her face flooding with tears. I slowly close my eyes, not able to take the nonexistent pain any longer, before the whole world goes black.

"Are you okay?" Amor asks, deeply concerned. I look at him like he's crazy before replying weakly.

"Yes, I'm fine… I just remembered about the dream I had last night…"

"So Isabella's not the only one who had a nightmare?" Amor asks, although I can tell it's a rhetorical question.

Felicia just shakes her head sadly, turning away in disgust, "I'll bet that this is a bad time to say that I didn't sleep well last night, either."

I quickly explain the dream to them, and Amor nods, before saying, "Well, that part about the wild dogs sums up Isa's dream."

I look at Felicia hopefully, but I can tell that she has ended her part of the conversation. Before I can try to apologize for anything I might have done to offend her- which his really easy to do at this point- a voice cuts off all other thoughts.

"If everyone would please get into position, it is time to begin!"

Great, I think in disgust, let the 76th Hunger Games begin.

Okay, so what did you think about the chapter? What did you think about Lizzy's dream? About Felicia, and all the other characters introduced in this chapter? About all the dreams? What do you think Felicia's dream was about? That's a lot of questions, I know. Anyways, I'll try to update in a few days, if not before that.

I would've updated yesterday, but I went bowling. Nope, I didn't get any strikes. Or spares. But I got a lot of pins down, even if I didn't get them all. It was fun, either way. And then we went to get frozen yogurt, which was delicious. :-)

Still can't think of an ending sign,

~Dawn101907