"I hate you! I Hate you!" Terrance gritted his teeth and put on a fake smirk, like those words weren't new to him. They wern't, he heard them all the time, especially from the lips of the girls who warmed his bed at night. He was District one's most elidgable player after all, rich, handsom and charismatic.

"Whatever baby."

"Baby!? Baby? I am not your baby! I was your play thing, for one night! I hate you." Inwardy he winced, but he kept his perfect 'I don't care' face pinned on. Keeping his hurt wrapped up securely inside, they didn't.

"Look, Shiner."

"No, you look Terrance, playing people? Is. Not. Nice."

"Please, I don't play people."

"No, you chat them up, take them home, then discard them the naxt day!"

"But I have had you for a week now Shiner, you're one of my favouites!"

"One of your favouites? One of them!"

"Shiner."

"Terrance! Terrance! Wake up!"

"Huh?" He blinked twice, infront of him was a girl, blonde ringletted, tough, the perfect one nighter.

"Shape up Dude, Essence has got the runt out side, you wanna watch?" Terrance nodded numbly, he wasn't in his bedroom with a girl. He was in the training centre, on reaping day, "Well come on useless, let's go watch from the balcony."

"Useless?" The girl didn't answer, but started to walk away, shaking his head, Terrance jogged after her. The balcony was on the second floor, so they had to tramp up a rickety iron staircase, the all the way across the width of the centre to get t the front. Then, through some double doors onto a thin slab of glass about two feet across. It groan under thier collective wait and Terrances heart froze up. The girl, he didn't know her name exactly, velly, velluh or something, didn't seem to have any qualms about the glass. But he did, step by step he shuffled across the balcony, crossing to the metal rail.

Below them was two people, one was almost the spitting image of the girl next to him. Essence was her name, she was one of the most talented careers in the district. Her swordplay was exemplar only matched by her spear throwing, any target set before her she could hit. The same could not be said for the other girl, Misery la Volte was just like her name. a misery through and through. Oh she could fight, her dagger skills were unmatched, but she was rude. Nasty and silent, she wasn't disliked, at least not openly. Terrance hated her, she seemed to be immune to his supreme charms and moderate wealth, something he was not accustomed with. It made him feel insignificant and...worthless. Someone didn't want him, he wasn't wanted there. For this reason, he felt like Misery deserved what was coming to her.

"Essence has some beef with de Volte or something, Velly?" He asked.

"My name is Vellum! Any yeah, Essence used to be her friend, then de Volte did something, or said something to her. Now they're at arms or something."

"Misery deserves it."

"You know her name, jeez, we all just call her de Volte."

"Uh, I."

"Did you hook up or something?"

"No." As soon as he said it, Terrance wished he hadn't sounded so bitter. You could tell a lot from someones tone of voice.

"Oh she turned you down did she?"

"No, I didn't ask her, she's like, gross." Vellum didn't look convinced, but they turned thier attention back to the girls. They were gone.

"Honestly Lancaster, look what you've done!"

"What? I haven't done anything!"

"We've missed what happened because of you."

"Because of me?"

"Yeah, they're probably inside. Let's go t-" She was interupted by Terrance pushing past her and jumping over the balcony. He landed steadily on his feet but didn't stay still for long, launching himself into a sprint. For most people, if faced with confrontation there was a choice, fight or flight, most chose fight. But for Terrance it was flight that took over, in a crisis he would run far away. It doesn't mean you're a coward Rance, just that you have a bigger life preservation sense than anyone else, he told himself. That's what he wanted to believe anyway, cowdice was frowned upon in a distict that volunteers. No doubt Vellum would be telling everyone at the centre he had ran off, they were probably laughing at him. He oculdn't go back there, and his home was all the way on the other side of the distict. There was really only one place left he could think of other than the market place - Onyx's house.

Real friends were far and few between in District 1, most were fake, but if you were lucky you could aquire some true ones. Onyx was such to Terrance. A tall, handsome if a bit bitter youth, Terrance had met him during a training riot. Onyx and his family were anti games, meaning they were anti training too. Terrance, new to the centre had been confused and alone. Onyx and his sister had found him hidden behind the sword rack, surprisingly they had helped him. Led him away from the rabble and back to thier home in the poorer part of the district. He never forgot where it was and the way they took was forever ingrained in his brain. Although Onyx was his main friend, his sister was another. Peridot was her name, in his opinion he was more loyal, kind hearted and fairest of girls in the distict. Of course, the only way he knew most girls was when they were naked and in his bed, so he didn't have a lot of evidence to go on.

Onyx's family lived in a small, but cosy, brick house near the Training centre, it was close enough that he was at the front door in minutes. It wasn't painted like his house was, but sanded down so it was smooth and had a small sheen to the surface. An iron knocker swung in the wind, a comforting feature. Rapping on the door, Terrance waited patiently, knowing the sometimes Mrs Carpel, Onyx's mom, was slow to open it. Within minutes he heard footsteps and the door creaked open. A face peered at him from a gap. Peridot Carpel's tanned skin and crinkly nose were classic bits of the Carpel clan. But the platinum blonde hair marked her as a typical District 1 citizen, even the other Carpel's were blonde, even though it was more a sandy colour. Sky blue eyes completed the look.

"Rance? What are you doing here? You declined our offer of company on reaping day."

"Peri! Come on, please?"

"I don't know...but whatever, we're going now anyway. ONYX! Terrance is here!"

"What? Peri? Who is here?"

"TERRANCE IS HERE YOU OLD DINGBAT!" There were many thuds following, which Terrance guessed was Onyx coming down the stairs. The door opened fully and there stood a boy, Onyx.

"Rance! Mate, what are you here for? You were going with your family today."

"Yeah, I changed my mind..."

"That's fine, we're just going now, you ready to go?" Terrance took one look back, before nodding.

oOo

The escorts were amoung the most hated of capitol citizens, they were the epitome of squeaky pampered idiots. At least, they were in Terrance's opinion. Elerrina Scrambby was no exeption, violet skinned with glowing pink eyes, she was like an over excited stick of cotton candy.

"So then my lovely lovelies! Shall we begin? I think we should, so girls first!" She dipped her perfectly manicured hand into the bowl, swirling it around before, plucking on up. She snapped off the tape and took a good long look at the name.

"Shiner McCaul!" Terrance froze, he knew who that was. He had been with her before, she was a career wannabe through and through. But a nice one, she had taken the time to actually get to know him, less could be said for the others. He bit his lip, no one would volunteer for her, he wished they would. Shiner walked up to the stage, lips quivering. He was sure she had come to the same conclusion as he had.

"I volunteer!" Huh? A girl, tall and rangy, with dark chocolately hair stepped out of the seventeen year olds section. He knew who she was, Misery de Volte. He didn't know why she had volunteered. Only that he was glad she had. When Shiner passed Misery on her way back down, she grappled de Volte in a tight hug.

"Thank you." She said, loud enough for every one to hear. Misery just shook her head and carried on walking.

"Well, a volunteer! So sweet, I am so glad!" Elerrina squealed.

"No doubt you do." Misery said dryly.

"Why wouldn't I, aren't you glad? Aren't you thinking of the victory?"

"I'm more thinking of the food if I'm honest." Titers filled the crowd and even Elerrina lughed.

"Capitol food is very nice."

"Of course, you'd know that wouldn't you." de Volte's voice turned bitter, "Seeing as you have food every day."

"You don't?"

"Sometimes, it depends on whether Mom worked extra hours."

"Well that's just...sweet. Onto the boys!" Our escort seemed hasty in her speech and her choosing of the slip. Misery had un-nerved her, and de Volte knew it, "Terrance Lancaster!"

His heart sped up, it was him? Then he calmed it down, a career would volunteer for him. Everyone knew that he only trained for fun. He even managed a smile as he climbed the stairs.

"Terrance! How lovely dear."

"Yeah, Hunnger Games! Whoo." He grinned half heartedly.

"Any nice volunteers for this young man?"

No – one. Raised. Thier. Hand.

No – one. Yelled. Out.

"Well then, there we go. Our two tributes every body!" Then he bagan to panic. He was going into the games, with Misery de Volte, "Shake hands you two." The nasty smile on Misery's face told him enough. He was going to pay for what he'd done in the arena, and unless he thought of a plan quick, he wasn't coming out alive.

A/N

Present for you guys! Another chapter! So, I have some things to say, in order now.

1, This chapter, is D1 reaping. You get to know both Terrance and Misery more here. I hope you like them both.

2. Terrance is the brain-child of Queen Overlord – thank you so much for sending him in. And Misery is Enelya Arcamenal's. Go check thier pages out!

3. There is no more updates for a bit. I am away tomorrow and am busy this weekend. Then I am going to Great Yarmouth on holiday – I'm not allowed to take my laptop – my parents are so mean. So, while I'll be writing in a notebook to write on word, there is no updates then. I MIGHT update this weekend, it all comes down to what I'm doing tonight, tomorrow night and then Saturday and Sunday.

Questions -

1. Is this way of doing the reaping's okay?

2. How do you like Terrance and Misery? Are they okay characters at the moment?

3. What can I do to improve?