Ferrari Benz, 15

Night fell on District Six.

Ferrari was fully aware that the next day was the reaping. She also knew that she should probably be home with her family, supporting her little sister, Jaguar, through the night before her first reaping.

But there was something about drag racing that Ferrari was in love with – no, addicted to. Those fractions of a second that Ferrari spent riding at hundreds of miles an hour were the best moments of her young life. And she just couldn't get enough.

Ferrari sat behind the wheel of her car. She glanced out the window and eyed her friend Polly in the other car, who gave her a little wink. Ferrari focused on the flag that her other friend, Shif was waving at the end of the track.

One wave.

Two waves.

Three waves.

GO!

Ferrari slammed on the gas pedal, allowing herself to be swept up by the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She traveled the length of the course in half a second, then let out the drag chute on the back of her car to slow down the car.

"I think Ferrari won," yelled Cell, the fourth in their crew, "but I'm not quite sure. Both cars were going too quickly."

"Let's push them back and go again!" yelled Polly. The four friends worked together to push the cars back to the start, then rotated; Polly took the flag, Ferrari watched for the winner, and Shif and Cell got behind the wheels of the cars. The four girls worked together in the dumps of the district, and they often used the parts that didn't seem to fit on any other car on their drag racers.

"Check the cars, Ferrari?" asked Shif. Ferrari obliged, making sure that nothing had fallen off of any of the cars or rendered them unusable in the past race.

"All good."

"Race number 25," announced Polly. "Ready, set, GO!" She quickly dashed out of the way of the incoming cars. As the cars came in, the tire blew on the one Cell was driving.

"Whoops. Didn't catch that one," said Ferrari.

"I guess we have to call it a night," added Shif. "I'll see you in the morning," she finished, a bit tensely. The four all exchanged hugs before heading back to their houses.

When Ferrari arrived at home, she noticed that only one light was on: the light in the room she shared with her sister, Jaguar. Ferrari entered the house quietly and headed up to her room. "Hey, honey. Why are you awake? It's late."

"I can't sleep. I'm too nervous about tomorrow," replied Jaguar, looking up from the book she was reading in her bed.

"Don't worry, honey. Your name is only in there once." Ferrari had taken tesserae a few times, but not enough to be too consequential. Her and her parents all had jobs, helping the family earn enough money to keep their girls from taking too much tesserae; Ferrari had only needed to take one a year to keep them afloat.

"But I still don't wanna leave you. And I don't want you to volunteer if I get picked."

"Here. I brought you a project to take your mind off of the reaping." Ferrari went into her closet and took out a pair of white sneakers and a pack of markers, then held them out to her sister. "Wanna decorate my shows for the reaping tomorrow?"

Jaguar nodded enthusiastically. She immediately grabbed the pink marker and began to draw on the right shoe. "What do you want them to look like?"

"Whatever you want, Jag. I trust you."

After about fifteen minutes, the shoes were done. Jaguar had mainly used pink and blue, and decorated the sneakers with pretty swirls that traveled across the tongues of the shoes. "There you go!"

"Those look very pretty, Jaguar," said Ferrari. "Thank you; I've been meaning to decorate these for a while!"

"You're welcome. I feel better now." Jaguar gave her big sister a hug, then got into bed. Ferrari sat next to her, rubbing her back until she fell asleep.

Danira Muntaner, 16

"Next!" exclaimed Danira as she pushed herself out from under a car.

"Hello, Danira. How are you?"

"I'm doing good, Mrs. Exxon. How are you?"

"I'm doing well, thank you. Have you finished the repairs on our vehicle yet?"

Danira got up and went to the counter to check the log-book. As she skimmed through the entries, she sparked up a conversation with the woman. "How are the kids doing?"

"Nervous today, as is natural. My four boys are all safe, but Derek's girlfriend is eligible, and we all hope that she doesn't get picked."

"But she could still come back."

"That's true, and that's what we're hoping."

Danira grabbed a set of keys from the pegboard hanging on the wall. "Here are your keys, and the car is out back. Please be careful of the other cars as you head out."

Mrs. Exxon took the keys from the young girl. "Thank you, darling! Have I paid you yet?"

"Yes. Thank you for coming. Next! Oh, hello, Peacekeeper Geare."

The Peacekeeper gave her a generous smile. "Hello there, Danira. How are you doing on the repairs on the official car?"

"My grandmother is working on it right now. It should be ready for the reaping today. Would you like to see it?"

"Yes, please."

Danira pointed the Head Peacekeeper back towards the outer yard, where her grandmother was working on the car. Danira was technically the apprentice, but as her grandmother's eyesight was not what it used to be, she took most of the jobs; her grandmother only took the important ones, like any Capitol vehicles. "Next!"

Danira turned around, and immediately blushed when she saw the man standing across the counter. "Hello, Carlo."

"Hello, Danira. Can you give my bike a quick polish before the reaping today?"

"Of course," said Danira. "I'm always free to polish your bike." Danira pulled out a rag and began to scrub. "Are you ready for your first reaping in District Six? It must be sort of exciting. It really isn't for us. But it must be cool to be so close to the action." Though Danira was conscious of the increase in the speed of her speech, she couldn't really stop talking; it was something about Carlo being there that made her lose all self-control.

Not that she was all that great at controlling her speech to begin with. She enjoyed conversing with the people who came into and out of the repair shop that she and her grandmother ran, and learned al lot about them as a result.

"Danira, I think you're using the wrong rag," Carlo broke in. Danira looked down and turned the same shade of red as her jumpsuit. Carlo was right; she'd taken her dirty rag instead of the one with polish on it.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Here, I'll fix it." Danira quickly grabbed another rag and cleaned off the bike, then began to work with the correct rag.

"I can see that the nerves about the reaping are getting to you," smiled Carlo.

"Yeah, th-that's it," stuttered Danira.

"Danira!" called her father. "How many more people are left in the shop?"

"Just Carlo. I'm finishing his bike now."

"OK. You need to go get ready for the reaping," he instructed, coming into the shop. "I'll finish it off. Hello, Peacekeeper Carlo."

"Hello, Mr. Muntaner. Your daughter seems sort of nervous for today."

"Isn't that natural?"

Danira took the opportunity to scoot out to her room. She lived with her grandmother, to her parents' dismay, though they all agreed that, if Grandma still wanted to live on her own, she need someone living with her. Danira was also her grandmother's protégée, and both figured that Danira would learn more about repairing cars if she was living with Grandma.

Danira first brushed out her light brown hair and put it back up in its normal ponytail. She usually just put it up quickly and messily, but today decided to make it look actually nice. She looked through her closet for clothes, but decided to forgo the nicer outfits in her closet for a white t-shirt and jeans. Before leaving her room, she took the wooden frog from on top of her dresser and slipped it into her pocket. This was her grandfather's lucky frog; Danira didn't know how much she believed in luck, but it had worked for her for four previous Reaping days, so she hoped it would work one more time.

Danira gave her father and grandmother kisses before leaving for the town square. She checked in and found her place in the section with the other sixteen-year-olds, silently awaiting her fate.

Drenaline Fisher, 18

Drenaline stood in the crowd of girls closest to the stage. She was quiet, as usual; she didn't really have an interest in socializing with the other girls. Not for a long time.

Her story sometimes seemed to her like a cliché: a mother and a sister who died in childbirth, and a father who became abusive as a result. But unlike most kids who found themselves in that position, she hadn't changed too much over the six years since the incident. Drenaline had always been quiet and reserved, more interested in sitting by herself and just thinking than being with other people.

Today, then, was a pretty good day for her. Because nobody was super interested in talking to anybody else on Reaping Day.

Drenaline focused her attention to the three Victors on stage, District Six's only four living Victors: Sydnee Leigh, known for her "attack and run" strategy that had often categorized Six's tributes in the Games, the completely incapable Gigi Jefferson, Orris Engine, who managed to kill the last tribute in her Games by simply stabbing her in the back, and Alex McGhee, who was generally disliked by most of Six.

The escorts were equally as odd. The secondary escort, Sugar Willard, was quite short, but clearly very excited about her new job. Levvy, the primary escort, was decorated, as usual in makeup and a very decorated dress. Most of the district was used to his genderqueer nature. It was unclear to many of them, not least of all Drenaline, how exactly he identified, as he didn't tell anyone except the tributes he reaped; none of them had made it back home since he came onto the job four years prior. But he had made it clear that he preferred he/him pronouns, and the district obliged.

Levvy dipped his hand into the large bowl and selected a slip. He brought it back to the microphone and read it out in front of the nervous crowd of ladies.

"Elysia Hall!"

A small girl with her brown hair in a pixie cut slunk her way out of the section of fifteen-year olds. She seemed out of it, as if she was under the influence of something; Drenaline guessed that it was morphine.

Levvy dipped his hand into the bowl a second time. "Ferrari Benz!" Another girl came out of the fifteen-year-olds' section, laughing nervously. Suddenly, it turned into full-blown laughter. The girl – Ferrari – fluffed her chin-length black bob before climbing up the stairs to the stage.

Again, Levvy drew a slip from the bowl of names.

"Danira Muntaner!"

"NO!" exclaimed a girl from the sixteen-year-old section. Drenaline watched as a Peacekeeper helped her to the stage, keeping Danira standing as she continued to trip over her own two feet. "Please, someone volunteer, please," she begged, continuing to do so until she reached the stage and fell down on her knees. "Please…"

Levvy immediately saw that he needed to do something. "Remember, darling, Garnet still has to make his selections. You still have a good shot at being safe." Danira took the cue and began to calm down a little, taking her place with the other two girls who had already been Reaped.

Just one name, thought Drenaline, and I'll be safe from the Reaping forever.

"Drenaline Fisher!"

As she slinked her way to the stage, Drenaline really wished she had a needle of morphine to jam in her arm and take her out of the life she'd found herself in.

Elysia Hall, 15

The first thought that crossed Elysia's mind when she was Reaped was that she would miss that night's gig.

Elysia had become moderately successful in the nearly non-existent music scene in District Six, and she was expecting to sing at a restaurant that night.

It took her almost until she was led into her goodbye room to realize where she was really going. Into the Games. She felt detached from herself, like it wasn't her that was going to her death. The reality of the situation was that she probably was.

Elysia allowed herself to be sat down on the couch before her first guest was led in. She was thrilled to see Dalton, her coach, mentor, agent, and father figure, come in, and threw herself at him.

"Oh, Elysia," he said, returning her hug. "I was hoping this wouldn't happen. I had a hunch about this since you started doing that morphine."

"Come on," she replied, still slightly dazed. "I did better with the morphine. I became a better singer."

"You did," conceded Dalton. "But you also are so out of it all the time."

"I don't care," she slurred. "It made everything better."

"But now it's going to hurt you." Dalton had to admit that the morphine had made his girl more outgoing at her performances. But a girl addicted to morphine was no match for an Arena.

"Meh!"

"Elysia," instructed Dalton, "you need to use your strengths here. Sing for Garnet. Maybe he'll like you then."

"Meh!"

"You took morphine right before the reaping, didn't you?"

"Yep." Elysia took a deep breath and looked at Dalton. "Thank you for helping me with everything, Dalton. I'm going to miss you."

Then, Dalton was led out of the room. Next, Elysia was greeted by someone with whom she had an unusual relationship.

"Hello, Atlas," said Elysia, eyeing the boy who came in to greet her.

"Hello, Elysia."

An awkward pause followed.

"Well, I guess there's no better time for me to apologize," Atlas murmured, looking down at his feet. "So, I'm sorry for the things I said to you and about you in middle school."

"Apology accepted, I think," replied Elysia, not really wanting to look him in the eye either. She wasn't entirely sure to what degree he had changed; their relationship had been awkward since he'd begun to express interest in working with her and sitting with her during lunch over the past year. But she'd often been fine with sitting alone in the past, so she didn't completely understand why Atlas had suddenly taken to her. And she didn't know if she wanted him to be attracted to her.

"I hope that you'll consider taking this as your token." Atlas handed her a necklace that looked quite expensive. Elysia looked at Atlas, then at the necklace, then at Atlas, then back at the necklace again. She figured that this was one of those times where forgiveness was necessary, and took it from him. "Thank you," he said, and quickly left the room. She slipped the necklace into the pocket of her gray jacket, and promptly forgot about it.

Elysia didn't expect anybody else to visit her. So she was quite surprised when her parents entered the room.

"Though you might have been a mistake, Elysia," said her father, "we couldn't leave without saying goodbye to you. So good luck, and may the odds ever be in your favor."

And with that, the two walked out. That had been about the extent of their relationship towards each other for the past few years.

After a time, Elysia was led out to the train. As it pulled out of the station, and the morning's morphine began to wear off, she suddenly realized what was happening.

I am going into the Hunger Games, she thought. And I am probably going to die.

Hey everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I generally hate breaking my own patterns, but there was no better way for me to write for these girls. It still seemed a bit off to me, but that might just be me.

So what do you all think? Who do you like? Who didn't you like? Give me a sense of the ideas you're getting from the girls we've met!

I'm still missing a bunch of tributes, so if you have any ideas for people to submit tributes, please let me know! Up next are the D7 reapings, and then a quick visit back to Garnet and Ruby in the Capitol.

All of your support means the world to me. Thank you all for everything!

Yours,

goldie031