Eve Roxlinthe, age 12

District 3 Female

I grinned at Zil when the mayor, the escort, Pepin, and Three's victors took the stage. We were going to volunteer this year, together, just for a chance to legally kill. And to get our brother, Sullivan. Weeks ago, we had made sure that Sullivan was going into the arena with us by signing up for hundreds of tesserae in his name, putting his name in the drawing thousands of times. Sometimes, even I was amazed at our genius.

I felt hands on my back. I turned, annoyed, and saw our mother and father standing there, looking nervous. "I'm sure you girls will be fine," our mother whispered. "Don't worry about it." Zil nodded, and I followed her lead. Of course, they don't know about our plan to volunteer. They don't know about most of the things that Zil and I do, our "experiments" on small animals in the District Three laboratories. My personal favorite of ours was when we attached rabbit ears and baby fox feet to a frog.

Sometimes science was just so fun.

Pepin took the microphone. I smirked at Zil, knowing that she was thinking the same thing I was about Pepin's ridiculous neon colored suit.

"Happy Hunger Games!" he said. "And may the odds be ever in your favor!" Not wanting to waste any more time, Pepin zipped to the girl's reaping bowl and pulled a slip. "May I please have on stage Miss Felicia Gadge!"

I ran forward, and, cackling evilly, I screamed, "I volunteer!" The Felicia girl didn't have time to leave her group, so I didn't know who I was saving.

But it didn't matter. For these Games, Zil and I had only two goals in mind: slaughter everybody and kill Sullivan.

Zil Roxlinthe, age 12

District 3 Female

I didn't mind that Eve got to volunteer before me. I got to hear the confused murmurs of everybody around me. Three never had volunteers, never mind a twelve year old. And now there were about to be two. I grinned, and reached into the pocket of my jacket and curled my fingers around my switchblade knife. Nobody knew I had it, not even Eve, and we knew everything about each other. But it was my favorite possession, the one I used for all of our tests on animals.

On stage, Pepin looked just as surprised as everybody else. "It seems that we have a volunteer!" he said. He shoved the microphone in Eve's face. "What is your name dear?"

"Eve Roxlinthe," Eve said, smirking at the crowd. She strode away from Pepin, and stood, with an air of confidence, as the first tribute. Pepin gave her a strange look, but said into the microphone, "Well, a volunteer certainly is exciting! Let's see if we have another!" Pepin chose another slip.

"The second female tribute is Lani Bishop!" Pepin announced. I took my hand out of my pocket, and raised my hand, a twisted grin appearing on my face.

"I volunteer!" I yelled, and my mother grabbed my shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she practically screamed at me. "I can't lose both of you!" I just yanked myself away from her, and walked to the aisle, the other girls parting so I didn't have to shove through them.

This was going to be fun.

Dayta Flash, age 15

District 3 Female

Two volunteers. And both sisters. Twelve year olds. What happened to them that caused them to volunteer for a death match? I hoped that they could make it far. I hated watching young tributes die.

Would there be another volunteer? I doubted it. The odds were against it. Three rarely had anybody volunteer, so having two right off the bat should have been a sign that this year wasn't going to be a normal year.

Pepin picked another slip, and the square went silent. I closed my eyes, and took deep, even breaths. It wasn't me. It wasn't going to be me.

"The third female tribute is Miss Dayta Flash!" Pepin announced. My eyes shot open, my heart racing.

There will be 144 of us, that makes my ultimate odds 144-1. Don't cry, Dayta, don't even think about it. Crying will get you nothing with the sponsors, decreasing your odds even more. I walked through the rest of the fifteen year olds, my mind working furiously to calculate how to put the odds in my favor.

You may need to make an alliance, even though you may not want to. Allies will be good for protection against the Careers, and supplies, and moral support when it's needed.

I hit the center aisle, and shuffled my way to the stage. I looked up at the two girls, Eve and Zil, and the thought that they would have to die if I was going to win hit me, and left me with a dull ache inside.

Smarts could get you far in the arena, but my question was this: if two twelve year olds stood in my way of taking the crown, would I kill them, or let them kill me?

Xena Tompkins, age 15

District 3 Female

I knew Dayta. Not very well, but we were in the same year at school, so I had seen her around school. She was smart, and maybe her smarts could get her through the Games.

I held my hands behind my back, trying to hide my right hand from everybody. I was born with six fingers on that hand, and when I was adopted my Bridget and Lucy, my foster parents, they told me that they didn't have enough money to afford the operation to remove my extra finger. It didn't bother me, I was just self-conscience about it. And sometimes, like when I was working in the workshop, it was even helpful sometimes. When you needed to hold a gear inside and old clock, a sixth finger helped.

Pepin was back at the girl's reaping bowl, making a big show out of choosing this next slip. Half of the girls were already chosen, so odds were slim to none that I would be picked, despite all of my extra tesserae. Besides, there were hundreds of other girls who could be reaped. It couldn't be me.

"May I please have on stage Miss Xena Tompkins!" Pepin asked.

The shop. My first thought was not for myself or the fact that in a few short week, I could be dead. No, my first thought was for my family, and their workshop. Then I thought about myself. I wouldn't be able to get into the college I applied for. I wouldn't be able to work again.

But I was going to fight. Of course I was. Who wouldn't?

Luova Denker, age 15

District 3 Female

A girl next to me was sobbing, shaking uncontrollably with tears running down her face. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn't know how. I didn't even know that girl's name, let alone what I would say to cheer her up. And besides, it took a lot of time for me to actually open up and speak to people.

My eyes sought out my grandfather on stage, one of the past victors of the Hunger Games. He looked at me, and smiled reassuringly. I was still puzzling over the riddle that he told me last night. I can't be seen, I can't be touched, when you see me you can't have me forever, I can give you anything you want, but when I'm gone everything is back to normal. What am I? Instead of worrying about the reaping, I was trying to figure out the riddle.

Solving problems always calmed me down, no matter how infuriating they became.

I was so lost in thought that when the Peacekeeper touched my arm, I jumped, surprised. What was going on? On stage, Pepin smiled a little, and said, "There you are Luova."

Had I been reaped? It wasn't possible, was it? I had taken out lots of tesserae, but only to help the poor in the district. I would help them constantly, and take out tesserae for the younger children so that they didn't have to. But I hadn't taken out so much that I was reaped, had I?

Seemed like I did. Because I was now a tribute, heading to the Capitol. But that didn't mean that I regretted helping the poor.

Maddsyn Holmes, age 18

District 3 Female

The reaping was almost halfway done. To be honest, I couldn't wait for it to be over so that I could slip back into my lab, and do some more science experiments. I had just recently gotten some new chemicals, and I couldn't wait to see what they were able to do.

Ever since I was a little girl, I had always been fascinated by science. I loved finding the answer to a question through experiments, and just doing experiments for fun. Anything I could do, I did it. And when I built my own lab, I spent even more time emmersed in science.

But it all went downhill from there. Last year, my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which meant that I had to take care of my seven year old sister, Nova, because my father was always working to get money for my mother's treatment. Nova was really a sweet girl, but she could get in the way when I'm trying to do experiments. But I tried to not lose my temper with her.

Pepin picked the final girl's slip. He walked back to the microphone, and I looked her the girls already reaped. Two twelve year olds and three fifteen year olds. One of the girls - Dayta, maybe - had a faraway look on her face, like she wasn't quite there.

"The final female tribute representing District Three is Maddsyn Holmes!" Pepin said, and I froze.

What caused fear? I had been wondering that for a long time. There wasn't a simple experiment to solve that problem. But the fear prickling my stomach was real, so once I reached the Capitol I could use that feeling along with all the technology at the Capitol's disposal to solve that hypothesis.

My experiments would give me an edge in the Games. So don't count me out just yet.

Happy New Year! My first update of 2018! I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you to:

gameshungerplayer for Eve and Zil,

Foxfaceisthebest for Dayta,

Fire'sCatching for Xena and Maddsyn,

and Norbus95 for Luova.

I hope I did them justice! Today's song is New Years Day by Taylor Swift (I thought that would be appropriate for today).

This will probably be the last update for a week or so because I'm going back to school tomorrow and you all know how teachers just love to cram things in after break. So be expecting another update sometime later this week. Until then!

-D9T