-Becquerel Pierre, 17, District 3-

Two Years, Seven Months before the reaping

The hospital was just plain sad.

Maybe it was the mood Bec was in, or maybe it was the place itself, dim and dreary, but it was just plain sad. Bec had never been so far from home before, either. Usually when things went wrong, he and his friends would just go to the local nurse, who would give some remedies and send them home, already feeling better, without charging them a cent. This was different. This was so different. How were any of them going to pay these bills?

Bec had been put in a room with a stranger, in a different ward than the others.

He hadn't had to be put under for surgery, luckily, but he was still worse for wear. His entire body was covered with scratches and bruises and injuries. His middle two fingers were bound in a cast. He just felt lucky he got off so easily.

Bec stared at the ceiling a while. He hadn't slept at all the previous night: he was wildly unsuccessful when he tried, so around 2:30 he just gave up.

He just stared blankly at the ceiling, making stories in his head, going through tomorrow's objectives, planning out his homework and other tasks, thinking about everything except for what had happened the previous day.

Around 5:45, he heard talking from the other side of the curtain. He tried not to listen, but soon found that he couldn't help it. He needed something to get his mind off of the horrors he'd witnessed.

"I missed you," a younger voice said, followed by a quick "Sh…" from an older-sounding voice. Neither of the boys could have been older than reaping age.

"Sh, Henryk, you have a roommate now. You can't be too loud."

Bec considered saying something but decided against it. He was usually a beacon of hope and light, but right now he just couldn't manage to be that person. Sure, he could heal, granted the others were alright, but for the moment he couldn't say anything joyful. He kept his mouth shut.

"Sorry," the younger voice, Henryk, whispered.

"Listen, it'll be okay, alright? All I have to do is survive my last reaping, and then I'm going to go to University and study plant genetics and I'll get a really good job in science, okay? Then we'll pay everything off, okay?"

"You'll be gone…"

"No no, I'll be closer. I'll still come, okay? Your big brother's got this, alright?"

Bec wondered how Erwin was doing. He hadn't been there when it happened, but Bec knew he would feel guilty for that. Bec was sure Erwin wanted to visit, but going to the main District was already so expensive, and they had enough debt already climbing.

"Okay," Henryk said, before there was some silence. "Phil?"

"Yeah bud?"

"Can you sing me Piano Man?" his voice was tiny and quiet, fighting off tears.

Bec heard a laugh from the older boy, but it sounded sad more than anything. "Maybe later. I don't want to wake your roommate. Someday you'll get out of here and I'll play it for you on a real piano, okay buddy?"

"Yeah, alright." He sounded sad.

The older voice started to hum, ever so quietly. Bec wished he had a low voice like Phil's, which was steady and quiet and calming. Bec didn't know the song, but he enjoyed hearing it anyways. He closed his eyes and drifted into a dark, dreamless sleep.

.

The curtain was still up when Bec woke up, but the room was silent. He rubbed his eyes, sitting up slowly and realizing this might be his only chance to see them. He didn't care if he wasn't allowed, he had to see them. He shivered when his feet hit the cold, smooth, tile ground. Clothed in a robe so thin it was practically paper, it was hard to coax himself out of his warm bed. And, worse, when the covers were off, he couldn't pretend he didn't have breasts. He walked slowly, cautiously, hiding when someone came walking by. He had to play it cool.

He kept going, until he ran into a nurse, who gave him a look.

Shit, Bec thought, but he kept his posture confident and tall. He could talk his way out of this yet. And if not, what were they going to do? Flog him?

"Excuse me," Bec said smoothly, and attempted to keep walking when she called after him.

"Excuse me. Where do you think you're going?"

Bec sighed and turned back around, keeping an easy smile on. "My bathroom's flooded," he said. "I was just looking for the nearest one I could use. But, as you can see I'm a patient, and the public restrooms are probably full of germs. I was just going to go use the one in an empty room." He gave her a confident smile. If he felt like he was telling the truth, it would come across as the truth.

"I recognize you," she said, and Bec cursed his hair. It was so easy to pick him out of a crowd because of it. He loved the ginger color of it, seemingly bright red against many of the other District civilians, but at times like this he wished it were just slightly easier to blend in. "This is an awful long way to wander just to find a bathroom, is it not?" she saw right through him. Bec cursed inside his head again and decided to take a different approach.

He sighed and put his head down, staring at his feet. "You're right, ma'am," he said quietly. "It's a lie. My bathroom isn't even flooded."

"That's what I thought, let's get you back to where you belong now."

"Wait!" he said. His eyes filled with tears and he looked up at her, making sure she saw. He squeaked a little bit as they started to roll down his cheeks. "Please, ma'am. My friends and I were attacked by rabid people completely out of the blue… They were unprovoked… They did this to me and they hurt my friends. There are bills to pay and we'll have to take more tesserae to eat. I don't care about that, though. I just want to see my friends. I want to know if they're okay." He let out a sob, letting the tears flow freely. "Please ma'am." he sobbed a little bit. "Please let me see my friends. I'm aching for my home, none of my family can afford to visit. I'm really worried about them. Please let me see them. Please ma'am. I promise I won't ever bother you again if you just let me see them."

He let more tears come out of his eyes for good measure, glancing up at her with glassy green eyes. Nobody had been able to resist them before, and he was pulling them out in the big league. The woman pursed her lips, before her brown eyes softened and she strode over to him.

"Don't cry, it's alright. I'm sure they won't mind if you just stop in for a little while." Bec knew that he struck gold with this woman, as she took him to the system to get the room number of Ariadne and Jace, who were staying in the same room after both of them required surgery. She even escorted Bec to the room and protected him by being sent back by some of the other doctors they passed.

"Thank you so much Ma'am," he said quietly, slipping into the room and closing the door before she could follow. He wanted to see his friends and spend as much damn time as he wanted with them. She wasn't going to keep him here "for a little while" if he wanted to stay for a long while.

The temporary feeling of victory at getting there was replaced by more tears, much realer tears, as he caught a glimpse of his friends. Both were so still. So pale. Almost dead-looking.

"Bec!" Rose crossed the room and enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug. Bec didn't care if it hurt, he needed her. Rose, the best fighter out of them all, had also coincidentally gotten off with the least injury. She was taken to the hospital with the rest of them, but was released with a couple of band-aids within an hour. She stayed to be with the others, and Bec didn't realize how much he needed to see her until she was there.

"Hey," he mumbled into her neck as she let go.

"How'd you get here?" she asked. Bec figured he must have looked worse off than he felt, and just shrugged.

"I have my ways."

She glanced back at the other two, any joy she may have had at seeing Bec gone immediately. "Neither of them's moved since I got here.

Bec swallowed a lump in his throat and glanced down at Ariadne, who was lying on the bed closest to him. Her chest went weakly up and down, but very shallowly, as if a bigger breath would cause pain.

It had gone too far. It had gone much, much too far.

He couldn't believe that just yesterday at this time, they had been walking together, laughing and chattering away. And now they were here. Miles away from home, in the main District, in this place. It was unfathomable. Yesterday, he had shoved her playfully as they walked. Today, he was seriously afraid she wouldn't open her eyes.

"Did they tell you what it was?" Bec asked Rose quietly. He knew that, of all of them, Rose was easily the strongest both physically and emotionally. She'd been hardened from her upbringing, forced to work in the plant at a young age. By now, all knowledge of reading and writing had been replaced with fighting tactics and the best ways to read people, which she had passed onto Bec.

"Broken ribs," Rose said quietly, causing Bec to visibly cringe. "I think a broken arm, too."

Bec lightly ran a finger through Ariadne's long, blonde locks. They really didn't deserve this. Just because they were different from everyone else, they were dragged through hell. Bec hated it. He hated those Peacekeepers' kids that did this to them. He was going to get his revenge.

"What about Jace?" he asked, peering over at the youngest of the group at 13.

Rose let out a small sob, something Bec had never seen her do before. She buried her face in her hands, mumbling apologies, and Bec stood there, stunned at seeing her like this. It was truly pitiful. He felt angry, and bitter, and hurt, and betrayed, and concerned, anxious, nervous, upset.

"Rose?" he asked, anxious to hear her answer.

"Blind," she said softly.

"Huh?"

"They said he wouldn't be able to see. Ever. Again." Her voice shook with anger and resentment, pain and hurt, and overwhelming misery.

Bec looked at Jace's face, covered in cuts and scratches, especially right by his eyes. He felt like he wanted to vomit. He wanted to run away and hide forever and never come out. He wanted to personally find Morrison, Jacinth, and Tanith, and break their ribs and blind them. He shook with anger, with sobs, and sadness and pain and misery. He turned around stiffly, clenching his fist.

"They'll pay for this," he said, voice shaking.

"Bec-"

"We're going to ruin them." Bec didn't feel sorry. He wanted to see them suffer for what they did. To think that Jace will never see again because of what they did. That Ariadne was put on death's doorstep.

It was unfathomable to Bec that they were even here right now. He never even dreamt of being there, in that dreary hospital, worrying about how they were going to pay the bills and if they were going to even survive, dammit!

He wanted to make them all pay for what they've done. In the most extreme way a couple of District kids could get revenge on the children of Capitolites. He quivered with tears, squaring his shoulders and hardening his face. He couldn't cry in front of Rose right now.

"Just you wait," Bec said, his voice as fiery as his hair.

"Bec…" Rose murmured, but at seeing the fire burning in his eyes, she hardened immediately, knowing that he wasn't going to stop until they never went near Bec or his friends again. An angry tear rolled down Bec's face and dropped on the floor as he thought about the events of the day previous and relived them before his eyes.

"We'll make them pay for their sins."

-Kaelys Deinard, 18, District 3-

Seven Months before the reaping

It was just another stupid day.

Another stupid day of waking up and hearing the little ones running around, with no knowledge of how to be quiet. The pitter patter of their little feet on the wooden floor always woke Kaelys up, even though she was surely used to it. She couldn't remember a time where she'd ever felt so lively as to jump and run and dance around like the little ones, though. It just wasn't a very Kaelys Deinard thing to do, she supposed.

She got up and rubbed her eyes, yawning. It was another stupid day alright. Not a stupid reaping day or any of that shit, just another day. Another day of life. Another day to coast through.

She got up, not bothering to turn the light on, and threw on the first articles of clothing her hands brushed. She couldn't give a damn about how she looked, to be quite frank. It was like Kaelys to be frank. She wasn't one to hide. She didn't believe in it.

She ran a comb through her wavy brown hair, but only until she got bored of doing it. Honestly, if it wasn't the healthy thing to do, she probably wouldn't have taken the time to do it at all.

She yawned again and went into the community bathroom, and was shocked to find it empty. Usually there were other girls and little ones all over the place, trying to get a look in the Community Home's only mirror, or get to the tiny little sink with the rusty spicket to rinse out their mouths or smooth down their hair or whatever else they used it for, Kaelys didn't pay too much attention.

Today, though, it was silent. That was strange. That was more than strange. Kaelys wondered if someone had kidnapped all the other orphans or something. She just shrugged it off, not worrying herself with the feeling of concern for a group of people for which she had no love.

They didn't really have love for her either, of course. Sure, they valued her, the money she put in and the work she did, but did they love her? No. Nobody loved Kaelys. Her parents hadn't even loved her enough to give her a goddamn chance.

Kaelys splashed some water on her face to wake herself up, and rinsed out her mouth. It was routine. Even though the bathroom was quiet for whatever reason, it was routine. It was more efficient that Kaelys didn't have five, six, as many as ten kids at once trying to use the sink, all while little five-year-old Windsor wailed that he had to go peepee and for everyone to please get out.

After that, she went out to the kitchen, where she would have breakfast, sometimes even help make it. The halls were eerily silent. Kaelys was seriously curious. What happened? Was it reaping day and she just forgot? She had no idea.

When she entered the kitchen, it was dark. That almost never happened. She tried the switch, wondering if the Capitol cut power to Three for whatever reason. The small light buzzed to life, and everyone who lived in the Community Home, including their caretaker, was crowded on the other side of the room.

"Surprise!" they all said at once.

They were right. Kaelys was definitely surprised. She clutched her chest, her heart beating hard. What had they done? Why did they think this was funny?! Sure, the older kids thought that popping out at the younger kids and shouting "Boo!" was funny, but Miss Klein always yelled at them for that. What the hell were they doing then?! They had all ganged up against her. Kaelys was immediately ready to fight, her face turning into a scowl as she balled her fists. What the hell were they doing!?

"So sorry for scaring you, Dear!" Miss Klein said. She called them all her Dear. Probably out of pity that they all ended up here. "We really didn't mean to!"

"What is this?!" Kaelys was mad, and wasn't afraid to convey it, even if it caused some of the younger ones to hide, their joy sucked away. Most of them hadn't really talked to Kaelys and were afraid of her, cowering.

"Kaelys," one of the older orphans, Eliza, stepped forward. "Please don't be mad. We were just trying to give you a birthday party!"

The tension in Kaelys's shoulders only relaxed a little bit as she looked between them all. "A what?"

"A birthday party!" Spencer stepped forward, her ponytail bouncing slightly. "Miss Klein said you'd never had one before!"

"How do you know my birthday?" she asked. She knew nothing about her past life and thought that Miss Klein had been honest in everything that she knew.

"I don't, Kaelys. I told you all I know. But the anniversary of the day you were brought here is in a couple of weeks, so I can assume your birthday is somewhere around today."

Kaelys relaxed. She tried to see the best in people, so she believed her foster parent. "Oh." Kaelys had always figured that since they didn't know when her birthday was, she might as well just not had one at all. Year after year went by without anything except for the silent knowledge that Kaelys was a year older than she was. This was… Kaelys had no words for it. A lot of hassle, mostly. "Alright then, let's celebrate my parents giving me away," she said, voice oozing with bitterness. She had absolutely no tact, which the others knew.

"Or we could celebrate the day that you entered the world," Miss Klein said, her voice full of gentleness and pity.

Kaelys sighed, knowing she couldn't get out of it. "Sure." Celebrate the day that Kaelys entered the world. More like, celebrate the day that you received a hardworking leader that would try everything to haul all of you out of poverty, she thought. They may have valued her, but nobody would ever love Kaelys. Not even her own parents.

The orphans sat around the kitchen table, Kaelys still pouting, and chattered just as jovially as if they were celebrating the Winter Festival.

"In honor of the celebration, we've been saving all the way back since last year for this beauty!" Miss Klein placed a small, round, pink object on a plate on the table, causing the kids to bang their silverware on their plates excitedly. As wonderful as it looked, Kaelys was still slightly pouty.

This whole birthday thing sucks, she thought, stuffing her fork in her mouth and enjoying the sweetness that exploded across her taste buds. But at least there's cake.

.

"So they all hid and just screamed out absolutely nowhere? Rough, man, really rough," Liah said sympathetically. Kaelys knew that Liah would understand. The girls had stayed together out of necessity all these years. She lit a cigarette and inhaled, trying to let go of her troubles, even if only a little bit. She knew that Miss Klein would kill her if she saw this, but Kaelys liked being bad. It was the closest she got to feeling alive these days.

"I'm still stuck on the cake, to be honest," Flint said. "Was it good? Was it like the ones in the window of the big bakery in the town?"

"The University kids always go there," Haley added. "They're so easy to pickpocket. Although you can't judge a book by its cover. One time I went after this guy that looked like a fucking nerd- turns out he was strong as fuck. Career-level strong. Wow did I have to talk my way out of that one."

Kaelys didn't want to hear her close calls. They just made her nervous. If Haley wasn't stealing for them, they'd be down much-needed food, water, and a meeting place.

"Be careful," she said.

"I know," the redhead sighed.

Kaelys knew all about judging a book, though. She had so often been that book. Sometimes she hated her sweet little face and her deep brown eyes, but most of the time she could use it to get away with whatever the hell she wanted. Surely a girl with such rosy cheeks as hers wouldn't dream of infiltrating the black market, right? Wrong.

"The cake was good," Kaelys said. "It was pink. It wasn't nearly as pretty as the ones in the window, though, they probably just bought the cheapest one and said it was "for the orphans" to get a discount."

"Well, they weren't lying, were they?" Flint asked, and others laughed a bit.

"Better than us," Liah added, causing some more laughter. Kaelys liked the feeling of belonging she had from being with her friends.

"I remember when I was a kid and my Dad commissioned the baker to make me a cake for my seventh birthday," Lucas said dreamily. He was very familiar with the taste of cake, having been the son of a Peacekeeper.

"Why would you leave that kind of life?" Haley asked. Kaelys looked up, wondering why she cared or wanted to know.

Lucas didn't seem too fazed, though. "I didn't like my Dad's rules. Never have. I had some friends with some of the other richer Peacekeeper kids, but they fucked themselves over big time by getting into a scuffle with a group of rats like us."

"Yeah? Who?"

"You wouldn't know 'em. It was on Southside. They would have been fine if they hadn't blinded that kid." None of them cringed at the thought of such a thing. It was life.

"What happened to them?" Flint asked.

"They got busted. Hard. The rats totally twisted the story and got them all sent back to the Capitol to be… Oh, what was the word they used… Re-educated."

"Huh."

"The ringleader even got Avoxed."

"No way, I call your bluff," Hayley said.

"True story. That was giving my Dad ideas about what to do with me, so I got the fuck out of there before I was stuck cleaning mahogany tables and shelves of breakable collectibles for the rest of my life."

"Where's Emil?" she asked, noticing the group to be one man down. "Weren't we going to unleash our plan today?" Kaelys liked to stay on business. It was how she emerged as the leader. Just like the orphans needed her to work and make money, her friends valued her leadership. They didn't love each other, Kaelys wasn't vain enough to think they would, but they needed her so they kept her around. She was satisfied with that, because she needed them too. She'd go nuts without them.

"Yeah, where is Emil?" Liah looked around, her brow creasing. "Rat bastard. We're doing this for him." Emil was a notorious drug dealer, a dangerous industry that required a lot of risk and balls of steel. He was the toughest of the group, and had taught Kaelys everything she knew about fighting. However, planning to infiltrate the market of Brennan Scutter, the most well-known dealer in the area, while shooting him and his cronies dead and stealing their money and stock, was a task that was best completed when the groups were even in number.

Kaelys liked it better when she got to fight hand-to hand, just so she could knock the big guys out without staining their coats with blood. She liked to take the big guys' thick cargo coats, they were warm and heavy-duty, meant for late nights out on the job, but the served their purpose for Kaelys.

Sometimes, people looked at the cute girl in the big coat and asked, "Aw, is that your boyfriend's?" but that question made her laugh inside, because there were multiple things wrong about it.

"Damn him, he promised he wouldn't be late," Hayley sighed.

"Two questions," Lucas said, putting up to fingers. "One, since when has Emil ever actually been on time? And, number two, which I think is a more important question. Since when did we care about being on time?" Lucas asked, eyebrows raised. He could be such a pretentious rich boy sometimes, even after being stripped of everything and on the run for three years.

"I guess," Hayley sighed.

Kaelys spoke next, brushing her hair behind her back. "I agree, though, sometimes I wonder how long before we should assume he's dead and go into mourning." It was the truth, but sounded so much like a joke that everyone laughed, including the speaker.

Emil appeared just then, lugging a body towards them, just the man they were going to ravage together. None of the friends cringed at the sight of their friend carrying a bleeding body, and Kaelys knew the next words that were going to come out of his mouth, as all the friends stood up to focus on the new task at hand.

"Change of plans," Emil panted, wiping some blood off a wound on his forehead. "I need help hiding a body."

"Say no more," Kaelys said, before launching into a plan.

~.~.

A/N: Another District of intros done! Yay! I hope you liked these two, they're a joy to write!

So, some updates! First off, I added mentors and escorts to the blog for this story! I sprinkled in headcanons galore, so I hope you read some (at least for your submitted escorts/your tribute's District) and let me know what you think! I do plan on putting the tributes on there, but instead of image links I'm finding aesthetic pictures because I like it better so it'll probably take a while. We'll see.

Also, another thing: there's a poll on my profile as to how you want to see me write the reapings/reaping recaps! So please go vote on that, I want to hear what you think! After the intros (someday :P), I'll be putting up a poll as to which District(s) you want to see for train rides, because I want to write all of them but I can't do ALL of them. So keep that in mind as well as we meet some of the tributes!

Also, this is a meme thing, but there are two Upward Voyager mentions in this chapter, ahahaha :D Whoever can find them both gets… A cookie. An online cookie. Haha. That's mostly just to amuse myself. I should put their bios up on the blog, haha.

So, big thank you to Little Knight Mik and LokiThisIsMadness for Bec and Kaelys respectively, I hope you liked how I portrayed both of them!

Thanks for all the support so far! Can't wait for more!

Chapter Question: Same. What'd you think of them? Who'd you like better? How'd I do (if applicable)?

I will see you all in District 10!