With this chapter, we are halfway through the reapings.

Hallelujah amen.

I'm not the quiet rebel who sits back and counts sheep

I'm not the charming girl that sits in class and never sleeps

I'm the girl that's a little bit of everything,

A constant puzzle being pieced together.

I can be fearless, or I can be a coward

I can be sweet, or I can be sour

Talia Maglev, 17

District 6 Female

"We have to get this done today, or they've won," I say as I stand up on top of the desk in the middle of the classroom. "This is not something that we can allow to just slide under the radar. Juliette was suspended over a dress she wore to school. How can you enforce a dress code when most of us can't even afford to buy new clothes?!"

The kids around me cheer as faculty starts to pour into the cafeteria. I pick up my sign that speaks against the barbaric dress code at our school and begins to walk around the cafeteria. The teachers come in and try to take the signs out of our hands, but we quickly run to the center of the room and form a barricade around each other.

I jump back onto the table and look the teachers in the eyes as they scold us from against the wall. The Principal, Vinegar Tits as I call her, makes her way to the middle of the barricade and joins me on the table.

"We've never had an issue out of you, Talia," she says slowly and quietly in my ear. She grabs ahold of my arm, and she's squeezing a bit too tightly for my liking. "Don't make us have one today."

"If you don't get your hand off me, I'm going to shove this sign where the sun doesn't shine," I say fiercely at her. She lets go of my arm and then looks around at the students in an angry and frantic tone.

"All of you, go to class immediately! We will not stand for-"

"What we will not stand for," I yell at her, "Is students being persecuted for their social status and economics standing in this district!"

The students around me cheer, and Vinegar Tit's face begins to change into a neon shade of red. She huffs as she steps off the table, and the students begin to march around the cafeteria again.

The teacher's file out of the cafeteria, but I know that they haven't given up yet. That would have been too easy of a fight for us to win. We gather back in the center of the room and arrange ourselves sitting at the table again, and laugh as we have won the battle.

"Guys, this isn't over yet." says a girl that points to the giant cafeteria door. The teachers are lining up with the supplies for their lessons in their hands. I smile to myself, as this is a challenge that is entertaining to me as I watch them think they're going to make me learn when something as serious as this is taking place.

"What are those for?" I ask as if I'm confused as the teachers file in and claim their part of the cafeteria.

"Class is in session for those who don't show up; they will receive an F for their final test grade of the year."

I see a couple of kids begin to stir in their spots, and then they look at me apologetically as they start to stir.

"Excuse me," I say to the teacher staring at me with a smug look like they've already won. "If you fail all of us doesn't that come out of your pay check?" I ask confused as I stare at her. "I'm almost positive if all my aunt's kids flunked their final exam that she would be fired from her teaching spot at the middle school down the road. So what's it any different if it happens in high school? Would that not be worse? So flunk me. You'll get sacked."

With my decree, the teachers look defeated, and the kids that they almost pulled away from the group sit back down, and I take a sigh of relief.

I don't have an aunt that teaches at the elementary school, and I was completely talking out of my ass, but it seemed to work. They begin to sit down in the cafeteria in their teacher niche like groups and point at the kids and gossip.

I hop off the table and sit back down on the cafeteria seat right as Vinegar tits walks back into the room. She looks furious that the teachers are not teaching their students and handing out their exams. She walks up to me and sighs an exasperated sigh as she mean mugs me from across the room.

"Fine!" she screams from the door of the cafeteria. "Juliette can come back to school effective immediately. Go and take your exams now!" she growls as she attempts to slam the giant metal door.

The door bounces back, and her high heel gets caught in between the door and the frame, and she falls face first into the ground. The rest of the students laugh, but I go over to help her up. She takes my hand gratefully and then nods to me as she walks off back to her office.

"Good luck, Vinegar Tits!" I scream as she rounds the corner.

"Shove it up yours, Maglev." she says bitterly as she slams the office door.

I was living the good life

Margarita on the beach

But the thing about people is

They're sneakier than they seem

Cartier Ford, 16

District 6 Male

The gate opens for me, and I look down again at my body to make sure that I'm in regular clothes. It's the first time in 8 months that I don't see an orange jumpsuit around my body. It's been a trip, and I feel out of routine, but it's a good feeling.

"Try not to let any of the same disasters that got you in here get you here again. Okay, kid?"

"Yes sir, CO Bailey," I say with a nod and a bright smile as I walk through the prison gate.

It seemed this day would never come, and to see my mom and dad standing out next to the family car gets me so excited, I don't even realize I'm running until I slam into my mother for a hug.

"We've missed you." says mom with a smile as she squeezes me tightly.

"Cartier." says my dad as he gets into the car with a wave. He hasn't looked at me once since I've ended up in here. I expected it to be rough between us, but I'm hoping things can be better now that I'm out.

"Just give him some space, sweetie." says mom with an encouraging smile. "He'll come around."

I go to the back passenger side door and get into the small vehicle. Dad waits for me and mom to buckle up before he puts the car into drive and takes off down the long dirt road to get back to the main road.

"How's Kyva?" I ask as I sit back in the seat and take a deep breath smelling the familiar smells of the car. "She was writing me for a bit, but then she stopped. She's okay, right?"

"Yes," says dad as he flips the blinker to turn onto the highway. "I had her stop."

I peek my head up confused as I furrow my eyebrows. Mom looks out the window and avoids eye contact with me as the road passes by quicker as the car speeds up.

"Why would you do that?" I ask

"Because, no child of mine will be writing a convict in the federal prison, Cartier."

"Your child was a criminal, dad," I say confused. "I made a mistake-"

"No, you made the mistake." says my father harshly as he begins getting faster on the road. Mom starts to grab onto the door handle in the front seat, as she looks scared at my father. He continues to weave in and out of traffic as he continues to spout insults at me. "You took the easy way out, son. Never was I ever more shamed than when you were sentenced to jail. My son, sentenced to prison." he says with disbelief still dripping in his voice.

"You kept my sister from me?" I ask still in shock. Not fully processing what my father is saying. "You prevented your daughter from talking to your son?! Do you know how depressing it is in prison, dad?" I begin to shout at him from the back seat. The car continues to speed quicker as he weaves in and out. He's going well over the speed limit at this point.

"I needed someone there! I had no one! Everything I did, I did because we didn't have the money to take care of ourselves, and your pride never let us ask for help! We were starving!"

"You were alive! You sold drugs!" he screams from the front seat. His eyes have a fire in them that I've never seen on my father. "Don't give me that bullshit that you were doing it for the family, Cartier! You were doing it because you were selfish! And you were an idiot! How dare you try to blame it on your mother and me!"

"How dare you leave your child in a hopeless place!" I scream.

"I didn't have a child in prison!" screams my father. "I don't have a son-"

The sound of shattering glass fills the car as we collide with the car that was in front of us. The airbags go off, and my mother and my father hit the hard white bag that expanded upon impact.

The few belongings that I had from prison fly out the front windshield as the car continues to spin out on the road. When we eventually stop, my mother is the first to come to as she throws her body around to make sure that I'm okay. Once she sees that I'm fine, she checks on my father. He is alive and shocked as he stares at the accident in front of us.

I peek over the back seat and see the minivan that we hit as we were arguing. There is a woman on her hands and knees as she clutches a boy that can't be more than 14-years-old to her chest.

"My baby!" she screams in agony as tears pour down her face. "My baby is dead!"

"How ironic," I whisper in the backseat as a single tear rolls down my cheek. "Me too."

The road I walk is a narrow one

I guess you could call it the path less traveled

Cause in a world where everyone is in black and white

I chose to live in technicolor

Evan Yanez, 18

District Escort

Okay, so I'm the youngest escort ever to get selected in Capitol history. That's okay. I can do this.

I run my fingers through my hair, and make sure that my blazer is on straight, and all the buttons are lined up. For my interview, my buttons were a hot mess, and I was so surprised they called me back. They told me something was charming about me and how I kept messing up.

I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but I took it. I got the job.

"Alright Evan," I say to myself as I start to jog in place in front of the mirror. "Alright you sexy beast, get your ass out there and give them a show. Make them smile, make them weep, make them laugh, make them scream-"

"Mr. Yaenz?" ask Frankie as he appears in my door frame. "Not to take away from this, uh, colorful pre-show ritual, but it's time to get the reapings started."

"Yeah!" I say with a scoff as I flip my long bangs out of my face. "Of course. I knew that, why are you rushing, Frankie?"

I push past him as I walk out of the bathroom in the train cart, and exit towards the stage that has the entirety of District 6 standing before it. I take a large gulp as I walk up the stairs, and stand in front of the microphone as the audience quiets down and stares at me expectantly.

I stare at them for a second, and then I realize I'm on national television. Then I realize I've yet to say anything.

"Oh, uh, hi," I say as the mic leaves a loud screeching noise that fills the area surrounding us. Some 12-year-olds cover their ears as I quickly pick the microphone out of the mic stand and carry it with me to the back of the stage.

"Stupid. That was stupid, Evan." I say as a chuckle fills the audience. I turn around and realize that the microphone is in my hand, unusually close to my mouth. I grab an envelope from both bowls and quickly rush back to the front of the stage as I flick the first paper open not even knowing if it's a boy or a girl's name.

"Talia Maglev, you're selected to go into the Hunger Games this year. Talia Maglev!" I say into the microphone quickly.

A scared looking girl comes out of the 17-year-old section. She takes a deep breath and then puts on one of the most dazzling smiles I've ever seen in my life. When she gets up to the stage, she grabs the microphone out of my hand.

"Guess the school is going to be a quiet place without me, huh, Vinegar Tits?" she says with a respectful nod to the audience as she walks back to the stage.

I quickly flip the boy envelope open. I don't want to be on this stage any longer than I have to as I've embarrassed myself.

"Cartier Ford. Can I get a Cartier Ford to the front please?" I ask quickly as I look around the audience eagerly.

A boy from the 16-year-old section quietly makes his way through the crowd. He's at the very back, and as he moves, it seems he is taking forever. When he finally makes it to the front of the stage, I usher him up the stairs and ask if he has any words for his District before we take him on the train.

"I guess freedom is never actually free." he says softly.

"Yeah, okay," I say quickly ushering him along. "District 6! I give you your tributes! Talia Meglav and Cartier Ford!"

Yikes, I can't decide if I like this chapter.

I've gotten a check- ins from the following tributes: Alina, Eliza, Hindi, Cartier, Adam, Pike, Hyssop, Carolina, Charon, Chen, and Alia. If you don't see your tributes name, then you haven't checked in with me, or if I forgot you let me know. I will let you know; I will NEVER have a Victor of a story be someone who isn't active. I've changed outcomes before, (IE, Jason was supposed to win AWE, but Katherine ended up winning instead. Lol can we imagine how different all this would be though?) Reviews also really help. So if you're not checking in/reviewing, or PM-ing me and explaining why you're so behind, you're making the bloodbath easy for me.

You have until the weekend to get the check-in one finished and completed! :D

Thanks for the good wishes for Jenna and I! We are excited as well.

Keep it classy,

Caleb