Hey guys! I just got home from school, so I rushed on here to post this chapter! I hope you like it (:

No rant for today, I don't think. But go over to youtube and check out the video 'Sitting Babies'. Jack Quaid (Marvel) is in it, acting as a baby sitter to the most obnoxious kid. I'm telling you you won't be able to stop laughing. I was dying for an hour when I watched it.

Thank you for all of the reviews! (: They mean a lot to me! I'll try my best to get another chapter out tonight, but I'm going to try to write a chapter for my SYOT, so if I have time I'll post another here! The more reviews the better the chances, hehe :)

I do not own the hunger games!

xXxXx

"In my head I hear President Snow's words, spoken the morning I was to begin the Victory tour. "Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroy Panem.""

As soon as the words leave Finnick's mouth, I'm up and stormed over to the phone. I'm making a very kind phone call to my dear best friend President Snow. As soon as he answers the phone, and after me being put on hold for a few minutes, I greet him with a very kind, "Fuck you."

"Ah, Miss Gemma, I was expecting a call from you." He says, I can hear the smirk in his voice."

"How the actual fuck can you throw us back into that fucking arena?" Fuck is my word of the day, I've decided.

"I can do whatever I please." He says.

"Do you really hate me and Finnick that much that you want us to die in there? I thought we were your best sellers?" I say, venom dripping from my voice.

"Oh, my lovely victor, this is not about you nor Finnick. I'm sure you've had your share of discipline not to cross my path, hm?" He asks.

"Yeah I know, I know, I've been through pretty much all of it. Why though?" I demand.

"Well, you see, I'm not going to lie to you… and knowing you are probably not going to make it out of the arena I might as well tell you. During Ms Everdeen and Mr Mellark's games a few of the districts have decided that it might be fun to rebel against me, your noble leader."

I have to do all that I can to hold back a snort. Noble leader my ass. "So why do you have to torture all of us?" I whisper.

"Because that's the only way to put a stop to this, my friend. Now I must go, I have big plans to make, Ms Stone." Then I hear the click and he's gone.

I hang the phone up, and depression sweeps over me. I sink down the wall to the floor and curl up into a ball where I stay until Finnick comes to pick me up to bring me to bed.

Once we're in bed I curl up against his chest, "We're both going in there again, aren't we?" I whisper.

He sighs and I close my eyes, "I think so, love. But I'll get you out of there if it's the last thing I do." And that's the last thing I hear before I drift into a nightmare filled sleep. (A/N Don't you just love Finnick? I adore him!)

…

Today is the day. The first day of the last week of my life. It's going to be even worse for me, because Trixie is going to have to watch both of her parents die in the victor's lounge with Haymitch.

I recall a phone call I had with him a few months ago…

"Hello?" Peeta's voice picked up.

"Peeta? I need to talk to Haymitch, please… it's an emergency." I told him.

"This is Gemma isn't it? Just a second Gemma…" He says.

"Hello?" This time it's Haymitch.

"Are you sober enough to talk about a serious issue, Haymitch?"

"You never call me Haymitch, what's wrong?"

"Are you going back in?" I whisper.

"No, the boy says he's going in to protect Katniss, why sweetheart? Surely you're not, with all of the other victors in your district." He says. I know his voice, he isn't drunk.

"No, I have a feeling that I'm going to get picked… and I'm not letting anyone die for me… and obviously Finnick is going to go in, they'd love to have two sets of lovers, wouldn't they?" I said sarcastically.

"What about Trixie?" He asked me.

"That's what I want to talk to you about… Haymitch… she's going to be with you all of the time this time; everyone else is going to be in the arena… I need to know; if both me and Finnick die in there, would you be able to take care of her?"

He took a deep breath, "What do you mean, sweetheart?"

"Would it be okay for her to move to District 12 with you? To either live with you or in one of the other houses… she has no one else but Annie…." I trail off.

"Of course my daughter can come live with me-" He lowers his voice so I can barely hear it, "But you're going to come out alive." Then I heard a click and he was gone.

I'm in one with Trixie; we had to come back here because we are counted in this Districts reaping. Finnick wasn't allowed to come, but at least I have Trixie. "Happy birthday, baby." I say, gently nudging Trixie who is in bed besides me. She's turning 9 today. She's turning 9 on the day both of her parents are going to be sent to their deaths.

"I'm not getting up." She grumbles.

"Yes you are, come on. Lets go see Lucas and Jemsa before the reaping." I say, trying to con her out of the bed. She sighs but gets up, and I notice that her cheeks are puffy and streaked with tears; she was crying in her sleep. I stop her and she turns around, "Wait-" I say, and I wipe the tears away with my thumbs. "No crying yet…" I give her a very sad smile and she gives me one in return.

We both get washed and dressed, and I refuse to dress nicely today. I'm not even going to wait for my name to get reaped, I'm just gonna walk on up there. That's all they want anyways, a good show.

It suddenly hits me, that I'm going to be fighting all of my friends. Gloss will probably be the male tribute; Enobaria and Brutus; Wiress and Beetee; Finnick and Annie or Mags; Johanna and Blight; Woof and Jolie; Chaff and Seeder; Peeta and Katniss. Oh my god.

How am I supposed to kill my family? I won't do it. I won't.

Me and Trixie thump down the stairs hand in hand, and we reach the kitchen. "Hey you," I say to Esmeralda, who is walking around with two little children strapped to her.

"Hey," She says.

"I'm not hungry… I think I'm going to just go sit outside…" I mumble before walking out the front door. I sit on the step, right where Carter did those months ago. He's married now… Me, Finnick, and Trixie got an invite; but of course I refused to go, and Trixie didn't even remember him when I asked her.

I just sit on the step looking at the dead street for what feels like ever, until people start to go to the reaping. Time to go.

Trixie, Esmeralda, Mitchell, Lucas, and Jemsa walk out of the house. I take Trixie's hand in mine and we walk over to meet Gloss and Cashmere.

When Gloss sees me he put his arm around my shoulders, and that's how we walk to the reaping. Like a family.

Once we get to the square, Trixie takes Lucas and Jemsa and goes to wait in the crowd, while me, Esmeralda, Cashmere and all the other female victors go to our section. I feel like I'm 17 again, and I hate this.

Once good thing about this reaping is that I get to watch Penelope make a fool of herself again. "Welcome welco-" She says before the wind blows strong and wipes the wig clean off her head. "No!" She cries, but it's already gone.

The crowd erupts into laughter. Penelope groans before continuing, "Ugh! Whatever! This is my last year anyways! Let's go to the female tribute, shall we?"

That's my cue!

I crawl through the crowd just as she's taking out the card, and I slip under the rope. Peacekeepers surround me instantly, "Relax boys, it's my name anyways." I say before skipping onto the stage.

I snatch the paper from Penelope, "Long time no see, Penelope!" I say.

"Gemma! Get off the stage! I haven't announced the tribute yet!" She shrieks, holding her head.

I turn to the crowd and put my hand on my heart, "Don't worry Penelope, I know what it's like to be bald. It sucks, I know. But don't worry, it gets better!" I say. The crowd starts laughing again.

Penelope pouts and I tear open the card, "Oh? What do you know!" I put on my best Capitol imitation, "Gemma Stone! Surprise surprise!" Penelope snatches the card back and I smirk, "But on the plus side, I know I'll get tons of sponsors from the all the gross old men you sold me to over the years, right Snow?"Might as well make it count; if I'm going to die anyways.

"Gemma! What are you talking about?" Penelope hisses.

"Oh please, like you all didn't know. Snow makes any good looking victors into prostitutes!" I scream. The crowd is dead silent. A girls wailing cries break the silence, and everyone in the square turns their head to the noise. It's Trixie. Oh my god. No. "Trixie, wait!" I scream, jumping down from the stage. I run into the crowd with peacekeepers on my trail.

"So that's where daddy goes?" She wails. "And that's where you disappear to each year?"

"No, Trixie we need to talk about this, but not here, okay?" I manage to tell her before the peacekeepers got their hands on me, flinging me to the ground.

"Mommy!" Trixie screams.

They throw me onto my stomach and I command Trixie to close her eyes so she doesn't have to watch. They put hand cuffs around my arms and legs and then pick me back up. I roll my eyes once I'm back on stage.

"Well, alright then… Uhm… let's move onto our male tribute?" Penelope states.

"My prediction is that the male tribute will be Gloss!" I scream to the crowd, nudging my head towards Gloss. He just smirks and shakes his head.

Penelope walks over to the tribute bowl, and I follow her, jumping along since my feet can't move. I lean on the bowl as she snakes her hand in, "Am I right?" I ask her.

She opens it and sighs, "Gloss just come up."

Gloss runs up the steps two at a time and I greet him, "What did I say Glossy? Don't I know my best friend, President Snow, so well?" What's the worst he could do to me, I'm already going into the arena and I'm already told his secret about prostitution.

A peacekeeper comes over and slaps me across the face with the end of his gun and I fall to the floor of the stage, unable to get up. The crowd gasps. I turn to them, "Oh please, you've all seen it before-" Then I turn to the peacekeeper, "Damn, that hurt you know?"

He just smirks and shrugs. I manage to sit up. "Your tributes, Gemma and Gloss, of the 75th annual hunger games!" Penelope screams to the crowd.

I sarcastically blow a kiss to the audience as I'm dragged off the stage. "Gemma! How could you make a mockery of the Capitol like that? President Snow will have your head!" Penelope scolds.

"I thought it was pretty funny." Gloss says with a smirk.

I shoulder hit him, "Thanks Gloss."

Penelope grabs my ear, "Ow Penelope let go!" Then she drags me to the car. "What about our good byes?"

"You savages don't get any goodbyes this year!" She snaps.

"Woah-kay. Can you undo these please?" I motion to my hands tied behind my back.

"Fine, yeah, come here." She undoes them and I'm grateful. Not that I'd ever tell her that.

As soon as my hands are free I punch Gloss in the arm. He's shocked for a minute but then he punches me back, "Hey!" I laugh before punching him back. Our punches turn to slaps, and we are sitting in the pack seat slapping each other like children.

"STOP!" Penelope shrieks. We immediately stop and drop our hands, trying not to laugh. We are just like a brother and sister being caught by their mother fighting. "That's enough! No fighting yet!"

…

"Finnick we need to talk to her…" I say. All the districts are here, but they are letting us have some time to ourselves. I haven't seen Trixie; as soon as she stepped onto the train she ran to her room and didn't come out until the train was stopped… and even then she ran away from us, crying to her room.

"I know, let's go… we need to tell her the truth." We walk hand in hand to her room.

I knock on the door gently, "Trixie, sweetheart, we have to talk to you…"

"No! Go away!" She says. I take this as a 'Come on in!' and open the door. Me and Finnick tip toe in, and she's curled up in a ball, drawing, on her bed. "What do you have there?" I ask her.

She chucks it to the floor, and it's a beautiful drawing of a flower. "I went to talk to Peeta earlier, he gave me it. Said drawing helps him sometimes."

So she did go somewhere other than her room. "You're really good," I tell her.

She kicks at the blankets and mumbles thanks. Me and Finnick walk over and sit on her bed with her. "We need to talk to you… about what your mom said at the reaping…" Finnick says.

"I… I don't want to talk about it…" She whispers.

"We have to talk about it, love." Finnick says, rubbing her knee. He's way better at talking then I am.

She sniffles and looks up at us, "Why would you do that? Don't you love each other?" I see the tears forming in her eyes and I can tell we have to be delicate with this. We haven't even had 'the talk' with her yet, so she only knows what she does from what she's regained from school. She's only 9, she's too young to know about this anyways.

"That's why we did it baby…" I tell her.

"I don't understand…" She says.

"You're too young to understand fully. You'll understand when you're older, okay? You just need to know that we love each other and you more than anything, and that we did it because we love each other," I tell her. There, that shouldn't be too bad. I just can't go ahead and say that Snow is forcing us or he'll kill anyone we love.

"O-okay," she says, jumping up from her ball form to give us each a hug. We both squeeze her, and I don't let go for a few minutes. I close my eyes and savor the moment.

"Now come on, I think Peeta got something for you!" Finnick says, trying to brighten the mood.

"Me? Really?" She asks, stunned.

"Really! Let's go see!" Then Trixie jumps up and sprints out of the room. Me and Finnick laugh and follow behind her. "I think he's in the victor's lounge, Trix!" He yells out.

The three of us walk down the halls until we reach it, and Trixie opens the door. All the lights are off. "Turn on the lights!" She complains to me.

"Hold your seahorses, gosh!" I say jokingly, flicking on the switch.

Then all of a sudden there's people everywhere, yelling "SURPRISE!"

Her surprise party is a success. She's officially stunned. I look at the expression on her face, and I smile. She deserves to have some happy memories today. She stumbles backwards, and then a few seconds later a huge, cheeky grin appears on her face. "Oh my!" She gasps.

"Happy Birthday, Gorgeous." Finnick says; then he hugs her. I join in on the hug, and pretty soon everyone in the room is a part of it. We cling to each other like it is going to be our last time.

Once we all break apart, I get a glimpse at the birthday girl. She suddenly doesn't look happy anymore, just completely sad and heartbroken. Tears stream down her face she pushes through the crowd and out the door. I still hear her sobs as she runs down the hall way.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.