Author's Note: Alright, so... this is my first Hunger Games fanfic ever. I'm not sure if it'll be any good, but... I'm gonna try my best... I hope you all enjoy this and please tell me if I do anything wrong, because I'd really like to make this as good as possible... (the first few lines will be from the second book, only changed slightly so that it no longer is written from Katniss' first person point of view and so that it's a better beginning)

Neither the storyline or most characters in this belong to me. All rights belong to Suzanne Collins.

"That's right, this year will be the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Hunger Games, and that means it's time for our third Quarter Quell!" Caesar Flickerman announced optimistically on the screen of every television all across Panem.

"What will they do?" Primrose Everdeen, the younger sister of the last female victor, Katniss Everdeen, asked no one in particular. "It isn't for months yet."

Both Katniss and Prim turned to face their mother, whose expression was solemn and distant, as if she was remembering something. "It must be the reading of the reading of the card."

The anthem of Panem began to play and President Snow took the stage. He was followed by a young boy dressed in a white suit, holding a simple wooden box. Once the anthem ended President Snow began to speak, to remind the people of Panem of the Dark days from which the Hunger Games were born. When the laws for the Games were laid out, they dictated that every twenty-five years the anniversary would be marked by a Quarter Quell. It would call for a glorified version of the Games to make fresh the memory of those killed by the districts' rebellion.

Those words could not be more pointed, Katniss thought as he spoke, since I suspect several districts are rebelling right now.

President Snow went on to tell everyone what happend in the previous Quarter Quells. "On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it."

I wonder how that would have felt. Picking the kids who had to go. It is worse, Katniss thought, to be turned over by your own neighbors than have your name drawn from the reaping ball.

"On the fiftieth anniversary," the president continued, "as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes."

Katniss imagined facing a field of forty-seven instead of twenty-three. Worse odds, less hope and ultimately more dead kids. That was the year District 12's last victor before Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, Haymitch Abernathy, won the Games.

"I had a friend who went that year," Katniss' mother said quietly. "Maysilee Donner. Her parents owned the sweetshop. They gave me her songbird after. A canary."

Katniss and Prim exchanged a look. It was the first time they had ever heard of Maysilee Donner. Maybe because their mother knew they would want to know how she died.

"And now we honor our third Quarter Quell," the president said. The little boy in white stepped forward, holding out the box as he opened the lid. Everyone in Panem could see the tidy, upright rows of yellowed envelopes. Whoever devised the Quarter Quell system had prepared for centuries of Hunger Games. The president removed an envelope clearly marked with a 75. He ran his finger under the flap and pulled out a small square of paper. Without hesitation, he read, "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, a male and a female tribute shall be reaped from both their existing pool of victors and the usual inhabitants of each district."

Katniss' mother gave a faint shriek and Prim buried her face in her hands, but Katniss felt more like the people she saw in the crowd on television. Slightly baffled. What did it mean? Existing pool of victors?

Then she got it, what it meant. At least for her. District 12 only had three existing victors to choose from. Two male. One female.

Katiss was going back into the arena.