Lavern La Vernet, 18 - District Four male

Maybe I should volunteer. The winner gets a house and a pension and basically everything my family used to have before the fire. It would mean we wouldn't have to live like this anymore. It was embarrassing, frankly. We were old money. We had class and breeding. And now my mother had gone back to work. Even worse, she was talking about getting married again. We shouldn't have to scrape like this.

And I could win. I was strong and smart. It was probably arrogant to say, but I knew my capabilities. I'd seen the past winners and they didn't have anything I didn't have. I'd get some allies who weren't as smart as me and I'd lead my group until it came time for us to turn on each other. I wouldn't like it or anything, but that's the Games.

Before I did anything I wanted to run it by Galdana. My little sister was one of the smartest people I knew. She wasn't one of those people who had twenty books memorized or solved algebraic equations in her head, but she was levelheaded and a just plain sensible fifteen-year-old. She reeled me in when I got too grandiose for my own good.

I found Galdana knitting in her knitting nook- a pile of pillows she'd arranged in our slightly recessed window. She could barely fit anymore, but the knitting must go on.

"What you making?" I asked.

"I thought I'd try a sweater. It's going to to take forever," she said. She held up what still just looked like a thin necklace of yarn. "I was gonna sell them, but I'd have to charge so much to make it worth the materials and time."

"Pretty soon you won't have to worry about making money," I said. Galdana's eyes narrowed and her nose wrinkled. I had that sibling-knowledge intuition that she'd read my thoughts. "I was thinking I'd volunteer for the Games."

Galdana set down her knitting and bent over, her thumb and forefinger to her chin. She considered.

"Come closer," she said. She put up her hand like she was going to whisper something to me. I leaned in. She slapped me.

"Ow! What was that?!" I asked, reeling back and putting my hand to my cheek.

"That's what will happen if you go into the Games," she said. "How could you even think of doing something so stupid? Promise me you won't!"

I guess the phrase 'slap some sense into someone' is actually real. When I thought about it, it was pretty silly, gambling my life on 1:24 odds.

"You're right, you're right," I said. "I won't." Galdana went back to her knitting and everything was right in the world. I said no more about it after that, but in my heart of hearts, I still thought I would have won.

Alona Maomo'o, 17 - District Four Female

When one of us was honored, the whole village celebrated. I had been selected to volunteer for the Hunger Games. We never needed an excuse to have a party, but this time it was special, even for a celebration. On this night, I was the crown jewel of the village.

I may have been the star, but I was also part of the community. I chatted with Aunt Natia and cousin Lulu as we wrapped coconut and spice-smeared chicken thighs in banana leaves to put in the smoldering fire pit. They would lay underneath the spitted pig so its juices dripped onto them. There was never enough food for a party, because as long as there was food, the party went on.

"Alona!" Grandaunt Meilani yelled from the end of the path that connected the village to the beach. Half a dozen villagers in various positions echoed her call. She shuffled up to me with an armful of flowers. She set them down and we hugged.

"I knew it would be you," she said, still holding me. She sat down and I knelt in front of her so she could place the flowers in my hair. Lulu joined in and we chatted as we decorated each other.

"It's almost time," Grandma said, looking over at the crowd gathering around the circle drawn in the dirt.

Lulu jumped up and yanked my hand. "Let's go!" she shouted. She ran ahead while I walked slowly to help Grandma. As we passed through the rows of seats the villagers erupted in shouts, claps, and stomps. I settled Grandma into the seat of honor at the inner edge of the ring, next to Grandpa, and took my place behind them, my family sitting behind me oldest to youngest.

The first show was a dance. Like many of our dances, it focused on gentle undulating movements, like the ocean we loved. It was just as important that the moves be done together as that they were done well. Dancing was about a group, not one star. Next was the fire dance, which I liked better if I was being honest. I appreciated dance, but I was a fighter more than a dancer, and I loved the wild twirling jumps and moves of the fire dancers and their circles of flame.

Next up was me. Mine was the only solo performance. I took up the mace that had been prepared for me. It was studded with shark teeth, unlike the plain metal ones at the Academy. I launched into a shadow fight showing all my moves against no visible opponent. Symbolically, I was fighting with the ancestors who fought before me and who selected me for the Hunger Games, and I wasn't so much fighting against them as matching skills with them to prove my worth. Nothing went wrong, which I assumed meant I was still favored. By the end most of the flowers had fallen from my hair. The cheering crowd couldn't hold back long before the flooded the stage to celebrate with me. Children darted between legs to grab the fallen flowers.

I stood smushed between half a dozen hugging friends and relatives, trying to hug all of them back at once. We made our way to the beach to start eating the mass of food we'd prepared. When I wasn't being congratulated by someone or another, I looked out at the depthless horizon on the water. My people loved to move, and explore, and test the edges. I'd explored this stretch of water since I was a baby. I couldn't wait to go the other way and see how far Panem went.

Lavern: A handsome shaved man, with blonde hair and green eyes. His muscles and arms are lean. Mostly average in height. His skin is purposely pale, and he hides a scar on his arm with makeup.

Alona: : Alona has wavy dark brown hair, brown skin, and brown eyes. She is of Polynesian descent, particularly Hawaiian and Samoan, but it's mixed in a way that's not 50-50.