A/N: Trigger warning for this chapter.


Chapter 2:

Jendaya 'Jenny' Barrett, 18, District Eleven

One Week Before The Reaping

If someone asked Jenny to describe this party with one word, she would go with fake. Which is exactly what the people here aimed for. All of them were just dripping in fakeness. No one in the upper class of Eleven actually showed their true selves. From the moment they all stepped through the door into the large ranch house that's all Jenny's now, they were all apologies and 'Oh I'm so sorry about Kane' or 'It must be so tough to keep running things, how brave you are!' But once the wine started flowing, it was as if they completely forgotten about Kane, even though he's only been dead for three months. All they cared about was impressing the people still living and getting some of the best wine around for free.

Of course, they only saw the side of Kane that he wanted them to see. Jenny was fooled by that side too when she first met him. It was easy to fall for Kane's honeyed words and sweet promises – and, of course, the wealth he had being the owner of Eleven's largest winery. Jenny was caught up in the glamour of it all until it was too late to get out of the marriage, too late to get away from Kane. But he's gone now and Jenny is still here. So who's the real winner in their marriage?

But Jenny isn't much better than the people here and she doesn't care about being selfish. After everything, she deserves to be concerned about herself. And here she is, standing in her black dress and being the ever gracious host that Kane taught her to be, working the room and giving kind smiles to everyone, a comforting hand on the shoulder here, a little bit of a laugh there – but not too much – and maybe a little bit of a hair flip to draw attention to her bare shoulders. She's thrived in this new role of hosting parties and she has missed it over the last three months, but if there was one thing Kane taught her, it was appearances are everything. Well…that and to never let anyone knock her down again.

Everything about the party was simultaneously different while remaining the same. The crowd was the same group she's been entertaining for months since she first started dating Kane and was whisked away from poverty to the upper class. There's Captain Terra of the Peacekeepers, drinking more wine than he should while his husband stands next to him, watching the glass continued to get filled and his husband's face grow redder as he hopes he doesn't do anything embarrassing. There's the group of shopkeepers making bets as they play cards, their voices growing louder as the night – and the wine – keeps going on. There's Zahid Arntz, the mayor's son, surrounded by a group of people all vying for the attention of undoubtedly the most important person here tonight. It's the usual group of influential people that Kane always invited to the dinner parties they would host. And while they pretended to be apologetic at first, once the wine started flowing, they went back to being their normal selves that only care about their appearance and being better than the others at the party.

Jenny is the one that's different now. She didn't have to carefully choose what she wore tonight to make sure Kane wouldn't accuse her of showing too much or to hide her bruises. She could wear that red lipstick she always loved. She could be herself – at least, the version she wants everyone else to see. And that thought alone brings a smirk to her lips as she takes a sip of wine. She could get used to this new life free from Kane but still with his wealth.

"How are you doing?"

"Hmm?" Jenny asks, getting brought out of her thoughts as she glances over at Rain, the only one here that Jenny would actually call a friend. But seeing her with her small son on her hip just brings a stab of pain to her heart, knowing what she'll never have now. But she can't let anyone know what happened to her. She can't let them know this weakness of hers so they can exploit it and hurt her even more. Suddenly the wine she's sipping grows bitter in her mouth, knowing she shouldn't have been drinking this if things hadn't gone wrong… If the wine wasn't the reason in the first place that she's now here, facing regret and blaming herself.

But Rain doesn't know this and Jenny will be damned if she ever lets her know. So she forces a smile on her face, careful to not look too happy about Kane being gone – Rain wouldn't understand why. "Oh, you know, I'm hanging in there," Jenny says carefully, letting herself start pouting a little and give a small sigh. "It's good to be around people to keep myself busy, but…it's still a reminder of him…"

Jenny isn't completely lying to Rain. The people here are reminding her of Kane. But they're reminding her of how much better off she is now without him. Why would she be sad when he's not here drinking too much wine, just to get too angry later that night when everyone has left? Hell could freeze over before she ever missed him.

"It's going to be okay," Rain says gently as she puts a hand on Jenny's shoulder and gives it a squeeze. "If you ever need to get out of the house, you are more than welcome to come spend time with me. You can even bring Hunter with you."

A chance to spend time in the mayor's house with Rain? Jenny would be dumb to turn down her offer. Who cares if she'll have to pretend to be the sad heartbroken widow a bit more? She's had plenty of experience doing that for the last few months, she can handle it a bit more to keep climbing the social ladder in Eleven. "I'd love to-"

A loud voice makes Jenny flinch for a moment and she does her best to hide the involuntary action as her eyes scan the room for the man raising his voice. But when she finds it's just a group of men laughing together, she forces her shoulders to relax. Yet she's cursing internally that even with Kane gone, he's still finding a way to affect her. It's so easy for her to think the raised voices are Kane's voice yelling at her after he's drank too much, cursing her out for not doing something perfectly that she didn't even realize she was doing wrong. The yelling almost always came before he would hit her… Jenny finds herself rubbing her arms, still being able to feel his fingers digging into her arm, causing bruises that she would have to hide the next day, as he would push her around. If she was lucky, he would just push her aside and stumble to bed. If not…

"Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom," Jenny mumbles as she's already starting to walk away from Rain, ignoring her friend asking her something. She pushes through people to get up the stairs and into her bedroom, the one she always stayed in on the nights when Kane drank too much, which were the majority of them. She quickly locks the door behind her and leans against it, shutting her eyes as she slides down to the ground.

He is not here, Jenny. Snap out of it.

He can't hurt her anymore. He'll never hit her again or force himself on her. He's just a ghost now, unable to hurt her unless she lets him. Yet his impact is all over her still. She'll never escape the flinches in response to raised voices.

Yet she can only give herself a couple minutes to compose herself. She can use the excuse that she was just a little overwhelmed from missing him, but as the host of the party, Jenny can't be gone for long. After all, appearances are everything to these people.

And she's never letting them see this side of her. People will use this weakness to destroy her. And Jenny will be damned if she lets anyone use this weakness as a tool aside from herself.


Jenny stares out at the moonlight fields as she sits on the porch steps, absentmindedly rubbing the belly of her coonhound Hunter as he looks up at her with loving eyes and tongue hanging out the side. So many nights they have done this after the parties Kane hosted where they would pretend to be the picture perfect married couple. Of course, everyone else at the party was doing the same thing because that's all the rich do – lie and hide their dirty secrets.

So many nights after the parties she would slip outside in the dead of night, long after Kane had fallen asleep and couldn't tell her what to do. This was the only time when she could escape from him and be alone with the only one that has loved her. They would sit in the sticky air of District Eleven, even if Jenny hates it, all because it was the one place where she could get a reprieve from the life she so desperately wanted to be part of.

"We're much better off without him," Jenny tells Hunter and he just rolls over more in response to her, so she pays more attention to petting him. Yet there's still an emptiness in her chest that she can't get rid of. She had hoped that getting back to the lavish lifestyle she married into would take her mind off of things since she wasn't just alone as she kept the vineyard in business. The party had been a success. She kept the wine flowing for everyone but herself, watching as more people got intoxicated and started to let slip their carefully manicured appearances and revealed things that they wouldn't have normally. Things that Jenny tucked away in her mind for in the future if she ever needed a favor and needs to give a little incentive.

If the party was so great, why is she feeling so…numb and empty?

Nearly three months later and despite her being so glad he's gone, Jenny can still feel the lasting impact of Kane's abuse.

"You're the only man I need," Jenny whispers to Hunter before turning up to the sky and blinking back tears as her thoughts imagine what her life married to Kane could have been like if she hadn't had her dog there to keep her company and provide a temporary escape. If she didn't have those moments of reprieve on her own…it would have taken her a lot longer to reach this point.

They sit in silence for a while, Jenny trapped in her thoughts of her disastrous marriage, only kept in the present by Hunter by her side. Why is she feeling this way? She hated that man by the end of it. She will never wish to have him alive again.

But as her hand absentmindedly finds her flat stomach, she knows the reason why she feels so empty. She should have started to have a little bump by now. She hadn't cared that the baby would have been fathered by Kane. A child's parents don't automatically make them a bad person, especially when the bad influence would have been gone from their life. But just as she had started to get excited about the idea of being a mother…

If Jenny shuts her eyes, she can still see all the blood on the bed when she woke up to the excruciating cramps. She can still feel the cold metal of the doctor's table and hear the lack of emotion in his voice as she told her she had miscarriage, just one week after smiling and telling her that she was pregnant.

She knows it's her fault. She was drinking the whole time, unaware that she was pregnant. And that's not even including the karma for what she did…

Jenny shakes her head before reaching for the glass of wine next to her and downing it, needing to feel it relaxing her mind a bit. She would have been a terrible mother anyways. It was just karma stopping her from fucking up some child's life because she would have been too selfish to care for them properly.

She's better off alone and only looking after herself. Jenny won't let herself get hurt by someone else again.


Priscilla Rhodes, Escort for District Eleven

Priscilla has been looking forward to this day for months now, ever since she received the news that she was selected to be an escort this year. She had her outfit picked out weeks ago and was up for hours last night making sure every crease was out of her dress and that her wig was free of tangles. She was so excited last night that for a bit, she was able to forget that she was heading to the lowest of the Districts.

She was able to forget that right up until she walked out on the stage. Then she couldn't forget that fact that she is at the bottom of the totem pole of escorts as she stares out at the thin and ragged children of the District, some so thin they look like walking skeletons. She knew from watching the Hunger Games each year what they looked like…but seeing them in person just brought a whole new light to the terrible conditions these people live in.

No matter. Priscilla is positive that she won't be in District Eleven for long! Most escorts don't stay here for very long, and she understands. Why would anyone choose to stay in Eleven when you could head up to the career Districts?

"Good afternoon, District Eleven!" Priscilla says to the crowd as her normal vibrant self, wanting to make sure she looks good for her friends back home in the Capitol. "I'm Priscilla Rhodes, your new escort this year! Happy to be here so let's get started with picking the tributes," she says in a rush, clasping her hands together in front of her for a moment as she smiles out at the crowd, expecting them to give some sort of acknowledgement. But when they don't, Priscilla remains unbothered, knowing that people can change and surely she'll get this crowd to change. Or she'll get promoted. Whatever happens first.

"Okay ladies first!" Priscilla tells them as she picks her first name – her very first tribute ever, how exciting! She stands in front of the glass bowl for a moment, just giving herself time to take this all in. Hopefully this will be the first of many times she is choosing a tribute. She slowly reaches in and takes her time choosing a name, wanting to make sure she picks a good tribute for her first year. "First we have…Jendaya Barrett!"

Priscilla waits a moment, scanning the crowd to see where her first tribute is, and gets a little happy as she sees an older girl step forward, doing her best to be confident, but she does wipe at tears in her eyes as she heads up to the stage.

She's pretty – for a District girl, of course not by Capitol standards – with her long straight hair that's carefully draped over one shoulder of her formfitting black dress. And when she reaches the stage, she stands well over Priscilla, thanks to both her height and the heels she wears that emphasize her slender frame. She gives Priscilla a charming smile that conflicts with the tears she wipes away, but Priscilla doesn't notice any tears up close. "Hello, just Jenny, please," she says calmly as she greets the escort, before turning to face the crowd, folding her hands in front of her and keeping her head held high.

Priscilla takes in her appearance for a moment, assessing the girl, before nodding a little. "Well I'm sure we have some things to work on, but we'll see what I can do!" Jenny forces a smile at this and Priscilla grins back at her. "But of course, any volunteers?"

Priscilla waits for a few longs seconds, part of her expecting there to be volunteers, because why wouldn't someone want to be part of the Hunger Games? Yet the crowd remains quiet and she pouts a little bit. But no matter, perhaps she can change that and have Eleven become more excited about participating. "Well I guess we'll have to pick our second tribute then!"

Priscilla heads to the other glass bowl and once again takes a few seconds to appreciate the moment. She just can't help the excitement of picking her first pair of tributes. "And for our second tribute we have…Grant Gallitan-Montgomery!"

She waits for a moment for Grant to step forward and after a few seconds, the crowd starts rustling towards the back among the fourteen year olds. The cameras soon find the boy standing there in shock and he starts looking around as the people stare at him, before slowly making his way up towards the stage. He's clearly holding back tears as he takes deep breaths to stay calm. Priscilla is a little disappointed at how average he seems to be and lacking in the confidence and grace that Jenny had as she took the stage. At least one of the tributes recognizes the honor they have just received. But at least Grant isn't one of the children in Eleven that looks like a dead person walking from being so malnourished. Grant barely looks at Priscilla and Jenny as he reaches them on the stage, just keeping his eyes turned down and sniffling a little.

"Well, once again I will ask if there are any volunteers?" Priscilla asks the crowd, really hoping someone will step forward. But again, the crowd is silent, much to Priscilla's disappointment. She so badly wants to have tributes that volunteer and are excited by the prospect of participating in the Games. Oh well, she'll just have to keep waiting for the excitement of her first volunteer for the Games. Hopefully it will happen before she gets to one of the career Districts.

"Well I guess that is it for this year's Reaping!" Priscilla tells the crowd, clasping her hands in front of her once more as she looks at her two tributes. They're certainly not the greatest tributes she's ever seen – hard to compare them to career tributes – but Priscilla always believes that anyone can improve and better themselves. And it looks like she has quite the challenge in front of her with these two if she wants to make one of them a victor.

"We have our two tributes then, Jenny and Grant!"


Welcome back to another intro! This time, big thanks to HogwartsDreamer113, ray. 51, and foxfox12 for Jenny, Grant, and Priscilla respectively! And of course, a big happy birthday to Dreamer! Hope you enjoyed the birthday update :)

As always, I'd love to hear what you thought of Jenny! It was fun for me to write a tribute from Dreamer this time that isn't a valid boy lol. The blog will be updated by time you reach this point with the info for this pair!

RQ#2: Did Dreamer follow the one rule for this story that she wasn't allowed to send in a valid tribute or did she find a loophole? XD

Alrighty, not sure when the next update will be, most likely not until December at the earliest just because end of the semester chaos. But next up we'll be looking at one of mine, Marian from District 2!