Right, first things first, WE REACHED THE END OF THE REAPINGS! I am the first to admit, I hate reapings. However, next time, I have a plan for the reapings that will make it easier for me and you shall learn more about your characters.

Next chapter is the chariots. Which means it's poll time! If you go to my profile and vote for your top six tributes. This poll shall be open for 24 hours. By the end, the six tributes with the most votes shall get POV's in the chariots. Last time we had Crown, Bug, Tobias, Kendrick and Finch so I have boosted the POV's by one. IF IT IS NOT ON MY PROFILE WHEN YOU GO TO VOTE, LEAVE IT A BIT AND COME BACK.

Also, competition time! CaptainOfTheKeep has a poll on his profile for his story, Warrior. Go to his profile and vote in the poll and then message me. Tell me what option you chose and you shall be entered into the contest. Three lucky winners will get to pick one supply (weapon, food, water, backpack) to give to one of their tributes at the start of the Games. In short, guaranteeing they pick something useful up from the bloodbath. What do you have to lose? If you don't enter, who knows who could win? Keith could or someone who is a threat to your character ;) You should also read the story. There is no contest for that but you will be an amazing person because it's ace.

Selena Cole POV:

Me and my best, and only friend, Shaft, wandered through the busy market. People pushed and shoved just to make a path for themselves. Street vendors shouted and pulled people towards their stalls, begging the rich to buy their goods. The smell of warm, fresh soup and bread made our stomachs turn and rumble. We lived in the seam, hunger was as well known to us as the sunrise but smelling food, so close, it left a sickness at the pit of your stomach.

Shaft tapped me on the shoulder, broke off from my arm and vanished into the crowd in search of an easy target. For seam kids, we were very limited in the choice of how to survive, how to put food on the table. Most just prayed that the adults in the family could bring in enough money from the mines to keep everyone fed. It was why teenage pregnancy was so high in the seam. Your child was born when you were fifteen, well, by thirty-three, they were old enough to work in the mines, that was three breadwinners to feed the ever growing family. That is if they both survived. I was not stranger to this idea, both of my parents worked in the mines, allowing my family to just scrape by. That is until my father got sick.

The doctor said it was respiratory disease and that if he didn't get help in the next few years, he would be dead. I hoped my mother would make up the money through her work but she just left. She found a man who ran a dressmaking shop and remarried, leaving me alone with my father. Stealing was my only means of survival and the same went for Shaft. It was the only way we could get by.

I stopped in front of the unmanned bread stall, the strong, blonde male selling to the mayor a few feet away. I kept my eye on him as I reached my hand out from under the shawl, grabbing a small bread roll and cupping it in my hands. I looked at the perfectly golden treasure and smiled. I closed my eyes and sniffed up the mouth watering smell that wafted from it. It was a month's worth of stealing. The only other form of bread we ever tasted was the one made from our tessera and that was almost as bad as not eating at all. Almost.

I turned to walk away when a strong hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me backward.

"You paying for that?" the blonde male said, his blue eyes piercing. I turned to run again but his grip was too strong, he snatched the bread roll off me and placed it on the table. "I appreciate that you are hungry but my family has to eat as well," he sighed, pulling me close so he could whisper in my ear. He paused as he looked to the side of me and watched as Shaft pulled some gold coins and scampered back into the crowd.

"I need to eat," I whimpered, tears forming in my eyes.

"Come back at closing time, I might just drop some on the floor," he said with a wink, letting me go and gesturing for myself to leave him be. I and Shaft spent the rest of the day, hovering by the stall, hoping he would keep his promise. He did and it made the endless day worth it, bread meant more than some people realized.

Altair Mellark POV:

The children around me watched with hungry eyes as I ate the small bread roll, like a pack of starving dogs waiting for their alpha to allow them to eat. I cast my eyes down to the ground and tried not to take any notice of their plight as I attempted to enjoy my breakfast. They were paying my food more attention than the reaping that was taking place before them. I wasn't sure if I should be disgusted by how hungry The Capitol left us or horrified by the fact that the reaping was so normal, they didn't even bother to listen anymore.

I worked at a bakery all of my life so I never really knew what hunger was. In fact. I got the lion's share when it came to food, being able to build up some mussel thanks to my diet. It didn't help the guilt though. As a child, my mother would send me off to school with a kiss and some form of pastry for breakfast. At first, I saw no harm, it was the norm for me to have three meals a day. Then I noticed the crying children, the frustrated parents trying to keep a brave face as they sent their weak, malnutrition children off to school. The look of defeat in eyes of mothers as they buried their toddler or the new born babies whose mother could breast feed them due to lack of nutrition. I started to resent my food.

Everyday, I would walk past the starving children and offer them my breakfast. Only to selfishly regret it. I would sit in glass, weak, sleepy and feeling nauseous while the child, who hadn't eaten in four days, just sat and listened, his sunken blue eyes watching me with envy. Wishing he could be me even when I was hungry. My abundance of food was a blessing as much as a curse. I could only go a few hours without food until I got hungry. Some of the children from the Seam could go days even a month without food like it was something that was normal. I tried to give food, extra food, to the Seam children when I could. Me and my mother used to lie about dropping it on the floor just so we could feed them. My father didn't agree. Not because he was mean but because he saw every free bread roll as less food for his family. He was just being a father, looking out for the people he loved like the parents who stole. The only difference was that one had more to lose.

When my name was called, I was in shock. At first, I worried it might have been jealous voters, angered my how well fed me and my brothers were. Then I noticed all the faces around me were confused too. They all looked shocked and unsettled as I took to the stage, trying not to look my broken family in the eye as my escort read out the second name. I wished the crowd showed as much confusion for Selena. I wanted them to seem shocked that she got voted in but instead, they all looked guilty. They all knew what they had done but no one wanted to face it.

I had given the girl and her friend some bread from time to time but I never knew her name. She stood next to me. She was slightly taller than me, slender, sexy with piercing gray eyes. She embodied fear and determination all at the same time. She knew what she was fighting for and she knew she was going to come home. I wished my need for victory had as much weight. I just wanted to live.